Empherias

Overview
the Kingdom of Empherias, commonly known as Empherias, is a nation in southeast Alaxia. It is a parliamentary constitutional monarchy with the head of state Rijkse or Rijkdottir, and a Parliament with two houses. One directly proportional to the popular vote with 1000 seats, and another made up of constituents and representatives of 401 MPs (as of 2443), and the Prime Minister presiding over the government as whoever wins the popular vote. Large changes to the nation must be approved by a point majority (over fifty percent) and not exclusively by the government. The capital city of the nation is Wynnoa, located in the south central region on the river Ervyn. Cities such as Rhequons, Rommes or Esthullen also have high influence and have been historically vfbfsgfsdgfsgery important cities.

History
To be written

Politics
The head of state of the nation is the Rijkse or Rijkdottir. They are the chosen descendant of the royal family to rule. When the current monarch dies, their eldest child will take on the throne. In some rare cases, the monarch will abdicate or retire or even choose their successor themselves. They are theoretically an absolute monarch but have not used executive power unless in emergencies such as the Empherias Political Schism in 2395. The royals are much beloved by the people.

The Parliament is made of up 401 members of Parliament (MPs) which represent local counties in the nation of similar population. Each MP can run as part of a political party or independent, however an independent MP hasn't been placed into power since the Third Constitution was written in 2397 declaring the new rules for Parliament. The party with the most MPs in Parliament have active control over major bills. The Prime Minister, and in turn the Government at large is created based on the winner of the popular vote. In case of a tie, a coalition or new election is needed. There have been no cases of the Government party and Parliament party being different, but if this were the case then the Government could still pass laws and address issues but would need Parliament's consent on larger issues affecting the nation.

Prior to 2397 and the Political Schism of 2395, the Parliament would be made up of 100 appointed noble and lords by the royal family. During the Political Schism, many populist ideals were introduced by politicians and the current monarch, Rijkse James VII had to flee to the Hveden Federation. His successor, Rijkdottir Abigail I appointed herself and was in favour of the populists and the people and abolished this system. She appointed the first Parliament (of 30 MPs) in 2397 to write up a constitution published later that year and to cement stability in the new nation and voting system. From then on, the Rijkdottir became a self-applied figurehead in practice.

Felix D'laminet's Premiership (2397-2411)
The first Prime Minister of the Third Constitution was political commentator and activist, Felix D'laminet. He was appointed for the job in 2397 by the Rijkdottir for his advocation of equal voting rights amongst classes and the creation of a people's represented Parliament, and as an apology for his imprisonment by the previous regime between 2394 and 2397 for treason. He led the People's Populist Party to victory in the 2402 and 2407 elections, winning 144 seats and 139 seats respectively, both out of 300 seats. For each of his three terms, he maintained the largest party but not a clear majority, although this gave him no real issues.

D'laminet remained as Prime Minister until his resignation on 10th April 2411 after twelve years due to old age and retirement. His immediate successor as Prime Minister was leader of the Socialist party, Elizabeth Rose, the first female Prime Minister. She was appointed as the Deputy Prime Minister after the 2402 election where the Socialists and Populists created a coalition. As the Deputy, she became the Prime Minister immediately. She continued as PM until the 2412 election, where her party won 131 seats to the Populist's 141 seats and so lost the role to her Populist rival.

Populist's Political Troubles Begin (2411)
D'laminet's successor as leader of the Populist party was less clear. Due to nightmares in management, the successor to D'laminet wasn't decided until the 27th January 2412, nine months after his departure. After three rounds of leadership voting, former Lord of the Treasury Henry Watford rose to the leadership of the party. He used the popularity of the Populists to easily win 141 seats in the 2412 election and become Prime Minister on 18th April 2412. Due to winning a minority and unable to secure a coalition partner like in previous minority governments (2402 and 2407), the Prime Minister agreed to hold an election within three years of winning the 2412 election, and then scheduled it for national Empherias day, 21st December 2414. The 2412 election would be the first to increase the Parliament's size. It went from 300 MPs in the 2402 and 2407 election to 325 MPs to accommodate for Tbekien's integration.

