--- description: Iceland's president is "fundamentally opposed" to pineapple pizza, but he assured people he doesn't have the power to forbid the topping. title: No, Iceland's President Is Not Banning Pineapple on Pizza image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt314b55b2cbc97714/6988bb52ab6d77f4776acefc/gettyimages-632588280.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # No, Iceland's President Is Not Banning Pineapple on Pizza by [Zamira Rahim](/author/zamira-rahim/) ## Zamira Rahim Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 22, 2017 3:10 PM CUT  Icelandic President Gudni Johannesson delivers a speech during the presentation of The National Gift - The Complete Sagas of Icelanders translated into Danish in the Danish Royal Library in Copenhagen on January 24, 2017. Icelandic President Gudni Johannesson delivers a speech during the presentation of The National Gift - The Complete Sagas of Icelanders translated into Danish in the Danish Royal Library in Copenhagen on January 24, 2017.Martin Sylvest —AFP—Scanpix Denmark And Scanpix —Getty Images by [Zamira Rahim](/author/zamira-rahim/) ## Zamira Rahim Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 22, 2017 3:10 PM CUT Pizza lovers everywhere can relax: Iceland’s President is not going to ban[ pineapple as a pizza topping. ](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/21/icelands-president-would-ban-pineapple-on-pizza-if-he-could?CMP=twt%5Fgu "undefined") Guðni Th. Jóhannesson recently joked during a school visit that he was “fundamentally opposed” to putting the fruit on pizza, horrifying fans of the combination everywhere, especially on Twitter, [The Guardian reports. ](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/21/icelands-president-would-ban-pineapple-on-pizza-if-he-could?CMP=twt%5Fgu "undefined") Jóhannesson subsequently released a statement on [his Facebook page](https://www.facebook.com/embaettiforseta/posts/764995766984279 "undefined"), titled “A Statement on the Pizza Controversy,” reassuring people that he doesn’t have the actual power “to make laws which forbid people to put pineapples on their pizza.” A power, he added, he is glad not to have. Jóhannesson is very popular in Iceland, with approval ratings as high as 97%. But when he tried to recommend seafood as an alternative topping, he was met with similar pushback. > [](https://twitter.com/EveForster/status/834402627907678209) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4678478/iceland-president-pineapple-pizza/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4678478/iceland-president-pineapple-pizza/"},"headline":"No, Iceland's President Is Not Banning Pineapple on Pizza","datePublished":"2017-02-22T15:10:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T03:27:23.573Z","description":"Despite being \"fundamentally opposed\" to the topping himself","url":"https://time.com/4678478/iceland-president-pineapple-pizza/","keywords":["twitter","Iceland","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt314b55b2cbc97714/6988bb52ab6d77f4776acefc/gettyimages-632588280.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zamira Rahim","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zamira-rahim/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt314b55b2cbc97714/6988bb52ab6d77f4776acefc/gettyimages-632588280.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"DENMARK-ICELAND","caption":"DENMARK-ICELAND","creditText":"Martin Sylvest —AFP—Scanpix Denmark And Scanpix —Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4678478/iceland-president-pineapple-pizza/","name":"No, Iceland's President Is Not Banning Pineapple on Pizza"}}]}] ```