Programme of the Free Democrats of Talossa for the 60th Cosă election

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

Our top priority:

• Ensuring that the next King of Talossa is non-partisan, active, friendly, and an ambassador for Talossa to the world.

Other priorities:

• Put an end to the ongoing saga of the National Database. The current National Database will no longer be used by the end of the 60th Cosa. With any luck, a cross-party effort will have replaced it by then.
• Get our national websites back under public control. They can't be run by the Minister of Technology on his own dime anymore. They need to be hosted professionally, paid for by Kingdom funds, and run by a non-political civil servant.
• Wide-ranging and open-ended debate over further Organic Law reforms. This will include the question of Provincial assignment in combination with the role of the Provinces in our constitution.
• A healthy Government-Opposition relationship. We oppose mindless partisanship; but the Government must be accountable, which means its members must abide by its programme, but also that there should be a strong Opposition to provide criticism and alternatives. We do not want an overly broad government where no-one is left "outside", so no debate can happen.
• Separation of politics from the Royal Civil Service. Talossans have to be able to do jobs for the Kingdom without having to join/agree with the party of Government. But to require civil servants to renounce political activity would require most Talossans to make an impossible choice, and reduce activity. We support an explicit Code of Conduct for civil servants, enforcing penalties for allowing partisan politics to interfere with their work. But no restriction on Talossans' political activities outside their work (except for the King).
• Pick up the issue of foreign affairs where the previous Government dropped it.

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

Separation of politics from the Royal Civil Service. Talossans have to be able to do jobs for the Kingdom without having to join/agree with the party of Government. But to require civil servants to renounce political activity would require most Talossans to make an impossible choice, and reduce activity. We support an explicit Code of Conduct for civil servants, enforcing penalties for allowing partisan politics to interfere with their work. But no restriction on Talossans' political activities outside their work (except for the King).

I am not sure how this plank jives with what you said in February 2024:

There is indeed a fundamental difference in principle between the parties. We agree that there is a real need to make sure that the Secretary of State, the Chancery and the whole Royal Civil Service act without any hint of partisan bias. We do not agree that limiting the civil rights to free association of the Secretary of State are necessary or justifiable in that regard; nor that, when the Secretary of State briefly served as Free Democrats Party President during a crisis, he behaved improperly or even criminally.

How does a party which has in the past mixed politics with one of the most powerful civil service offices then proclaim a desire to separate politics from the civil service? All while continuing to say that the most glaring act of mixing politics with the civil service is not improper.