Name: Union of Free Reformists (L'Uniun dels Reformistaes Livereschti; URL)

Leaders: Mic'haglh Autófil, Miestră Schivă

50-Word Statement: The Union of Free Reformists has a Democracy Agenda to make Talossa's government more accountable, responsible, and transparent. We want a new immigration policy to attract politics enthusiasts, and a government that includes the best cross-party talents but excludes antisocial behavior. There is power in a Union!

Cosă List:
Mic'haglh Autófil
Miestră Schivă
more to come

I thank the Secretary of State for his notification.

In terms of relevant election law, the Belacostan Constitution permits citizens to submit ballots of fewer than three candidates; undervoting does not spoil one's ballot.

While most of provincial election statute would appear to be more relevant to the compilation and announcement of the results -- a task traditionally performed by a Provincial Consul -- I believe BUS.E.3 may provide a small adjustment to the ballot compared to those issued by the Chancery in previous elections:

Quote3. Citizens who claim a seat in the Provincial Assembly for the term may do so via any option made available for such purpose on a General Election Ballot as issued by the national Chancery; however, it is the request of the Assembly that such option note that citizens will need to be active on Wittenberg in order to make use of their seat.

Otherwise, in my view the Chancery has done a fantastic job facilitating this Province's elections in the past, and so no other alterations to the process are necessary. For my part, I formally request the Chancery continue to administer Belacostan elections. I invite my fellow Consuls @Sir Lüc and @Iason Taiwos to provide their perspectives.

I would like to register as a candidate for Senator from the Free and Sovereign Province of Belacostă, please.

Providing a brief update on behalf of the Directory:

After some delays in confirming information with applicants, two of the three ID cards are en route:
- @Barclamïu da Miéletz
- @Ràed Al-Hasàn

If both of you would let me know when you receive your card, I would appreciate it. Ideally they should be there no later than early September depending on your postal service.

The third ID card is complete and in my possession. I have tried reaching Matthew Lindberg-Work via the email provided on his ID application; I am not sure if he has an account on this iteration of Wittenberg, so if anyone has a better way to contact him please let me know.

I would also like to provide a courtesy notice to the following citizens that their ID cards, received since the start of our records, have expired, making them eligible for renewal in a future batch of IDs:
- @xpb

Normally of course, I would open this by addressing the Tuischac'h, but with the dissolution of the Cosă there is no Tuischac'h to address! However, the relevant Minister to which I would address this question has graciously agreed to answer it anyway, and so if I may pose the following "informal Terpelaziun" to the Minister of Immigration, @Baron Alexandreu Davinescu :

This Government made the passage of the Public Process Act an issue of the last campaign, and after the URL was able to ensure improvements to the bill to render it enforceable, it did indeed pass with bipartisan support. One of those improvements mandated the creation of a "shadow" email address that would allow the Leader of the Opposition to monitor incoming citizenship applications in order to maintain transparency in the process.

The bill passed in January. We are now in the final days of July. The email address has not yet been created. The Government has not yet complied with one of the key pieces of their own legislative agenda.

Does the Minister have any sort of estimate on when this Government will begin following its own laws, or does he anticipate that this will instead be an issue left for the next Government to fix for him?

Good afternoon Talossa! In our last campaign post, I mentioned that the URL would soon be getting into more of our positive program for the 63rd Cosă term. Don't get me wrong -- we're not done with our recap of the outgoing Government's weaknesses, but we think it makes sense to get a little optimism mixed in there too. After all, it's all well and good to point out why one party has explicitly failed to earn your vote, but that doesn't mean other parties don't have to give you something to vote for, too.

With that in mind, it seems like the most obvious place to start with our intentions for the next term is with our main legislative program:


Since we've already laid out the Democracy Agenda in more detail -- you can read the full text here -- I'm going to keep this one a bit shorter and highlight some of the best bits.

