FreeDems March 2023 Convention

[Antaglha Xhenerös Somelieir]

Hello, Party members and all,

The leadership of the FreeDems have decided that 1st March 2023 shall be the opening of the next Party Convention, the schedule is still being worked out, so will update when more is known. However the date of the next convention is set.

If anyone would like to speak at the convention, within or outside of the party, then please get in touch with myself, or @Ian Plätschisch

So, onwards to the Convention

Antaglha Xhenerös Somelieir
Leader of the Free Democrats of Talossa

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

I have circulated a discussion document for the conference, A path to Free Democrat victory in the 59th Cosă, to all party members. Let me know if you haven't got one.

[Üc R. Tärfă]

I have circulated a discussion document for the conference, A path to Free Democrat victory in the 59th Cosă, to all party members. Let me know if you haven't got one.

I received it.
Just to let you know that I'm in the middle of my own macronational party congress at the moment (and I'm tasked with large organizational tasks in my own Province: organising 70 primaries poll stations), but I hope to give it a proper read in next days.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

The public section of the Free Democrats convention is now open!!!

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

Speech of Miestra Schiva MC to the Free Democrats of Talossa Convention
¡Estimadas es estimats Democrätsen livereschti, oðreux amici Talossáes, es oðreux presints!

It gives me great pleasure to, once again, thank and congratulate our outgoing Secretary, Senator Plätschisch, for his service to this Party and for his diligent and courageous term as Seneschal. I also take pleasure in congratulating Antaglha Somelieir MC, our outgoing President and incoming Party Secretary, and to thank her for her continuing service.

But I would like to invite the most enthusiastic applause for our incoming Party President - and, I am willing to wager right now, the next Seneschal of the Kingdom of Talossa - Üc Tärfa MC. It is especially wonderful to have another Reviensadéir - a former citizen of the Talossan Republic - back in action, someone else with lived memory of what a Talossa without a King could look like.

Friends and colleagues, I know that it has been hard for many of us - and certainly it has been for me - to grasp that we are no longer the biggest party in Talossa. But - I put it to you - we are still the biggest political party in Talossa. If that distinction seems puzzling to many of us, it is because the current majority government - the TNC party - are not "political" in any sense we would understand.

The Free Democrats of Talossa are a party of principle above all else. That principle - as enshrined in our Party Constitution - is Liberty and Democracy First.This entails a certain principled approach to politics. It means: that in Talossa, government action is to be taken only when it does not limit or have a chilling effect on the initiative of citizens. And it means that the government must be responsive to both a mandate from the citizens, and scrutiny from those citizens. It means: no arbitrary power. no government, Cosa majority - or King, for that matter - doing "whatever we want, because who's going to stop us?"

Now I won't tell you that the TNC oppose these fine principles that we hold dear. They don't, because that would require having principles of their own.

The TNC are a proudly non-political party. They actually seem to have an allergy to political debate. They seem to want a Talossa with no actual politics, where nothing happens if it would attract any significant debate or opposition.

We are talking about a party who went into the last election proudly trumpeting that they were going to enable Talossa to take donations in cryptocurrency. For no better reason that they had one member who was really, really, into cryptocurrency. And then that plank got a lot of pushback from other citizens, who consider crypto to be a dangerous Ponzi scheme. And then that plank was trashed with almost indecent haste.

You don't need to support or oppose crypto to understand that this is a profoundly unprincipled approach to politics. We might even say that Brenéir Tzaracomprada is Talossa's first Marxist Seneschal in a long time. But he's not a "Karl Marxist", but a "Groucho Marxist". As in: these are my principles. If you don't like them, I have others.

Did I say the TNC have no principles? I withdraw and apologise. That's unfair. They have one principle. That principle is: the TNC should run the country. Which, in practice, means that Baron Alexandreu Davinescù should run the country, with the elected Seneschal as his cheerleader and hype man.

Throughout our existence, the Free Democrats tried to establish the principle and practice of a separation between governance and management - or to put it another way, between politics and administration. We have always tried to set the principle that the day-to-day work of administration should be left to the Royal Civil Service (and Permanent Secretaries), staffed by Talossans of all political persuasions and none, based solely on competence and enthusiasm; and that the job of the elected government is to give them direction and supervision, not to attempt to micromanage them or take over their functions.

In just under two months in office, the TNC have appointed a Minister of Technology who is by his own account "apolitical" and seems to dislike and resent having to answer questions in the Ziu - thereby needlessly replicating the functions of the existing Permanent Secretary. In recent days in the Hopper, the Finance Minister has been trying to grab responsibility for giving the Financial Report out of the hands of the Civil Service (in the person of the Burgermeister), making the argument that they were both part of "the Government" - showing that this basic political point is simply not recognized by the TNC. And all this, of course, goes along with the TNC's continuous harassment while in opposition - including unfounded and distressing accusations of political bias - of the Secretary of State.

