History of the High Kingdoms of Alaxia

See also: History of Ahitereira, History of Empherias, and History of Kiavalar

See also: History of Koresa, History of Peryzium, and Military History of the High Kingdoms of Alaxia

The High Kingdoms of Alaxia is a sovereign state in East Alaxia. It was formed on 4 January 2447 following the death of Joana I of Ahitereira–Koresa, beginning a personal union between them and Kiavalar. This page documents the entire history of the country to the modern day.

Pre-union period (2440–2447)

Early meetings

Many in the elites of both Ahitereira–Koresa and Kiavalar understood that a personal union was converging in the early 2420s with Joana I becoming older and older. Various informal meetings took place with government officials across this time, although with large gaps and more pressing issues within them. The 20s generation was also key to political manoeuvring to ensure the union went ahead. Members of the 20s generation formed the 'What Next Group' in 2424 following the end of the Great War and eventually the focus of the group focused on Ahitereiran and Koresan politics and the potential integration of Kiavalar and expansion of a newer state. Some even proposed an Alaxian federation, including over states in the area such as Empherias, Peryzium, Palakkinen, or even the Hveden Federation and Karkuss. Other groups did exist, such as the 'Valar Pushes East' group who pushed for Kiavalari integration with east Alaxia; the 'Joana's Legacy' group which often discussed post-Joana interests. However, none of the groups would become relatively known until the 2430s.

The What Next Group gained notoriety in Ahitereira after famous journalist Etuarto Barboza came out in support of them and their views on a hypothetical personal union. He claimed that the union provided great benefits to all Alaxians. Over the next decade, he would continue to release pro-unification works including several best-selling books such as 'The Eye of Alaxia' in 2433. In Kiavalar, Jake Russell and Valorie Ward co-authored several articles which pandered to the educated left and many liberals which saw integration with an Ahitereiran-led state as a quick way to introduce better forms of democracy into the country - as well as better economic equality. The What Next Group released a joint declaration on the positive interests of such a personal union in 2435. However, their positions were controversial. Many believed that reforms promised by the side of the union were unfounded and impossible, or that they had vested interest in the benefits. Some criticised them for anti-nationalist sentiment, others believed that voters in the other countries were stupid and could sway elections negatively for them, while others thought it was an insult to Joana to predict her death.

Pro-Kloresan movement

Main article: Kloresan unification movement

In Empherias, prominent pro-Kloresans became more and more popular into the late 2430s. George Pierce, a journalist, would become famous after writing an article in 2438 highlighting the positives of such a union. The establishment of an official group in Empherias known as the 'Alaxian Through Kloresa Society' would see Pierce become a member alongside hundreds of aspiring politicians and activists. One of these members was Gregorik Marsh who quickly gained a rivalry with Pierce. Marsh was also a journalist and believed that while union was good, that they shouldn't give up their sovereignty too easily. Marsh and Pierce would have very public fights across 2439, but Pierce would eventually go missing and be declared dead in 2440. Many, including allies such as George Proweur, George Princeley, and Aleksander Treitschke, believed that this a plot by anti-unionists in Empherias to quiet the movement.

Lewes Haarig, an Empheri-Palakkine news reporter, would be the first news reporter of the public broadcasting company of Empherias to speak out as a pro-unionist in 2440. He was eventually fired in 2441 by the incoming Socialist government, and thus moved to join the ATKS later that year. Haarig would become a leading figure of the movement alongside Proweur in Empherias. The Campbell twins, Ellie and Wallace, were descendants of former prime minister Isaac Campbell, and were keen to use their credibility to advocate for the unionists. Ellie Campbell was elected as a Liberal MP in the 2441 general election.

While the ATKS was primarily liberal, an opposing group of Socialists formed a sector within the People's Socialist Party to advocate for unionism. This was named sALAX, although the sK sect opposed it heavily.

Conferences

There were several conferences between future member states held before the death of the monarch that would formally tie the two nations together:

• Inysta Conference, September 2445 – discussions on the personal union, foreign policy handling, and figuring out internal treaties.

• Esperiy Conference, November 2445 – discussions on the capital city, the early constitution, and defence spending.

• Kayrin Conference, January 2446 – discussions on the trade situation and economy.
• Vreimer Conference, March 2446 – discussions on the inclusion of Empherias or other potential countries for inclusion such as Peryzium, Grensalbourg, and Palakkinen.

