Alaxian period of Empherias
The Alaxian period is the current era of Empherias history, starting in 2448. The period began due to Empherias' unification with the High Kingdoms of Alaxia, ending the Revolutionary period.
Background[edit | edit source]
During the revolutionary period, the 2448 general election took place on 26 May 2448. Sofia Hopkins had become prime minister and leader of the PSP on 21 December 2447 following Katelyn Roberts. Her predecessor was very open to pan-Alaxanism and met with several pro-unification advocates, and several foreign government officials, and wanted closer co-operation with the continent– she would eventually run for the House of Representatives of the High Kingdoms of Alaxia in the late 2450s and become premier! Meanwhile, Sofia Hopkins wanted to distance herself from the previous government to signal change, and wanted to shift focus on nationalism and developing Empherias. However, taking this position saw her lose a lot of support within her own party having clearly misjudging how big of an issue pan-Alaxanism had become in the past few years. Hopkins held a speech in January 2448 signalling this new change.
Lukas Knight and several other prominent pan-Alaxianist socialist politicians would split from the PSP to form a new party advocating soon after Hopkins' speech, with Knight holding a famous speech soon after. Initially 30 socialist MPs split to form the Alaxian Socialist Party (ASP), known more commonly today as the Labour Party, followed by 77 more socialist MPs defecting in February. Knight, leading a bloc of 105 seats, and reducing Hopkins to a sharp minority government, would begin to campaign for a referendum on joining the HKA. Officially, the Labour members still had the whip of the People's Socialist Party, so the two groups were in de-facto coalition.
In crisis talks across February and March, the Labour party and Knight made clear that it would not accept a coalition government with the PSP unless a referendum was guaranteed– Hopkins did not accept this and believed she could win a general election. Furthermore, she didn't want to show any weakness. Sofia Hopkins dissolved parliament and set a late May general election for 2448, only six months into her premiership. After negotiations, and polling suggesting the PSP was on track to have a historic defeat, Hopkins and Knight agreed to the United Left Agreement (ULA) a week prior to polling day. This agreement said that whichever of the two socialist parties received a higher vote share, they and their leader would lead the new government, which would then be supported by the other socialist party as a junior member of a permanent coalition, with their leader becoming deputy prime minister.
The results of the 2448 general election saw the incumbent PSP government reduced to fewer than 100 seats, coming third overall, a decrease of 209 seats and a 34.6 percentage point decrease. This was a humiliating defeat for Hopkins, but she did not resign. In her biography, she said that the time following the defeat was very hard, especially being the youngest prime minister ever, but she was advised to stay in office to prevent the total death of the PSP. Post-election remarks by Hopkins said that the ULA signed would let her get a lot of vital work done in the office of deputy prime minister, and that the left-wing's agenda for government was absolute. The Liberals bled a significant number of votes and seats to the Nationalist party, losing 67 seats to hit a total of 147 seats. Despite coming second still, this was their worst defeat since 2423 (prior to becoming a major party). The Nationalist party got over 4 million votes and 77 seats, an increase of 53, and their best result ever. This signalled significant opposition to the pan-Alaxianism movement.
Knight became prime minister on the back of his Labour party becoming the largest party, and holding 227 seats. Combined with the PSP, the left-wing coalition held 325 seats, a majority of 48, but on their own, they'd be short 74 seats of an overall majority. With the PSP in tow, Knight pursued immediately a referendum on joining the High Kingdoms of Alaxia. This was held on 1 July 2448.
The Liberal party was officially neutral on the stance, while the PSP was slightly disjointed in their campaign but mostly against unification. The Labour party led the charge for unification, and other parties had free votes but prominent members in favour. Despite their neutrality, many liberals were in favour for economic reasons and believed that Empherias would maintain a large amount of autonomy under the union. Knight led an amazing campaign, using media support and contacts, some in the 20s generation, to get airtime on radio and spots in media and newspaper. For the first time, major political adverts on television was seen. In the vote, unification received 55.6% of the vote against independence's 42.9% of the vote. Knight proclaimed victory soon after, and began drafting legislation on 3 July 2448 for official integration into the union. Because of her stance on pan-Alaxianism, former PM Katelyn Roberts already had put many recommendations, legislation, and groundwork in place in preparation for a potential referendum or closer integration.
Empherias joined the High Kingdoms of Alaxia on 1 December 2448.
