For the first time in Northern Ireland’s history, pro-independence parties won a municipal election

Sinn Féin, a nationalist and pro-independence Catholic, won Northern Ireland’s municipal elections on Thursday, The Guardian reports. According to Friday night’s results, SF won 143 of the 462 local government seats, while their main, unionist opponent, the Protestant Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), took 122 seats. It was the first time in Northern Ireland’s history that a pro-independence force had won a local government election.

Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom. Protestant Britons, who want to belong to one state with Great Britain, and Irish Catholics, who are going to unite with Ireland, live together in the region. Conflict between the two sides has flared up again since Brexit, and since then the question has been whether the region should form a customs union with Ireland, which is part of the European Union, or with Great Britain.

Although the outcome of the election will not lead to a change in Northern Ireland’s status, the important message is that the majority of the population now supports Irish nationalist, pro-republican parties. We have written more here about the recent agreement between the EU and the UK regarding Northern Ireland.