Mr. Speaker, once the initial exchange is completed I would request to ask a supplementary question. I note with thanks (and surprise) the URL following up on a question from the Greens acting as HM Loyal Opposition.

After reading the latest political advertisement from the URL Deputy Leader here: https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=5283.msg43179;boardseen#new

During the time of the TNC, Alexandreu Davinescu once commented that Miestra is a tactical not strategic thinker. The truth of this has been laid bare repeatedly during this term.

I have to break it to my friends in the URL that you've spent an ENTIRE term cooperating with the government you now seek to replace. You allowed your primary Democracy Agenda branding to be neutralized by the Seneschal's ziu reform exercise which has now culminated with the Democracy Act and Amendment. You own the issues you claim to be concerned with as much as the Progressive Alliance. This term has been a de-facto grand coalition on Ziu Reform, on the cultural boycott of the Green Party which drove out active citizens, on refusing to utilize the BHAID, and on a failure to provide meaningful opposition to hold the Government to account on immigration which has cratered amid sometimes hostile "welcoming."

Greens will be educating voters on the Uniparty that has governed Talossa over the last few months. This will be an effort to counter the inevitable branding exercise by Talossa's grand coalition.

Quote from: Mic'haglh Autófil, O.Be on Today at 01:00:09 AMHowever, there was one citizen who was waiting on their ID from a previous round

Can said citizen update their photo? Asking for them.

Let me begin on a pleasant note by just thanking the MC and his party for the deal struck with the Government to help keep things running.  Having a significantly larger margin for error when it comes to confidence votes has been a boon just in terms of my own stress.  I'm also just glad in a broader way that we were able to prove that everyone can work together productively.

This wasn't a foregone conclusion, and a lot of credit is due to Dame Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC for never closing the door and being willing to keep lines of communication open.  While we've been fortunate in the immigration of the fine MC who has asked these many questions, there's something to be said for established relationships -- even if they are rivalrous!

So I'd like to thank the URL again for that, and offer my hopes we keep moving forward so productively.


We have not yet offered any Prime Minister's Patriotic Awards.  We sent out a bulletin to all citizens about the improved new El List near the end of February, and I want to send one out about the PMPA too.  But I don't want to spam people, so I wanted to let some time go by before we did that.  I'll probably ask the Chancery to send one out in the next couple of weeks.



I'm pretty proud of the PMPA.  While I didn't learn how to do 3-D design specifically for this, it's always fun to tackle little challenges on behalf of Talossa.  I've often said that this is one of the best things about our country: it prompts you to try all sorts of things, if you're bold enough to give it a try.

So we will wait to send them out a little longer until I feel like we've had a chance to notify everyone of their availability.  I don't know if we'll get a flood of new claimants, but it seems like the fair thing to do.


On immigration, the New Citizen's Guide will be made prominently available to all new citizens.  We're just in a lull in that regard.  It's quite worrying, actually: it's been two months with no new immigrants, and that's a problem.  Some of it has to do with the transition to the new immigration system.  For almost two weeks, no applications were possible.

Yes, it's a good thing that we closed the massive security vulnerabilities that existed before, with the personal information of hundreds of people exposed to anyone who gained access to any existing edit-approved accounts on the national website.  And yes, it's a good thing that we can now readily track all kinds of factors when it comes to the immigration process, giving us clues about what is working and what isn't.  But one typo bit us in the butt during the process, and so the process was broken for two weeks.  I guess that can happen with any big technical transition, but it was still regrettable.

One bit of good news is that this strongly supports the notion that active promotional efforts do seem to be effective: we had a sharp spike in successful immigration following a promo video and some Reddit advertisements, and we've had a sharp slump now that we haven't done any.

We're actually a little bit ahead of you when it comes to worrying about this, because I do think it's a problem.  That's why just last week the Minister of Propaganda posted a new promotional video, and we'll be doing more things like that to address the issue.  If you haven't had a chance to see it yet, here it is!


Now, it's possible that this won't have much effect and we won't see any kind of bump, but I'm betting that we will. 

I am very grateful to the member for his inquiry, and I eagerly await any follow-ups.  As the member can tell, we're very proud of our work and happy to discuss it.

Here's an updated version of the bill, incorporating Tafi's notes.  Interested also to hear from Miestra or Mic'haglh.



