Vascania

[Pragma]

Expansive national service program secures funding
3 January 5715

Prime Minister Aakesh Kunder has secured funding for his flagship national service program from parliament after a tight vote. Parliament passed the bill by just three votes amid the threat of a backbench rebellion by members of the coalition's more moderate wing.

While the senior coalition partner, the hard-right nationalist Vascanian Resurgence, is fully behind the policy, the centre-right junior coalition partner, the Vascanian National Party, was concerned by the plans to cut other services to fund the ambitious program. Healthcare and education are two areas targeted by cuts, which has led to protestors gathering in several major cities. The leader of Vascania's largest nursing union said that the cuts to healthcare could lead to outbreaks of contagious diseases.

Vascania's sluggish economy and low levels of foreign investment mean that the government's borrowing costs remain high, as does inflation. The PM said that only by prioritising the new national service program could Vascania escape 'a multi-generational malaise', whereas additional spending without cuts elsewhere would cause an increase in inflation.

PM Kunder's vision for the national service program is that large numbers of young, unemployed Vascanian men would be given a low wage to rebuild the country's military and infrastructural capacity, and then would later be promised indeterminate payments of a 'security dividend' once the Empire's capacity was 'restored'. Critics say these promises are vague and that the plan is overly simplistic for a giant country with complex social and economic problems, but social media videos promoting national service have already been commissioned by the Vascanian Resurgence party to a mixed response from Vascania's young male population.

Vascania·News is a Vascanian public news service produced by the Vascanian Broadcast Union