Boris Johnson maneuvers

Boris Johnson is scheduled to visit Northern Ireland today to try to quell a crisis for which he is primarily responsible.

The Republicans of Sinn Féin were ahead of the main unionist formation, the DUP, in the elections on the 5th, although unionism as a whole continues to be the majority.

The DUP blames its misfortune on the Northern Ireland Protocol, which Johnson signed with the EU to carry out his long-awaited Brexit, and has adopted a position of blackmail, by refusing to allow the autonomous institutions to start working until London does not scrap unilaterally the agreement that it closed with Brussels.

Johnson has a problem, and again resorts to shell maneuvers.

This very Tuesday, the British Foreign Minister, Liz Truss, is ready to launch parliamentary procedures to approve a law that unilaterally repeals essential parts of the Ireland Protocol.

She assures Truss that the problem has become a matter of national security.

She further accuses the EU of little flexibility and lack of pragmatism.

It is not true, and the British minister knows it.

The community negotiator, Maros Sefcovic, has visited the area to hear first-hand the concerns of businessmen, politicians from both sides and citizens.

And he has offered practical solutions to ease unforeseen trade and customs frictions, especially in trade originating in Britain and ending up in Northern Ireland.

The parliamentary process of this new law that defies protocol can last up to a year.

Johnson would manage to give the unionists an image of toughness, and add, again, with a certain dose of childishness, a weapon of pressure in his negotiations with the EU.

Brussels is not going to fall into a trap that no longer deceives anyone.

And its member countries, as Sefcovic reminded Truss last week, will stand firm and with one voice on this issue.

The next step, if Johnson decides to resort to blackmail, will be to reactivate the preparations to take legal action and show him clearly what the consequences of an irresponsible move that violates international legality would be.

Among the proposals put forward by London there are some measures that can be considered, others that are voluntarism and some that do not even deserve to be debated.

But they are the sign that, deep down, Downing Street is terrified of unleashing a trade war with the EU.

The Protocol integrated Northern Ireland into the Community internal market and established customs controls in the Irish Sea to prevent a new border from rekindling tensions and as a reminder that the island is still divided.

In that hornet's nest that took so many years and effort to calm down, making one party happy almost always means feeding the mistrust of the other.

Brussels must also heed these signals.