Rather the latter; I was the DZP Treasurer aspiring to become Assistant Delegation Leader. The longstanding plan was really more of a hope which was to pass the Reform Government bill.
When it did pass our operating plan for joining a coalition on this occasion was to not join one led by DVLP and ask for Food and Agriculture as well as either Finance or Foreign Affairs.
When suddenly a deal was made by party leadership, as a slot holder in the DZP shadow cabinet, my name popped up.
Maybe. It is important to do so to some extent to demonstrate to ourselves and Dunfordisches Reich that democracy is a better way forward. We have little in common on many issues. We do hope that preserving liberty and democracy and reviving our economy can be a joint effort.
Then there are taxes and the budget. In my opinion, and that is all it is, a majority of the Reichstag favors reducing taxes for lower income brackets while most realize non military spending is close to right. A very strong minority favors vast increases in military spending while a much smaller minority favors a non confiscatory income tax. It would seem a deal could be made coupling military increases to income tax reform but that may be beyond our capacity as a Reichstag; we shall see.
Should arguing over some inflammatory issues become stale, there are compromises which could be made on other issues as well.
We are reviewing our treaties to determine what our existing international obligations are at the moment. We also will be contacting our neighbors and expect to continue peaceful relations with them.
Beyond getting up to steam on existing projects, we need to remember the Reichstag has two centrist parties and three socialist parties with a socialist majority. Currently what we believe we share is some respect for democratic principles and personal liberty. So we will be looking to have beneficial relations with other nations similarly situated particularly in Artania.
Why, you might very well ask. Because we are a nation trying to restore its economy and its standard of living and we have every reason to believe trading with other nations can help us accomplish this.
And we do have things to sell. We are not like some nations who have a reputation for fine wine or perfect coffee or qat tea or exotic cheese. But we do have a reputation for great serious beer we need to exploit. Not the light beer preferred by many in northern Seleya or the pub favorite pint of bitter nearer home. But we are famous for out hofbrau beer drinking accompanied by traditional music. The Ministry of Trade ad Industry has funds for a very serious Dundorfisches Bier campaign the Foreign Ministry will be working on as well.
And there is plenty more we can promote and sell. And we need to do it and we will.
Our campaign focus is very much where it has always been, the confiscatory tax system. Not only do the socialist parties want to soak the rich they are taking what little the poor and everyone in between has too. It is much worse than when our party was formed, much worse. 80% of income at the upper end and, even more destructive, 25% on 100 Dundorfian Marks. In fairness we think they meant 25% on 10,000 DUM but what they passed was 25% on 100 DUM per year.
So we are campaigning on their enormous tax increase. Some things are going well. We think there is still a majority in the Reichstag to maintain democratic principles in selecting the government as well as a majority for the moment in maintaining safeguards for individual liberty. We are guardedly optimistic that will continue.
No, we will try someone else next time. Quite frankly, while we seem to run quite close in the first round, in the second round there seems to be a majority socialist vote that consistently backs the DVLP candidate. So we really expect no change nor do we have a plan to deal with this situation. Our hope is to garner enough support to be able to sometimes influence legislation.
Well, I am running but what we are expecting based on our understanding of the demographics is a socialist candidate will win the runoff election again. Further, we expect three socialist parties and three centrist parties to have substantial representation in the Reichstag.
No, it will not. While we are not privy to all the discussions going on, we think three coalition ideas are being given most thought. One would be a socialist coalition. Another possibility would be a group putting military expansion above all else. A third, and the one least likely, would be one where the most important feature would be protection of individual rights.
The current Ministers will in most instances serve until replaced. I will serve as Reichskanzler until then. We expect plans are being made contingent upon the showing of each party in the election next March.
Although Dunfordische Zentrumspartei (DZP) actually gained some seats in the Reichstag, there was as we expected still a socialist majority. We did not of course expect that the socialist vote would be redistributed as dramatically as it was.
We also did not expect that I would narrowly defeat the socialist candidate in the runoff for Reichsprasident. But I did.
Nonetheless what we now expect is that shortly there will be a socialist coalition cabinet replacing the current ministers. The votes are there so we expect it soon.
Our emphasis for the moment is the Aloria – Dundorf Treaty of Friendship and Trade Agreement. We believe it will be very helpful as we seek to emerge from having a weak economy and a weak national security structure to have a good friend on our border. Whether the treaty can be ratified by the Reichstag remains to be seen.
We also are reviewing the provisions governing ACON, an organization of Artanian nations, to see how it can fit in our hopes for a growing and improving economy after a period of neglect. Steps to begin have been made.
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