Cosă Size: This is something we've already had one major success on. The URL was able to pass the Pseudo-Real Cosă Act to shrink the size of the Cosă to 20. Talossa is a representative democracy, and is clearly set up as such. But when the legislature is larger than the country's own population, that system starts to break down a bit. A legislature more appropriately sized to the country is a good example of one of our party's principles: "Free Reformists believe that political systems must suit the population as opposed to the reverse."

Electoral Reform: We're making advances on this front too! The Democracy Act and Amendment, passed on this last Clark, is largely cobbled together from various proposals the Union has put forth (even its primary sponsor admitted as much). This puts a more concretely-defined closed-list proportional representation system in place for future elections, presuming it passes its referendum. In addition, the bill clarifies that party electoral lists are always to be respected when assigning seats (even for mid-term vacancies) and requires that people cannot appear on a party list or hold seats without their own consent. An electoral method that allows voters to directly select who sits in the Cosă by approving of party lists is a huge win for improving the balance of power between party bosses and citizens.

However, the work on this front is not done. Improving the Organic Law is a continuous process (and we think it's worth revisiting the idea of encoding a detailed electoral process in Organic Law), but improving the state of Talossan democracy is massively important. We've had discussion on a more open-list system in this term, and from what we've seen there is broader support for this than we may have initially expected. The URL will continue to lead the way on promoting reforms to increase the power of the electorate.

Upper House Reform: Talossa's government is of course appointed under a parliamentary system. As the chamber to which the Government is responsible, the Cosă is by necessity the more prominent house of the legislature. This does not mean that the Senäts cannot hold an appropriate place in the Talossan legislative process; it means that right now, the place it holds is not appropriate. The Senäts ought to function as a reasonable brake on the power of the Cosă, not a roadblock, and for that reason we will continue to support moving to the "house of review" model.

If you agree that the Democracy Agenda is the right path for Talossa, then your vote for the Union in August will make it happen. If you really want to get into the details and help shape the Agenda going forward, our doors are always open!

Good evening, Talossa! As the last Clark of the term has come to a close, we begin to prepare for yet another general election. Like most of the other established parties, the URL will be going into more detail on our platform for the upcoming election and the 63rd Cosă, but perhaps just as important as figuring out where we should go next is establishing where we are now and how we got here. And so this thread will serve as the URL's recap of the 62nd Cosă and the Government that has held office in that time.

There is, to be blunt, quite a bit to critique, and overall we can fit most of it into three main categories. We anticipate that some (or most) of this criticism will be framed as personal in nature by a Government desperate to cling to power. Nothing could be further from the truth; we criticize action (or lack thereof), we criticize principles (or lack thereof too), but we leave personal attacks out of it.

Don't worry -- all is not doom and gloom. We'll get into the Union's positive program for the next term soon, but we think it's more helpful for us to get our bearings first.

And so, without further ado, we jump into the first category...


If we go in chronological order, it makes sense to start with the poor decision-making that the Baron and his Government have shown on several occasions throughout the term. First off is the arrangement that brought this Government into power in the first place. The Baron and his party announced that they were forming a coalition government with IDT. The latter party, In Defensa Traditionis, ran in the last election on an explicitly anti-democratic platform, instead advocating absolute (later "executive") monarchism and socially-conservative "Western Orthodox Christian values". Instead of accepting our offer of a grand coalition, the PA chose to turn away from the political center. Their explanation for this, concerningly enough, can be summed up as "government formation by spite". Personal resentment towards several leading figures in the URL and bitter partisanship drove the PA to work with Talossa's political fringe -- and unsurprisingly, within only a few days, it had already fallen apart. The IDT leader's sympathies for alt-right agitator Nick Fuentes became public knowledge, but after dissolving the coalition agreement after a mere four days, the PA decided working with the IDT to nominate a Seneschal was still somehow better than working across the aisle, and a confidence-and-supply deal was formed.

