Rishi Sunak, during his visit to Northern Ireland Liam McBurney | REUTERS
After traveling to Belfast, he met with the most radical Brexiters of his party
01 mar 2023 . Updated at 05:00 h.
Despite having achieved what seemed impossible —reaching an agreement with the European Union (EU) to resolve the problems that the application of the protocol of the brexit for Northern Ireland has been generated—, Rishi Sunak You know you can’t finish the task yet. That is why this Tuesday the British Prime Minister launched a campaign to sell the so-called Windsor Framework Agreement between Unionist Protestants and brexiters more radical in his party.
This agreement is a huge positive step forwardassured the president from Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, where he traveled early in the morning and where he not only met with the leaders of the main political formations of the British province, but also answered questions from some citizens during an event in a warehouse of a soft drink factory.
The concerns that those [por los unionistas] they had about the protocol, that they said they felt they had no sovereignty and that there was a democratic deficit in the protocol… well that was corrected. We have given more power to the Assembly [autonmica] of Stormont, to those people [los unionistas]he affirmed premierwho nonetheless promised to give the Protestants of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) the necessary time and space to review the text.
However, by selling the benefits of the agreement, Sunak used an argument more worthy of those who defended the permanence of the United Kingdom in the EU than of those who, like him, advocated divorce. If we implement this framework, if we can get the Executive [autonmico] work again, Northern Ireland will find itself in an incredibly special position, a unique position in the entire world., on the European continent, by having privileged access, not only to the internal market of the United Kingdom, which is huge, the fifth largest in the world, but also to the single market of the EU. Nobody else has that. Nobody. Only you. And that’s the prize.
The words of the conservative president were picked up by the independentistas of the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP), who considered that they corroborate that Scotland will be harmed by the brexit.
The signs that Protestant unionism has given up to now are contradictory. Thus the leader of the DUP, Jeffrey Donaldson, admitted that the Windsor Framework Agreement presents significant advances, although some problems remain. However, some radical and minority sectors of unionism have already asked to reject the text, considering that Northern Ireland will continue to be subject to the designs of the EU.
Meeting with your party
After his round of contacts in Belfast, Sunak returned to London and met with the tories brexiters of the European Investigation Group, before whom he expressed confidence that the DUP would end up supporting the agreement. But in the case of not doing so, it is presumed that the text will also be put into operation.
According to what was reported by the British press, Sunak was firm before those most faithful to the brexit and warned them about the risks of trying to boycott the pact. The last thing the town wants right now is another Westminster drama.spets.
The silence kept by figures such as former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and former ministers Jacob Rees-Mogg and David Frost raises fears of some unpleasant political surprise, but it remains to be seen if they dare.