From his visit to Dublin at the beginning of last year, Pere Aragonès extracted from the leader of Sinn Féin, Mary Lou McDonald, the commitment to recognize an independent Catalonia if the party governs in the Republic of Ireland and “if the Catalans so decide.” . This Wednesday the president of the Generalitat visits Belfast to meet with another of the big names of the party: Michelle O'Neill, chief minister of Ulster since February 3.
The trip of the ERC candidate to the Parliamentary elections on May 12 is lightning fast. In the evening he will be back in Barcelona – the election campaign begins the next day – but first he plans to meet in Belfast with the city's mayor, Ryan Murphy. He will then move to the Irish language school Coláiste Feirste. It will be in the afternoon when he meets with O'Neill, who has held her position as head of the Ulster Government since February 3, after the intervention of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, who with an almost cosmetic pact with the Party Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) unblocked this formation's rejection of the constitution of a new Northern Irish Assembly and Executive under the mandate of Sinn Féin.
The Generalitat limits the visit to the desire to “reinforce ties” with Northern Ireland, “a territory that shares many challenges and desires with Catalonia on issues such as self-determination, language and social justice.” On her trip last year, Aragonès planned to meet with O'Neill, but the leader was ultimately unable to attend due to institutional commitments.
Esquerra and the Government consider that they share common objectives with a Sinn Féin that is markedly left-wing and concerned and focused right now on promoting social policies that facilitate the daily lives of citizens, without giving up the reunification of Ireland, although this last point is now on the horizon. The Catalan republicans maintain this same position today, with the independence referendum as a medium-term objective.
In turn, Aragonès imitates Bildu. The head of the Abertzales list in the recent elections in Euskadi, Pello Otxandiano, also visited O'Neill in March. A few days before he had gone to the Palau de la Generalitat to meet with the head of the Government.
Sinn Féin was the party with the most votes in the 2020 elections in the Republic of Ireland, with 24.5% of the total. Two years later, the party that was the political arm of the IRA also achieved victory in Ulster, taking 29% of the vote. O'Neill, a Catholic and Republican, currently holds the position of chief minister. Never before had a nationalist politician held this position after the Irish partition agreement in 1921.
