Kalistan

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Kingmaker Brandt is woman of the moment in Kaliburg
Several high level meetings produce government New Democrats can support
Kaliburg, Grand Duchy of Ananto
February 4, 5742


Kristen Brandt, Deputy representing Sulari, flexes advantage in National Assembly as new session starts

Ahead of any major legislative action that will begin in a few short weeks, the first order of every Legislative season after an election is to either confirm or rearrange the Government. For the New Democrats, who won a fairly significant number of seats in last month's general election, they are at the peak of their political capital in just this moment. And Dr. Kristen Brandt, herself a political scientist and leader of the New Democrats faction of the Institutional Party, is the woman of the moment in high circles.

She has been interviewed nearly constantly for the last month, since her faction swept into position to serve as Kingmaker in the National Assembly. Public interest magazines want to know about the woman who pulled off such a feat in the staunchly anti-democratic Kalistan, building her faction from not even being recognized 12 years ago to now holding a significant amount of leverage within the National Assembly. "We want to work with other groups within the Institutional Party," said Brandt last week. "We are all institutionalists. But the fact remains, our voters, the ones who gave us 17 seats and trust us to represent them to our National Assembly, insist that we make good on our promises too. Part of that is getting into the rooms and being seated at the tables where decisions are made. Ergo, we need to see Democrats in His Imperial Majesty's Government. So we are negotiating with the Orthodox Factions around who they would find to be acceptable. So far, the discussions have been kind of contentious, but also also very productive."

Leader Brandt has been in meetings for three days with both Chancellor of the Empire Sir Johnathan Mickelson, and His Imperial Majesty, who has returned from Athosia early to conduct this discussion. "At the end of the day, we accepted His Imperial Majesty's proposals, after several of the lists I turned in were to some degree unacceptable to one or both of them. I wanted several more socialist of our members in the Government, but each one was rejected by either the Emperor, or more often, Chancellor Mickelson. And the choices of the Chancellor were far too moderate, and in one instance was not even a member of the faction. At the end of the day, the names selected by His Imperial Majesty were acceptable to both the Chancellor and myself, and we agreed on a handshake. I think the Chancellor, speaking from the Orthodox faction is satisfied, the Emperor is happy, and I am proud to put forward these names in our Faction."

The names will be included into the Government bill, which is expected to pass with a clear majority in two weeks. "At the same time, we will be voting with the Orthodoxos to name a new Speaker of the National Assembly," said Brandt, "who will act as the presiding officer of the National Assembly, and will work with the Chancellor to conduct legislative affairs, like schedule bills, organize conferences, and obtain advice from the Chamber of Peers at need. This is a priority of His Imperial Majesty, for ensuring efficiency and comity during the legislative process. His Imperial Majesty was not particular on who he wanted in the role, but Sir John and I agreed that it should be one of the Brethrenist Deputies given the universal good will that faction has among the other three groups."

Brandt said she was approached last week by the Nationalists, to try to get her to abandon the coalition agreement her faction has with the Orthodoxos. "I won't divulge the identity of the person who approached me on behalf of the faction, but they were very respectful and showed me a lot of genuine courtesy during the conversation. They said that they had instructions to see if it was not possible for me to abandon the agreement we had made with the Orthodox faction and instead help the Nationalists . But I am afraid our differences on Athosia are too great, and they wouldn't let that aspect go, nor would I abandon the Orthodox agreement without first giving the faction a chance to counter anything that the Nationalists offered. At the end of the day, we shook hands and the New Dems will be staying with the Orthodox Faction through this first government."

Brandt said her legislative agenda is relatively limited to government reform. "We have some leverage here, and will not be able to take the Chancellorship, realistically, no matter who forms the Majority, but we can force early elections if we are able to trade votes with the Nationalists, so we have to stay realistic. But that said, we can continue to work for the people of Kalistan by promoting popular measures like expanded services, stronger civil society organizations and more money for basic necessities like housing, food, medical care, especially to our rural brothers and sisters, and education. I think we would also like to expand infrastructure in the rural areas. And to be clear: All these bills can be initiated in the National Assembly. We do not have to wait for an Imperial Command to do something. The policy to expand these services is long standing. We just need to start creating programs to accomplish this."

She has stated that she would like to also begin the practice of caucusing publicly with the Orthodox, Nationalist, and Brethrenist factions. "Our constituents would like transparency in their government. They will come along with us where we lead as long as they feel like they know where we are going. This is, after all why they hired us. Public, transparent and televised caucusing can provide that information to our votes, so we can see who is voting for what when." This proposal has cut across faction lines, but Brandt believes there are enough votes from the various factions, to win the matter in the National Assembly.

"And lastly, each of the Faction leaders should have a regular formal audience with His Imperial Majesty, so we may explain to him what our constituents are saying they want," said the Speaker. "Right now, the process is, we pass constituent concerns and requests through the Chancellor, but we can never be sure if they make it to the ear of His Imperial Majesty. We should have the opportunity to speak to the Sovereign ourselves. And who knows? Maybe today's suggestion will be turned into tomorrow's fiat. I think voters for every faction will support this: After all, we may be here to turn the Emperor's fiat into policy for the nation, but we are also here to represent our voters' interests and concerns to the National Government."

Brandt calls her faction's platform optimistically conservative, and feels that these proposals are all reasonable, and can be accomplished in fairly quick order. "We are trusting the Orthodoxos to keep their word on their agreement to cooperate with us in exchange for our votes. We'll show up for them, but they better also show up for us. The people have asked for cooperation in this government. We will meet the Orthodoxos half way." Brandt has several more interviews scheduled this week, as well as administrative work to begin the process of forming the incoming government. "It's going to be a very busy spring," said the Democrat Speaker.

@TheRepublic