Krovx Belgium

Azerubia

With a grand total of 45 votes cast (3 of which were abstain votes), there was a victory for the incumbent, Azerubia seizing over 59% of the popular vote. The Krovx-Elysium ticket scored 40% of the vote, which is the highest for an opposing candidate ever.

By regions, there were a couple of predictable outcomes, Force being majority Azerubia and Heart being majority Krovx. However, there was a notable surprise when RGBN was found to be split evenly between Krovx and Azerubia, as Krovx is a native of that region. The New Kingdom and Canterbury were notable for being entirely for one candidate, TNK supporting Krovx and Canterbury supporting Azerubia. Citizens Alliance of Democracy had a very interesting outcome, with around 1/3 voting for Krovx, just over 1/2 voting for Azerubia, and one in ten abstained.

Following his victory, Azerubia outlined his goals, which primarily focused on increasing activity and working on mending the rifts formed in the wake of the TSSU crisis last month. However, some notable other pledges were to have censuses "To have a better image of who we represent." and to continue the last Salibaic administration's work on Directorates, stating that they needed a "Legal base" which he would provide.

As it is written in the New Constitution of the Region of the Golden Black Nations, Presidential elections for RGBN shall be held every third Monday of March, June, September and December. (RGBN Const. art. F, § 1, cl. 1.) This is why on the 21st of June, all citizens across RGBN were finally able to enter the race to take the lead of their region. The favourite for the office was the incumbent President, Krovx Belgium who had already served the region as President for more than half a year following the snap election called by ex-President Suter in January. Apart from him was a new roleplayer called Brydoniaa who had been in RGBN for only about 10 days at the time his candidacy was announced. He was an active member of the community but obviously his inexperience in RGBN made some people unsure about testing their luck with this vote. Finally there was New Ratttopia which little is known about but he was also a newcomer.

Normally, following the Constitution of RGBN, voting should have started on the 23rd of June but due to multiple problems in the availability of the Founder, it was delayed until the 4th of July, nearly two weeks after candidates had been announced. There was not much campaigning from each side and three days later, results came in. Krovx Belgium won in a landslide as he gathered the votes of 7 Goldenfolks while his two opponents only gathered 1 each. While asked about his future plans for the region, Krovx Belgium answered, “I plan to remake the Roleplay map, encourage intrest in government, increase participation in government, and reform the organization of the state government.” He also addressed his citizens by stating, “Thank you for turning out, I promise to keep RGBN going strong in the summer lull.” His promises seem to hold true as RGBN does not seem to be as much impacted by the summer lull then other regions, though we’ll have to see if this continues.

Three days after the results of the RGBN Presidential Election had been announced, First Minister The Scottish Republic announced he would hold a snap election to fill in the seats of the region’s legislative and judicial chambers. The region had started slowing down in terms of activity and some seats remained vacant, that’s why this election was called in the first place, The Scottish Republic communicated to us. A total of 4 seats were up for grabs during the Delegates’ elections and a total of 5 nations were ready to compete for it. These 5 nations were: The Scottish Republic, Empire of Elysium, Aurhany, Make America Italian Again and Memkeria. The Scottish Republic, Empire of Elysium and Aurhany had all been previous First Ministers and so were recognizable faces in the political sphere of Heart. At the same time, The Scottish Republic and Empire of Elysium were the current Representatives for Heart in the Union House while Make America Italian Again had previously been one making him another recognizable face for Planters.

The Scottish Republic easily won the first round of the election with 6 votes to 1 for Empire of Elysium which gave him the first available seat in the Chamber. Two other seats were then won by Empire of Elysium and Memkeria with the surplus votes allocations. As they did not ever reach the 2 votes threshold required to be elected for this election, Aurhany and Make America Italian Again did not manage to gain a seat. With a full Federalist majority, the Lord Proprietor allowed First Minister The Scottish Republic to form a government for the State of Heart. For the judicial, only one seat was available, as per Heart’s Constitution the Lord’s Court was to be made of only one elected nonpartisan Justice. (Heart Const. art. 4, § 1, cl. 1.) The only candidate for the election was Memkeria, the same who ran and won his seat in the Chamber of Assembled Delegates. Even then, he managed to get elected with an approval percentage of 100%.

The Scottish Republic: Thank you Renegalle, it's always a pleasure.

Renegalle: Why did you want to become First Minister to start with? For any readers who might not know about your past in Heart, what is your history there?

The Scottish Republic: Well I became First Minister after Elysium offered if I would like to be First Minister again to which he resigned to allow for me to come to power. I wanted to become First Minister again because I was the original First Minister back in the start of 2020 however I as also the 3rd Prime Minister of Heart back in 2018 before the federal takeover. Many will know that I am a proud native of Heart or a Heartian/Heartizen or more commonly known now as Planters, joining Heart back in June of 2018. There is a great nationalistic pride in Heart for it's traditional roots of democracy and historical roleplay prevalence which my government has started a come to rehabilitate. As one of the few natives from the 2018 generation or Golden Heart generation, it gives me a lot of sentimental value to serve in a region I love.

