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Dispatch → Factbook → Politics
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The Champagne Socialists of Grussland.
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Composition of the Volskammer
SNHA: Socialist Non-Heteronormative Alliance
Overview
The Volkskammer is Grussland's unicameral parliament, composed of 477 seats. Utilizing a Mixed-Member Proportional system, 377 of the seats represent geographical constituencies while 100 seats are set aside to bring a party's seat count closer to its proportion of the national vote. Indeed, these proportional seats are how both the Patriotic Front and Alternative Party have one seat each. On the other hand, the Farmer's Front has not won any proportional seats, instead relying on two rural constituencies it has won repeatedly for decades.
The "classroom" style layout, where members face the 5-member Presidium, is typical of authoritarian regimes where representatives have little opportunity for real debate and instead follow the lead of those sitting up front. While there is now room for debate and democratic process in Grussland, the layout hasn't changed. However, the 5-member Presidium is now comprised of members of the largest parties in the Volkskammer and is elected from within the chamber, instead being entirely senior Worker's Unity Party leadership as it used to be pre-1988.
Vacancies are not permitted - they are filled by overflow (proportional list) members of the party that previously held the seat. Independents cannot hold proportional seats and may only be elected to represent constituencies or, in the case of the two current independents, are ex-party members representing constituencies. If a proportional list member is ejected from a caucus, they lose their seat and are replaced with an overflow member from that party's list.
2022 Election
The 2022 Volkskammer election is widely considered to be the first truly free and fair election in Grussland's modern history, with past results tainted by ballot stuffing and pre-determined seat allocations. This is also the first time the ruling Democratic Socialist Party-led coalition won less than 66% of the seats since the collapse of the communist regime in 1988.
The Democratic Socialist Party (196 seats) currently rules in coalition with the Social Democratic Party (48 seats), Socialist Non-Heteronormative Alliance (7 seats), and Farmer's Front (2 seats), with a total of 248 seats. The junior coalition partners are largely considered to be loyal to the DSP since many founding members of these parties (and the opposition Communist Unity Party) were former members of the Worker's Unity Party.
With 105 seats, the Christian Democratic Party forms the largest opposition party. This is the first time that any party aside from the DSP has won more than 100 seats. Combined with the strong showing from the Liberal Party (64 seats), Green Party (31 seats), and upstart Conservative Party (17 seats) some analysts and pundits believe in the possibility of a "blue-teal-green" or "blue-teal-purple" coalition formed by three of the parties after the next election.