Lukas Knight's tenure (2448–2453)[edit | edit source]
Due to the constitution remaining unfinished, legislation would have to be passed by all assemblies in all countries to apply for the first few years. This made the union a very loose confederation for the first few years.
Lukas Knight, believing that the 2448 election was fought on the partisan issue of joining the HKA, would dissolve parliament to elect the first devolved parliament. The PSP and ASP would remain split, but they would have a coalition agreement that whichever socialist party received more seats would lead the coalition and become the senior partner. This coalition became known as the Poppy–Socialist coalition.
With Empherias joining the High Kingdoms of Alaxia, there was an unknown aspect of what to do with the monarchy. Rijkdottir Roxanne I was a massive celebrity in the country but didn't necessarily want to share the throne with two other monarchs whom she had never met before. Many politicians also saw the whole idea of a double monarchy ridiculous let alone a triple monarchy. She decided to remain independent and moved to Grensalbourg with her entire family. They quickly gained a huge popularity in Grensalbourg too. With the State of Grensalbourg having a lot of major reforms during the late 2440s, Roxanne was included in discussions for her to take over the throne of Grensalbourg. Thus far, Grensalbourg had no head of state and a joint head of government: one Empheri and one Palakkine. The idea put forward by Grensalbourg, Empheri, and Palakkine negotiators was for Roxanne to become the new ceremonial head of state in Grensalbourg and for the two joint heads of government to fuse into one elected legislature and executive. With that, Roxanne became Rijkdottir of Grensalbourg and renounced all her titles to the Empheri throne. However, to this day, the Rijkdottir of Grensalbourg would always meet with the incoming prime minister of Empherias before anybody in the government of the High Kingdoms of Alaxia.
The 2449 general election was held on 8 September 2449. The ruling ASP would receive 200 seats, down 51 seats from the previous election. The PSP received 176 seats, up 72 seats from the previous election and increasing their leverage. The Liberals received 211 seats, up just 4 seats. Minor parties generally increased their popularity and they all gained or remained on the same number of seats. Lukas Knight would remain as prime minister in coalition with the PSP, with a combined total of 376 seats, a majority of 152. Socialist success in both the previous elections would be helped by television campaigning which the Liberals lacked.
Former Socialist prime minister Katelyn Roberts would ran for election in the federal legislature House of Representatives and after taking office on 11 November 2449 was appointed to lead not only the People's Socialist Party federally but also the Crimson Coalition - a coalition of left-leaning and Red Bloq parties in the federal government. They combined had 97 seats, making them second place. Roberts became the Shadow Premier and had a considerable role in not only forming the constitution of the union but also in debating bills. Katelyn Roberts, Sofia Hopkins, Lukas Knight, and former PMs such as Elizabeth Rose and all PSP–ASP members of parliament signed an open letter to the President of the High Kingdoms, Richelieu, to consider including a federal national health service and welfare state to help those in need. Ultimately, this did not get included as a basic right in the constitution.
The national broadcaster, ENTV, would be acquired by the HKBC (High Kingdoms national broadcaster) as part of the union, which allowed it to be completely restructured. The 2449 general election was the first election where election results were published live, instead of local newspapers the day later. With extra funding by the HKBC, new television shows would be created for children to learn, family entertainment, local news, and to showcase sports. Sometimes, the broadcaster would earn short-term rights to show old movie releases, negating the need to go to the theatre (although it would usually be the better idea). More access to other TV stations would be created with cable lines going into more rural areas and far apart lands. Private companies were contracted to build new studios in major cities and build more connections. This was all done through private channels as mandated by the federal government and to which Lukas Knight agreed, angering Sofia Hopkins and their coalition partners.
Because of the central government, the broadcast would be viewable by anybody with a TV in the High Kingdoms. A new regulating company named High Kingdom Regulating Company (HKRC) was established to regulate things such as age ratings, trying to keep things non-bias in politics, and to allow or reject advertisements. National festivals celebrating Empherias' addition to the High Kingdoms were shown on the network as a large event to the whole country. Empheri TV shows, such as Tymehuis, were created and shown to the entire country expanding their cultural impacts. Likewise, other Alaxian shows were also imported into Empherias. Because of this, a new tax would be created to cover the costs of showing the network to every television in the country, and to fund the creation of all shows. The tax would only apply to those with a television.