Valruzia

[Aethan]

Mapping the Right in Valruzia

This piece is part of a three-part analysis of the parties represented in the Sejm

January 5637

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The right wing in Valruzia does not form a single monolithic bloc. Since the fall of the Morawski regime, two parties have been fighting for the so-called conservative electorate from the very beginning - National Renewal (ON) and National Salvation (NZ) - which were later joined by the Valruzian Alliance (SWA) for the reasons we will describe below. In this article we will analyze their ideology, their differences and their possible future.

 

National Renewal - the average conservative choice

National Renewal (Odnowa Narodowa) is your typical center-right political party. Described as national conservative, right-wing populist and Hosian democratic - in a nation where 44% of the population describe themselves as "irreligious" and 34% as "Hosian" - National Renewal is the party that emerged as a conservative alternative but committed to the new system following the fall of the Morawski regime, the natural choice for right-wing voters who repudiated the dictatorship but longed for stability with a discourse that mixed constitutional patriotism, liberal economics and social conservatism, rejecting at all times any association with the previous regime despite having among its ranks many former officials critical of Morawski, as well as businessmen and moderate religious sectors.

Since the constitutive 5626 Valruzian elections, the party has been among the top choices for the voters, just falling from the second to the third place in the latest elections by just 1%, playing a key role in the writing of the Valruzian Constitution and leading the opposition to the Valruzian government until the most recent elections, where it entered into a coalition government with Sovereign Valruzia.

Its founder and first leader, Bernard Łukaszewski, was a former official of the Morawski regime who grew in disaffection following the harsh repression of the Valruzian protests that led to the regime's end. Despite his attempts at becoming President of the newborn Valruzian Republic, he was defeated twice, in 5629 and 5635, both times by elected communist President Karolina Pietrzyk. 

The biggest party to vote against the same-sex civil unions law but in favor of the mandatory military service, its main early conflict emerged following their support for Chancellor Nowik's Valruzia 5700 economic plan. It was this decision that prompted a split in the party giving rise to Agrarian Voice, after some sectors of the party criticized Łukaszewski's decision arguing that it had given a lifeline to Szymon Nowik and his Sovereign Valruzia, by then already surging in the polls, and abandoning farmers and ranchers critical of the proposed economic plan. Assuming a somewhat damaged image, Łukaszewski decided not to continue leading the party, instead running only for his second presidential campaign. The one chosen to replace him at the head of the party? A relatively unknown MP from Gryfit, Ksenia Brosz, who comes from a family of landowners in the aforementioned region.

Brosz's first major decision as party leader came immediately after the 5635 elections, where National Renewal agreed to form a coalition government under Sovereign Valruzia, which during the previous legislature he had opposed head-on. Riding the contradictions of this decision, and from her new position as Vice Chancellor, Ksenia Brosz was able to sell as a partial success of her party the presentation of the Agro-So food plan, which in theory would get the voters disenchanted with her party because of the vote in favor of the Valruzia 5700 plan to “come back home”.

The future of the party will depend on how they manage their stay in the coalition government, whether they will know how to make political capital or end up suffering the same fate as the social democrat Dignity and Progress, losing ground to the other political options. Currently leading the regional governments of Chynberg and Gryfit, it does not seem that their dominance in the right-wing political camp is in danger in the short term, but there are those who are getting dangerously close...

 

National Salvation - the hardcore nationalists in disgrace

At first seen as the most radical party when it surged for the very first Valruzian elections, National Salvation (Narodowe Zbawienie) it did not take long for the party to fall into disgrace. Its intention after its incorporation as a political party was to present itself as “democratic nationalists”, but including in its base nostalgics of the regime. It was this fact that ended up playing a dirty trick on them when their founder, the young Ignacy Żelazny, took part in the attempted coup d'état in the Sejm of Valruzia when the young democracy was re-emerging. Discovered and arrested, the party hardly hesitated to condemn the events, but the damage had already been done. For the more moderate, the party became inevitably linked to Morawski's nostalgics despite his intention to distance himself from that idea, and for the more conservative, the party became a lukewarm recreation of National Renewal that had not hesitated to throw its founder under the horses.

After garnering a good 12% of votes in the constituent elections, the party has now fallen to barely 2% of the vote despite several attempts by its new leader, Janina Rząca, to reverse this situation by presenting itself as the true "nationalist conservatives" that Valruzia needs and even not voting against the first Nowik cabinet. 

"It is going to be very difficult for the party to get rid of the black mark of Zelazny's collaboration with the coup attempt"

opines political scientist Marta Szaca.

“For the older ones - not sympathetic to the Morawski regime - the coup attempt took them back to their darkest memories, and for the younger ones, the party now looks like a mere cheap copy of National Renewal with a more nationalistic twist”

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But now the party is facing its great golden opportunity. With the entry of National Renewal into the government, they have a window of opportunity to capitalize on a conservative, nationalist and anti-Morawski opposition that demonstrates to the public that their commitment to the new Valruzian Republic is not incompatible with the nationalist values and the anti-immigration and conservative rhetoric they espouse.

 

Valruzian Alliance - the far-right that no one is willing to approach

The third in discord, Valruzian Alliance, is the only one that was not founded to compete in the constituent elections. The party was founded under the auspices of Ignacy Żelazny's then lawyer, Tymon Szweda, after he was sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the coup attempt under what he called “the great injustice on which the new Valruzian democracy is founded.”

The party, while not openly advocating it, is basically the pro-Morawski faction of the Valruzian parliamentary arc today. In its first electoral performance, the party scraped 10% of the vote, leaving Zelazny's former party shivering and increasing its percentage of the vote in the last 5635 elections up to 12%.

Ultra-nationalist and ultra-conservative, the party holds the record for the most votes against the government proposals. The party is unapologetically conservative, known for its constant outbursts and its use of social networks to engage younger people, and some of its members have issued controversial opinions such as arguing that Chancellor Szymon Nowik “is a disgrace to Valruzia” because of his sexual orientation or that the natural place for women is at home “and not leading political parties.”

For these reasons, the party is a political outcast and no other party in the parliamentary arc is making any move towards them. However, some political analysts argue that this only motivates them to keep it that way and to win new voters, being a party that triumphs especially among the youngest who were barely born when the Morawski regime was on its last legs.

Valruzian Alliance is already the third force in the Chynberg region, considered the most conservative in the country, and many fear that the trend will continue to increase, with the Gryfit region potentially next. The entry of National Renewal into government may only accentuate this upward trend, especially as a party that moves so well among the new media, and could pose a serious problem for the still young Valruzian democracy if it continues. It is especially interesting for this party that its voting intention among younger and older voters is practically the same.

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Don't miss the following articles:

• Mapping the Left in Valruzia: Communist Party of Valruzia and Dignity and Progress
  

• Mapping Valruzia's "outsiders": Sovereign Valruzia, Agrarian Voice and Liberal Alliance