To be clear, this isn't actually criticism of the IDT's leader and sole member. His views are certainly those we disagree with, but we respect and defend his right to them nonetheless. He is simply a very religious, very conservative young man, lacking in experience. The problem arose when the Baron and his party let their dislike for the URL's members get in the way of making the right decision, and that left "work with an alt-right teenager" as the only option they would consider. Talossa deserves a Government that behaves pragmatically, putting aside personal grievances to serve the country. A URL Government will treat a PA Opposition with the respect and professionalism that was lacking when the tables were turned.

Poor judgment has also been seen when the Government has evaluated someone's fit for a given role. Two big examples occurred in this term. The first regards the Baron's appointment of an Attorney General. Tric'hard Lenxheir is someone I think had shown potential. He is someone I have encouraged to be nicer to himself, instead of constantly putting himself down. I harbor no ill will towards him. These things do not eliminate concerns over whether or not he is suitable as the Government's legal counsel. He is not an attorney, and is therefore unable to provide the legal advice that the A-X is charged with providing by statute. He is quite literally unqualified to perform the main function of the office he held. One wonders if a more suitable candidate would have been available in the talent pool, if the incumbent Government had not been formed out of spite. On top of this, the circumstances of his renunciation are worth mentioning. S:reu Lenxheir renounced his citizenship in solidarity with an unrepentant sexual harasser. These are the sorts of principles welcome in the Baron's government? A URL Government will consider qualifications when forming the Cabinet; appointments made purely for political purposes tend to lead to tasks being done poorly, or simply not being done at all.

Speaking of the unrepentant sexual harasser, he's the other major example of this Government's bizarre and concerning personnel decisions. The Minister of Foreign Affairs named S:reu Tzaracomprada as an Information Liaison to multiple other micronations during the term. When questioned on this, Minister Briga claimed that these postings, made under the authority and direction of a government Ministry, were ... somehow not government positions. He told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears -- but that does not change that he gave multiple jobs to an individual that even the Seneschal has shunned. A URL Government will consider character when forming a Cabinet as well as when staffing Ministries for various duties; we will continue in our promise to refuse employment to those who exhibit chronically antisocial behavior.

We'll be back with more of our 62nd Cosă recap in the coming days. We'll also start getting into our more upbeat 63rd Cosă program. Stay tuned!

Talossa has been online for so long that not only did we probably have a website with a good Frutiger Aero look when it was the norm, we probably had something even older-looking, haha

Flaming letter gif revival when?

(Also, welcome Ray!)

Estimat Túischac'h, I rise today with a Terpelaziun for the Immigration Minister, @Baron Alexandreu Davinescu .

Per the Government's numbers, since January 1st of this year, Talossa has received 135 applications for citizenship. Of those, nine have resulted in successful naturalizations, a success rate of 5.88%. Per Infotecă, the previous Government term saw 101 applications, 13 of which resulted in successful naturalizations, for a success rate of 12.87%.

Earlier in this term, the Minister has argued that an increasing number of applicants would naturally lead to an increasing number of new citizens, an argument that appears to be based on the assumption that the percentage of successful applications would remain constant. Given that the success rate has fallen under this Government to less than half of its previous figure, it is obvious that such an assumption was untrue. As the nation still has yet to break even on citizen count from when the current Government took office, can the Minister explain how the Government plans to correct from the unsustainable path they have led us down, with what little time in office remains to them?

Quote from: Tierçéu Rôibeardescù on July 06, 2026, 04:44:34 PMjust from a minor bit of research (on an entirely separate matter), currently reads in El Lexhátx section C:

Quote1.4.2. No Public Record or Archive under the control of a Governmental body and/or the Royal Civil Service Body shall be destroyed, erased or otherwise disposed of without the written authorisation of the Royal Archivist. This Authorisation or Refusal must be announced on Wittenberg within three days of such Authorisation or Refusal is made. Authorisation or Refusal by the Royal Archivist for the destruction of an Archive may be overturned by a resolution passed by the Ziu.

as well as:

Quote1.4.4. Any person who damages or causes to be damaged any Public Archive or Record in the control of a Governmental or Royal Civil Service body; or damages or causes to be damaged any Public Archive in the control of a Private body, Community and/or Individual; or removes, destroys or erases such Public record or archive otherwise than in accordance with this provision or any other law, shall be guilty of a Class A misdemeanour if such damage, removal, destruction, or erasure was wilful, or guilty of a Class C misdemeanour if such damage, removal, destruction, or erasure was reckless.

