Northern Ireland, doomed to early elections after the constant political blockade

First modification: 10/29/2022 – 02:21

Uncertainty and delays in decision making. This is the panorama in Northern Ireland, where there has been a political stalemate since the elections last May. And it is that the two parties that lead the contest, the nationalist Sinn Fein and the pro-British Democratic Unionist (DUP), do not agree to form a joint Executive, as required by national law.

The DUP abandoned the formation of the Government and since the elections it has refused to form a joint leadership with Sinn Fein, which seeks the union of the territory of the island of Ireland and who won the majority of the seats in the local Legislative in an unprecedented event .

The crisis comes at a time when residents of Northern Ireland are having to deal with rising basic services such as energy and food. The minister who attends the territory at 10 Downing Street, Chris Heaton-Harris, announced the call for elections within 12 weeks, aware that the same result will be repeated in which Sinn Fein will be leading the seats.

However, Heaton-Harris acknowledged that there have been positive changes in the talks between the United Kingdom and Brussels to deal with the Brexit Protocol applicable to the region, known as the Ireland Protocol. “The atmosphere in those negotiations has totally changed in the last few weeks, I’m optimistic and I really think we can achieve something too,” she said.

The minister also stressed that he will do everything possible to guarantee that public services and finances in that area of ​​the country continue to function without shared management. For her part, the leader of the Sinn Fein nationalists, Michelle O’Neill, criticized the decision to delay the elections, a sign that denotes, according to her, the “chaos” and confusion that has reigned in the UK Conservative Party since months ago. O’Neill accused London of leaving the citizens of Northern Ireland in limbo.

What is the disagreement about?

Northern Ireland is the only territory of the United Kingdom that has a physical border with the rest of the island of Ireland, one of the nations that are part of the European Union. With the arrival of Brexit, both parties agreed to keep that border free of controls and customs posts.

The key to the issue is that a free, open border is one of the fundamental pillars of the peace process that ended a violent period in Northern Ireland. The agreement has become a political problem, since the DUP, the pro-British unionists, consider that the controls undermine their identity within the United Kingdom.

After a prolonged deadlock, Brussels and London resumed talks earlier this month on how to fix the kinks with the Protocol.

According to the European Union, this “avoids a physical border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, thus enabling the proper functioning of the island’s economy as a whole and protecting the Good Friday Agreement (Belfast) in all its dimensions”, and also It states textually that “it preserves the integrity of the single market for EU goods, together with all the guarantees it offers in terms of consumer protection, public health and animal health, and the fight against fraud and smuggling” .

With AP, EFE and Reuters