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The Kingdom of Santones.
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Political Parties in Saintonge
This article is about the political parties in the Kingdom of Saintonge.History
First Party System (1725-1834)
After the Santonian Revolution, the Revolutionary Party (Parti revolutionnaire), espousing the ideals and aims of the revolution, emerged as the dominant force is Santonian politics. For the first three decades of Santonian parliamentary democracy, no other party gained more than a handful of seats in the National Assembly. However, thanks to the differing factions within the Revolutionary Party, it was unable to, and was unwilling to, build a one-party state. It was during this period that the rising bourgeoisie and middle class, unhappy with the proto-socialistic economic policies of the Revolutionary Party, founded the Liberal Party (Parti Libéral) to contest the 1825 elections.
Second Party System (1834-1900)
The deepening rifts within the Revolutionary Party led to its catastrophic loss in the 1834 elections. Breaking up into three major factions - the Agrarian Party (Parti agraire), the Popular Party (Parti populaire), and the Centre Party (Parti du centre), the rump of the Revolutionary Party was swept out of power. Now there were multiple parties in the National Assembly, with the Liberals being the largest of them. The Liberals' savvy in forming coalitions enabled them to hold the prime minister's office in 1834-1844 and 1874-1886, albeit with coalition partners. Even when the Liberals did not hold the Prime Ministership, they were frequently part of the governing coalition. The only times the Liberals were out of government between 1834 and 1886 were in the first government of Centre Party Prime Minister Jean-Marc Juneau (1844-1849) and the second government of Popular Prime Minister Jacques-Christophe Laclède (1869-1874).
It is also during the Second Party System that the Radical Party (Parti radical) emerged in 1867, a party more to the right than the Liberals, in a Santonian phenomenon called droitisme. The descendant parties of the old Revolutionary Party also experienced a drift to the right, especially the Agrarian Party, and to a lesser extent, the Centre Party. The emergence of the Radicals is due in part to the Industrial Revolution, in which new immense wealth was created and these wealthy people advocated for a more laissez-faire capitalism. The old nobility also embraced this Radical Party after the Liberal government of Zeus-Achille de Saint-Maxent in 1875 extended voting rights to nobles who chose to keep their titles. Also due to the Industrial Revolution, a Labour Party (Parti travailliste) also emerged in 1878 as a party of the working class.
The last fifteen years of the Second Party System was a tumultuous one, six major parties (Liberals, Centre, Popular, Radical, Agrarian, Labour) and numerous smaller ones were fighting for control of the National Assembly and government. A series of revolving-door governments followed. Between 1886, after Liberal Prime Minister Jean-Arthur-Pierre Maisonneuve de Briance was censured by the National Assembly, and 1900, when a majority National government of Prime Minister Marc-Childéric Battiston was elected, Saintonge had eight snap parliamentary elections and twelve governments. Three prime ministers were censured by the National Assembly (including Maisonneuve de Briance, who was censured for a second time in 1893), and one, Centre Party Prime Minister Matthieu-Nathanaël Lafourcade, was assassinated in 1898. No government served out its term and no single party had a majority in the National Assembly.
Alignment of the parties in the political spectrum.
Third Party System (1900-present)
The tumult of the end of the 19th century led to the emergence of the National Party (Parti national), which ended the revolving door governments. After the assassination of Prime Minister Lafourcade, and the attempted assassination of his coalition partner, Popular Party leader Thibault-Brieuc Kerdoncuff, the still-injured Kerdoncuff became Prime Minister, but his government fell in 1899 after small parties left his government. Kerdoncuff died from his injuries months after the 1899 snap elections. The assassination gained sympathy for both the Centre Party and the Popular Party, which became more tightly bound.
The Liberal-Radical government of Louis-Casimir Villechaise de Condillac that emerged after the 1899 elections increasing became mired in scandal, especially after attempting to force the departmental council of the Basse-Bléone to elect to the House of Lords a controversial nominee to Cabinet. The electorate, many departmental governments, and the other parties became hostile to the Liberal-Radical government, and the opposition began to coalesce around Agrarian Party leader Marc-Childéric Battiston of the Basse-Bléone. On 30 November 1899, leaders of four major parties (Centre, Popular, Agrarian, Labour) and several smaller ones met at Barenton (Basse-Bléone) to unite their parties in opposition to the Liberal-Radical government. The previously fragmented opposition was also a source of instability, as deputies to the National Assembly were elected by proportional representation by department - which helps the larger parties like the Liberals.
Battiston became the leader of the new party, called the National Party. Still, they did not have enough deputies to form government, but sufficient defections from the Liberals and smaller parties was enough to take down the Villechaise de Condillac government and hold another parliamentary election in 1900, twenty months after the previous one. Battiston's new National Party won a landslide victory in those elections, garnering more than the two-thirds of seats necessary to amend the Constitution. One of the first acts of the Battiston government is to do away with the proportional representation that caused fragmentation of the National Assembly and replace it with a two-round voting system by electoral circumscription. Measures to discourage smaller, regionalist parties (which were mostly merely opportunistic during the last years of the Second Party System and caused a lot of government disintegrations) were also made.