First Constitutional convention

Following the conferences in 2446, the first constitutional convention was established in June 2446 amid Joana's falling health. They established very key and basic and binding ideas behind the incoming personal union. The convention contained 13 members, all of which were senior members of the involved countries' governments, and they established that during a period of developing a proper constitution, a provisional constitution would be established giving a 'provisional president' absolute authority for a period of 3 years until a proper government could be elected. The two governments would sign the Acts of Union on 18 September 2446, which would legally bind the two together following the death of Joana I.

Formation period (2447–2459)

Death and funeral of Joana I

Main articles: Joana I of Ahitereira-Koresa and Death and Funeral of Joana I, Queen of Ahitereira-Koresa

Joana I died on 4 January 2447, officially creating the personal union between Ahitereira–Koresa and Kiavalar. In accordance with the Acts of Union signed in 2446, the High Kingdoms of Alaxia was officially formed on the moment of Joana I's death.

Provisional government

The new state would have no initial elected central government, but the Prime Minister of Ahitereira would make a speech on 10 January 2447 called the 'Union of Harmony' where he claimed that preparations for a central government would begin after Joana's funeral and the new monarch's coronation. In the meantime, both countries would continue to act independently, besides the consolidation of the Armed Forces that took place beginning 1 February 2447. The High Chancellor of Kiavalar, Richelieu, put herself forward to be the provisional government of the new central government, and her Ahitereiran counterparts agreed. In July 2447, Koresa was officially separated from Ahitereira–Koresa, and had its own parliament established. Richelieu was made the President of the Provisional Government on 7 September 2447, and would appoint a provisional Minister of Foreign Affairs, finally creating an executive branch of the federal government and consolidating the foreign policy of the countries.

As per the first constitutional convention, Richelieu would have a deadline of 7 September 2450 in order to elect a legislature in which to form a wider constitutional convention. She therefore would aim to form a government as soon as possible.

Construction of Esperiy

The new capital city would be moved to Esperiy, a town in the Yutra region of Ahitereira. This region was classified as a federal territory and therefore independent from any kingdom to ensure no kingdom would be privileged more than others. Government contracts were handed out to various national real estate construction companies to expand the city, with Jonas Gonçal - a modern architect - made Special Adviser to the expansion project.

Second Constitutional convention

Richelieu would appoint a council of eleven people from all nations in various levels of government to discuss how the government would be made up. She was joined later legal experts, and those who negotiated in the 2445–2446 conferences. It was decided first how the judicial branch would work in late 2447. Then, the executive was established and it's powers, and a proposed way of it's election was proposed and amended across early 2448. Finally, the method of electing the legislature, and the structure and power was established towards late 2448 and early 2449 but was the most controversial. The convention was split on the number of chambers, fearing that the balance of power between the higher populated and lower populated states could cause internal conflict. For a long time, the convention was dead set on two chambers: a lower chamber with proportional representation, and an upper chamber with large scale single member constituencies aiding larger parties and higher populated areas.

Across 2448, it was clear that two smaller populated states in Empherias and Peryzium would join, the conversation shifted to the final approach. They agreed on just a single chamber, with 530 constituencies (previously 525 until November 2448). This would be divided with 103 constituencies per constituent country, an equal amount, with districting decided on a devolved case-by-case basis. The final 15 constituencies would be in federal districts such as Esperiy, the Aether territories, and for expats living abroad. The electoral system would be FPTP with no extra system to promote more proportional voting. This would mean that all countries had an equal number of seats in the federal government, giving a boost to smaller populated countries (in balance to the executive and presidential elections, where the larger populated countries had an advantage), and gave larger parties a better chance at getting more seats, which would promote a more stable government after fears that the multiculturalism across the country would lead to hundreds of small parties in parliament. With these issues done, the rest of the constitution could be ironed out through committees and votes established by an officially elected legislature. Thus, the Second Provisional Constitution was signed in July 2449, and elections were set for 11 November 2449.

Empherias and Peryzium's membership

A pan-Kloresan movement sprung in Empherias in the 2440s which led to increased division within the People's Socialist Party over the issue of Alaxian unity. As plans for the upcoming High Kingdoms were being formulated, the Socialist Prime Minister Katelyn Roberts ruled out any involvement of Empherias in any Alaxian political union projects in a public address in June 2445. Despite this, pro-unification Minister of Foreign Affairs Luna Gallagher and several MPs such as Tom James Cook and the notorious Lukas Knight, attended all of the conferences and made promises for Empherias' involvement. Officially, the Socialists won the 2445 general election but the support for the Prime Minister was dwindling amongst the Pro-Kloresan base.

