Rise of secular nationalism May 5306
As expected, President Ghobadian's administration did not outlast the motion of no confidence brought against him in December, and a snap election was organized. Having turned against its own leader, the Yazdean People's Party was able to secure a small number of seats in the National Assembly avoiding complete collapse, but the main winner of December's early election was the newly formed secular nationalist party, the Republican Party. Campaigning on an anti-corruption and anti-clerical political platform, the Republicans managed to secure 82.9% of votes and 88.3% of seats in the National Assembly, granting them an overwhelming majority and the power to alter the constitution at their will.
The Republican Party and the newly sworn-in President Amasandji Tamachag wasted no time in implementing their own political vision. A massive
omnibus bill affecting every policy sphere is expected to be adopted without debate in the National Assembly, undoing 14 years of Yazdean People's Party governance and undoing all of the latter's economic, social, and religious reforms. The constitution of Aldegar is also being amended, with the office of the Royal Divan, heavily criticized by secular nationalists, about to be
abolished. Its powers shall be transferred to the President of Aldegar, who will become the head of state of the republic in addition to his role as head of government, transforming Aldegar into a presidential republic.
The previous administration's cultural and linguistic policy has also not escaped scrutiny. The Yazdean People's Party had
attempted to promote two of the vernacular languages, Rajavanshi (Gujarati) and Nelayan (Javanese) as the national languages, to the detriment of Aldegarian. This policy was partially religiously motivated, as Aldegarian is a sacred language unsuitable for profane purposes in the eyes of devout Yazdeans, a motivation that obviously has no track with the current secular administration. Instead the National Assembly chose to reinstate Modern Aldegarian as the sole national language, and is on its way to being
recognized as such. The last remaining vestiges of Classical Aldegarian are also being
replaced by Modern Aldegarian, and the Tokundian (Cyrillic) script, legacy of
Deltarian colonial rule in the 19th century, shall be standardized as the sole official writing system for the language.
It has become clear that the new administration is, on practically every level, the exact opposite of the long rule by the Yazdean People's Party. With massive popular backing and an overwhelming legislative majority, the Republican Party has already begun to leave its impact on Aldegar. Whether this impact will outlast the Tamachag administration or be similarly discarded as soon as it leaves office is impossible to predict. But for the moment the Republicans have already left their print on Aldegarian society.