>>513197602
>what's the cause behind this failure?
the DUP. they are retards. they want everyone to think that they are these cool right-wing super christian pro-british warriors, but in truth they're in it for the money and not much else.

Since the GFA, the DUP's politics has literally been
>uhhhh, we'll keep SINN FÉIN from being the biggest party!
Meanwhile SF, who are very good at politics because they're all duplicitous snakes, invested heavily in winning the youth vote; they brought in the progressives, they won the universities, they encouraged young members of the party to go into law or politics and so on. The Irish side of politics in NI is a well oiled machine, the Unionist side is playing by an old rulebook.
>no NI government for years
The last two collapses of NI government were both over DUP autism.
>2017
RHI Scandal (will WRD if you ask), Sinn Féin withdrew from govt over DUP corruption.
>2020
DUP withdrew because of the NI Protocol in the Brexit deal. Eventually returned in 2024.

But Sinn Féin have been the big dogs for a while now, so the DUP's only trick (stopping that) is gone and everyone's realising they're retards. That and their previous leader was recently outed as a nonse.
>>513197712
>form a coalition
Nope. NI has *mandatory* power sharing, meaning no matter what power is generally shared 50/50 between Nationalists/Unionists - it's a bit like a "forced coalition" except between unwilling partners. Most Unionists have been calling for "Unionist Unity" for years just to try get the #1 spot back, but the problem is
>DUP
Don't like not being in charge.
>UUP
They hold all the moderate Unionists; if they merge with DUP/TUV, those votes go to non unionists.
>TUV
Refuse to go into govt with SF, so the above two won't work with them.