"Chaos" is insufficient to describe the situation of the Northern Irish ruling party DUP, commented the Belfast newspaper Irish News on Friday, and then chose the term "implosion".

In less than 24 hours - more precisely: between Wednesday night and Thursday night - the Democratic Unionist Party managed to almost risk a new election in negotiations with its government partner, Sinn Fein, and then to nominate a prime minister with Paul Givan, who will soon be replaced and to drive her newly elected chairman Edwin Poots to resign.

Jochen Buchsteiner

Political correspondent in London.

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    Poots did not take up his post until the end of May, after he had helped to urge the previous party leader and Prime Minister Arlene Foster to resign with the help of an internal coup.

    After leaving an apparently noisy party meeting in Belfast on Friday night without a press conference, he published a sober statement with the words: “I have asked the party organizer to start an electoral process in the party to elect a new party leader . ”Northern Ireland's largest party had only just passed through this process.

    Sinn Fein threatened to block

    Poots had failed to set up a new Northern Irish government, which had become necessary after the resignation of Foster and her deputy Michelle O'Neill from Sinn Fein. The Northern Ireland Peace Agreement stipulates that the strongest unionist party and the strongest nationalist party will form a joint government. Sinn Fein made the necessary nomination of her candidate dependent on the solution of a conflict that has been bothering the coalition for a very long time.

    This is about the role the Irish (as well as Ulster-Scottish) language and culture should play in Northern Ireland. The focus is on the "NDNA" agreement ("New Decade New Approach") made in January 2020. Some aspects, such as the establishment of a translation service for offices, have already been implemented. Simultaneous translation into Irish and Ulster-Scottish is also due to take place in the Belfast Parliament.

    However, the law has not yet been passed, and several offices and commissions to monitor the use of languages ​​or to deal with complaints have not yet been set up.

    Overall, less than five percent of Northern Irish say they speak one of the two minority languages.

    According to newspaper reports, Sinn Fein threatened to block the process of forming a government if no agreement was reached.

    Then a new election would have been due, which, according to the current polls, would be unfavorable for the DUP.

    The party might even lose its position as the strongest faction and with it its right to fill the post of head of government (“First Minister”).

    Compromise disgruntled party friends

    According to newspaper reports, Poots agreed to a compromise in the nightly meeting that outraged many of his party friends: The NDNA agreement negotiated through London and Dublin is now to be passed in Westminster, so that the DUP does not have to approve the law in Belfast. The DUP MPs rejected the entire deal, including the candidate Poots wanted to nominate as the new prime minister. But Poots pulled through. Although a large majority of the DUP voted against Givan's nomination, he carried out the act. Thereupon the party threatened its chairman with a vote of no confidence, which he finally prevented by his resignation.

    It is now speculated that DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson, who narrowly defeated Poots in May, could run again. However, he would face the same problem as Poots: a Sinn Fein who tried to take advantage of the fragile situation and “smelled blood”, as Northern Ireland expert Jon Tonge from the University of Liverpool put it. Should Donaldson also seek the office of Prime Minister, he would have to resign from the UK Parliament and be elected to the Regional Assembly in Belfast.

    In London there is concern about how the serious crisis in the DUP is affecting the political situation in Northern Ireland. It has been tense since the consequences of Brexit became noticeable. In particular, the goods controls between Northern Ireland, which has remained part of the EU internal market, and Great Britain have caused anger among unionists.