"World" editorial. Neither the reunification of Ireland nor Brexit figured at the heart of the campaign for the legislative elections which took place on Saturday 8 February in the Republic of Ireland. However, the resounding success of the Sinn Fein (SF), a party whose raison d'être, since its foundation in 1905, is the independence of the entire island from Britain, probably constitutes the first response to the Brexit earthquake.
By an irony of history, the exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union, which its promoters justify by a requirement of sovereignty, started in Northern Ireland (attached to London) as in the Republic of Ireland a push an emancipator fueled by indifference, even contempt, of which the small island, largely pro-European, was the subject of British governments during the divorce negotiations with the EU.
Economic and social issues
The leaders of Sinn Fein – whose name means "ourselves" in Gaelic – had so little expectation of this triumph that they had presented only 42 candidates for the 160 seats in the Dail, the Irish Lower House. The preferential voting system can hold surprises when allocating seats. But the fact that Sinn Fein leads (24.5%) of the first choices of voters sweeps away the quasi-monopoly exercised on power for a century by the center-right parties Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, themselves same heirs to the protagonists of the civil war of the 1920s.
Of course, the ballot was first played on economic and social issues. Many Irish people, devastated by the financial crisis of 2007-2010, cannot bear not to reap any of the fruits of the tremendous rebound of the "Celtic tiger" boosted by its tax dumping and the establishment of multinationals. Faced with a terrible housing crisis and the lack of public services neglected by an ultra-liberal government, voters were seduced by the Sinn Fein program: rent freeze, construction of HLM, taxation of companies and the wealthy.
An uncertain coalition
For decades, Sinn Fein, the political arm of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during the 1968-1998 conflict, associated with terrorism, was widely regarded as toxic in Ireland. This is no longer the case. The election on Saturday represents a long-term success for the strategy of its former leader Gerry Adams. In 1986, convinced that the bombs would not be enough to achieve reunification, he forced the party to end the boycott of the elections. The signing of the 1998 peace agreement which put an end to violence, the pro-European turning point of Sinn Fein and, more recently, its withdrawal in favor of the charismatic Mary Lou McDonald, too young to have participated in the armed struggle, are other milestones towards the emergence on the electoral scene.
Obviously, Sinn Fein no longer scares the Irish. Neither the firm defense of national interests in the Brexit negotiations nor the successes on the employment front have enabled the outgoing Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar, to obtain a satisfaction. The constitution of the future government seems uncertain because the two hitherto dominant parties have always excluded a coalition with the "devil" Sinn Fein. But the breakthrough of the only Irish party present in the north and in the south of the island, and of the most ardent defender of reunification – he proposes a referendum by 2025 – takes on, beyond the parliamentary strategies of the moment, an obvious historical significance.
