For the first time Catholics in Northern Ireland are likely to get the majority. This will lead to a stalemate and new conflicts between London and Brussels.
The long-suffering Europeans have known that national referendums overseas can also mean setting the course for Europe, not just since Donald Trump’s triumph in the US presidential election in 2016. That not only the Washington Champions League, but also the British Regionalliga West has the potential to upsetting European politics will be seen next Thursday when voters in UK local authorities are called to the polls.
The regional elections on May 5 are explosive for two reasons: first, because a generally poor performance by the Tories, who have been in power since 2010, could herald the political end of Prime Minister Boris Johnson. And secondly, because a historic result is looming in the province of Northern Ireland, which is likely to put European-British relations, which have been fragile anyway since Brexit, to a new stress test.
In the Northern Ireland parliamentary elections, almost all observers expect the Republican Sinn Féin Party to win a majority for the first time in the province’s hundred-year history, while the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) faces a crushing defeat . If the predictions come true, Northern Ireland will have to prepare for political paralysis, as the Unionists have already announced that they will not cooperate with the Republicans if they themselves do not come first – a cooperation that is actually required by the Northern Ireland statutes, to preserve confessional peace between Protestants and Catholics in the former civil war area, which was only pacified by the Good Friday Agreement of 1998.