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Sinn Féin close in on historic victory in Northern Ireland

2022-05-06T19:22:18.592Z


The republican formation becomes the most popular on the entire island, after its 2020 result in the Republic of Ireland, and brings the idea of ​​a reunification closer


It is necessary to be an external observer, oblivious to the conventions and prejudices that pervade the politics of Northern Ireland, to appreciate the enormous power of the image.

Mary Lou McDonald, the leader of Sinn Féin, who obtained the highest number of votes in the General Election of the Republic of Ireland almost two years ago, accompanied the party's candidate in Northern Ireland, Michelle O'Neill, in the middle of the afternoon.

Together they arrived at the

Titanic Exhibition Center

Belfast, one of the three centers where the slow count of the ballots for the Autonomous Elections, held this Thursday in Northern Ireland, was carried out.

Surrounded by the applause of many of their followers, they tried to move between reporters, photographers and cameramen.

The force that for years was considered the political arm of the IRA terrorist organization seemed to have achieved, according to the clear trend glimpsed in the first official results, the historic achievement of being the most voted party in this portion of British territory.

A single party to try to rule a single island.

“We bring a message of change, of progress, of collaboration with the rest of the political forces.

We want to thank everyone who has given us their support.

These are the elections of a generation, and now it's time to roll up our sleeves and work," said McDonald.

She dodged questions about a possible unification referendum as best she could.

It continues to be the central doctrine and the heart of the republican formation, but it has been conveniently parked in recent years, to build a social message focused on the cost of living, the health or housing crisis, and the need for forge consensus.

It worked in the south of the island and, with the collaboration of its unionist rivals, it has worked in the north.

Because the pro-British parties continue to add among themselves a number of supports much higher than that of the Republicans,

John Curtice, the most prestigious electoral sociologist in the United Kingdom —a classic on BBC election nights— dared to confirm late this Friday afternoon, with a third of the official results on the table, that Sinn Féin would exceed the number of votes, for the first time in history, to the second formation, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP, in its acronym in English).

Until this Thursday, the DUP occupied the first position, and, therefore, the position of Chief Minister in the Autonomous Government.

The projection of the count indicated that the Republicans could obtain up to 28 seats in a Legislative Assembly made up of 90 representatives.

Two more than they had until now, but enough to wrest leadership from a fragmented and divided unionism.

The DUP could drop to 24-23 seats, from its previous 26, and see how the more radical TUV (Traditional Unionist Voice) has skyrocketed its support.

The reason for this debacle has a name: the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The agreement signed by London and Brussels to keep the British territory within the Community internal market and establish new customs controls in the Irish Sea was considered a betrayal and the last nail in the coffin of its identity for the most radical Protestant community.

They encouraged the resurgence of street violence, abandoned government institutions and set as an inescapable condition, for normality and stability to return, that Boris Johnson's government unilaterally annul the international treaty that it closed with the EU, which was essential for Brexit went ahead.

The Good Friday Agreement of 1998, which brought peace to a region devastated by decades of sectarian violence, imposes the need for a joint government in Northern Ireland.

It grants the position of Chief Minister to the force with the most votes, and that of Deputy Chief Minister to the second.

Both have the same power, but no one is unaware of the enormous symbolism that the Republicans occupy a preferential position that, until now, has always been in the hands of the Unionists.

In theory, Michelle O'Neill should be the new head of the Autonomous Executive.

But Jeffrey Donaldson, the leader and main candidate of the DUP, who at no time in the count gave up his cards, has played with ambiguity, as he has been doing throughout the campaign, and this Friday he was unable to specify whether he would occupy the second seat or would lead the Northern Irish government institutions to a new blockade of months.

“I have already said that we will respect the result, and we will start talking, but I will not appoint ministers until the London Government addresses the most important issue on the table, which is none other than the Northern Ireland Protocol,” Donaldson warned. to the BBC.

The support obtained by the sum of the unionist forces confirms that the protocol worries its voters, although its rejection is more of an existential crisis than technical or economic objections to its provisions.

In fact, most of the Northern Irish business community is not asking for its disappearance, but its improvement, to remedy some of the supervening customs frictions and costs.

And among the Republican community, or among those citizens fed up with the dividing lines in this region, protocol is at the bottom of their concerns.

"Their [unionism's] efforts to undermine existing institutions to attack protocol may risk citizens forgetting why Northern Ireland is in the position it is in the first place," he explains. EL PAÍS Law professor Colin Harvey,

Queen's University

of Belfast.

“This region needs precisely that type of legal response contemplated in the text” he defends.

The reunification of the island

The process that would open a reunification of Ireland, contemplated in the Good Friday Agreement, is complex and long.

Firstly, it is the prerogative of the UK Government – ​​specifically, its Minister for Northern Ireland – to decide to hold a consultation, taking into account the climate of opinion consistently reflected in the polls.

The referendum should be held in the North and South of the island, and if in the British territory the appetite for change may be greater, it does not even reach the necessary 50%, according to the polls.

In the Republic of Ireland, which fears a laborious and costly absorption process, the desire is even less.

All these calculations, however, have not served to allay the fears of a Protestant community that is beginning to see itself, after decades of dominance, as an island within an island within an island.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-05-06

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