Michelle O’Neill speaks after Sinn Fein victory
Overtaking on the Dup unionists, now the heirs of the IRA aim to lead the government
Historic overtaking formalized in the local parliament of Northern Ireland, following the ballot of the British administrative elections held on Thursday. The Catholic republicans of Sinn Fein, the former political arm of the IRA guerrilla, have in fact won the relative majority in the smallest of the United Kingdom nations, surpassing the largest of the Protestant unionist parties, the Dup, both in percentage of votes (29% against 21.3), both – and this is the first time – for the number of seats. And now they are running for the premiership.
With 88 seats counted out of 90, the heirs of the IRA rank at 27 against the 24 accredited so far to the Dup. In total, the nationalist and unionist formations are equivalent after the vote two days ago, around 40% consensus each, with the remaining 15-20% to inter-community parties among which the liberals of APNI rise to third place. the detriment of the Labor and Social Democrats of the Sdlp; but Sinn Fein – as the first force – may at this point aspire to lead a new unitary government in Belfast, reversing the balance of power with respect to the Dup for the first time since after the 1998 Good Friday peace, and demand as has already done the seat of local premier for its leader, former deputy premier Michelle O’Neill, 45, leaving the role of deputy to the unionists.
On the other hand, if the latter were to refuse, against the backdrop of post-Brexit tensions that re-emerged in recent months in Ulster, the management of the Northern Irish administration would vice versa – according to the law – return to the hands of Boris Johnson’s central Tory government in London. Sinn Fein continues to fly the nationalist flag of reunification with the Republic of Ireland, albeit in an indefinite time perspective, held back by the substantial demographic stalemate in the northern counties of the so-called green island and the fact that Dublin is currently watching well from ‘ encourage a conflictual horizon. While on the economic-social level it is on rather radical positions of the left.
