Vaklori: Difference between revisions

|leader_name1 = [[Jon VII|Jon]]{{refn|name=Jon1|The King of Vaklori is the same person as the KaiserJalkorevala of Asendavia, but the position is legally separate. In Vaklori, he is known as Jon with no ordinal number, as the Vaklorian crown is a new creation. In Asendavia, he is known as Jon VII.}}

Vaklori was a relatively important front in the Great War due to its proximity to Asendavian enemies in the war: Tavaris and [[Great Morstaybishlia]] (who controlled [[Lunaria]], among other places). Asendavia launched a land invasion of Tavaris from Vaklori during the war. Vaklori soldiers serving in the war bolstered a growing sense of nationalism in the country, leading to the 1944 New Aizlava Accords that granted Vaklori independence with the KaiserJalkorevala of Asendavia serving as Head of State. In 1989, a national referendum amended the Constitution to create a system of constitutional monarchy in which a King of Vaklori (who is defined in law as being the same person as the reigning KaiserJalkorevala of Asendavia) has symbolic power over a parliamentary system.

Politics in Vaklori takes place in the framework of a multi-party, parliamentary, constitutional monarchy. Unlike Asendavia, the powers of the monarch in Vaklori are only symbolic and are only used on the express advice of the elected government. Since 1989, the National Diet has been a unicameral body with 640 seats; prior to then, the Diet consisted of a popularly-elected lower house known as the Legislative Assembly and an upper house known as the Synod whose membership was appointed by the KaiserJalkorevala of Asendavia. In 2005, the Electoral Reform Act set fixed-length terms of four years for the Diet. As a compromise to ensure passage, the Act also lowered the percentage of the vote a political party needs to receive to gain representation in the Diet to 0.75%, which has resulted in a marked increase in the number of elected parties. No single party has attained a majority of the Diet since 2005, with coalition governments becoming the norm. The Diet is elected in a closed-party list proportional representation system with each of the country's twelve provinces serving as an electoral district with a number of seats proportional to its share of the population of the entire country. The Constitution requires these districts to be reapportioned at least every twelve years.

Elections in 2021 resulted in a coalition led by the Ademar Democrats Party entering government. The leader of the Ademar Democrats, Maeve Holstein, became Vaklori's first female Prime Minister. The coalition is broadly center to center-right, and is considered to be somewhat fragile, consisting of the Ademar Democrats (an Ademarist party of the center-right) as well as the Liberal Alliance (classical liberals), Agrarian Center Party (agrarian populists), the Free Democratic Party (centrists), and for the first time, two minor parties: the Pirate Party, focused on issues of information freedom and government transparency, and the Crypto Revolution Party, which advocates for financial deregulation and the adoption of cryptocurrency. Stated policy goals for the Holstein Government include lowering taxes on businesses and individuals, revamping the country's system of crop insurance and farm subsidies, considering the adoption of cryptocurrency in the country's national payment networks, and undertaking an audit of the National Bank of Vaklori as well as the Ministries of Treasury and Defense.

The official opposition consists of three parties: the Royal National Party (a monarchist party), the New National Party (a big tent populist party), and the Pensioners Party, which advocates for issues relating to the retired and elderly. The Royal National Party and New National Party had never collaborated in any coalition prior to 2021, but agreed to serve together with the Pensioners Party so that their coalition, at 141 seats, was larger than the coalition of the Labor Party, Green Party, and VKLeft at 139 seats and therefore took the spot of Official Opposition. The Labor/Green/VKLeft coalition had previously served as government fromsince 2013 to 2017, but the 2021 elections saw Labor—the previous largest party—lose 50 seats due in large part to the unpopularity of increased fuel taxes, accusations of corruption in regard to the country's 2020 World Cup bid, and controversy surrounding Vaklorian membership in the [[Alliance of Northwest Gondwana]], which increased in unpopularity after perceived political and economic instability in its most powerful member, [[Tavaris]].