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Historic Northern Ireland elections – Sinn Féin’s role in uniting North and South

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First in Northern Ireland is likely to emerge for the first time in local elections in Sin Fein at a historic crossroads in the South and North, as well as in London.

The Conservative Party of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had some bad results overnight in the local elections, said the party president Oliver Dowden.

Downen also said he was confident his party could defend Northern Ireland’s position to remain part of the United Kingdom in any future referendum on joining Ireland.

“I’m sure we can defend the position of Northern Ireland remaining in the UK if an issue arises, but I do not think we are at this stage yet,” he told Sky News.

The question is what will happen if the polls are finally confirmed (the counting of ballots continues) and for the first time the main political force supporting the goal of United Ireland is found to be the strongest force on both sides of the border.

The lead of the “Catholic” Sinn Féin in the elections in Northern Ireland on Thursday, May 5, shows that a new generation of voters is not interested in conflicts, bloodshed, division between Catholics and Protestants.

Sinn Féin is already part of the Northern Ireland government under the terms of the peace deal, but the combination between a lead in Northern Ireland and the fact that it was the first party in the 2020 election in the South (and now the main opposition ) changes the data.

For years Sinn Fein was not just a political party, but it gradually ceased to be just the political wing of the Irish Democratic Army (IRA) to adopt more modest tones and become a viable political force in divided Northern Ireland.

In addition, Sinn Féin “rode the wave” over the British referendum and Brexit, where he was opposed to the withdrawal of Northern Ireland and had proposed a referendum on the reunification of Ireland to address the problems of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the EU.

If the polls are confirmed, Sinn Féin will for the first time have the right to elect a prime minister of the country’s government, which will give it a range of political moves. In fact, if the “gap” from the Democratic Union Party is large, then the Unionists will find themselves with their hands tied, something that favors Sinn Fein, which is ready to put forward the union referendum.

The referendum on the unification of the two parts of Ireland is foreseen by the Good Friday agreements, which ended the armed phase of the Irish struggle, but the process is not so simple. In the first phase, a government under Sinn Fein will need to be formed in Belfast, but also in Dublin.

Demographic developments, however, favor Irish unity, albeit in the long run. In the last census, ten years ago, Protestants made up 48% of the population and Catholics 45%, but demographics are changing and in the coming years non-Protestants will be in the majority in all age groups, with the exception of those over 85 years. Catholics generally prefer union with Ireland while Protestants prefer to stay in the UK.

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