Im going out on a limb here that 1.4.2 may apply to the wiki? Im a little rusty on my legal interpretations, dont @ me if im barking up the wrong tree

I would say 1.4.2 in particular does not apply to the wiki, as it is not currently under control of either any Governmental body or the Royal Civil Service.

That said, since all page revisions are archived on a wiki, to me it seems like damage, destruction, erasure, or disposal would be difficult to argue (in part since such a stance could make it difficult to edit the wiki without breaking the law...)

Just my two bence, but I think that instead of advancing legislation designed to produce a chilling effect on speech the Government doesn't like, we should probably determine how TalossaWiki should be administered before we go about trying to set policy for it. Until we do that, it essentially remains a private enterprise.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't very interested in the possible tie scenario. (I'm inclined to root for a chaotically close outcome...)

In the meantime, for my coworkers, I guess it's Go Spain?

Do you have ideas about things Talossa should be doing? Maybe some things you want to see introduced or improved? Do you want to get involved with the group that believes in moving Talossa forward? If so, you're in luck -- all you need to do is join the URL!

The Union of Free Reformists -- l'Uniun dels Reformistaes Livereschti in the national language, or if that's a bit of a mouthful, the URL or simply the Union -- is Talossa's party of progress, democracy, and liberty. If you believe that things could always be better; if you believe that honesty, transparency, respect, and accountability are important; if you have good ideas and want people to actually hear you out; if you want a party that knows you're more than just your vote: the Union is the party for you!

How to get involved? It's pretty easy, really -- all you need to do is message either the party's President (that's me) or the Secretary (that would be @Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC ) and let us know you'd like to join.

As this Cosă term winds down, we'll be going over the state of Talossa's affairs and where we believe the country ought to go next. If you want to help us breathe a little bit of life back into the country, we'd be glad to have you on board.

Quote from: Iason Taiwos on July 03, 2026, 11:03:16 AMCornhole is immensely popular in my area. I guess because a cornhole set is cheap and the skill level required is good for all ages. I never expected to turn on the tv and see "Championship Cornhole", tho.

Up here in WI they just call it "bags", but it's pretty much the pastime when tailgating, hanging out in the backyard, etc. I'm alright, but I think I picked up table shuffleboard easier.

Quote from: Iason Taiwos on July 03, 2026, 04:49:22 PMI discovered hurling last year, and I've actually watched full games of it. I found it immensely enjoyable as a spectator. The rules were instantly easier to grasp, as compared to cricket. (The first time I watched a hurling match, I instantly wondered why it isn't more well known. I felt like that viral video of the black guy seeing a hockey match for the first time and saying "Why have y'all been hiding this from us the whole time? This shit is lit!"

One, I know exactly which hockey tweet you're referring to, lol, and two, hurling is a hell of a lot of fun to play. I was actually a member of northeastern Wisconsin's club for a season or two when I first moved here. Honestly probably the best shape I've ever been in, the running is good mandatory conditioning. Maybe I should get back into it...right after I get back into broomball, lol

Esqipă reviént!

Quote from: Iason Taiwos on July 02, 2026, 10:25:43 AM

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on July 02, 2026, 10:00:19 AMWow! That's super interesting. That would be the second Talossan sport, and it sounds like a pretty good one!

I did come up with another game not long after I became a Talossan, and thankfully no one remembers it. It was called "Lencularh" ("Lancerat" in English.) The gist of it was tossing a rope with a weight on the end into a series of stacked boxes to score points. I actually field tested that one and wrote out several pages of rules. The family members I coaxed into playing it seemed to enjoy it while we played, but it must have been fairly lame, because no one ever mentioned it again. (I know I posted about it on the old Witt.)