Battiston's reforms and subsequent governance were well-received by the Santonian electorate, making him the longest-serving Santonian Prime Minister, serving until his death in 1922. The National Party also went on to dominate Santonian politics in the 20th century, being in government for 105 years since 1900. This is the reason why the National Party is thought to be the "natural governing party" of Saintonge. The only brief interlude before 2015 was the Liberal-Radical government of Prime Minister Charles-Martin Perrier des Jarlais (1975-1985), which was elected after the National Party weakened significantly after the splintering of the environmentalist faction in 1974 to form the Green Party.
Currently, the Santonian political scene is divided into four parties, the National Party, the Liberal Party, the Radical Party, and the Green Party.
Current major parties
Economic: Left to Centre-left
Social: Right to Centre-right
Traditional colour: red
Traditional abbreviation: N
The National Party is Saintonge's largest party in terms of both membership and years governing the country. Considered the country's "natural governing party", it is considered the party closest to the Santonian National Church, despite the clerical group comprising only a part of the faction of this big-tent party. It is also the party that is closest to labour unions and the working-class groups. The descendant of the Revolutionary Party and its splinters such as the Agrarian Party, Centre Party, and Popular Party, it has many factions:
Agrarian wing: Most closely represented by former Prime Minister Philippe Colet and former party leader Marc Gaucelin, this is the so-called "old-boys' club" in the party, having descended from the old Agrarian Party that formed the backbone of the rejuvenated National Party. With its base in the central plains, this is responsible for the bedrock of National support in the heart of the country.
Labour wing: Most closely represented by deputies Jeanne-Élisabeth Vertières-Clérembault (a former labour organiser) and the firebrand MP Jean-Quentin Hamel, this is the most leftist of the National Party's factions, espousing socialist ideas in terms of economic issues. This wing is responsible for the pockets of National support in the working-class parts of urban areas.
Clerical wing: Most closely represented by deputies Camille Courrégelongue and Jeanne-d'Arc Guéninchault, this is the most conservative (socially) of the National Party's faction and was descended from the old Popular Party. This wing is responsible for the strong National support in rural areas and provincial towns.
Moderate wing: Most closely represented by the current leader Anne-Douceline Courseaux, as its name suggests, this is the moderate faction descended from the Centre Party, but nowadays have turned into a radical centrist faction. Now nicknamed the Rénovateur ("Renovator") faction, the moderate wing became more outspoken and active as a reaction to the scandals that hit the agrarian-led National Party. The driving force behind the faction are former members of the youth wing of the National Party.
Environmental wing: Prior to the emergence of the Green Party, the National Party also has a sizable environmentalist faction, being the first party to espouse environmentalist policies. Nevertheless, the National Party still contains a significant environmentalist faction.
Economic: Right to Centre-right
Social: Right to Centre-right
Traditional colour: blue
Traditional abbreviation: L
The Liberal Party is the party of the conservatives. Right-wing economically and socially, it is the preferred party of the bourgeoisie, the professionals, and the middle class, which explains its strength in well-off urban areas, the prosperous suburbs, and wealthy areas such as oil-rich and touristic areas. In addition, areas without severe social upheaval during the Santonian Revolution - such as former provinces of the Pouilles, Artois, Bavière, Grésivaudan, Soleure, and Germandie - did not have strong attachments to the Revolutionary Party and had eventually turned into areas of strong Liberal support that cannot be explained by being simply rich.
Being socially conservative, the Liberal Party is not rabidly anticlerical as the Radical Party or even the Green Party. Of Saintonge's main parties, the Liberals is theoretically the "swing" party, being able to ally with either the diametrically opposite National and Radical Parties. However, since the Santonian political scene usually framed as the "dominant" party (ie. the Nationals) versus the "others", the Liberals more frequently ally with the Radicals to the point that the Liberals and Radicals are usually collectively known as the "Coalition".
Economic: Right
Social: Left
Traditional colour: yellow/orange
Traditional abbreviation: R
Holding diametrically opposite views as the Santonian Church, the Radical Party is Saintonge's premier anticlerical party. This is also the reason why the Radical Party had never prospered in devout Saintonge - the Radicals only supplied one Prime Minister in the country's 225-year old parliamentary democracy. This Prime Minister, Antoine-Marcellin Lesdiguières, didn't even serve a full term - having only served three-and-a-half years in three nonconsecutive terms.
The Radicals do have their pockets of support. The nobles, because of the Santonian Revolution, are known to strongly support the Radical Party and are responsible for the party's wealth, surpassing even that of the larger Liberal Party. Many of the country's super-wealthy and moneyed families also are known to support the Radicals. The Radicals are strong in wealthy suburbs and in noble strongholds like the province of Beyre and in western Griffonné.
Economic: Left
Social: Left
Traditional colour: green
Traditional abbreviation: V
An offshoot of the National Party, the Green Party's main point of difference with the Nationals is on social issues. When the differences are stark, such as when elections are run on divisive social issues, the Green Party would prefer to ally with the Coalition (even if the Liberals are to the right on social issues) instead of the Nationals. Still, the Greens are the "natural" coalition partners of the Nationals and are known to be the party that would most readily accept a coalition offer from the Nationals.
Notes:Special thanks to
Prydania for making some of the logos :)
