Els Zefençadéirs dàl Repúblicâ Talossán, in a slightly bewildered manner, congratulate the Movement for Republican Peculiarism for winning a legislative majority, and commiserate the two minor parties on missing out on seats. We are sure that the Blue Wave and Progressive philosophies still have a vital role to play in the future of our glorious Republic.
We note that, thanks to a splintering of the vote among the minor parties, the Peculiarists have won a clear legislative majority although gaining less than 50% of the vote. We make it clear that this means that the Peculiarists must be extremely careful with any claims of a "mandate" to enact their programme - such as it is.
We also note that the Peculiarists now have a monopoly on the major offices of the national government. Surely this re-iterates two vital points that the Defencists made during our campaign - that, to prevent any national majority thinking it owns the place (especially on less than 50% of the vote), we need both reinvigorated local government, and an activated Senats. And it also gives an additional reason to elect a new President of the Republic in June.
We pledge to being the most vital and intense Parliamentary opposition the Republic has ever seen. We look forward to regaining our legislative majority in September - or sooner, should the Peculiarist government collapse under its own contradictions and the President be forced to call a by-election.
We announce our intention of introducing legislation to enact the Defencist programme, in the confident knowledge that the Peculiarists agree with most of it anyway. We challenge them to shoot down government funding of our PO Box, the reactivation of the Senats and the new Provincial Government scheme. We challenge their "do-nothing" attitude to fostering Talossan culture. And we look forward with interest to seeing what - if anything - they do to promote immigration.
There is an old saying - "be careful what you wish for, 'cause you might just get it". It is possible that the MRP didn't actually intend to win this election. We sense that perhaps Seneschál-elect Börnatfighleu is perhaps more in shock than we are. Whatever will the Peculiarists do without the Defencist government to kick around? Will they rise to the occasion, or sink like a stone? Will this Peculiarist goverment actually last six months?
We will see which side of the Fifth Chamber brings up the new ideas, the bold strategies and the thought-out legislative programme. The battle for the Sixth Chamber - and for the Presidency of the Republic - starts today. Så vivádra la Repúblicâ!
Dp. M. A. Schivâ
Founder-President, ZRT
