Any decision for Iceland to join the European Union and single currency must be taken by its people and not one political party, its finance minister said ahead of the country’s first elections since its banking system spectacularly collapsed last year.

Steingrimur Sigfusson, a member of the caretaker government which assumed power after the last was ousted by popular protest, said in an interview with the FT that the issue of EU membership was the greatest threat to a stable coalition.