Sinn Féin, the Republican party that won the last local elections in Northern Ireland, thanked Queen Elizabeth II on the occasion of her jubilee. A gesture to salute his role in the peace process of the British province still unimaginable during the civil war between mainly Protestant Unionists and Catholic Republicans.
With our correspondent in Dublin, Laura Taouchanov
A predominantly Catholic pro-reunification party leader who thanks the British Crown. The symbol is strong.
In a letter sent to the Queen, Sinn Fein Vice-President Michelle O’Neill hails the contribution ” significant of Elizabeth II in peace processes between Catholics and Protestants. It must be said that over 70 years of reign, she went through 30 years of Troubles in Northern Ireland.
As the newly elected Republican Prime Minister, Michelle O’Neill also recognizes that the Jubilee is a very important moment for a whole section of the population in the British province. Unionists and Loyalists, mostly Protestant and very attached to the United Kingdom. In her letter, she promises that she will take every opportunity, as the Queen has done, to strengthen the bonds of friendship between the two communities.
A gesture welcomed by the former head of the unionist DUP Arlene Foster who recalled that she was very attached to the monarchy and to British culture. Culture that the republicans refuse… They want nothing to do with the queen and want to join Europe by being reunited with the rest of Ireland.