Brexit: Johnson's first move to unilateral protocol change

(ANSA) - LONDON, MAY 16 - Boris Johnson's mission today in Northern Ireland, committed to meeting the leaders of the major local parties to try to unblock the political stalemate triggered in the smallest and turbulent nation in the United Kingdom by the clash over the post-Brexit protocol signed in his time from London and Brussels.

The British Tory premier left for Belast with the declared aim of trying to encourage the agreement for the formation of a new Northern Irish government based - as foreseen by the historic peace agreement of Good Friday 1998 - on a coalition between the most partitonationalist (Sinn Fein) and the largest unionist party (Dup).

    An agreement frozen at the moment by the Dup - overtaken for the first time as a relative majority force by Sinn Fein in the recent local elections of May 5 - for the radical opposition to the protocol: document on which revision the unionists demand preliminary guarantees, arguing that it - born to guarantee even after Brexit, the maintenance of the single-market commercial border between Ulster and the Republic of Ireland - is in effect threatening the integrity of the internal border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the Kingdom through barriers and controls: a claim rejected by republican nationalists and a risk of rekindle tensions.

    Johnson - who in turn has in turn put the protocol on hold, after having signed it - announced for his part before his departure that he wants to continue negotiating with the EU to modify it, but reiterating that he is ready to act independently if they are not carried out.

To this end, he brought forward to tomorrow the presentation to the Parliament of Westminster of a law (the process of which could take a few months) intended to give the government the power to unilaterally change "parts" of the document in question, making national legislation prevail for internal security reasons compared to what signed with Brussels.

Both Dublin and the 27 have made it known that they consider this move as a "violation of international law" and that they are ready for legal retaliation in the case.

(HANDLE).