In a public address to the Vreimer Conference 2446, which was held in Empherias, the aforementioned Tom James Cook made the following statement: "Although my government may disagree, the involvement of Empherias is vital in not only the expansion of our economy, but the economy of Alaxia - and to develop the cultural links between our great nations". This led to Cook's public expulsion from the party for disagreeing with the general view of the party. He and Knight would then leave the party all together and reform the People's Populist Party in it's second iteration.

The new party alongside internal pressures from the Socialist party led to Roberts' resignation as Prime Minister on 21 December 2447 although she had delayed the process of union past the death of the monarch. Many in government had secretly negotiated with the now established High Kingdoms. Sofia Hopkins, the replacement PM, announced her intention to run an anti-union campaign in a snap election held in 2448. This election would finally settle whether the nation would join in union with the High Kingdoms or not by which Socialist party wins more seats - furthermore, both parties would agree to form a coalition government until the two parties unite to prevent opposing ideologies from gaining power in the event of a vote split. The 2448 general election saw the Populists win 252 seats to the Socialists' 104 and firmly set unification as a key point of the Socialist's agenda henceforth. However, the pro-Kloresan party still did not have a majority of seats on it's own to issue the mandate of unification.

Lukas Knight, the new Prime Minister, decided to hold a legally binding referendum on 1 July 2448 to decide whether Empherias would join the HKA or remain independent. The PM and ruling party used a lot more campaigning than usual and many more promotions. For the first time ever, there were major political television adverts for both sides. The Liberals, despite being officially anti-unification, didn't campaign for either side and the Socialists under Hopkins underutilised their campaigning skills resorting to more traditional methods. The results were that 54.04% of people voted in favour of unification and Knight now had two mandates for unification.

Immediately after, the process to officially join the High Kingdoms began in September 2448. The coalition government would pass many new laws to create identical systems of government to align with the High Kingdoms law code. Empherias officially joined the High Kingdoms of Alaxia on 1 December 2448. The coalition government previously formed in Empherias would then run the new constituent country under a caretaker government within the High Kingdoms of Alaxia until the first provisional election were then held on 1 September 2449.

Peryzium would join on 15 December 2448.

2449 presidential and legislative elections

Main articles: 2449 High Kingdoms presidential election and 2449 High Kingdoms legislative election

Richelieu, the provisional president, wanted to run for re-election but would approve the usage of the proposed 2448 presidential election method. This required each party getting a number of nominations for a candidate based on the makeup of the devolved lower houses in each constituent country. The candidates with the least amount of nominations would be eliminated until just two candidates remain. The first round of nominations took place on 30 September 2449, and by 5 October 2449 the nominations had finished. The final two parties, the Liberal Party of Ahitereira and Koresa and Rael Carinye would put forward their candidate. Rael Carinye, a Kiavalari party selected Kiavalari politician Čžäräyin Tïsakhar as their presidential candidate, and selected Ahitereiran politician Valena Manel as the vice-presidential nominee to placate supporters of the King's Party which made up a large group of nominations. Richelieu met with the Liberals to discuss her candidateship, and they agreed that despite being an Ahitereiran party, they would nominate Kiavalari politician Richelieu to be their candidate to placate the Janvariye Jin and use her very popular appeal and current position as President to help their bid for election. The Liberals were sure to choose a native Ahitereiran as their vice-presidential nominee, choosing Maneli Veritara.

By 8 October 2449, the two candidates were chosen and campaigning began. All members of the future-Golden Coalition would endorse Richelieu, alongside the entire Red Bloq group, the Alliance party, and the Pink Daphnes. Tisakhar was supported by the King's Party, the Bokanist Values Party, and JCPK. The Nationalist party suggested boycotting the vote, or voting Liberal to prevent major federal restrictions. Richelieu won the election with 66.48% of the popular vote and over 80 million votes, and secured her first elected term until 2454. Veritara became the first Vice-President of the High Kingdoms of Alaxia. Her opponent, Tisakhar, received just 33% of the popular vote and 40 million votes.

