A young couple walks down Sandy Row, the closest Loyalist (Protestant, loyal to UK) neighborhood to central Belfast, with its modest brick pavilions and British flags hanging from the windows. Casey is 30, his friend Shauna, 25. “ He is Protestant, I am Catholic. says the young woman, false eyelashes and a dazzling smile. “If Sinn Fein [parti proréunification de l’Irlande] win in elections [législatives] and demands reunification, it’s the third world warshe adds, half joking. I don’t want things to change. I’m from the area, if people knew that Shauna is Catholic, I would be in trouble. »
A little further on, Gary, 40 – like Casey and Shauna, he refuses to give his last name and to be photographed – responds without hesitation to vote for the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the main loyalist formation and, says- he, “If Sinn Fein wins, there will be riots”. On her doorstep, 78-year-old Dorothy takes in the late April sun and feigns indifference. “As long as the place stays quiet, that’s fine with me. » You shouldn’t push her too hard to talk about the “Troubles”, those thirty years of civil war that pitted Protestants, mostly loyalists, against Catholics, who were opposed to the partition of the island. “I was lucky, I didn’t lose anyone from my family, but it was terrible, when I remember that time, I have a thought for the Ukrainians. »
brutal symbol
In this working-class district, concern is palpable ahead of the legislative elections on May 5. The same anxiety is spreading in Belfast’s other loyalist strongholds – to the north and east. The Northern Irish elect the 90 deputies for Stormont, their Parliament having extensive powers in matters of justice, education or health – sovereign matters remain the responsibility of Westminster. However, for the first time in the history of the small British nation, dominated since its creation in 1921 by loyalist parties, Sinn Fein could come out on top.
All the polls have been pointing in this direction for weeks. According to an April 28 LucidTalk survey, Sinn Fein would win 26% of the vote, ahead of the DUP at 20%. If this trend is confirmed, the nationalist pro-reunification party would inherit the post of Prime Minister, the DUP that of Deputy Prime Minister, a post endowed with almost identical prerogatives, Northern Ireland being governed by a system of equal power sharing between loyalists and nationalists, inherited from the Good Friday peace agreement which put an end to the “Troubles” in 1998. But the symbol risks being brutal for the loyalists, in a province where community divisions remain deep.
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