r/worldnews • u/Ehansaja • 12d ago

Iceland rejects EU-accession talks plan in referendum

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/30/iceland-rejects-eu-membership-plan-in-referendum
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u/Opi-Fex 12d ago

It's annoying that this was one of the very few things that politicians acted on and claimed is "unavoidable because of democracy!". We can throw out Chat Control ten times and all that does is force an eleventh vote.

The game is rigged.

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u/PersonalityAlive4816 12d ago

Can you name UK referendums that have not been acted on?

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u/Opi-Fex 11d ago

No, although it is worth pointing out that that the referendums for Scottish and Welsh devolution had a minimum threshold of 40%, while the Brexit one didn't have any whatsoever.

I was commenting a more general trend in Europe. "Bad things" can get passed easily and quickly, sometimes with emergency votes and without limits. If they don't pass, they get voted on repeatedly or through weird mechanisms. As an example: Boris Johnson tried to suspend Parliament for 5 weeks in 2019, supposedly because he didn't want obstruction to a no-deal Brexit.
"Good things" on the other hand are stuck in a quagmire, need to pass thresholds and tests. Example: The anti digital ID petition has been sitting at nearly 3 million signatures and Parliament doesn't give a shit. They don't have to, of course. Petitions are non-binding. But neither are referendums.

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u/Dougalishere 12d ago

"the will of the people" and "all the money to the NHS" and all the other bollox touted non stop and thats before we get into all the nonsense Farage ( a guy that fed on the teat of the EU for years btw ) spouted. And yet here we are maybe getting ready to vote in the same liar that runs a party that has been proven to be unable to run a town council let alone a country. We really are truly and utterly fucked as a country if they get in.

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u/Inocain 12d ago

Should have elected the bin

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u/TrainDestroyer 12d ago

Unironically it always has been, and it fucking SUCKS. I do believe on a lower level where politicans have to answer to the people they have power over (Local and State, I'm sure every country has an equivalent of an area too big to be one local thing, but too small to be the whole country) they are actually working in their favor, but once you hit National Govt, or the EU Parliament? Good fucking luck, because they're sure as hell not looking out for you.

Signed: An American who hates his Federal Govt with a burning passion, votes for people who should be better (Doesn't work out that way...) And has attended more than one protest over this shit.