The Progressive Tribune
The Progressive Tribune is a newspaper focusing on the political events at Luthori. Its editorial view is fairly centrist on economics but leftist socially.
People’s Protest Assembly resumes protests
5th July 5494
Tens of thousands protesting the government in a mass protest organized by the People's Protest Assembly at the capital Fort William.
Fort William, Luthori -Before the elections in September last year, which was won by the Conservative Party but the Whig faction of the Conservatives strengthened its parliamentary influence and could overturn the most controversial parts of the “HCG Bill” alongside with other controversies related to the policies of the previous government, there was a mass protest against the government organized by the People’s Protest Assembly, a grassroots civil society organization formed by the protesters with the goal of organizing and coordinating the protests. The protests subsided after September elections, but the People’s Protest Assembly continued to exist as a civil society organization and gained traction as tens of thousands of citizens are now members of the organization and the Assembly vowed to resume the protests after waiting “a few months” in order to gain political and social strength and to expand its membership beyond its founding members. The People’s Protest Assembly materialized their vow by starting to organize demonstrations this month, and the protesters continue to demand the repeal of the strongly controversial “HCG Bill” and other controversial policies such as mandatory military service. The protests, which started a few days ago, are joined by tens of thousands of protesters dissatisfied with the policy direction of their country, and are mainly organized by the People’s Protest Assembly while individual protesters also have organized some of those protests.
Notably, some members of the Whig faction of the Conservative Party also joined to the protests against the government policies, further exposing divisions within the Conservatives. The Labour Party has maintained strong support for the protests since their start and the Soft Left, Third Way, and Hard Left, all three which are the strongest factions, have agreed on supporting the protesters and the People's Protest Assembly, and its Fort William wing the Labour Fort William provided assistance to the People's Protest Assembly in organizing the protests. The People's Protest Assembly organized a mass protest yesterday which still continues as of today in the capital Fort Wililam against the government joined by 50,000 protesters, the protesters demand the repeal of the "HCG Bill", cancellation of mandatory military service, and legalization of secondary strike action at least for closely related trade unions. The mass protest garnered significant attention, as tens of thousands protested the government, and the protest further exposed divisions within the Conservative Party, as while the Tory faction of the Conservatives strongly opposed the protest, some within the Whig faction expressed support and even some of them joined to the protests.
Amidst protests and widespread dissatisfication with the government, the main opposition Labour Party proposed a bill called the "Overturning HCG Bill", which is a bill that will repeal most of the "HCG Bill", re-instate civilian national service as an alternative to military service, and legalize secondary strike actions for closely related trade unions. The bill, if supported by the Whigs of the Conservative Party, would pass, since Whigs and Labour would reach a slim majority of 328 seats out of 650 in the parliament if they both voted in favor of the bill. If Labour's "Overturning HCG Bill" passes with Whig support, it will further intensify the divisions between Tories and Whigs, and potentially lead to the fall of the Conservative government or even the breakup of the Conservative Party into two parties, in such a case the Tories and Whigs would split up and become their own political parties. The "Overturning HCG Bill" bill is still up for debate within the Parliament, and given the debate period rules it must not be moved to vote for three months, and when it is voted in the Imperial Diet it will be probably closely watched by many people, including the protesters. If Labour's "Overturning HCG Bill" passes with Whig support, then the protests will subside but internal divisions within Conservative Party will intensify, if the bill is defeated then the Conservative Party will maintain unity but the protests will intensify. Whether the "Overturning HCG Bill" passes will determine whether the Conservative Party will maintain unity and whether the protests will intensify.