Northern Ireland govt on hold as protocol deadlock remains

Bloomberg

Northern Ireland’s devolved government remains effectively suspended after a move to elect speakers to the Assembly failed amid a stand-off over Brexit.
“The Assembly has been unable to conduct its first business therefore we can proceed no further,” Acting Speaker Alex Maskey said. Until a speaker is elected, there can be no nominations to the region’s joint top ministerial positions.
Assembly members were recalled in a bid to restore the power-sharing government at Stormont. Neither candidate for speaker achieved the required cross-community consent from unionist and nationalist members, meaning an executive can also not be formed. The Democratic Unionist Party has said it won’t take part enter government until issues surrounding the part of the Brexit divorce agreement dealing with trade arrangements for Northern Ireland are resolved.
“We want stable and functioning devolution,” the DUP’s Gordon Lyons said in a statement ahead of the meeting. “But to get there we must remove the long shadow of the Protocol.”
A May 5 election saw Sinn Fein become the biggest party, enabling it to nominate a first minister — the first time a nationalist will have held the position since the region’s devolved government was created following the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. As the biggest unionist party and second largest party overall, the DUP is eligible to nominate a candidate for the equal position of deputy first minister. One cannot be in place without the other.