The leader of Sinn Fin, which is the first party: she will lead the Belfast government. The militant father in the IRA, the son at 16, the sympathy: the portrait
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
LONDRA The reunification of Ireland comes with the hot pink enamel of Michelle O’Neill: it will in fact be her the new Prime Minister of the Belfast governmentafter the elections for the renewal of the Northern Irish Assembly on Sinn Finthe political party heir to the IRA, turned out to be the most voted party.
Catholic nationalists got the 29% of preferencesrelegating the Protestant unionists of the Dup to second place: even if the great surprise of the vote was the affirmation, in third place, of the Alliance, a post-confessional movement.
Michelle had become the first female leader of Sinn Fin in Northern Ireland in 2017, at 40
: a turning point for the Catholic nationalist movement, which until then had been dominated by veterans of the IRA (and of the armed struggle) as Gerry Adams e Martin McGuinness. You represent the first generation to enter politics after the Troublesthe thirty-year civil war that left thousands of deaths on the field: and it was a change of pace also in terms of image and personality.
Very blond, bright lipsticks, brightly colored lacquered nails, friendly and easygoing ways, to meet her Michelle seems light years away from the gloomy hooded militants who paraded in the streets of Belfast. Yet her personal experience of hers rooted in the guerrilla warfare of Republican Catholics: his father was an IRA militant who was imprisoned and deported, one of his cousins (also in the ranks of the armed formation) was killed in a raid British special agents, while another cousin was wounded on a different occasion.
You grew up in the middle of the conflict – Michelle told the Times -. The behavior of the British security forces, the intimidation – it was all around me. You had to overcome a challenge to get to your school bus in the morning: You had to go through the British Army patrols, through the mocking comments and all the other things they said to you. The dawn raids on people’s homes, in my home: the fact that my father was taken away and incarcerated. This is the lived experience. But the strong personality behind her gentle yet exuberant appearance was equally forged by her private affairs: single mother at 16she married her then boyfriend at a very young age (from whom she later separated eight years ago): My experience has shaped the woman I am today – she said – due to the attitude of some people at the time: they put you in a box, a very stereotypical view of a single mother.
But Michelle was anything but wild: she was one grammar school girl (come Margaret Thatcher e Theresa May), a pupil of those hyper-selective state schools where they admit only the best. Which then lead the way: joining Sinn Fin at 21, she has quickly climbed the ranks and is now leading him to electoral victory.
For Northern Ireland a historic passage, albeit largely symbolic: under the peace accords of 25 years ago the government must be of cohabitation between Catholics and Protestants, but the unionists have no plans to join a Sinn Fin-led executive. So a stalemate and a continuation of the direct administration of the province by London are expected. But in Ulster, symbols carry enormous weight. And while it is true that Sinn Fin put a stop to Irish reunification in the election campaign, focusing on economic and social issues, there is little doubt that Michelle and her folks will read the victory as a mandate to ask for a referendum to break away from Britain and rejoin. in Dublin.
The decision rests with London: and according to the peace agreements, the popular vote will have to be granted only when there is a clear majority in favor, a circumstance that still appears distant. But for Michelle and Mary Lou McDonald, the leader of Sinn Fin in the Republic of Ireland, the horizon is clear: within 5-10 years we will arrive at unification.
May 8, 2022 (change May 8, 2022 | 13:36)
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