New Speaker Chosen After Senate Election

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Contact Information (TG): Deepest house

(Europeia, February 17, 2018) - Senator Calvin Coolidge defeated former Speaker of the Senate GraVandius in an internal power struggle to emerge as the leader of the region's senior legislative body. The new senate elected Calvin Coolidge to the leadership position via unanimous consent after GraVandius conceded the position when it became clear he did not have the support to return to the speakership.

After leading the senate during the previous term, the Europeian Broadcasting Corporation identified GraVandius as the frontrunner to retain the speakership in an election preview. However, immediately upon the conclusion of the election, newly elected Senator Darcness proposed to elect Calvin Coolidge via unanimous consent, circumventing the usual nomination and election process, much to GraVandius' surprise.

"What a pleasant way to wake up this morning," the outgoing speaker said in Europeia's Discord server upon seeing activity in the senate. "Since Darcness and Aex were clearly willing to completely forgo even my chance at being Speaker, it would seem unlikely that either of them would vote for me," GraVandius added on the Senate floor as it became clear his fortunes had turned. He later conceded the speakership to Calvin Coolidge.

This will be Calvin Coolidge's first term as Speaker of the Senate, and his fourth term in the senate overall. In addition to serving in the senate, Mr. Coolidge also serves as Europeia's Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Calvin Coolidge campaigned for the senate with the Assembly Plan as the centerpiece of his legislative agenda.

"The Senate needs to loosen up and become a place of experimentation and broad discussion rather a rubber stamp for Assembly bills, tweaker of grammar, and the people that vote on presidential appointments," he said in during his campaign. "Now, it's easy to say that without providing a plan because I'm promising nothing, but here's a proposal that I think can help: have bills that pass the Senate also require passage through the Assembly."

While the region has discussed bicameralism in the past, these discussions have usually not gained much traction. With Mr. Coolidge's strong performance in the election and his victory in the battle for speaker, he can implement this agenda with something of a mandate.

The significant defeat in his run to retain the speakership was compounded by his overall election results. GraVandius finished in fifth place out of six in the general election, receiving only one percent more votes than the last place finisher. The poor results perhaps indicate further erosion of support for GraVandius in Europeian political sphere beyond the speakership.

The Europeian citizens elected six senators for this term. By descending vote total order, Aexnidaral Seymour, Calvin Coolidge, Darcness, Ervald, GraVandius, and United Vietussia won election. Ervald is perhaps the greatest surprise of this election, launching an insurgent campaign and finishing strongly. Yuno, Olde Delaware, and newcomer candidate Peter John Chamberlain were unsuccessful in their bids for elected office.

The next election in Europeia is the presidential election, scheduled 35 days from the general senate election.

More news from the Europeian Broadcasting Corporation available here: http://s6.zetaboards.com/Europeia/forum/4010143/