Senior DUP figures said they will regain ground lost to Sinn Féin if UK calls a new election – and will keep Stormont shut to stain any President Biden visit.
- The Democratic Unionists have a typically blunt message for Liz Truss and Joe Biden, Brussels and Dublin: Meet our party’s demands for new post-Brexit trade rules or we’ll kill off Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government for good.
- To stop this, as POLITICO heard from more than a dozen senior Democratic Unionist officials at the party’s annual conference, the DUP is willing to reject any U.K.-EU compromise plan that falls short of its core demands and won’t hesitate to embarrass Biden if, as expected, the American president visits Ireland to mark the 25th anniversary of Northern Ireland’s U.S.-brokered peace agreement.
- But ever since the Irish republican Sinn Féin party overtook the DUP in May elections, the unionists have wielded their veto to shut the assembly and block formation of a new cross-community government.
- “Unless the protocol is replaced,” party chairman Lord Morrow told cheering delegates, “there will be no prospect, and that’s a big N-O.” 'Detrimental' Stormont power-sharing rules currently require Sinn Féin and the DUP jointly to fill the top posts by October 28 or the entire five-party administration will collapse ahead of a snap election, potentially on December 8 or 15.
- Striking a balance that gets both sides cooperating again could prove impossible.
- I doubt it will become operational in the coming year.
Source: politico
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