Kalistani Major History

[Doc]

IZQUIERDA Feature:  Catching up with Raymond Reiley-CarrangusSocialist Leader aims at a comeback
Kaliburg, Ananto
May 7, 4486


Former President of the Republic Raymond Reiley-Carrangus

We at IZQUIERDA sat down with the Former President of the Republic, Raymond Reiley-Carrangus, and asked what he's been up to for the last five years since leaving office early.  Here is the Interview:

(Izquierda reporter) F(elicity) D(elgado):  Greetings Comrade.  It's great to see you.

R(aymond) R(eiley-Carrangus):  Thanks.  I was wondering when you all were gonna call.  Hit me up once in a while, Girl.

FD:  It's been a slow news month.

RR:  Slow news half decade.

FD:  First question.  Now that the SP has reorganized in Kalistan, what are your plans?

RR:  Bennots has already announced I'll be running for President again, so that's what's up.  Hopefully we can get this early election through, but if not, Its alright.  We don't really have a head of state at the moment, and the government isn't really doing anything, a third of it is gone.  No worries.  Same as it ever was, I suppose.

FD:  What have you been up to since the SP left politics?

RR:  I've been playing a lot of pool.  Dating some.  Catching up on my social life.  The Socialist Party demanded so much time of its officials, there wasn't a lot of time to just live you know.  But I'm ready to get back into it.

FD:  There have been some controversial bills passed by the Assembly in the last few years.  What's your take on these?

RR:  Our comrades in the Workers' Front have done a good job representing for the Left, and I get the feeling that they could use some help pushing back these strange changes.  We have to reverse this borders business.  We have to reverse these anti-union policies passed in 81.  We have to fight to protect the right to access abortions for women.  And everything else the Socialist Party traditionally stands for.

FD:  Is there anything you wish to do in your term if you are elected?

RR:  I support the change that Bennots has proposed to the Presidential Prerogative.  The object is for the Plurality Party to offer a slate to the President and the President name the Government.  I don't think that is tenable, especially when Presidents keep belong to Parties which go defunct.  So I think the SP would like to begin a discussion to change the prerogative, and give the right to the Plurality to name the Government.  We should even go a little further.  Perhaps the President's Party should also be in charge of Foreign Relations.  It might be a decent compensation.

FD:  What is your position on the Kalistani Brethren who moved to Gaduridos as the SP was going on hiatus?

RR:  They did their thing.  That happened in the last few days of my Presidency.  And to be honest, moving to a tropical island to start a religious community seems quite utopian.  I don't know the wisdom of starting a political Party.  Gaduridos seems to be sufficiently weak that the Government probably didn't even know or care that they went.  But like a lot of other Political Brethrenist movements, the one in Gaduridos ran into a brick wall, called Inertia.  If we have another Socialist in FA, maybe we can check in on them from time to time, and do what we can to encourage them.  But I think I understand that they have returned to just being a social movement, so they won't be needing political support.

FD:  Is there any chance of the Brethrenists organizing an independent political movement here in Kalistan?

RR:  Independent of the SP?  That is unlikely.  The Brethren here are so closely tied to the Socialist Party, and those who do not vote Socialist generally reject politics as a whole.  The Brethren in Kalistan have other avenues for political involvement which were not open to the Brethren in Gaduridos, so we see strong Brethrenist influence in Kalistan within the SP even if the Brethren are not organized as an explicitly political force.

FD:  Thanks for letting us catch up with you, Comrade President.

RR:  It's no problem.  I always got time for Izquierda