Renegalle: How would you assess your time as First Minister so far? What progress have you made?

The Scottish Republic: I feel we had ups and downs, I personally have embarked on a rehabilitation of Heart to try and foster activity after Heart has received a lot of neglect historically. So far I would say we are on a positive note with the new dispatches, WA Program, and increased efforts in terms of recruitment. One of my more proud projects is the Daily Question which many regions have done but I feel it has helped Heart establish a base on its RMB. Heart has also been key in terms of political success under I feel too with Heart being the only Union region to fill all its federal House Representative seats. So I would asses we have made many strives in the right direction but we still have much work to be done.

Renegalle: Who in your Cabinet has been most effective in helping you achieve your goals? Why?

The Scottish Republic: I feel that my cabinet has been alright but not perfect. I understand many of them have real life commitments but I would like to see increased activity from them. We especially need more engagement on RMB and Discord from them to boost overall activity measures. I feel Elysium on a personal level has been rather good although I would like to see him carry out more cultural event type stuff. Tenjouin who is my newest RP Minister has been working rather hard on getting the RP up with maps and channels, a project we hope to announce soon. I will note that I plan to appoint Make America Italian Again as Home Minister soon and there may be future plans

Renegalle: What is your vision for heart? How do you seek to make Heart a better region? What plans do you have to help achieve this?

The Scottish Republic: My vision for Heart is to embrace our roots and celebrate who we are. As I mentioned before Heart has great value to me and I feel that Heart needs to uphold its identity against any torrent it faces against it. But I would like to draw open our ability not just defend and become hyper nationalistic but to also imagine with the rest of the Union. I would love for Heart to embark upon a path of friendship and showing the Union and the rest of the NationStates world our proud culture. I also wish to increase overall activity as well and embrace our almost stigmatised democratic participation . Another key point is to encourage non-Heartizens to visit the region and meet our peoples as many are not well integrated with the Union. That leads me onto another key point, I feel that we should move so that Heart acts sovereign while being integrated at the same time to ensure our traditions and cultures are not toned down by other Union States and Provinces and even the capital.

Renegalle: Are there any major roadblocks to achieving this vision? If so, how do you seek to remedy them?

The Scottish Republic: I think the major issue is activity which I have been addressing with Daily Questions, the Roleplay that is upcoming, and the WA program. I feel we should extend these programs and maybe even developing more of our programs to be onsite and Discord simultaneously . I would also like to look into using the NS forums as a form of activity and professionalisation of the region. I would also like to start work on the repairing our broken Foreign Affairs and rebuilding Hearts inter-regional reputation. Obviously to achieve all this will be a lengthy task but there is nothing that can't stop us even in the most hopeless of times which is what I feel makes Heart special, it never gives up.

Renegalle: Have you drawn on the experience of other regions, inside or outside the Union, for inspiration? If so, please explain.

The Scottish Republic: Being the longest serving Prime Minister of the Union has given me a lot of insight into how to manage a region effectively. It gives me lots of influence on recruitment and WA policy and gives me this goal for making Heart a technological hub of the Union as technology is key to staying ahead of the game. I have some influence from TSSU surprisingly as its community value it once had is something I would like to have in Heart while keeping that level of professionalism as it fosters a lot of general activity. I think the experience from my positions in the capital and the House has given me the edge to a better way of governing.

Renegalle: What, if anything, could the federal government do to help assist in Heart’s progress?

The Scottish Republic: One of the key things is to just engage. Starting up a conversation, doing the Daily Question, or our polls. There are so many little things that would be so beneficial to helping out. I guess one of the major things that we would like help with that many regions in the Union struggle with is recruitment as we somewhat struggle with numbers in terms of citizens. Those would be the key things, it's just really important to me that more people see Heart for what it is and people of Heart can see the rest of the Union as this melting pot of ideas and culture. I feel that we need to get past the whole anti-Heart mantra that some key people hold due to some historical hostile actions of our members and actions towards others. That does not represent Heart as a whole and I feel that stereotype is extremely unhelpful.

Renegalle: Do you plan to run for re-election as First Minister? If not, who do you think would make a good successor?

The Scottish Republic: I plan to stay on until such times that I feel ready to pass on the torch to the next person. I would like to build a stable base first and make future crashes preventable as possible to ensure that whoever become the next First Minister has the tools required to keep Heart strong and healthy.

Renegalle: Thank you for your time. I appreciate your answers and hope you have a nice day.

The Scottish Republic: I hope you do too, thank you having me! :)

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