Saridan

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Queen of Dolgava visits Saridan on her International Goodwill Tour

[journey.]

For the past few decades, Saridan laid down in a right-wing populist wormhole, voting for the conservative government, without any proper left-wing opposition. Recently, it has changed. After a long struggle of the Saridani left-wing, one of the founding political forces of our republic, Progressiewe, has made yet another comeback, or rather even a reincarnation. A left-wing force has emerged victorious in the recent elections, marking its return to power after a prolonged absence. The party's resurgence comes at a critical juncture as concerns over the rise of far-right ideologies and radical racism have gripped the nation under the previous right-wing governments.

After years in the political wilderness, Progressiewe has secured a significant mandate, signaling a shift in public sentiment away from the conservative policies that have dominated the political landscape. The party's platform, centered around social justice and a commitment to combating systemic, racial and economical inequalities, resonated with voters who sought an alternative to the right-wing governance of the past.

Being led by an Ikpi woman, Progressiewe have solidified their position on the values they presented to the public, and it went perfectly. Winning a comfortable majority, Omeri Koto and her team secured a platform to fulfill the promises they made during the campaign. A cabinet, that has already been presented to the Volksraad, could become the most diverse government in Saridani history, with 7 out of 15 ministers being people of color. Officials within Progressiewe have emphasized the importance of unity in the face of far-right challenges. The party's leaders have pledged to build bridges across diverse communities, emphasizing the need for a society that embraces differences rather than succumbing to divisive ideologies.

As Progressiewe assumes the reins of power, the nation awaits the implementation of their policies and the impact they will have on shaping the trajectory of the country, both politically and socially. The return of the Progressiewe party marks a turning point in the nation's political landscape, offering a potential antidote to the divisive forces that have sought to gain prominence in recent years.

[journey.]

In light of the recent developments in the Northern Seleyan country of Baltusia, where the local right-wing government harshly suppressed the massive protests against the cabinet's policies, Saridani's Ministry of External Affairs came out with a public statement condemning Baltusia's officials for breaching the international law and the freedom of peaceful assembly in the country, calling the actions "inappropriate" and "acting against the own people", as local newspapers and media outlets hundreds of wounded, disappeared and dead protesters for the past few months.

Lateef Fouché in his statement highlighted that the ministry and government highly recommend all Saridani citizens to leave the country and not engage in protests to not "risk their lives". "We will give shelter to all the citizens of Saridan in our embassies in Baltusia, and help them leave safely. We're also open to cooperation with other states, in all cases possible that require a hand of help from us, as we understand and see how difficult the current situation is", Fouché stated.

Fouché added that Saridan will join any international actions against the Baltusian government, like an embargo, sanctions and other possible options, because "it is the matter of saving and helping people, no matter where".

[journey.]

Today, various reports emerge of a massive fire on one of the Staatsolie state-owned gas platforms located in the South Ocean. The platform, responsible for natural gas extraction, is said to be engulfed in flames for currently unknown reasons. Emergency services are alerted, and rescue operations for the workers on the platform are underway.
According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, one of the versions so far, besides natural occurrence is that the fire could have been a sabotage arson started by one of the employees of the Staatsolie for unknown reasons as well. When asked, Staatsolie CEO Bast Katz denied the MHA version, saying that all employees have years of experience and trust from the company, and added that there's "no viable reason for anyone to do such thing".

Due to the far position of the platform, it has been an extremely complicated mission for the emergency services to get to the fire's place, as the flames keep occupying more and more territory on the platform, endangering employees due to the high possibility of the explosion, unless the fire is extinguished.

Minister-President Omari Koto has cancelled her visit to Kroonstad, assembling an emergency session of the federal government on the current situation. Cabinet's spokesperson Heinu Cronie said that "the Minister-President understands the possible risks, and will act accordingly to the needs of all services to save lives first". However, Tabua also added that despite the outcome of this fire, the federal government will take all necessary steps to prevent such tragedy from occurring again, hinting at harsher safety regulations for the companies.

[journey.]

In a tragic, but predicted turnout of events, a natural gas extraction platform in the South Ocean owned by the Saridan state-owned Staatsolie company that recently caught fire, has exploded. The explosion happened during the rescue operation by the National Fire Service (NBW), resulting in the deaths of both the employees of the platform and the federal rescuers. The death toll is currently unknown, but according to the people close to the tragedy, it could be a two-digit number and rising.

