Life is slow in Derry, a city on the border with the Republic of Ireland. In primary schools, voters have replaced children in classrooms. All over the street, portraits of candidates are displayed on thin plastic plates hung on electric poles, some more than four meters high. The stakes are high, the election is announced as the most important of this generation.
Sinn Féin’s optimism
In front of the gates of the primary school in the republican district of Creggan, on the heights of Derry, a small troop of activists from different parties tries to intercept the inhabitants before they cross the gates of the polling station.
“I am confident and full of hope”, announces, all smiles, Cónal McBrearty, 19 years old. A member of Sinn Féin, he takes his shift to distribute a small leaflet with voting instructions.
Carried by the polls, he hopes to see his party, former political showcase of the IRA, win first place in the elections, and the post of Prime Minister of the Northern Irish executive in stride. For the young man born after the peace agreements of the Good Friday Agreement, it is high time “to reunite Ireland”.
At his side Emma McGinley, Sinn Féin councilor in the city of Derry embraces. “The Unionists will always have to be heard even if we come out on top. The question of reunification is important but our priority is to be able to help people concretely to face the crisis of housing, access to health, poverty…”.
“The question of Northern Irish protocol or reunification does not interest me. My problem is poverty, which affects my neighbours”, confirms Sharon, a resident of the district, like several other voters met at the exit of the polling station. The first place approached for Sinn Féin will certainly be due to this swing on social issues, but also to the division of the unionist camp.
The Unionist Division
On the other side of the Foyle, the river that divides the city of Derry, near Oakgrove Primary School, the cast is a little different. Voters are greeted here by Unionist candidate Gary Middleton. “The district has always been unionist since the creation of Northern Ireland in 1921, it must reaffirm it, hammers the young representative of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). It is an important election locally but also for the future of the United Kingdom”.
Faced with the risk of victory for Sinn Féin, his party has already announced that it will refuse to participate in a government led by the Republicans and is threatening to block the institutions.
Since the peace agreements, and the establishment of a system of balance of powers, the participation in the government of the two political sensitivities, republican and unionist, is necessary.
There is the fracture in the camp loyal to the British crown. A few meters away, Ryan McCready, candidate for the Unionist Ulster Party, a more centrist and progressive party than the DUP, denounces this attitude.
“I don’t hope for a Sinn Féin victory, but we will respect the democratic decision. We will have to live with them and be ready to govern with them. The important thing is to improve people’s lives, and solve their housing or heating problem”.
A sign of the times, Fiona Garrett, its communications director, comes from a Catholic family in Derry. « Apparently, that’s surprising, » she smiles, falsely naive. My parents are both Catholics but I committed myself to the best candidate and not according to the old oppositions”.