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Historic election aims to end political crisis in Northern Ireland
After exactly two years, Northern Ireland should have a functioning government again. photo
© Liam Mcburney/PA Wire/dpa
After exactly two years to the day, Northern Ireland is set to have a government again. It is a drastic event for the British provinces.
Northern Ireland’s finely balanced political system requires the strongest forces from both sectarian camps to form a unity government. This is set out in the Good Friday Agreement, which ended the decades-long civil war in 1998.
Protestant party DUP
The largest Protestant party, the DUP, which advocates political union with Great Britain and has previously been the head of government, refused to cooperate. She ultimately called for an end to all customs controls between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom, which the British central government in London and the EU had agreed on after Brexit. Only after long negotiations did the DUP agree to a new document a few days ago. In the future, internal British controls should be reduced to a minimum. The Times newspaper wrote that the deal between London and the DUP was largely symbolic.
Sinn Fein sees the upcoming, historic inauguration of 47-year-old O’Neill as a major step towards its political goal. A united Ireland is “within reach,” said Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald. The party that was once seen as the political arm of the terrorist organization IRA is also the strongest force in the Republic of Ireland. There, however, two liberal-conservative parties in a coalition are preventing participation in the government.
In surveys, there is great skepticism on the Northern Irish side. The Irish Times newspaper found at the end of 2023 that only 30 percent would be in favor of unification in a referendum, but 51 percent would be against it. In Ireland, approval is almost two thirds. In principle, the Irish leadership is also striving for a merger. “I believe we are on the way to unification, I believe that there will be a united Ireland in my lifetime,” Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said in September 2023 – triggering sharp criticism from London.
That speaks for the Republicans
The demographics favor Republicans. For the first time, there are more Catholics living in Northern Ireland than Protestants, a 2021 census has shown. As of now, it doesn’t look like this will change again. The area was founded in 1921 after the Irish Civil War expressly as a home for those who wanted to continue to be part of Great Britain – and the majority were Protestants. Experts believe that this makes the Unionists insist on their positions all the more intensely. There were riots in Belfast and other cities in protest against the special Brexit rules. Loyalist militants first drove passengers out of buses and then set the vehicles on fire.
DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson now sees himself as the winner who has asserted the interests of his voters with the British government. But he admitted that he had not achieved all of his goals. It is not yet known how the EU Commission, which reached an agreement with the British government on customs controls, will assess the new document. You would actually have to agree to serious changes.
The aim of the previous regulation was to avoid a “hard border” between Northern Ireland and the EU member Ireland after Brexit in order not to stir up new conflicts. But the implementation sometimes led to shortages of food, medicine and garden products. Pets could no longer be taken on holiday to the UK. Loyalists feared that the controls would endanger the union with Great Britain.
Most parties in Northern Ireland welcomed the DUP’s return to power-sharing. But hardcore unionists are not convinced. The Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) party as well as influential loyalist politicians and bloggers criticize that DUP leader Donaldson has sold out. In reality, Northern Ireland continues to depend on the laws of the EU, whose internal market and customs union the region de facto belongs to even after Brexit. Experts warn that Donaldson must be careful not to further splinter the unionist camp.