The NDF Overestimated Its Prospects
By: Tristian Bachelet
A new Chamber of Law is in place, and once again it's moderate liberals over conservatives, with support from the fringe parties being key to the balance of power. Yet, although the far left was left much weaker than before, its leader lives on to fight another election down the road as chairman.
This was supposed to be The New Democratic Frontier Party's (NDF) and Clement Northway's big year, the year that the people would rise, banish the barons, abolish the monarchy, and bring true representative democracy to the nation. Except, that didn't happen. The NDF
lost seats. They won
none of the first-past-the-post seats and only got three on mixed-member proportional rules. I have to imagine that in Northway's mind that, by all accounts, it doesn't make sense. He held rallies, fundraisers, meet-and-greets, everything to tell everyone about how his party was going to make it so that everyone had a greater hand in their government. It appeared that most people said, "No, thanks."
Instead, ten Royal Solidarity Party (RSP) members won their seats outright, and they didn't need any extra off MMP. Four outright wins for Royal Foundations (RFP), with an extra five on MMP. The far right Sovereigntist Party picked up their first seat
ever despite not having much of a platform after the Principality withdrew from Phoenix Union. It was stability and growth for moderates and conservatives, and losses for the far left. Where did Northway go wrong?
1. He neglected tradition.
Northway came out swinging with the whole platform that "Hereditary rule is dumb, and it's stupid, and it's stupid, and it's dumb." There are indeed arguments for why single-family rule isn't the best form of government. There's no guarantee that the sitting monarch is the best candidate to lead the nation and there's no guarantee that the ruling family will share the same ideas, values, and concerns with the rest of the country either, and that was what Northway bet everything on. He felt that knowing this weakness would lead people towards his party if he advocated for entirely abolishing the monarchy. However, he forgot one significant detail: you can separate the
institution of the monarchy from the politics.
Over four hundred years ago, we were gifted with a leader that never forgot our heritage. By taking on the title of Prince instead of King, Martin Dorsett reminded us that there was always something greater than he that was responsible for who we were as a people. Even as we evolved from simple Santonian traders into a nation of our own, no Dorsett ever claimed the title of King or Queen, a nod to our history.
But, none of this has anything to do with the need for a modern-day monarchy to be directly involved in government affairs. It would have been entirely acceptable to ask the Dorsetts to relegate themselves to a symbolic role, attending state events abroad, ribbon cuttings, waiving the green flag to start first practice at the Norvalle Grand Prix, etc., and this is probably what Claidie wants anyways. She wants to sit in the background and promote her economic, corporate, and tourism-related interests while the government handles actual legislation and governance.
If Northway wanted to have a better chance of taking more seats in the Chamber, he would have advocated for greater democratic reforms
without resorting to attempting to strip the Dorsetts of their princely title. Many other nations of the world hold on to these symbols of the state but effectively allow the people to govern themselves. A good NDF platform would have advocated for a symbolic monarchy.
2. The RSP is already doing what he wants.
Remember when I stated that there's no guarantee that the sitting monarch is the best candidate to lead? Claidie is fully aware of this, and I would even gamble that she already believes she isn't
the best to exercise absolute political control. A year and a half ago, we saw the most extensive overhaul of our government in decades, maybe even a century, where she made herself accountable to her sister as co-monarch, an elected official in Prime Minister Madeline Ellison, and a Chamber of Law that significantly reduced the influence of unelected socialites. The change demonstrated the princess's willingness to take command, admonish a broken government, and piece it back together to make it functional again, even if that meant being unable to do so unilaterally in the future.
The RSP knows that with control of the chamber, it can implement what Claidie wants to do with the monarchy to give more political power to elected representatives. But, the RSP doesn't yet have control of the Chamber, which would ramp up efforts to modernize Sil Dorsettian politics and government structures even further than what has already been done. The Peers generally vote conservative, which will prove to be a thorn in RSP and NDF's sides. For Northway to have made genuine progress, his party would have needed to attack the RFP directly to cut down on their seats. But, by targeting the monarchy, the NDF alienated voters who, despite a rocky start to her reign, believe Claidie's continued presence, split between government and personal endeavors, is a good thing.
For now, RSP's coalition leads, backed by NDF and Workers' Comradeship (WCP). While WCP is unlikely to flip coalitions to side with their most ardent rivals, it will be interesting to see how long the RSP-NDF-WCP coalition lasts before Northway decides to flip his party to force another general election. With a need to flip six opposition seats, the gamble might be
too much of one.
![Midir [Mondari]](/data/avatars/m/5021/5021626.jpg?1538375103){kind=avatar}