The legislative election was the first and was therefore very hard to predict for pollsters and political parties. Polling was difficult, and tactical voting was nearly impossible leading to a lot of the spoiler effect giving primarily the Liberals an advantage. While no single party won an overall majority of the seats (266 or more), the largest party was the Liberal Party of Ahitereira and Koresa, followed by the Liberal Party of Peryzium. Those two parties, alongside the Liberal Party of Empherias, and Janvariye Jin in Kiavalar (Richelieu's old party) would join in a liberal coalition, known as the Golden Coalition. This coalition would have 291 seats in parliament, a majority of 50. Gõçal Bitraş, the leader of the Ahitereira and Koresa branch, headed the Golden Coalition after approval from the other parties, and on 1 January 2450 was sworn into office as Premier of the House of Representatives in a vote 291–239. The opposition was formed by the People's Socialist Party of Empherias, the largest non-Liberal party, who formed a left wing coalition known as the Crimson Coalition with the Red Bloq of Peryzium, the Red Bloq of Ahitereira and Koresa, and Seruiye Jin of Kiavalar. This coalition would maintain just 97 seats, less than 20% of the legislature.

Other parties made general coalitions. The National coalition of Nationalist parties, having such similar views that a coalition could benefit in terms of planning, holds 17 seats. The Naval Coalition of conservative parties formed, this one with more varied opinions but was formed because they believed that Conservatism could have a chance at winning future elections if steps were taken for tactical voting and having a unified prescence in the legislature – they hold 50 seats. No other parties formed a coalition, with their views either varying too much, or by having little to gain by having any formal agreements.

Richelieu's presidency

Richelieu began her presidency in a very strong position. She had cemented a five year term, and with her domination over the legislature also had power there for 3 years. Her main priority was to finalise the constitution, which she wanted to finish before 2453 so that the Liberal party had the main control over how the constitution was constructed. She hid this however, and did allow the Red Bloq and the Conservatives to have some influence over the writing.

Third constitutional convention

The third constitutional convention was more informal and began once the first legislative term had begun in January 2450. Within the legislature, the Premier would create several select committees for the proposal, amendment and scrutiny of several articles of the constitution. On many of these, Liberals were the majority of members due to their majority in the House. Richelieu still had significant leeway over the constitution, having final say on it's usage as per her powers established by the Acts of Union for the President to act more powerfully before a constitution was finalised.

The constitution's first draft was finished on 1 October 2451 after nearly two years. The second draft was finished by January 2452, and the finalised version of the constitution was signed into law by the House of Representatives on 3 October 2452, a month before the legislative election. All constituent country governments signed on 5 October; Richelieu, President of the High Kingdoms, signed the constitution into effect on 6 October; and the monarchs signed on 7 October. Constitution day is celebrated on 7 October.

2452 legislative election

The 2452 legislative election was held on 10 November 2452. Richelieu would urge Bitraş to run for a second term as Premier, and endorsed the Golden Coalition in the elections. The prime minister of Empherias, Lukas Knight, and the deputy prime minister Sofia Hopkins both endorsed the PSP and the Crimson Coalition.

With the constitution finished, both the Socialists and the Conservatives would shift their focus to domestic policies and the work of the liberal government. The Liberal party was polling very well despite being an incumbent government because of the great economic boost after the formation of the union and decisions in the constitution. Tactical voting was now very possible with the known results of the previous election. This benefitted the Conservative and BVP supporters who could now coordinate slightly better. The BVP refused to do a proper electoral coalition, and so usually the larger party in each constituency would attempt to win over the other's voter base to ensure a right-wing candidate would win over a Liberal one. Conservative pundits believed that tactical voting could increase the amount of seats the right-wing received by over 25, a 50% increase on their current amount. Local politics would still be incredibly important: the candidates being selected by each party and of course the devolved parliaments. In Empherias, the PSP who was the junior partner in government was becoming more and more popular which helped their position in the federal elections despite the Liberals theoretically having good momentum.

The Conservative party would focus on Northern Koresa and rural Ahitereiran areas to pick up seats, the Red Bloq would focus on Liberal seats in Empherias and Peryzium to pick up seats at lower costs and lower margins. The Liberal party would focus on maintaining losses from the Conservatives, seeing them as their biggest threat to their majority. The Liberals would also try and reduce the threat of the Pink Daphnes would taking a few of their policies. The Liberals would hope for Richelieu's name to automatically help them do well in Kiavalar. The Red Bloq in Peryzium would attempt to win over both Nationalist and Liberal voters by positioning themselves as Peryzi pride representatives and championing some nationalist policies and reframing the narrative around independence towards participation in the HKA. They would also win over Liberal and Conservative voters by positioning themselves more similarly to Empherias where they became a lot closer to the Liberal party on policy and focusing on urban areas where students and working class people live.