The 2414 election would increase the Parliament's size yet again from 325 to 371 MPs to accommodate for Weskynn's integration into Empherias. In the election itself, it would be the first time a split government occurred. The popular vote determined the Prime Minister to be the leader of the Populist party, Henry Watford, but they won it by the slimmest margin ever of 1.28%. This also put the populists in government. Meanwhile, the most amount of seats were won by the Socialists, and former Prime Minister Elizabeth Rose became Head of the Parliament. This is also the first time a party controlled more than 50% of the seats in Parliament, meaning they could practically win any challenge to the government. Henry Watford didn't mention this massive loss, except his resignation as Prime Minister and leader of the Populist party on 28th December 2414, one week after the election.

Immediately, Robert Webber became Prime Minister and acting populist leader. The Populist leadership race would begin in June 2415 however Webber cannot be replaced until an election. Robert Webber, attempting to continue his political career, sets a new election to take place on national Empherias day 2415, a year after the previous election. By then, the economic situation should have improved and the populists should have a new leader.

Before the 2415 election, the Liberal Centrists winning just 0.79% of the popular vote and 1 MP announced they were not running. They put their support behind the smallest of the three largest party, the Conservatives. A small bloc jumped ship and formed their own new party, the Empherias Liberal Party (ELP) which intended to stand in the election. An act to annex Norsair was passed by the socialists in Parliament in September 2414 adding 30 MPs to the Parliament. The 2415 would be for 401 MPs. The socialists managed to win 49.46% of the popular vote and 225 MPs, giving them the largest representative share and commons share. This made Elizabeth Rose the Prime Minister. the Populists came a disappointing 24.41% of the votes, with the Conservatives at 20.98%. The Populists had 99 MPs in parliament, with the Conservatives on 69. Other parties on 8.

Economic Union of East Alaxia (2415)
One of the first bills of the new Socialist government was to legalise same sex marriage, a very liberal idea. It is rumoured that the monarchy ordered this of the government as one of the first same sex marriage was between the Queen's daughter and her girlfriend, with the bill coming into effect in February 2416. The former King, James VII who fled to Hveden following the revolution 18 years earlier died, and Hveden was asked to bring the body back to Empherias to bury which was conducted.

Following the economic recession, the Socialists went on top of things to secure economic stability during the Great War. Rose appointed good friend Ludwig Reimes as both Assistant-Chancellor, and Chief Minister of Economic Growth. To allow for good economic growth, Rose and Reimes came up the Economic Union of East Alaxia. Alongside planned member states of Karkuss, Palakkinen, Hveden and Ahitereira, the union would be signed through the Treaty of Esthullen. In short, the union was to ensure economic stability through a centralised bank, free trade agreements, planned no borders, and eventually a united currency among the eastern nations. The bill received mixed responses from Ahitereira-Koresa and Karkuss, and no response at all from Hveden. Rose promised to return the bill and rewrite it to suit the member states more fittingly.

To pay off debt, the Budget was rewritten in 2415 to include 50% of GDP to debt repayment, and another 15% to be added straight to the Treasury as a fall back measure. This created a measure of austerity with just 35% of the GDP used for government spending. Transport and Infrastructure was prioritised over anything else. Education was set at just 3% of spending, while Defence was set at 15% due to the ongoing world crisis. This budget would continue for every year until it's needed amendment in 2421.

Dissolution of the Populists (2415-2416)
In 2416, the Populist party dissolved entirely. the Populists, under Robert Webber, lost the previous election of 2415 but had a very tough time, as they had been transitioning between 3 leaders in 3 years between 2411 and 2414. The current leader was unlikeable at best, and a lot of the party had lost it's merit. It originally came about as the only government party and so appealed to a large range of voters. When more parties were set up, the party steered towards centre-left policies but many of it's supporters liked it for it's stability and it's popularity. The socialists, with a clear manifesto and dedicated leaders and clear ideas, gained a much larger following growing in size before winning the recent election. Even the conservatives had a clear base in right-wing policies. Robert Webber resigned as Populist leader. What was left was a power vacuum that nobody wanted to fill. The party was headed by Former Foreign Minister Alice Rettels (2397-2415) before she declared it dissolved later that week.