The TNC simply do not respect the politics/admin distinction. To them, everything is politicized - in the sense that they seek to maximise the power and influence of their own members and diminish or eliminate that of outsiders - but nothing is political, in the sense that they consider political debate or even political principle to be something to be avoided and condemned. Absolutely everyone is welcome to be on their team - but their team is united only by the idea that their team should run everything. In this, they're not too different from historical catch-all parties, such as Mexico's PRI, Ireland's Fianna Fáil, or the former Christian Democrats of Italy. What did all those parties have in common? They spent very long periods in power; and became notorious for the deepest, foulest corruption.

But let us not ourselves make the mistake of over-partisanship, of demonising our opponents. The TNC won the election because the Free Democrats screwed it up, and we screwed it up over not one but at least two Cosa terms. We burned out on being active. We ran out of fresh ideas. The TNC, for all their faults exhaustively listed above, are active and enthusiastic and want to do things in Talossa. That is to be applauded. When we lost our political principle and drive, when we became the party of the status quo and of not much happening, we ceded our mandate to the TNC. All I suggest in this speech is the way I see to seize that mandate back. And the enthusiasm of the new Party President gives me renewed hope that it is possible.

Friends and colleagues, the Free Democrats of Talossa need two things if we are to return to power at the next election, to re-establish the idea that Talossa's politics and elections should be about principles rather than team sports. We need a Shadow Cabinet which can set itself up as a better political leadership than the existing Cabinet, I have trust that the new Party President will be able to pull a strong team around him, if his explosion of legislative activity is anything to judge by.

But the other thing is to re-establish the case for Free Democrat principles. What are those principles? I would suggest that a common theme for our political work in the 58th Cosa should be that Talossa should be more political, but less partisan:

• as established above, separate politics from administration. The political leadership should set policy; while that policy should be administered by civil servants chosen for talent, not what political "team" they are on. Elections should be based on principles of political approach, civil servants should be non-partisan and respected, and the elected government should supervise and direct them rather than trying to take over their jobs.
  
• re-establish confidence in Talossa's head of state. Almost 40% of Talossans in the last election voted for parties which wanted King John I "coercively retired" from the Somewhat Battered Throne. The continued machinations to try to get the King's preferred candidate as successor - and we all know who that's going to be, right, folks? - must cease. The Free Democrat principle of "Monarchist/Republican compromise" must be reasserted, and a broad consensus on our constitutional arrangements must be re-established - the the existing "corrupt bargain", whereby one party defends the King's privileges, and in turn the King gives that party privileges, and even makes their de facto leader his heir, must cease.
  
• A constitutional alternative. My personal preference is for a People's Organic Law Convention, where Talossans from all political points of view and none discuss fundamental alternatives to the current OrgLaw. That means everything on the table - the Monarchy, as above, but also the size of the Ziu, the continuing existence of the Senäts, the numbers and roles of Provinces, in fact, everything. We all know how blindingly difficult it is to get any real reforms through the current cumbersome OrgLaw process, including the Royal veto. But do we dare to dream? Do we want to accept a Talossa where nothing ever changes, nothing ever happens, but different faces around the Cabinet table, a few proclamations without real effects, and cosmetic changes every once in a while?

I really hope our new Party President agrees with me on this principled approach to our collective work. I hope that we all do - or at least, no-one is sufficiently offended by it that they have to walk out. This is a programme which I could get excited by - and we need something, otherwise the next 5 months or so are going to be a boring waste of time.


¡Så vivadra Talossa! ¡Så vivadra Talossa livereasca es democrätic! ¡Så vivadra els Democrätsen Livereschti! ¡La gitxostină revindicara sieu premxhă sangün!

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

Hopefully I am the first of many to congratulate S:reu Tarfa on his elevation during the Free Democrat's recent party conference to the presidency. And kudos to S:da Somelieir on her time as leader of the party.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

I'd like to join the Seneschal in offering my gratitude and appreciation for MC Somelieir, and my congratulations to MC Tärfa, the new leader of the Free Democrats.

[Üc R. Tärfă]

Zooks! That makes it official isn't it? I thank the Seneschal and the Distain for their congratulations and I applaude my fellow comrade - ahem - freedemocrat for her wonderful speech! My concluding speech for the Convention won't certainly be able to match it!

Congratulations to everyone!

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

I applaude my fellow comrade - ahem - freedemocrat

If Senator Plätschisch hears you talk like that he'll have a migraine :D