Heimssýn ( English: ''World View'') is an organisation of

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

eurosceptics Euroscepticism, also spelled as Euroskepticism or EU-scepticism, is a political position involving criticism of the European Union (EU) and European integration. It ranges from those who oppose some EU institutions and policies and seek refor ...

who actively campaign against Iceland becoming of a member of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

founded in June 2002. It was founded in June 2002. Ragnar Arnalds, former MP and

Minister of Finance A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfolio ...

, served as chairman of the organisation from its foundation until 2009. The current chairman is Jón Bjarnason, former Member of the Althing and Minister of Agriculture, and the vice-chairman is Jóhanna María Sigmundsdóttir, Member of the Althing for the nationalist Progressive Party. The organization is sponsored by Bændasamtök Íslands, an agrarian lobby group of Icelandic farmers, and receives free advertising in their newspaper Bændablaðið.

Criticism

Heimssýn has gained criticism for factual errors, false allegation and "fear-mongering" in their propaganda. The organization claimed in television adverts prominently featured in 2012 that accession to the European Union would be a direct eradication of Icelandic national identity, independence and lead to an unrecoverable loss of individual freedom. Such claims have been in their entirety dismissed by experts at the

University of Iceland The University of Iceland ( ) is a public research university in Reykjavík, Iceland, and the country's oldest and largest institution of higher education. Founded in 1911, it has grown steadily from a small civil servants' school to a modern co ...

. When the current Icelandic government attempted to withdraw Iceland's application for membership to the European Union, then party chairman and representative of the government Vigdis Hauksdottir defended the government's decision by claiming that Europe was suffering from widespread famine and alleged that

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

could not be compared to Iceland when discussing membership as a result of it being a county within a larger country. Both of these allegations were condemned by members of the Icelandic intelligentsia and representatives of

Unicef UNICEF ( ), originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Development a ...

. Unicef representative dismisses Vigdis's assertion of European famine
(February 23, 2014), accessed October 31, 2015.

References

External links

Heimssýn
- Official homepage
Heimssýnarbloggið
- Official blog-site Political parties in Iceland Euroscepticism in Iceland Political advocacy groups in Iceland 2002 establishments in Iceland Organizations established in 2002 {{Iceland-poli-stub