Whereas the Ziu believes in further perfecting our democracy, and accordingly wishes to better establish its belief that the outcome of a vote should match the will of the voters as much as possible, and that the people should be in charge of that outcome and not party bosses, and that there is room for parties of every size,

---

Part I: Ironclad Party Lists

THEREFORE, the second section of Article IV of the Organic Law, which currently reads:

QuoteBased on the final results of the General Election, the Secretary of State shall calculate the apportionment of seats among the parties, hereinafter referred to as "party seats".
    1. The party seats shall total 200, or another number which may be set by law, with the provisos that any such change will not take effect until the next election following the passage of a calendar year; and that this number may never be less than twice the number of Senators minus one.
    2. Each party shall receive a percentage of party seats as equal as possible to its percentage of the popular vote, but each party shall receive a whole number of seats, and in turn, each party shall assign these seats to individuals, in accordance with law. The Secretary of State shall employ whatever mathematical formulae and calculations in the apportionment of seats as are set by law, or, in the absence of such law, as will best reflect the intentions of this Organic Law. The Uppermost Cort shall be the final judge in case of mathematical disputes.
    3. Only registered political parties may obtain party seats. Parties which win votes but are not registered may not assume their seats in the Cosa until they register. The process to register a party shall be defined by law. The Secretary of State may request from all parties a registration fee, to be set by law, to cover the cost of the election. This fee shall be uniform for all parties.

shall be amended to read:

QuoteBased on the final results of the General Election, the Secretary of State shall calculate the apportionment of seats among the parties, hereinafter referred to as "party seats".
    1. The party seats shall total 200, or another number which may be set by law, with the provisos that any such change will not take effect until the next election following the passage of a calendar year; and that this number may never be less than twice the number of Senators minus one.
    2. Each party shall receive a percentage of party seats as equal as possible to its percentage of the popular vote, but each party shall receive a whole number of seats, and in turn, the Secretary of State shall assign these seats to candidates nominated by that party. The Secretary of State shall assign seats by assigning a seat to the first person on a party's list. If the party won more than one seat, then the Secretary of State will assign a seat to the next person on their list, and so on until the end of the party's list. The Secretary of State will then return to the top of the list, and continue in the same manner until all of the party's seats have been assigned.
    3. No person shall hold more seats in the Cosă than forty times the total number of seats in the Cosă divided by three times the number of ballots cast for the Cosa in the most recent General Election, rounded up to the next integer.
    4. Any seats which cannot be assigned under the procedure described in this section may be filled by the King according to his own best judgment, or left vacant.
    5. The Secretary of State shall employ whatever mathematical formulae and calculations in the apportionment of seats as are set by law, or, in the absence of such law, as will best reflect the intentions of this Organic Law. The Uppermost Cort shall be the final judge in case of mathematical disputes.
    6. Only registered political parties may obtain party seats. Parties which win votes but are not registered may not assume their seats in the Cosa until they register. The process to register a party shall be defined by law. The Secretary of State may request from all parties a registration fee, to be set by law, to cover the cost of the election. This fee shall be uniform for all parties.

FURTHERMORE, the third section of Article IV of the Organic Law, which currently reads:

QuoteIn the case of vacant party seats occurring between elections, the Secretary of State shall inform the King and the leader of whatever party held the vacant seat. The King shall appoint a replacement to each vacancy. If the seat belonged to a party with a functioning party leader, the King must appoint as a replacement whichever person shall be so designated by that party's leader. If there is no functioning party leader, or if the party leader refuses to designate a replacement, the King shall appoint the replacement according to his own best judgment.

shall be amended to read:

QuoteIn the case of vacant party seats occurring between elections, the Secretary of State shall inform the King and the leader of whatever party held the vacant seat. The Secretary of State shall redistribute all of that party's seats among the remaining eligible candidates on that party's list in the same manner described in the second section, above. If no eligible candidate remains on that party's list, whether by vacation, ineligibility, or the operation of the maximum seats provision, the King may assign the seat according to his own best judgment, or leave it vacant.

FURTHERMORE, there shall be a new second subsubsection of the third subsection of the second section of Title B of El Lexhatx which shall read:

Quote2.3.2. The Secretary of State shall confirm to their satisfaction that all citizens appearing on a party list consent to do so, prior to the printing or publication of the ballot. Only citizens so consenting shall be recognized as being on a party's list for the purposes of Lexh.B.2.3, and only said citizens will appear on the party's list as shown on the ballot.

FURTHERMORE, the first subsection of the fourth section of Title H of El Lexhatx, which currently reads

Quote4.1. No person shall hold more seats in the Cosa than ten times the total number of seats in the Cosa divided by the number of ballots cast for the Cosa in the most recent General Election, rounded up to the next integer.
4.1.1. The total number of party seats is twenty.

shall be amended to read

Quote4.1. The total number of party seats is twenty.