All 99 of their seats in Parliament were redistributed to other parties. 66 went to the Socialists, 20 to the Conservatives, 4 to the Liberals, 1 to Nationalists and 8 to Independents. Famous populist politicians signed up to join the Socialist party such as Edward Broedesmore, former Lord of the Treasury and MP for Vreimer-Nussair; Maria Harris, former Minister of Domestic Affairs and MP for South Trektonne; Alice Rettels, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and MP for Aleawynn; and Henry Alark, former Minister of Defence and MP for Nieuwbourg. All of these people would be high profile in the Socialist party from this point on. Some populist went to the Conservatives which sparked major controversy, like Peter Goddard who was forced to resign shortly after and lost his 1920 re-election bid as an independent.

The Rose Project (2415-2420)
Trying to kickstart the economy, Elizabeth Rose announced, "The Rose Project". Building on the two planned, but then cancelled infrastructure projects of previous Populist governments: the Felix D'laminet Decade Roadmap Plan (2407-2417) and the Watford Five Year Plan (2413-2417), the Prime Minister announced the Rose Project. The plan consists of three stages. Stage One takes place between 2417 and 2420. It would lay the base infrastructure projects down. Stage Two, given a Socialist victory in the 2420 election would take place between 2420 and 2423. Stage Three, will take place between 2423 and 2427, (given a Socialist victory in the 2425 election), with a fourth Stage to be created leading up to the 2427 deadline. Using a sizable Socialist majority, major infrastructure projects will be setup to get the economy up and running.

Universities would be built in the largest of Empherias cities. While foreign students would be welcomed and treated equally socially and financially, the schools would prioritise learning for higher subjects such as Science, Engineering and Maths. Some grants would be given to schools to allow for the building and maintaining of these schools. To accommodate for this, the 2418, 2419 and 2420 Education budgets would increase Education spending from 3% of government spending, to 11% of government spending. Over the next three years in stage one, Defence would play a laid back approach. Spending was to be cut from 15% to 10% in the next three budgets, meaning the armed forces and naval forces combined lose 33% of their spending. This was a risky move given the world wide war. Despite railways being the main element to Empherias travel, we would research and trial new transport methods such as trams in smaller large cities and then bring them to larger busier cities like Wynnoa or Esthullen. Trams especially would increase production rates as they take up less space than trains would. Where railways take majority of cost from train tickets, trams would be mainly invested through the Transport budget as to have lower ticket prices and be more pushed to the public. Bicycles would be encouraged alongside new bicycle lanes.

Crisis with Palakkinen (2417)
in 2417, Palakkinen marched troops into a Hveden controlled mountainous area and contested claims with Hveden. Henry Alark, Minister of Defence, had reasons to believe that Palakkinen was preparing to go to war with Empherias on the border due to our alliance with Hveden. Henry Alark announced that 10,000 troops would be pulled out of reserves into active duty and sent to the patrol the south-eastern part of the Empherias-Palakkinen border. Following the escalation of the crisis, another 14,000 reserve troops were brought into active duty. Fearing the worst, Henry Alark gained royal ascent to pull all remaining 46,000 troops out of reserve and into active duty. The entire army group of 70,000 troops was formed into 14 divisions of 5,000 troops each and stationed equally across the border with Palakkinen. Furthermore, one of our battleships, the E.R.S Abigail would sail down the main Ewynn River to patrol trade going through the river, and to assess the possibilities of bombardment.

Kiavar wanted to control the situation by coming to a peaceful agreement, not wanting Hveden, Empherias or Palakkinen to be pulled into the Great War. Ahitereira issued a coalition embargo on Palakkinen, due to their increasingly worrying occupation of the southern mountains, which Empherias accepted and in turn accepted a regional defence pact with Ahitereira, and other signer Hveden for complete non-aggression. Embargoes which were placed on Palakkinen by Empherias and Ahitereira were lifted after a diplomatic solution was come to. Non-aggression was agreed with Palakkinen. What followed was a royal marriage between the Ahitereiran heir to the throne, and Princess Catherine of Empherias. Alark later demobilised all troops on the Palakkinen border and pulled them back into reserves. A royal marriage with Karkuss also occurred.