The results were disappointing but a moderate success for the Liberal party. The Golden Coalition shrank to 259 seats, down 32 from the previous result of 291 seats in 2449. With the number needed to reach a majority being 266, this created a new hung parliament despite the coalition. This seems like a terrible result, but in context it actually wasn't that bad and advisers were very happy behind the scenes. Polling had suggested internally that the Conservatives could've won over 70 seats from the Liberals and in key areas like Northern Koresa and Central Ahitereira, but this only materialised as around 15 seats being handed over. The majority of the losses were actually in Peryzium where the Red Bloq picked up many seats, which was seen to be easier to recover in the following election. Therefore, the Liberals were looking at potentially less than 200 seats and to maintain over 250 was a great result. As chief adviser to the campaign put it, "We were always going to lose seats: an incumbent government wielding incredible power and knives in our backs from all directions. There are many pathways to governing".

Still, without a majority, the Liberals needed to negotiate with other parties to get into office again. The Red Bloq had increased their seat count to 130 from 97, and the Conservatives increased their seat count from 50 to 63, shrinking the minor parties further. The coalition reached out first to Alliance and Cyn Serilin, who positioned themselves as centrist liberals. They refused, wanting to hold the government to account from the opposition. The Pink Daphne Party and Feriliye Jin were then in negotiations with their similar policy positions. They agreed to join with key concessions concerning women's rights. With their combined 14 seats, the coalition held 273 seats, a majority of 14. Bitraş was reconfirmed as Premier on 1 January 2453 in a vote 273–257.

Post constitution

Having a majority in the House of Representatives for the rest of her term and the constitution having been finalised, Richelieu could now work on tangible domestic and foreign policy like every other country for the next two years of her term. After the confirmation vote in January, the legislature set out on submitting the first proper budget by April 2453. During this process, the Red Bloq opposition called for the government to introduce a national health service, like that in Empherias, federally to provide for poorer people throughout the union who couldn't afford healthcare. While the economic was doing well, many in the Liberal party were opposed due to the great costs involved by the taxpayer. The Red Bloq debated in the House for weeks and created a fully costed plan in a paper called the Campbell Paper which stated that it would cost $4.4 billion (roughly $57 billion in money today) which would cost just $19 per person per year on average (although the cost would be spread disproportionately to the higher class, with many poor people not having to pay). The Red Bloq forced the Liberals to hold a free vote in the House without a whip to determine the popularity of the plan. The free vote was held on 28 January 2453 and the result was 232–189. Of the government, 89 Liberals of Ahitereira-Koresa and all 10 Pink Daphne representatives voted in favour, while 57 Liberals of Ahitereira-Koresa and all 46 Janvariye Jin representatives voted against. The Empheri and Peryzi Liberals abstained, alongside Feriliye Jin, alongside Cyn Serilin, Durbanar, and all the Nationalist parties. The bill needed 266 votes to get a second reading, and thus the paper was no longer considered.

February to March 2453 would focus on several budget readings in the House of Representatives. The final budget vote took place on 30 March 2453 and would pass 294 to 223. Those voting in favour was the entire governing coalition which would've been enough to pass the bill, but also the entirety of the Alliance Party, Green Party, and Cyn Serilin. The Nationalist parties abstained from the vote. The budget would not be very innovative, only including the barebones spending agreed previously, and saw no major changes. Katelyn Roberts, the Opposition Leader, would scold the government for not including any measures to actually help ordinary people. They would particularly lambast liberals who voted against the free vote, and urged abstainers to consider the benefit for the little costs. President Richelieu signed and passed the 2453 Budget into law on 1 April 2453.

In November 2453, after several months of intense debating to get it right, the legislature passed the Federal Creation of the Independent Royal Commission Against Corruption Act 2453, nicknamed CIRCACA. It would become one of the most important pieces of legislature in the High Kingdoms of Alaxia to this day because of it's everlasting effects. Some historians and political scientists call it as much a part of the bedrock of modern law as the constitution. This new agency, officially a continuation of the Ahitereiran and Koresan neo-collective moment, would be an independent agency to fight corruption. Due to the increase in size in various governmental sectors and corporations, the responsibility of the new commission would be to investigate and eliminate corrupt activities at various levels of administration. While President Richelieu sponsored the bill heavily, the bill actually gave the power to appoint and dismiss the Royal Commissioner to the Premier of the House of Representatives. Bitras would nominate former Ahitereiran prime minister, Rute Franco, to become the first commissioner. The agency was launched fully on 1 January 2454, with Franco's first four-year term to begin there and end on 1 January 2458. The IRCACA had power over all parliamentarians even devolved ones, local provincial leaders, councillors of councils, ministers, advisers, university staff, and employees and officers of public companies. The vote was 494–22.