FURTHERMORE, the first subsubsubsection of the first subsubsection of the third subsection of the second section of Title B of El Lexhatx, which currently reads

Quote2.3.1.1. The party leader may assign seats to any eligible citizen(s) they see fit, so long as the following criteria are met:
2.3.1.1.1. The party's internal procedures are followed
2.3.1.1.2. No one who was not named on the list is assigned more seats than any eligible citizen who was named on the list
2.3.1.1.3. The total number of seats awarded to those not on the list does not exceed 1/3 of all seats won by the party
2.3.1.1.4. No person occupies more than the maximum legal number of seats.

shall be deleted in its entirety.

FURTHERMORE, the third subsection of the second section of Title B of El Lexhatx, subsection 2.3.1, which currently reads

Quote2.3.1. Before the conclusion of the first Clark, each party leader must submit to the Secretary of State a report containing the distribution of the seats won in the election.

shall be amended to read

Quote2.3.1. Before the conclusion of the first Clark, the Secretary of State shall publish the distribution of seats among the candidates of each party, as calculated under the procedure described in Article IV of the Organic Law.

FURTHERMORE, subsection 2.3.1.2 of the third subsection of the second section of Title B of El Lexhatx, which currently reads

Quote2.3.1.2. Any person assigned a seat as above may decline to take their seats in which case they will be reallocated according to the criteria of B.2.3.1.1.

shall be amended to read

Quote2.3.1.2. Any person assigned a seat may decline to take their seats, in which case the Secretary of State shall redistribute that party's seats among the remaining candidates on the party's list in the manner described in the Organic Law.

FURTHERMORE, subsection 2.3.1.3 of the third subsection of the second section of Title B of El Lexhatx, which currently reads

Quote2.3.1.3. If a party cannot assign all of their seats under the criteria of B.2.3.1.1., the additional seats are forfeited.

shall be deleted in its entirety.

---

Part II: Standards of the Cosa

FURTHERMORE, the fourth section of Article IV of the Organic Law, which currently reads:

Quote1. In addition to the seats apportioned between parties after a General Election, the Secretary of State shall assign one Cosa seat to any citizen who becomes eligible to vote after the most recent Election Deadline but before the dissolution of the Cosa, upon the request of such citizen, up to a maximum number as this Organic Law might provide. Any additional seat so assigned shall cease to exist should its holder vacate or be removed from the seat and shall not be subject to the procedures for filling vacancies in the Cosa, and shall also cease to exist upon the dissolution of the Cosa.
2. The maximum number of seats that may be assigned to new citizens between general elections shall be 7.5% of the seats apportioned between parties, rounded up to a whole number of seats.

shall be amended to read

QuoteThe Cosa may impeach any of its members from the Chamber with a two-thirds majority vote and with the approval of the King. Following impeachment, a replacement will be chosen according to the third section of this article, and the impeached member shall not be eligible for reassignment of seats under the terms of this article. Following a failed impeachment, the accused Member of the Cosa may not again be impeached for the same offence, pursuant to the Seventh Covenant of the Covenant of Rights and Freedoms. The former Member of the Cosa is not barred from running for office in future elections as long as the former Member of the Cosa maintains citizenship.

if and only if the vote for ratification of the referendum for 62RZ14 - The Broosking Swing Mitigation Amendment (Reconsideration) fails.  Should the referendum for 62RZ14 - The Broosking Swing Mitigation Amendment (Reconsideration) succeed in ratification by the people, then the new text shall be added to the end of the article as a new section, instead.

FURTHERMORE, the fifth section of Article IV of the Organic Law, which currently reads:

QuoteEach person holding one or more seats is a representative known as a "Member of the Cosa" (MC). MCs may not be removed from office except by a two-thirds vote by the Cosa and approval by the King. An MC vacates his seats if he fails to vote on two consecutive Clarks, or if he resigns from office or dies. The seats of any MC who is removed or vacates shall be reassigned according to Section 4, above.

shall be amended to read

QuoteEach person holding one or more seats is a representative known as a "Member of the Cosa" (MC). An MC vacates his seats if they fail to vote on two consecutive Clarks, if they resign from office, or if they die. The seats of any MC who is removed or vacates shall be re-assigned according to the third section, above.

As we begin to look towards the end of this Cosă term, we in the URL want to take stock of the issues currently facing the nation. Make no mistake, we still intend to campaign on the Democracy Agenda, our package of long-overdue reform. But we're not going to campaign solely on the Democracy Agenda -- we need a Government that can work towards its goals while also addressing the problems of the day. And what are some of these problems? Well, to be blunt, a lot of them can be boiled down to double standards. In this 62nd Cosă term, the Government of Baron Davinescu has repeatedly acted in direct opposition to his campaign promises.