Split Parliaments and Elections (2420-2424)
In the 2420 general election, William Henry Russell would replace Joseph Martinique as the conservative leader. Elizabeth Rose ran for re-election, the Nationalists sent Henry Artenflower yet again and Alexander Rimmean was the Liberal candidate. The Socialists won 299 seats, an increase of 74 seats from the last election, while the Conservatives won 100 seats, an increase of 31 seats from the last election. The nationalists lost 4 seats and the Liberals lost their single seat. Shortly after the election, the Split Parliament Act would come into effect. Two chambers of Parliament would be created. The lower house would be named the House of Representatives. It is made of 401 seats and represents the first past the post winner of a single constituency per seat. This can be wildly off from the popular vote. The upper house would be named the House of Commons.

It is made of 1000 seats and is set based off of the popular vote of the last election. The Prime Minister and government's party is decided by the largest party in this house. The House of Representatives still has a lot of power as it is the original Parliament. Issues going from Parliament would go through the Representative House first, and then the Commons House second. The Representative election would occur every 3 years, with the Commons election every 5 years to ensure head of state stability. The 1920 Commons results were the Socialists with 638 seats, the Conservatives on 249 seats, the Liberals on 57 seats, the Nationalists on 40 seats, and others on 16. This allowed for smaller parties to have more of a say in Parliament. For example, the Liberals had 5.7% of the seats in the Commons House, but had no seats at all in the Representative House.

National Budgets were now edited yearly to accommodate for quick changes in the economy. Notable changes after 2420 include the Debt Repayment percentage of the GDP moving from 50% to 30%. This allowed for much more spending in public sectors which made many voters happy. During one of her speeches, the Prime Minister hinted at possibly leaving the leadership position of the Socialist party before the scheduled 1925 General Election, where she would have been in power for 11 years before the election. Rose did stay on during the 2423 Representative election, the first split election.

In the 2423 split election, the Socialists won a single seat, bringing their total to 300. Liberals won 4 seats, for a total of 4. Conservatives lost 8 seats moving to just 92 in total. the Nationalists won 2 seats, for a total of 4. There was one independent seat. William Henry Russell subsequently resigned as Conservative leader later that year, and Elizabeth Rose officially announced her resignation to take place in May 2424. Following this, counties were created as a group of constituencies. County mayors would be elected every 4 years and wouldn't affect anything nationwide, only broader things to do in which they had more power over local constituencies. 25 counties were created at the time.

Elizabeth Rose stated that the planned EULA from some years ago is resuming planning. The next Prime Minister would negotiate deals with proposed member nations in the following few years starting in 2424, however these planned negotiations didn't happen until late 2426. Ludwig Reimes would continue as Chancellor and planned for the 2424 and 2425 budgets to be very different than previous years. He would propose new measures to ensure new infrastructure projects begin. The year would begin as many in Parliament agree that the Great War is almost over and the economy is unlikely to fail again. Because of this, drastic austerity measures are no longer needed to ensure that the economy could stay afloat in a crisis. The Budget would still put in some measures of austerity however. As of the 2423 budget, a whole 40% of the GDP would be pumped either into saving in the treasury or to repay debt directly. In the new budget for 2424, the money saved by the treasury would be decreased from 15% of the GDP to 3% of GDP. This saves 12% of the GDP for other projects. Debt Repayment, which is currently 25% would move down to 12%, saving another 13% of the GDP for other projects. Read the budget in full here.

New Politics (2424-present)
Henry Patterson, Ludwig Reimes, Edward Broedesmore, Katelyn Roberts, Alice Rettels, Edward Monktet and Charlotte Regel would all take part in the Socialist Leadership election, for the leader of the Socialists and Prime Minister between May 2424 and September 2425, and then to take part in the 2425 election, for a new 5 year term. The opposition party, the Conservatives elected their new leader, Robert Webber (former Populist Prime Minister 1914-1915). He proposed a move that would unite the 3rd largest party, the Liberal Centrist party, and another Centre-left party, the Party Liberal Front into a single unified Liberal party to oppose the Socialists. This would create the Liberal Party as a sole bloc. The democratic nationals rebranded as the Nationalist Party and pledged to take away conservative voters in following elections. They elected Henry Artenflower as leader.

