After almost three years without local government in Northern Ireland, unionists and republicans, who share power, must try, Monday, December 16, to resume dialogue, with the hope that the result of the legislative elections in the United Kingdom will make it possible to unlock the situation.
In this British province, governance is supposed to be shared between the unionists of the DUP and the republicans of Sinn Fein, as stipulated in the peace agreement of Good Friday, which ended in 1998 in thirty years of interdenominational violence in the region .
But Northern Ireland has experienced a vacancy in the local executive since the collapse of its previous coalition in January 2017 following a politico-financial scandal. Since then, several rounds of negotiations have failed to lift the blockage, but after Thursday's elections in the United Kingdom, the political context has changed, as have the balance of power, giving new impetus to the discussions scheduled for Monday.
DUP will no longer be "obsessed" with Westminster
So far, talks have not been facilitated by the DUP's 2017 alliance with the Conservative Party of ex-Prime Minister Theresa May, without a single majority in the British Parliament.
The Unionist party then concentrated on Westminster, exerting a great influence notably on the Brexit negotiations. It blocked two successive exit agreements from the European Union, opposing modalities to avoid the return of a physical border between Northern Ireland and the EU member state of Ireland.
Legislative elections in the UK have completely changed the situation: Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson's overwhelming victory on Thursday exempts him from all alliance for "Achieve Brexit" as of January 31.
"The only positive aspect of Boris Johnson's victory is the possibility that the DUP will stop being obsessed with the melodrama taking place in Westminster, and will finally return its attention to what is going on here", Sinn Fein chief Mary Lou McDonald said on Irish television on Friday.
For the first time ever, the province also elected more Republican MPs for reunification with Ireland to Westminster than DUP unionists.
"To those who have chosen not to support us, we have heard you", tweeted Arlene Foster, head of DUP, who lost two seats in the legislative elections, on Friday, "I know you want Northern Ireland to go ahead with a new government. We will resume negotiations in this direction on Monday ".
London has been running day-to-day business
The new national power relationship "Will further encourage the DUP to reach an agreement with Sinn Fein" to form a new government coalition, confirms political scientist Jamie Pow of Queen's University in Belfast. According to him, unionists should "Show voters" that they can settle this matter if they want "Continue to be considered competent".
Both Sinn Fein and DUP garnered fewer votes than in previous elections, as more moderate movements emerged at the center of the political spectrum – in response to voters' frustration over the stalemate in local parliament.
And faced with the threat of new regional elections, brandished by the British minister responsible for Northern Ireland if the executive is not restored on January 13, the two parties are more inclined to change their position.
The political blockade of the Stormont Assembly has already had very concrete effects, with London handling the day-to-day affairs. British MPs voted for amendments that liberalized abortion in October and legalized same-sex marriage in the province, aligning it with the rest of the UK and angering the ultra-conservative DUP.
