Northern Ireland’s largest British unionist party has agreed to end a boycott that left the region’s people without a power-sharing administration for two years and rattled the foundations of the 25-year-old peace. The breakthrough could see the shuttered Belfast government restored within days. After a marathon late-night meeting, Democratic Unionist Party leader Jeffrey Donaldson said Tuesday that the party’s executive had backed proposals to return to the government. He said agreements reached with the UK government in London “provide a basis for our party to nominate members to the Northern Ireland Executive, thus seeing the restoration of the locally elected institutions”.

The breakthrough after months of inconclusive negotiations came after the UK government last week gave Northern Ireland politicians until Feb 8 to restore the Northern Ireland Assembly and the local government or face new elections. “All the conditions are in place for the Assembly to return,” Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said. He said he would publish details of the UK government’s new proposals on Wednesday, after briefing all of Northern Ireland’s main political parties.

The DUP walked out in February 2022 in a dispute over post-Brexit trade rules. Ever since, it has refused to return to the government with the Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein. Under power-sharing rules established as part of Northern Ireland’s peace process, the administration must include both British unionists and Irish nationalists.

The walkout left Northern Ireland’s 1.9 million people without a functioning administration to make key decisions as the cost of living soared and backlogs strained the creaking public health system. Amid mounting public frustration, teachers, nurses and other public sector workers staged a 24-hour strike this month calling on politicians to return to the government and give them a long-delayed pay raise. The British government has agreed to give Northern Ireland more than 3 billion pounds ($3.8 billion) for its public services, but only if the executive in Belfast gets back up and running.

The political impasse in Northern Ireland stems from the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union and its borderless trading bloc after decades of membership. The DUP quit the government in opposition to new trade rules put in place after the UK left the EU in 2020 that imposed customs checks and other hurdles on goods moving to Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.

The checks were established to maintain an open border between the north and its EU neighbour, the Republic of Ireland — a key pillar of the peace process that ended decades of violence in Northern Ireland. The DUP, though, says the new east-west customs border undermines Northern Ireland’s place in the UK.

In February 2023, the UK and the EU agreed on a deal to ease customs checks and other hurdles for goods moving to Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK. But it was not enough for the DUP, which continued its government boycott. Donaldson said further measures agreed by the British government will “remove checks for goods moving within the UK and remaining in Northern Ireland and will end Northern Ireland automatically following future EU laws”.

The DUP’s decision faces opposition from some hard-line unionists, who fiercely guard Northern Ireland’s place in the UK and say even light-touch post-Brexit checks create a de facto internal trade barrier. Dozens of protesters gathered outside the DUP meeting venue outside Belfast late Monday, waving placards saying, “Stop DUP sellout”.

Details of the supposedly private five-hour meeting were live-tweeted by Jamie Bryson, editor of the Unionist Voice newsletter, who is opposed to Donaldson’s attempts at compromise.

Donaldson said last week that he had received threats over his attempts to negotiate a return to the government.

“I think my party has displayed far more courage than those who threaten or try to bully or try to misrepresent us,” he said Tuesday. “We are determined to take our place in taking Northern Ireland forward.”

The situation has been complicated by Northern Ireland’s changing political landscape. Unionists were the largest force in the Northern Ireland Assembly from its establishment in 1998 until 2022, when Sinn Fein won the most seats in an election.

That gives the nationalist party, which seeks to take Northern Ireland out of the UK and unite it with the republic, the right to hold the post of first minister. The DUP would fill the post of deputy — a bitter pill for some unionists to swallow.

Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald said the appointment of Northern Ireland’s first nationalist leader would be “a moment of great significance” that will bring a united Ireland closer. “We are conscious that there is a huge amount of work to be done, that society has really suffered from the absence of government over the last two years,” McDonald said.

She said there was “a sense of expectation now that all of us together for the common good (will) put our shoulder to the wheel and get the best job done that we possibly can for every person living here in the north”.