Yet another private club is having a hard time attracting members. In this case, the club is the European Union, apparently regarded by Iceland as a firetrap.
According to an account in Handelsblatt. both of last month's candidates for president in Iceland, who together won 85 percent of the vote, want to withdraw their country's application to join the Eurozone.
The current president, Olafu Ragnar Grimsson and the election runner-up, Thora Anorsdottir, think that joining now would be (in Anorsdottir's phrase) like "rent(ing) a room in a burning hotel."
Iceland's hotel effectively burned down a few years ago and only now is being safely rebuilt. The withdrawal of application to the EU could become effective early in 2013.
