“It is plain to see that partition and division has been a disaster.”
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has said she will be asking the European Union to support Irish reunification if she is part of the next government in Ireland.
The votes for the 2020 general election have all been counted and Fianna Fáil has become the largest party in the country (38 seats) for the first time since the 2007 general election.
But the main story of the election is without doubt, the unexpected success of Sinn Féin who claimed 37 seats in the 33rd Dáil.
It could very well mean that Sinn Féin form part of the next government created and McDonald has outlined some of the things she will address if that happens.
“You have Brexit, you have changing demographics, you have the fact that the unionist majority has been lost in the North over the last number of elections, so that is the direction of travel,” McDonald told BBC Newsnight.
“I was saying to the outgoing Taoiseach that these preparations need to start. Whoever now makes up the next government, those preparations need to start. And could I also say those on the island of Britain and in London in particular need to start preparing because constitutional change is coming.”
After Sinn Féin received the most first-preference votes in the Irish General Election, their President Mary Lou McDonald spoke to Newsnight about her plan for government, Brexit and a border poll.
Watch our full report https://t.co/CJIz8lHCs4#Newsnight | @lewis_goodall
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) February 10, 2020
“We will be making asks of the European system in terms of long-term Irish interests and on the issue of partition. I think the European Union needs to take a stand in respect of Ireland in the same way it supported the reunification of Germany, in the same way that it has a position on Cyprus, for example, and a positive approach to the reunification of that country.
“I think Ireland is no different and I think it would be correct for our allies, for our friends, for anybody who cares about this country and our people, it is plain to see that partition and division has been a disaster,” she said.
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