Ana Pontón and Mary Lou McDonald, leaders of BNG and Sinn Féin respectively, agree that in a moment of European resetting, “big changes” can come from “from the peripheries” specially after seeing how the European model, “set around the States and the big decision-making centres”, has “failed”.
Pontón and McDonald, the first women leading the main nationalist organizations in Galicia and Ireland, have shared an online conversation organized by the Fundación Galiza Sempre. There, the Galician and the Irishwoman have discussed about a broad range of topics from their own perspectives, putting special emphasis on the crisis related to the pandemic as well as on the reconfiguration of the European project after Brexit.
In this regard, McDonald has expressed that the exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union, linked with both “the failure of the EU” and an “ever-increasing English nationalism” has given even more importance the issue concerning the division of Ireland.
In her view, the reunification of Ireland is an issue that needs to be faced through a referendum, which is possible according to the peace treaties, but London needs to give its authorization.
On the other side, Pontón has said that the EU is a “structure of States that has failed”, and that the project needs to be changed in order to give a solution to problems that European nations have.
In this line, after criticising the fact that in the case of Catalonia the EU took sides “for a decision” that “cannot” be accepted from “democratic” postulates, Ana Pontón called for a break with “policies designed to favour the central states”. “This is the key to building a social Europe”, she added.