Good evening everyone, it is 30 minutes past the hour and you are listening to Special Fridays with Jimmy Frenken, on TPR, Terran Public Radio.
Well happy Friday everyone, is it not nice that after a long stressful week to know that at long last the day we look forward to all week is here, and that TPR is here to provide you insight and pleasure so that you can sit back and relax. Now just a quick remind, Tim Runson will be back on Monday with normal broadcasting.
For this Special Friday, I have the pleasure of playing an interview I had earlier this week with the Governor-General of Hulstria, Friedrich Ewald II. This interview was exciting and very insightful into the nation of Hulstria and the current leader of one of the most powerful monarchies, and nations for that matter, on Terra. So here it is the interview I had with the GG of Hulstria.
Frenken: Governor-General, thank you for joining us and taking time off to speak with me as well with the listeners of Terran Public Radio. I'm aware you're a frequent listener?
Ewald: Yes I am! A very unique outlet you have operating here, it is certainly something different and exciting. It is a pleasure to be here.
Frenken: So you are the Governor-General, the Head of State of Greater Hulstria but you're elected and isn't Hulstria a monarchy? Can you explain this system a bit?
Ewald: Wouldn't mind at all. Hulstria is still a constitutional monarchy with the Emperor, currently Alexander I, as the hereditary Head of State that is ceremonial that follows the rules set forth by our parliament yet processes special powers as I'm assuming most constitutional monarchies have; the Governor-General is the elected Head of State that is the representative of the Monarch in political affairs, so basically my job is to not only represent my party but also lead the political atmosphere in parliament and the other political parties in any initiative. This is completely different from what the Monarch does, who carries on the tradition of remaining out of petty political fights and holds political opinion behind closed doors and does not represent any political parties; the Emperor is the unifying figure where in a position like mine you are almost certained to get involved in partisan politics no matter how much you want to be in a uniter! This post I carry today was created about 150 years ago and has worked pretty successfully. I think Luthori has recently undergone a system like this.
Frenken: Yes sir that is true, we have once again it seems gone back to the Viceroy system here, however, our Emperor still runs the Imperial Government and the Empire as a whole. Anyway, that was interesting; you get into partisan politics a lot?
Ewald: During my tenure so far, there has not been a large amount of partisanship and as for me personally I'm not one for conflict but I'm certainly not afraid to take the gloves when need be. I like to seek middle ground and centrist policies that meet both the needs of the respective sides of the debate.
Frenken: What about Governor-Generals past, is there any Governor-Generals you can think of that caused a bit of a stir?
Ewald: Yeah. You know, we've had some partisan Governor-Generals in our history. Nicolaus van der Burgh was probably one of the most partisan figures in 27th century Hulstrian politics; he personally lead a mass vendetta against my political party, the Fascist Authority Party, and for over 20 years left parliament strictly divided. He was a polarizing figure and was eventually defeated however. Another one, Anders Raske, who just passed away, was a bit partisan late in his tenure being bossy and close-minded to other political parties; his attitude eventually culminated into a large fight during the early 2760s and the end a relatively large turning point occurred in Hulstrian politics. I'm sure we've had Governor-Generals engage in partisan fights but these two I'm aware about the most.
Frenken: According to the Greater Hulstrian Chronicle, your nation's prominent newspaper, reported that you were upset with the abolishment of nuclear weapons within Hulstria recently and pushed through some legislation bringing back a pro-nuclear policy in a more moderate tone, ending what you called "radical pacifist policy". How did that go for you?
Ewald: Well, it actually went pretty well. I worked with some other political parties and at the end of the day got a centrist piece of legislation being passed, bringing back a form of pro-nuclear policy into Hulstria that gained the approval of well than more 2/3rds of parliament. The bill also re-established nuclear technology research that before my bill almost ruined the nuclear energy industry and put our country, that runs the majority of it's energy from nuclear power, in the dark literally. I'm glad the parliament came to their senses; I see this not only as a victory for my administration, which I'm sure if I did not go out in public and call out those parties who were pushing for that kind of non-sense we'd still have an abolishment of nuclear weapons and nuclear research, but a victory for logic and common minded people within the Imperial Crownlands.
Frenken: Who exactly pushed for that, the abolishments and what not?
Ewald: It was John Soto, the now former chairman of the Socialist Party of Greater Hulstria. He is a bit of hardliner, a far-left politician who unlike his predecessor was not a very likeable figure. He proposed a "Platform Bill" which contained over 20 articles that ranged from education to prison funding to military policy to economics, it was a mess; this bill was passed to much surprise of the Imperial Diet, it passed with only about 20 more seats than the opposition and only two parties that made up the majority voted in favor of this. Note this bill had neither debate nor discussion; it was clearly a radical bill that contained important policy. Soto I'm aware since losing his chairmanship of the SPGH because of this has been linked to some criminal organizations but I'm not fully knowledgeable at least for now at that. He is a very troubled person that put Hulstria through something it didn't need with this far-left legislation.
Frenken: Criminal organizations?
Ewald: It is the rumor around Kien but again I'm not fully knowledgeable on this, except the Chronicle to do some reporting on this.
Frenken: Well Governor-General, we will have to pay attention and see how it all unfolds. Once again I would like to thank you for your time and hope that you and the citizens of Hulstria continue to do well and prosper.
Ewald: Not at all, the pleasure was mine, and the same thing to Luthori and its citizens, along with all the listeners of Terran Public Radio.
Well, there you have it, and I would once again like to thank the Governor-General for taking his time to sit down and give the interview.
And as a special little treat for him, we here at TPR, would like to play a song that requested, from a band that while not what we normally play here on TPR, could some day be considered the pioneers of a new form of music.
So sit back and relax to this live recording from a performance given in Indrala last year of “Highway Star” by the mutli-international band Deep Purple.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmFvF8TQTcM
This is Jimmy Frenken wishing all of you a good weekend and shall see you next Friday.
You’re listening to your community idea’s station, TPR, Terran Public Radio.