Narikaton and Darnussia

[Mbites]

The Constitution of 5674 stands: Federal Amendment passes Senate floor
July 5674


Kooi-Oppensteiner presenting the bill to the constitutional committee of the Senate


President Kooi-Oppensteiner has elegantly navigated the cutthroat politics of the Three Republics and has now managed to succeed in his most adamantly advocated for goal, the Federalization reform. An issue which has now plagued public discourse for more than half a decade seems to be finally resolved. The bill titled “The Federal Amendment” has passed the Senate floor with overwhelming support of almost all the parties, in the end even some moderate Thallerists supported the constitutional law. While the title calls it an amendment, the legal reality is, that the whole constitution looks very differently, adding more than 100 articles to the formerly rather ‘lacking’ core-document. Everything has been meticulously planned out, from the privileges, rights and responsibilities of the individual departments of the Federal government as well as those of new state-level governments.

Now, we’re going to give a comprehensive overview over the most major additions introduced by the reform. What has been liberally dubbed “the member republics” have now been officially born in a legal sense, the new Article 6 of the Constitution of the Federated Republics states: “The Triad Republics consist of the Republic of Narikaton, the Republic of Darnussia, the Republic of Himmelshtern and the Free-State of Heavenly Jorgen.” This simple sentence establishes a very broad new legal reality and even constitutionally strengthens Jorgen Island’s autonomous status, an issue which has been key for the VVP in the heated negotiations. Except for Jorgen Island, which maintains the political structure it has been used to since its foundation, the three “Member-Republics” are now going to create legislative bodies called “State House” in which indirectly elected representatives are going to vote on bills. These bills are going to consist of policies which have been designated to be member republic responsibilities to regulate by the constitution, in detail the norms are complicated and we’re not going into depth here.

Each Republic additionally is going to form their own executive with a Chancellor at the top which has the task to guide and coordinate their subordinate State Directors, which can be compared to Ministers on the Federal Level. The amendment leaves the individual design of the member republics executive body (government) open to state political process and as such does not streamline the administrations, an issue which seems like it went in favor of the centrist and yeudi-autonomist parties. Even though the member republics are free to design their own executives, the constitution determines that the head of the state executive is to be elected by the respective State House.

Shifting the perspective to the Federal Level, we can see that it stays more or less the same, some regulations have been added which just put established practice into the documents, in some cases academic controversies have been clarified. The Federal government is maintaining absolute control over Defense and Foreign Policy matters which diminishes Himmelshtern’s privileges to some degree, as it has now completely lost its position as a subject of international law, meaning it has gained internal autonomy at the cost of surrendering to its status of a Member Republic. Other than that, some cabinet positions seem to be obsolete now as the privilege to regulate on issues such as agriculture has been relegated to the Republics. Some have demanded to shift more power to the Federal Senate but this has not been included in the new constitution. The President still stands as a very strong executive position, which can only be sacked by a constitutional majority in the Senate, individual cabinet members can now – as has been practiced - be sacked by simple majority in the Senate. Presidential elections are now able to be set apart of the Senatorial Elections as has been clarified in Article 87 of the amendment. Other than that nothing changes for the “Feds.”

The constitutional convent administration seems to enjoy a major confidence boost from the public after delivering on this promise, it seems that disillusionment seems to decrease in public opinion. Many hope for a second term of Kooi-Oppensteiner, but have not yet received a confirmation from his side. Other’s have shifted their attention to the still open Clenonberg files issue, and again some hope for progress in different inherited projects from the Ossel era, in the end a lot remains to be done.