The Democratic Unionist Party boycotts the formation of the regional Assembly in Belfast because it considers that the Brexit Protocol on the region separates it from the United Kingdom
The boycott of the Democratic Unionist Party to the formation of the Autonomous Assembly in Belfast will force the London Government to call new elections this Friday. The DUP does not accept to be part of the institutions created in the Good Friday Agreement, in 1998, because it considers that the Brexit Protocol on the region separates it from the United Kingdom.
The new British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, expressed on Wednesday to the president of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, in a telephone conversation, his desire to reach a negotiated solution. When he was finance minister in Johnson’s cabinet he already warned his colleagues that tension over this issue should not lead to a trade war with the European Union.
The Protocol regulates the border system of goods traded between Great Britain, which is outside the common market, and Northern Ireland, which remains in the common market and in the British market. The purpose of that design was to avoid a border in the interior of the island of Ireland. The procedures and controls now affect traffic between Northern Irish ports and those of Scotland, Wales and England.
The largest unionist party paralyzed autonomy, with the resignation of the province’s chief minister, and refused to restore it after the May elections, which gave the symbolic presidency to Sinn Féin, historically associated with the IRA. The DUP used the peculiar rules of shared governance to prevent the formation of the Assembly. If it persists, there must be new elections in six months.
Deputies elected in March went this Thursday to the headquarters of the institutions, Stormont, but nothing was advanced, except for the bitter tone that a new electoral campaign will have. The British minister for Northern Ireland, Chris Heaton-Harris, will call the elections this Friday. With December 15 underlined for the vote. It is probable that, when the elect return, the Assembly will not be able to form either.
Heaton-Harris and Irish Foreign Secretary Simon Coveney met at the European Parliament. They resumed their cordial relationship after the appointment of the former by former Prime Minister Liz Truss. The change of tone was followed by dialogues on technical aspects of the Protocol. London would have finalized the border movement database software, which if shared with Brussels could solve much of the problem.
balances
Of all the prime ministers the UK has had since Brexit, Sunak is the most convinced. Theresa May and Truss voted to remain in the EU and Johnson plucked the daisy to the point of writing two drafts of his Sunday column in the ‘Sunday Telegraph’, one arguing in favor of remaining and the other in favor of marching.
Sunak was then an unknown deputy and his decision to support the ‘out’ in the referendum dismayed David Cameron, who saw him as the future of the party. Those who know him have described him as a politician who is not sentimental about Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales, for the money they cost England. Brexit, according to him, would allow a more agile economy than within the Union.
From Boris Johnson he has inherited a bill that, according to experts, breaks the international law of treaties. When passed, it will give ministers power to repeal parts of the Protocol. It is a wrecking ball from the tortuous diplomacy between Brussels, Dublin and London, a boost to the trade war. Satisfying the DUP, founded by a fanatical preacher, Ian Paisley, would be diplomatic success.
Sinn Féin, the Social Democratic and Labor Party (SDLP) and the Alliance have come together to demand that if an election is held and the DUP persists in its boycott, London and Dublin co-govern. They also want to reform the Stormont rules, so that one party cannot bring down the institutions. But those non-consensual changes would destroy the Good Friday Agreement, nearing its 25th anniversary.
On Wednesday, the House of Commons passed the bill making Irish Gaelic official in Northern Ireland and recognizing Ulster Scots. And the minister announced that he will finance pregnancy termination services, three years after their illegality was repealed in the province. London politically balances its ads, autonomy is carried out by officials and politics is immersed in another campaign.
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