Take this with a grain of salt as I have never actually played this game, but having watched it several times, you may find the game of kubb fairly similar to what you were doing, just without the rope?

For my part, having recently been introduce to the tabletop version of shuffleboard, it's quite fun IMO, more so than bags/cornhole/etc.

If we're going to be sticking with Talossan-language titles (which we should) then if I may request of the good @Sir Lüc the Witt badge title of Tanaischteu. I find "Omnicanerie"'s meaning of "one who makes white noise" a bit demeaning to what is supposed to be an important office, if I'm honest...

Quote from: Sir Lüc on July 01, 2026, 05:38:47 AMI will grant this request, despite major doubts. I will post a full reasoning later - I worked at it for over two hours, including researching precedents, and I simply must move on now.

But in short - you can argue for either decision, depending on precedent and the extremely vague statutory provisions. I strongly object to the timeline of CRL review, because for a bill that was in the Hopper for a whole month, giving the CRL 1 day and 23 hours to review it is not an attempt at receiving a fair review. But, again, the law is so vague that time isn't a factor at all, and depending on how you look at precedent, one can easily argue that one positive review is enough for Clarking. (A dangerous precedent to set!)

I will therefore accept the bill for Clarking under something akin to Speaker Denison's Rule, ie, that when in doubt, one should allow for debate to continue, which in this instance means letting the bill on the Clark instead of "pocket vetoing" it by having it die in committee.

The law as written means that any instance when operation strays from a clean full approval from a full panel of reviewers is an opportunity for bad precedent and unintended consequences. This is one of those instances.

You have my apologies for putting you in an awkward spot; for what it's worth, had you declined this bill under Lexh.H.2.1.7.5, I would have understood completely, with no offence taken.

On the broader issue of the CRL's governing provisions being inadequate, however, I will say you and I are in full agreement. I still think the proposal you put forth last term was a good one; I know you wanted to rework it some, and  I'd be happy to help with that. Frankly, after the Avocat-Xheneral's abuse of the CRL's position in our legislative process earlier this term, I've been further convinced that the current model is ultimately unsustainable, so this is something we should look at fixing sooner rather than later.

At the beginning of this term, the incoming Government faced several crises of confidence stemming from its ill-considered deal with the monarchist fringe: first, a coalition deal that collapsed before it even had a chance to install a government, then a confidence and supply deal from which the junior partner briefly withdrew.

Enter the Agreement between the Government and the Union of Free Reformists. This agreement was a mutually-beneficial arrangement in which each side got something quite nice for very little cost at all:

• The Government, of course, was able to effectively ensure that their term of office would run its full length. On top of that, they were able to ensure that they would not be denied supply for the term.
• For our part, the URL secured the passage of the Pseudo-Real Cosă Act and the Broosking Swing Mitigation Amendment, two key pieces to start our Democracy Agenda. We were also able to put one of our party's principles into practice, namely that Talossa deserves a stable government as opposed to turmoil.

As we have now entered the sixth and final Clark of the 62nd Cosă, each party to the Agreement has attained their goals, and after confirming with the Seneschal, we have agreed that this Agreement can be declared successfully concluded, releasing URL MCs from their obligation to abstain on the final Vote of Confidence.

@Sir Lüc if you will forgive the 11th-hour request, please Clark the Caretaker Clarification Act. Under Lexh.H.2.1.5, one CRL member has recommended to accept the bill for Clarking, none have voted to reject, and there have been no amendments suggested.

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on June 30, 2026, 01:22:21 PMI don't quite understand the possible triggers here... So no one can be appointed unless someone has presented a petition for appointment of a seneschal or unless no one has and the Clark is being put together? Was that your intention with this bill?

The "caretaker" period, we'll call it, begins when the Ziu dissolves. It ends when either (a) a petition to appoint a Seneschal is presented to the King, or (b), the First Clark opens, whichever happens first.