With a looming presidential election taking place in November 2454, campaigning for Richelieu's re-election would begin as early as March 2454. Having a pretty lackluster reaction to the 2453 budget, Richelieu pushed for a more innovative budget to be passed in 2454 prior to the election year. Richelieu though would also want to save some policy commitments for later. It leaked that Richelieu had privately to advisers said that, "Education reform is important. I would champion education reform. But not in 2453. We have a 2454 presidential election, and a 2455 legislative election to win. And we need a platform to win on. Education is on the agenda circa 2456." which hurt her short term polling, though she recovered as it faded to the background of relevancy. Including in budget discussions were education reforms in the end, but mostly just subsidiaries given to devolved governments for use on education. In particular, $50 million ($636 million today) was to be specifically given to Peryzium who was very behind on education levels. In fact, a Peryzium research paper released in February 2454 revealed the great shortfalls of education in Peryzium and the need for reform there. The reaction to this revelation was mixed. Some believed that direct government aid would increase funding and therefore levels, others believed Peryzi people were just less intelligent than other people, some believed that Peryzium should domestically make their own reforms there, while others believed this was a reason that education should be united and decided in a federal department. Regardless, one small piece of legislation that passed due to this discovery was the Federal Baseline for Education Act 2454 which established criteria that all education departments in the Peryzi government were mandated to hit. The actual government would determine how to hit this criteria, but they needed to reach a minimum satisfactory level of education or lose certain privileges, protections, or be subject to more vigorous investigations by the IRCACA. The act passed through the House of Representatives very decisively 431–86. The $50 million in aid would be included in the 2454 budget.

The 2454 budget would include a large increase of federal expenditure. Transport would be a focus of this budget, with funding being given to establishing bicycle lanes and setting up traffic regulations to prevent rampant and growing car usage. The regulations around highway building would also be changed slightly with less major highways being built. New rail lines connecting the devolved countries would be prioritised to interconnect the countries further and interconnect rail networks. A bridge crossing the sea from Ahitereira to Peryzium was also announced to be in production, with designing having begun in 2451. The first connection would be rail. The budget would also introduce more accessible credit and introduce financial institution regulations. Richelieu used the motto, "Investment is the core of growth" multiple times promoting the budget. The budget allocated millions to the creation of community centres across the union. The Red Bloq championed transport infrastructure but still pushed the government on the lack of major education reform or socialist values such as nationalisation or welfare. The budget was voted on 27 March 2454 and passed 276–241. Richelieu signed and passed the 2454 Budget into law on 1 April 2454.

It had become very obvious by the middle of 2454 the dynamics of the parties. The government consisted of 273 representatives, the Alliance Party's two members and Green Party of Empherias's single member would nearly always vote WITH the government in key votes. Some coined the term 'quasi-governmental parties' to describe them and how they would vote when predicting legislature outcomes. And consistently, the 13 Nationalist party representatives would boycott the vote and abstain. This meant that usually, only 259 representatives rather than 266 representatives would be needed to pass a bill.

Despite the passing of the budget in April 2454, the Red Bloq would introduce the Federal Minimum Wage Act 2454 to the House of Representatives in early May. It would model itself after the various minimum wage bills passed in Empherias and would set a federally bound minimum wage set at $0.75 per hour. This would introduce minimum wages to communities who previously did not have one. Sofia Hopkins, the new Empheri Prime Minister, would openly support this bill. The Liberals of Empherias actually sponsored the bill in an act of consensus across Empheri parties. The Liberal Party of Ahitereira and Koresa then sponsored the bill and adopted it as official Liberal policy. The bill went to vote on 18 July and passed 357–160. Notably, the Janvariye Jin coalition members voted against the bill but it still passed due to help from the Red Bloq. Richelieu, not wanting this to harm her campaigning for the presidential election, would hold crisis talks with the Janvariye Jin. A leak to the press saw newspapers break the story that Janvariye were considering exiting the Golden Coalition and holding a vote of no confidence in the government. It became grave speculation that the government could collapse at any moment with the Kiavalari party pulling out. On 1 August 2454, just three months before the presidential election, Richelieu and Bitras held a joint press conference in which they discussed the minimum wage bill. They announced they would be delaying the implementation of the bill for at least one year, with discussions to continue after the 2455 legislative election to bring in a new group of representatives into the House. Janvariye Jin confirmed on 3 August that they would not exit the coalition after all and that they forced the delay of the legislation. The Red Bloq were furious, with Katelyn Roberts describing it as a gross betrayal.