On Transparency: The Baron and his party made "transparency" one of the main themes of the last election. He made claims that the previous Government was hiding something over immigration, and he made promises to be open and honest in government; both the claims and the promises clearly resonated with voters. But when it comes to who sits in the Cosă for the current government, the Baron has gone before the Cort pü Inalt to argue that the transparency to voters only extends to the election itself -- after that, what the party boss says, the party boss gets. We in the URL feel that if you saw the list of Progressive Alliance candidates in the last election, decided you supported those people representing you in the Cosă, and voted for them, that's your right as a voter -- but that's the list you should get as your representation!

To be clear, the Government can't be blamed for two of its leading Cosă members dropping out, but we believe their voters should have had a say in who would replace them. We're also not disputing the outcome of the Cort's advisory opinion -- we think it makes sense given the current wording of the Organic Law, to the point that URL Secretary Miestră Schivă noted this possible result in a brief to the Cort. What we're saying is that the opinion shows the need for drastic reform. The law as worded allows for party leaders to make a mockery of accountability to voters between elections -- and that's a good reason to change the law. Regardless of which party list you vote for on the ballot, the URL has long advocated for your right to be represented by those people in the Cosă -- not whoever the party boss says you'll get.

On Immigration: Another key theme of the Baron's campaign in November was immigration. Unfortunately, since taking office, the Baron has managed to lose more citizens than we've had immigrate.
- Seven new citizens have been naturalized since the Baron's government was appointed in mid-December.
- We are now past two full months without any naturalizations.
- Eight former citizens lost their citizenship after failing to vote in recent elections.
- Two more have renounced their citizenship, including the Baron's Attorney General, who renounced in solidarity with a sexual harasser unanimously condemned by the Ziu.

That's a net loss of citizens so far this term. For a guy who spent most of the previous term comparing Talossa's population trends to a house on fire, the Baron seems to be taking the current decline awfully coolly.

In the last term, we argued that levels of immigration are not the direct result of Government action or inaction. The current Seneschal disagreed, and won over many voters by falsely accusing the previous Government of deliberately ignoring immigration and recruitment. A few months ago, he even met concerns about the lack of election candidates by blithely assuring us that there would be no problem keeping the Ziu properly staffed if we doubled the population – something he seemed to consider realistic, with the right government. We are now further from the Baron's own population goals than we were when he took office -- can he claim to be that "right government"?

Now that immigration is his responsibility, however, he has claimed that immigration levels are based on luck -- effectively admitting that everything he blamed the previous Government for was wrong. There is no shame in being wrong. There is shame in winning an election by telling a simple untruth, and then not correcting the record when found out.

On top of this, when the URL suggests possible remedies for the nation's stagnating immigration, they are evidently ignored. We argue that one valuable source of prospective citizens would be political simulationists -- people who engage in sort of "model government"-type situations online. Some of these people are already part of the micronational world, some may be participants in online games such as NationStates, but wherever these people can be found, we ought to be trying to recruit them with the appeal of Talossa's long-running and substantial political system. Why aren't we? Well, it's apparent that these folks and their political interest would go against the Baron's desire to keep Talossan politics apolitical. We've called him out on this contradiction before, and it is apparent his apolitical desires are now choking the country of citizens.

On Active Leadership: One of the duties of a leader is fixing things that don't work. Sometimes this means changing policy within the boundaries of current law; sometimes it means changing the law to allow for better policy. As it is, legislative activity from the Government has dried up completely. Should we take this to mean the Government thinks the nation is in fine shape as it is, or do they intend to put out policy changes to address our problems? If the latter, why have they not done so?

On Concentrating Power: Perhaps the worst of the Seneschal's double standards so far has been the concentration of power. In the last election, he criticized the previous Government for "stacking" -- people holding multiple Cabinet portfolios in order to balance manpower and workload. Some stacking, of course, is understandable, especially when the work is divided among many positions. However, the Seneschal is now into the territory we've said he's been aiming for all along: "Government by One Person". Of the ten Cabinet posts, he now holds five of them personally -- half the Government in one man's hands.

