Vestnik: A Move Toward Dictatorship?
Viceroy Lord Andrey Mashkov
6 June 2985 - Heinrichgrad, Chadonia, Trigunia
The recent MGP LXXV - Economy Reform Act proposal by the Young Guard Party‘s Etatistskih faction led by Viceroy Lord Andrey Mashkov has caused tremendous controversy and has led to a further rift within the party.
Over the last several years, as the Young Guards have remained politically unopposed in the Great Princedom & Tsardom, it has become increasingly more difficult to maintain party cohesiveness. Several different factions have emerged as the ideological differences have been frustrated by the lack of political opposition. Many have cited laws forbidding the number of legislative proposals as well as the several decade old limitations on the franchise.
The Economy Reform Act is attempting to make a major shift in the relationship between the government and the economy. For nearly eight decades, it has been the policy of Trigunia and of the Young Guard Party to maintain and defend laissez-faire and non-interventionist policies regarding the economy. These policies have made Trigunia one of the least economically regulated nations on the planet. While economists praise these policies with the tremendous economic growth experienced in the nation over the last fifty years, many social scientists cite the enormous economic disparity and growing underclass that has developed in Trigunia in the last several decades. It is this very issue that has recently gripped the nation and now has encroached upon the paragon of stability: the Young Guard Party.
Viceroy Mashkov, in a break from his family’s traditional outlook, is a strong supporter of the latter of these issues. He strongly believes that the government must address the problems in the Trigunian system. To Viceroy Mashkov, the State’s role must be expanded.
On the other hand, opponents remain distrustful of Lord Mashkov’s reforms. In the Duma, and within the Party, they are led by the aged Chief Boyar Werner Pöhl, Ph.D., former Minister of Finance and political veteran of more than forty years.
Chief Boyar Werner Pöhl, Ph.D.
Chief Boyar Pöhl has vocally voiced his opposition to any changes to Trigunia’s economic systems, and instead wishes to allow the private sector to address Trigunia’s problems through sales tax-cuts and calls for moral justice, expressing a viewpoint that all Trigunians are religious and moral beings naturally inclined to help their struggling neighbors.
In his attacks upon the Viceroy’s reforms, Pöhl has gained momentum against the newly-elected Viceroy and seems to be threatening Lord Mashkov’s ability to retain power as well as pursue political objectives. We may be seeing a weakening of the Mashkov dynasty’s effective hold on the Young Guards since its inception in 2902. Is the perceived dictatorship of the Mashkov’s to end?
It seems now the move toward dictatorship in Trigunia may be real and not just a tool of the conspiracy theorist. Viceroy Andrey Mashkov has proposed that the Duma’s Chief Boyar position be folded into the Viceroyship, thus expanding the position’s power and influence within the Duma. Effectively, if the Viceroy’s constitutional changes were to be enacted, the position will become tantamount to a presidency.
However, political pundits suspects that the true reasoning behind Viceroy Mashkov’s efforts at eliminating the Chief Boyar position has much more to do with personality than with politics. Recently, it has been leaked that Lord Mashkov and Chief Boyar Pöhl engaged in a shouting match at Eagle Crest while attempting to negotiate a deal surrounding the recent economic reforms. It has been stated that during this exchange Lord Mashkov effectively fired the Chief Boyar over the objections of the majority of the Cabinet.
Efforts to call an emergency sessions of the Boyar Duma ended when Minister of Science and Technology The Rt Hon. M. Ernst, 3rd Baron of Derm was selected to replace Pöhl. However, numerous calls from high-ranking members and backbenchers of the Duma expressed the opinion that Baron Ernst would not receive their acceptance. It has been reported that Viceroy Mashkov was then forced to rescind his efforts to fire Pöhl but not before threatening the elder statesmen that he would “utterly destroy the power of the position, to fragment it into a million pieces".
It now seems that Lord Mashkov’s threat is coming true. Given that no party opposes the Young Guards and that many within the party are reluctant to oppose the Viceroy, the constitutional changes are more than likely set to be enacted. Will these constitutional changes bring about even more consolidation of power in Trigunia? We can only watch, speculate, and pray.