Sinn Féin wins historic victory in Northern Ireland local elections

Sinn Féin, the party that for decades was considered the political arm of the IRA terrorist organization, has achieved a historic victory in the municipal elections held on Thursday in Northern Ireland. The nationalists, supporters of the unification of the island, were already the most voted in the regional elections a year ago, but the blockade of the main unionist party, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), to the formation of a new Government has prevented to date that Michelle O'Neill, the candidate of Sinn Féin, access to the post of chief minister. The DUP has decided to block the Northern Irish institutions in protest at the Irish Protocol, the agreement sealed between London and Brussels to define the fit of Northern Ireland in the post-Brexit era. Not even the so-called Windsor Framework Agreement, the reform of the protocol agreed by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak with the EU, has convinced the DUP to give in its position.

Sinn Féin won 30% of the total vote in local elections, almost 8% more than four years ago. Unionism has added 23%. The importance of the result lies above all in the fact that the supporters of the unification of the two Irelands add up in absolute terms more than those who want to remain within the United Kingdom.

O'Neill has immediately called on governments in London and Brussels, co-guarantors of the Good Friday Peace Agreement that ended decades of sectarian violence, to use their influence to convince unionists to allow the normal functioning of regional institutions. "Historic change is taking place and Sinn Féin is leading it across Ireland," O'Neill said. The left-wing party is also favourites in polls for Ireland's general election due in 2025.

The DUP presented the election as an opportunity to call for more concessions from the UK for post-Brexit Northern Ireland, saying the results were "a strong mandate" from the unionist community. "We want the government to honour the commitments it has made to protect Northern Ireland's place within the UK and I expect to see progress in the coming weeks," DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson told Reuters. "You can't do without the unionists, you can't do without the DUP. Unionism will not be set aside."

Sinn Féin's success has come at the expense of centrist nationalist and unionist parties. The inter-EU Alliance Party scored more limited results than expected, while the small, hardline Traditional Unionist Voice, which has lobbied the DUP over post-Brexit trade controls, failed to repeat the increase in the vote it registered at regional level.

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