- Seneschal (obviously)
- Minister of Immigration (officially appointed himself to the role)
- Minister of Defence (holding de facto as he never appointed anyone else)
- Minister of Public Records (holding de facto as he never appointed anyone else)
- Avocat-Xheneral (holding de facto after his previous A-X resigned in solidarity with the sexual harasser as noted above)

We in the URL believe that democracy should be a "team sport"; that a successful party should be a team rather than a one-man band. This is why we defend party lists and call for other Ziu reforms, to make sure the voters are choosing a team for government, rather than placing the power into the hands of a strongman. In contrast, when the Baron is in power, to paraphrase an old French saying: el parti, es el Governamaintsch, c'è lo.

To sum up, these are the key issues currently facing the nation, on which the Union of Free Reformists will campaign for a Cosă majority in the next election:

• Ziu reform to shift to a system where voters chose candidates as well as parties.
• Immigration to target sources like politics simulators, and to target quality (which we can control) rather than quantity (which we cannot).
• Team government rather than the dominance of a single personality.

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

The nation last welcomed a new citizen on the 23rd of March, over ten weeks ago. On top of this, the nation's population has actually declined since the current Government has taken office, with seven citizens immigrating and ten emigrating (including two outright renunciations).

In past terms, the incumbent Immigration Minister has compared multi-month spans with no immigrants, such as the one in which we currently find ourselves, to a house on fire. He also criticized the previous Government on immigration, at one point noting "Talossa is losing citizens faster than she's gaining them", the same situation in which his Immigration Ministry now finds itself.

In his response to a different Member's Terpelaziun on May 5th, the Minister stated:

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on May 05, 2026, 11:57:06 AMI thank the MZ for his question.  In response, I think I'd like to hold off until a few more people are confirmed as possible assistants.

I don't feel there's any immediate time pressure, since we've already been implementing a lot of the other Royal Commission recommendations in extraordinary form:

• The Prime Minister's Patriotic Award has been restored, and we actually have produced a bunch of physical awards that can be sent out to recipients.  They are designed to be displayed on the lapel, collar, or pocket, and that will make them visible in pictures or on Zoom and unusually prestigious (as the only physical award).
• The New Citizen's Guide has been updated, reformatted, and restored in collaboration with the Secretary of State, and will soon be formally unveiled.  You can see a preview here.
  
• Our diplomatic efforts have been very fruitful, with a lot of communications both formal and informal.

We will continue to do even more, of course.  If the MZ hears of anyone of good character who is interested in volunteering for the TalossAssistant program, please send them my way.

To begin with, I would like to follow up on each of these responses, namely:

• Have any Prime Minister's Patriotic Awards been awarded to date?
• It has now been a month since the Minister noted an updated New Citizen's Guide had been completed. Can he state why it has not yet been "formally unveiled"?
• Can the Minister provide to the Ziu or public any evidence or results of the "very fruitful" diplomatic efforts he has described?
• Given that zero new citizens have been naturalized since the above response was given, is the Ministry re-assessing the situation to acknowledge any "immediate time pressure"?

Thank you.

Good evening all! Just to provide a quick update:

No one actually applied for a new ID prior to the deadline's expiration, unfortunately.

However, there was one citizen who was waiting on their ID from a previous round, and two more who did fill out the old MinSTUFF application late last year, including passing their Civics Tests, so I'm treating these three as the current "batch" of IDs.

The updated tracker sheet can be viewed here.

I am currently still waiting to hear back from two of the applicants regarding some of their info. Since there are only three cards to make, the workload on my end will be pretty light. If everyone communicates on a reasonably-timely basis, I believe the initial target can be met of having these in the mail by the start of the Sixth Clark at the beginning of July.

I didn't really intend it as something you "join", if I'm honest. If you tinker and want to post about it, then post about it, no membership required.

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC on Yesterday at 11:47:05 PMOkay, so if everyone's agreed that what we're looking for is a series of OrgLaw and Lexhatx amendments that:

a) will mandate that all Members of the Cosa will be candidates who stood at the election (given some relaxation of seat limits);
b) will allow either a closed-list or open-list system to be established by normal statutory law (by the 63rd Cosa onwards);

then I think we can press forward with this. But I just want to make sure we're all on the same page with this.

I'm on board with this -- at least at first glance, it doesn't seem like the proposed changes would prohibit a more candidate-centric electoral method, whether that's the standard open-list system you and I have been advocating, or something like Sir Marcel's SPAV method. As long as the statute in question describes how the list is to be ordered for the purposes of awarding seats under the proposed Org.IV.2.2; maybe the proposed text should clarify that this list shall be ordered as determined by law? It mentions reaching the bottom of the list, going back to the top, etc., but does not clarify if the list is simply ordered as submitted, or assembled by the results of the election, or what. Explicitly having some flexibility there will ease the adoption of a new method, I think.