2454 presidential election

The 2454 presidential election took place on 12 November 2454. This was the first presidential election to use the electoral college as the method for nominations to reach the run-off stage. This was implemented within the constitution rather than using estimated electors for nominations like in 2449. The electoral college allowed each province to award a number of electors to the largest party (based on the results of the most result legislative election in 2452). The electoral college vote saw the Liberal party receive 334 electoral votes, Janvariye on 141, Red Bloq on 119, and the others in various amounts. The college would eliminate the party with the least electors, who then had to choose a new party for the votes to go to. Repeat until just two parties remain. This period of the electoral college nominations took place across August 2454. The first out was Durbanar Jin with their 5 electoral votes. They gave their votes to the Red Bloq. The Nationalists with their 15 electoral votes was eliminated and they gave their votes to the Conservatives. Cyn Serilin with their 26 electoral votes were next to be eliminated and they gave their votes to the Liberal party. It is at this point that Janvariye Jin, second place with 141 votes, confirmed that they were not exiting government on 3 August, and thus their votes were consolidated with the Liberal party's. The next smallest was JCPK with 31 electoral votes. They gave their votes to the Conservatives. The Pink Daphnes were next with 40 electoral votes and they gave theirs to the Liberal party. At this point, the electoral votes were 541 to the Liberal party, 124 to the Red Bloq, and 84 to the Conservatives. Thus, the Conservatives were eliminated and they gave their 84 electoral votes to the Liberal party, who now reached 625 electoral votes against Red Bloq's 124.

With the two parties chosen on 7 August 2454, they would begin their process at selecting their candidates. The Liberals selected incumbent President Clemenceau Richelieu almost unopposed to run for re-election, as she had expected with months of campaigning already. Maneli Veritara would be re-selected as her Vice-President. The Red Bloq would hold a primary on 17 August 2454 on short notice consisting of five people. Four were incumbent members of the House of Representatives, while the other was currently working as an adviser to the Prime Minister of Empherias. The potential candidates were Isabella King (Representative for Charlotte); Katelyn Roberts (Shadow Premier and Representative for Georgina); Amina–Layla Ward (Representative for Gateshaven East and Nieuwbourg); Lily Lovedie (Representative for Vreimer West); and Tom Wright (Adviser to the Prime Minister Sofia Hopkins). The first round of the primary saw Isabella King win the least amount of votes causing her to drop out, followed by Katelyn Roberts who wanted to focus more on the legislature instead of a presidential campaign. The second round saw Lily Lovedie drop out due to low support. The final round saw Amina–Layla Ward win 51.34% of the vote against Wright's 48.66%. Amina–Layla Ward was quite well known in Red Bloq circles and Empherias, but not much in the rest of the country. For the campaign, she sometimes went by just Layla Ward for simplicity.

2455 legislative election

Education reform

Minimum Wage Act promise

Confidence in the Janvariye Jin

Devolved changes (i.e Rise of Hopkins in Empherias)

Adolescence period (2459–2469)

Richelieu replacement's presidency

Explosion in Exteras speakers

Exteras literacy rates hit 80% post-election.

Increased pull factors for economic growth

Lowered tariffs and taxes and negotiations attract the headquarters of foreign companies to move to the HKA alongside subsidiaries and new business ventures.

A crisis visa is introduced to many nuclear victims, and immigration to the HKA is incentivised.

General foreign policy targets

Recognition of Ladrosian states, but no foreign wars started or intervened in.

Peacekeeping forces in Cralas

Captain-General Seruliye le Loire, 1st Duke of Castlereagh, 5th Royal Legion makes a speech in Cralas.

The Tower of the North, Freysia, events of

Superpower period (2489–2504)

2489 presidential election and 2489–2494 presidential term

Electronics

First mobile phones