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| Europe |
| Thousands Protest in Iceland over EU Membership Bid Exit |
| 2014-02-25 |
| [An Nahar] Thousands of protesters thronged the streets of the Icelandic capital Reykjavik Monday to demand a referendum after the government said it was dropping its EU membership bid without a popular vote. Police said around 3,500 protesters gathered outside the parliament in the biggest street demonstrations since the 2009 financial crisis to demand the government honor a May election pledge to hold a referendum on EU membership. Iceland's euroskeptic government suspended EU accession talks indefinitely last September, following a promise made during the 2013 election campaign. On Friday it announced a draft bill to "retract the application for membership of the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... " which the island nation submitted in 2010. However, it's easy to be generous with someone else's money... opposition parties complained that no time had been allocated to debate the issue and the motion was postponed. It is expected to be introduced again in the coming days. The government move was hotly contested by Icelanders from both the pro- and anti-EU side who argued that Foreign Minister Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson had back-tracked on previous promises. |
| Posted by:Fred |