A border in the sea of Ireland between Great Britain and Northern Ireland? “Above my corpse,” said the prime minister Boris Johnson before Brexit, but this broken promise is now drawing anger in the British province.

In The Times newspaper, a cartoon recently showed protesters bombing the famous campaign bus that Boris Johnson used during the Brexit campaign as he fled from the driver’s seat.

A sample of the resentment directed at the British prime minister in the province. For more than a week, there have been clashes between the police and the rioters.

Initially they were mostly unionists loyal to the British crown but were later joined by Republicans, in favor of a reunification of Ireland.

The clashes left dozens of people injured among the police forces.

Until now Boris Johnson has been silent on the resumption of violence, but on Wednesday he posted a tweet calling for “dialogue, not violence, not crime.”

A day later he sent his minister for Northern Ireland, Brandon Lewis, to Belfast for talks with local leaders.

In the unionist ranks there is anger and the feeling of having been betrayed with the Brexit agreement signed between London and the European Union, which aims to avoid, with special provisions, putting into question the peace signed in 1998 between unionists, mostly Protestants, and Republicans, mostly Catholics.

To avoid the return of a physical border between the British province and the Republic of Ireland, a member of the EU, controls are carried out in Northern Irish ports.

But these new deals cut off supplies and are denounced by unionists as a de facto border between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.

For Katy Hayward, a Brexit expert at Queen’s University Belfast, after downplaying this protocol on Northern Ireland before it went into effect on January 1, Boris Johnson is now paying the price.

“It has had consequences. There was a lack of preparation on the part of companies for the new controls, and a lack of preparation on the ground in Northern Ireland of the implications,” he told AFP.

The European Union notes that the British Prime Minister was well aware of these consequences and that it is up to the British government to solve the problems.

While the EU insists the protocol is here to stay, local government leader Arlene Foster of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) calls for it to be removed.

Political solution?

Many point the finger at Boris Johnson, who advocated a radical break with the EU – a position supported by the DUP – leaving little room for compromise after he took office in Downing Street in July 2019.

In an urgent debate in the Northern Ireland Assembly on Thursday, the Northern Irish Minister of Justice, the centrist Naomi Long, denounced the broken promises of the British government.

On the part of unionists, Northern Ireland’s differential treatment within the UK is fueling a sense of grievance, adding to existing tensions.

The spokesman for the European Commission, Daniel Ferrie, said for his part that the EU is “ready to find quick and pragmatic solutions”, but stressed that both parties must respect the protocol.

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