Eventually, Alice Rettels (former Minister of Foreign Affairs between 2397 and 2415, Leader of the Populists between 2415 and 2416, and Adviser to the Foreign Secretary between 2417 and the present), was chosen to be the nation's new Prime Minister and Socialist leader. She narrowly beat out runner-up Ludwig Reimes, who would continue as Chancellor. She immediately submitted a law for the empowerment of trade unions to strike against bad employers to raise worker's right would raised her public approval after a long time with a single leader. She also raised awareness of the need for a naval expansion, and appointed Admiral Sir Thomas Rijkseite as Chief of the Naval Forces. Alongside this appointment in the cabinet, Empherias purchased 4 battleships and 6 destroyers from Ceironia following the Great War. This increased the coastal capacity to 7 battleships and 6 destroyers.

The 2425 election took place in September 2425 and would be held as a popular vote and Commons election only. Alice Rettels as the Socialist candidate, Skylar Lawrence as the Liberal candidate, and Henry Artenflower yet again as Nationalist candidate. The Socialists won 597 commons seats, with the Liberals as runner-ups with 352 seats, and Nationalists on 24. Independents rose to 27. Alice Rettels had suffered a small election loss of around 4.1% of the popular vote. Following the election, the Chief of Naval Forces announced the 2425 Naval Expansion. Henry Artenflower also died of health complications at age 86 following the election. The new Nationalist leader was elected to be Luka Beckers, aged 28. Research, Development and Production of aircraft for military began being looked into as the government announced a switch away from research on the armed forces.

Minister of Domestic Affairs in Norsair, Harry Redworks, died age 84. He served as the President of the country and then as the internal minister for over 15 years. The position then remained vacant. Rettels government announced that a new minimum wage would be set for all workers to obey by. It is set at 4.50kts/hour. In Norsair, local legislation opted to set the minimum wage in that county at 5.25kts/hour. This pleased many socialists who were hoping to gain representative seats in the upcoming 2426 representative elections. Having been approached by Palakkinen over some private agreements in 2424, the Prime Minister Alice Rettels, and Minister of Foreign Affairs Liza Veys began talks about the future of the EULA project and the formulation of a treaty with Palakkinen for plans to be laid out. Many bills in Parliament were not overseen by Rettels during this time.

Alice Rettels announced the amendment of the 2415 Treaty of Esthullen which would create the Economic Union of East Alaxia. All east alaxian nations were invited. However, this time, the bill was less successful. Ahitereira out right refused to accept the bill due to the single currency proposed and had no change of mind. Hveden never replied. Palakkinen however looked set to possibly accept the bill in private talks however nothing was certain. Alice Rettels also mentioned that she may enquire into the creation of an adoption of similar banned items, import policies, export policies, a united economic commission to control trade between EULA nations and outside nations, and a united policy on food and product standards, but these would not to come into effect in the initial treaty. Due to a large influx of immigrants to our neighbours in Ahitereira and Hveden - due to the end of the Great War, the government offered to take in some immigrants to which they were refused.

The 2426 Representative Election took place in January of that year, just five months after the previous election. The Socialists lost 24 seats despite their approval rating decreasing, with the Liberals able to strategically plan for many years and took over many Socialist-leaning seats. The liberals however lost many seats to the Nationalists on the other side of the spectrum meaning the Liberals won just 5 seats in total, bring their total to 101, with the Socialists on a clear majority still of 276. The Nationalists made a gain of 19 seats, the clear winner, bringing their total to 24. Many estimated that this would vastly increase their showing in the 2429 representative elections and 2430 commons elections and make them a main stay player in the new politics, with many old Conservative voters switching to them.

The first six elections and participating parties list of seats and share of the vote. Strikes-through names mean the party no longer exists. For the full list of elections: Following these six elections, each election would be split between the Representative vote (MPs) and General vote (Popular vote) which would occur at different intervals and different dates.

A different party being in control of Parliament and the Government has happened under three different Prime Ministers. During Elizabeth Rose's interim, she ruled a semi-Socialist government against a Parliament controlled by Populists. This split occurred from the 10th April 1911 until the 18th April 1912 for 374 days, or just over a year. The next split was following the 1914 election where the Populists won the popular vote but won less seats than the Socialists. Elizabeth Rose became Leader of the Parliament from the 21st December 1914 until the next election on 21st December 1915, a full year. The split was under Henry Watford for 7 days, and then Robert Webber for the remaining 358 days.

Trivia
