Qalbtajja Self-Determination Front
Qalbtajja Self-Determination Front Qalbtajja Zelfbeschikkingsfront | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | QZBF |
| Leader | Hendrik Linhart (first) Mikiel Cassar (last) |
| Founded | 19 April 1911 |
| Dissolved | 8 May 1926 |
| Merger of |
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| Headquarters | Sint Arend |
| Ideology |
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| Political position | Far-right |
| Colours | Green |
| Seats in the Representative Assembly (1912) | 62 / 300 (21%)
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The Qalbtajja Self-Determination Front (Vistarian: Qalbtajja Zelfbeschikkingsfront, Vorpestian: Front Awtodeterminazzjoni tal-Qalbtajja), known commonly as the QZBF, was a far-right, collaborationist political party established in Vorpest during the occupation of the island by the Norgsveltian military. The party was organized by members of the pro-independence Qalbta Liberation Congress, the small Eyjarian irredentist Eyjarian Resistance Union and other collaborators with the military administration.
Though the party did not gain a majority, even following a considerable amount of voter intimidation and political violence during the 1912 legislative election, it was given the role of heading the civilian government alongside sympathetic members of the Viktorist Electoral League. Though recognized by Norgsveldet as the new legitimate government of Vorpest, the QZBF had relatively little influence on enacted policy, with laws requiring military approval and long periods of rule by military decree. Despite this, the party asserted its role was to "transition Vorpest to an independent state for the Vorpestian people", and they would enact a number of laws to limit those of the majority Vistarian culture in favour of the Qalbta and Eyjarian minorities. Additionally, the party would, with help from occupying troops, pass the National Security and Rebirth Act - which, amongst other things, granted a considerable amount of power to the executive and suspended further elections until the state of emergency was lifted.
Throughout the occupation, the QZBF dwindled in popularity, both due to the corporatist economic policies they instituted as a means in which to support the war, as well as the understanding that the party's promises of an independent Vorpest would only extend to the allowance of Norgsveldet - who seemed uninterested in empowering the civilian administration despite previous overtures of the occupation as an act of Vorpestian liberation. During the 1920s, many of the party's high ranking officials would defect or resign, with its leader - Hendrik Linhart, surrendering to the Vistari Colonial Government in 1925 as a response to the switch in Norgsveltian support from Emperor Dirick V to Duke Matthias of Tulpveld, stating he now felt the Norgsveltian government was intending to sell off Vorpest as a bargaining chip and he wished no part in it any longer. With Linhart's departure, a considerable portion of the party's moderate wing and many former Qalbta Liberation Congress members began to demand the party call for an end the military occupation and make on their promises to establish an independent Vorpest, something in which the new Norgsveldet-appointed leader, Mikiel Cassar, refused to do.
Following a period of infighting, mass defections and further intervention by the Norgsveltian military, the party would cease to function beyond the few remaining collaborators heading the administration in 1926. The QZBF would voluntarily dissolve shortly following the signing of the Treaty of Vierbak, in return for amnesty from the newly restored Dominion administration in Vorpest. Despite this, a number of party officials still choose to flee to Eyjaria to avoid persecution and exclusion due to their involvement with the regime which had become hated by Vistari unionists and Vorpestian separatists alike.