Minister of Home Affairs Hentie De Waal has come out publicly and expressed her condolences on behalf of the government and the whole country, stating that the government "did all that it could", but added that "it was obviously not enough". In her statement, De Waal has declared the next three days as the days of mourning for this tragedy. At the end of her speech, the minister apologized yet again, saying that she offered the Minister-President her resignation with her further leaving federal politics.

Various Saridani environmental organisations also came out with a statement calling for the government to start a transition to a "more safe and productive source of energy", such as wind, solar and hydro powers, saying that the amounts of disasters like that would be minimised after such a decision, and proposed their help to Government to successfully and swiftly make a transition.

Government's spokesperson Heinu Cronie announced that the federal cabinet will cooperate with Staatolie to financially compensate the deaths of all victims' families and immediately work on a law of harsher safety regulations.

[journey.]

Five days after a tragic natural gas extraction platform fire and explosion that took place in the South Ocean, Minister-President Omeri Koto (P) has announced that she has submitted her resignation to the State President Moolman, meaning a resignation of the whole cabinet. "It was a universal decision, especially after Home Affairs minister De Waal's resignation. She has pointed out correctly: that we did what we could, but it was obviously not enough. The whole government is responsible for this, and we understand this, that's why I'm announcing this decision today", the Minister-President said. Koto has added that she's also resigning from the Progressiewe leadership position, triggering a snap leadership election of the ruling party, and essentially a new Minister-President. "The government will continue working, but with weaker powers, until a new one is formed." As a sign of respect for the decision, none of the members of the current cabinet will enter a new cabinet for various reasons.

Koto's replacement will most probably be a Sint Pietereiland Stathouder Tinus Meyer, who's a member of the more moderate wing of the ruling party. When asked about his candidacy in the leadership election, Meyer answered: "We're a wide party, and I am sure there will be a lot of great people that will try their luck to take charge of our country during hard times like this".

[journey.]

After what was an expected result, where Sint Pietereiland's now-former Stathouder Tinus Meyer had won the leadership contest of the ruling Progressiewe party, he was tasked with forming a new completely refreshed government by the State President Moolman. Meyer, having won an election in a landslide with 65% of the membership vote in the second round against the Koeistad local councillor Luca Bouwer, became the first moderate to lead the federal party in a while, however, promised to keep a general party line, with the further devolution of the federal powers to the provinces, as a former Stathouder comes from the position where he can give a grade to the federal decentralisation policy and what there should be done to improve the quality of relations between the Koeistad and local governments.

Meyer is expected to present his cabinet to the Volksraad in two weeks, where he will face an investiture vote of the chamber. As rumoured, Tinus Meyer will give positions to his leadership contest rivals in his federal cabinet, as a sign of mutual respect and unity of the party. However, besides resolving the aftermath of the gas platform explosion tragedy, the new federal government would have to face a bunch of various complicated domestic and international issues, as the Minister-President-designate promised to give a bigger focus on international and continental cooperation, while also putting Saridani citizens and their interests in priority.

[journey.]

11 months before the next federal election across the Saridan, the federal government with the Ministry of Public Administration (MOA) up front, presented a plan of an electoral administrative reform, that should highly affect the next election. During the presentation of the act, public administration minister Nelius Opperman shortly summarized his reform: "Fair and equal representation for all citizens in this chamber, for the citizens from different federal provinces and more frequent elections to ensure that governments are kept in touch with the changing needs of the people".

The 43-page plan consists of various proposals and ideas, but the biggest focus was given to the main five: public funding, local elections, electoral reform, election frequency and chamber size. Proposing a "more fair game" for the citizens, Opperman ensured that the new electoral system would not be a total game changer, but rather a technical change in the proper equal and proportional representation depending on the size of the population of provinces. Using the same population size argument, MOA's reform included an enlargement of the Volksraad number of members of parliament, from 225 to 383, with Opperman citing a "cube root rule" to explain the number chosen by the ministry. "It is a normal and quite adequate practice to use this rule since we make the number more flexible with its ability to change depending on population and how changes between the election cycles", - explained the public administration minister.

Local elections reform was not a shocker for the members of Volksraad, nor the journalists, however, the fact that it hasn't been changed yet was shocking for the minister: "It is rather disappointing that we had a rule, where the State President was the one in charge of appointing mayors in our, still, federal country. As a party, that respects and prefers federal governing of our country, it is the most wanted reform for all of us now. Neither the State President nor the federal government should intervene directly in local politics unless required by the criminal law, period".

An hour-long speech by the minister was seen as a positive move from the new government that promised a more federalist approach to the situation in Saridan, and as an interesting twist to change the rules ahead of the next election, that may shake the arena, as conservative opposition from Verenigde party climbs up in polls.