Following the passing of the 6th December Partisan Democracy Act at the previous Meeting of the Mercian Parliament House, the Nobility of the Kingdoms & Lands Represented in the Council of the Diarchal Crowns of the Disciples has gotten down to the business of organising itself into Political Parties. Of the sixteen Nobles now in Mercia, already nine of them have created and joined three different parties, and two more have joined the Parliamentary Crossbench, a pragmatic committee that is non-partisan and whose members are not interested in running for office. Of the remaining five, their motives are not yet known.
The first party that was discussed was that of the Mercian People’s Party (MPP), a group formed by the three Barons Pressland, Schriber (also the Synod Delegate of the Mercian Christian Church to the House) and Newton (also known as Kaiser Newton of Uberquiesenberg). The party members are proponents of democratic socialism, although this is seen as more of an umbrella-term to be used until the People’s Party elects a leader and decides on what ideological branch of the left wing they will follow. Humourously, because of the delays in deciding a party name, finding members (a Political party legally requires three members to be recognised by the House), the People’s Party was actually the last party to be officially declared, at 11:14PM GMT on the 18th December.
The first party to be officially declared, at 10:01PM GMT on the 18th, was the controversial National Socialist Party (NSP). Founded by Baron Velazquez (historically a member of the Nollandish Freedom Front, a Fascist party in the Tsardom of Nolland), Baron Lewis (‘Arweinydd’ or ‘Leader’ of the Sorrenian Union of Fascists & National Socialists in the Sorrenian Federation), and party leader, Earl Emmanuel (formerly Duke Emmanuel before his resignation of citizenship that was very recently revoked), the National Socialist Party promotes Strasserist National Socialism, a more left wing oriented branch of the Nazi ideology that is not compatible with the Hitlerian strain that was adopted by the Nazi Party in Germany. The Mercian National Socialists are anti-capitalist, anti-communist (but is sympathetic to socialism), and are, in theory, in support of cooperatives and state control of business.
The third party formed in Mercia was the National Liberal Party (NLP), formed by His Lordship Richard I, Duke Lobao and Baron Billbrough. This party’s ideology is a lot more vague and broad than the two ideologically extreme parties of the MPP and the NSP; combining Mercian nationalism and ‘romantic patriotism’ with the ideas of civil liberty for Mercians, the NLP is currently running on a vague platform of becoming closer to potential and existing allies, and becoming frostier to foreign opponents, while engaging in a quest to discover the cultural identity of the Mercian nation. HL Richard I is not expected to run for the position of party leader, as running for First minister could conflict with his current reign as Lord Spiritual. The NLP is seen to be a middle ground party between the extremes of the MPP and the NSP.
In the mere five days since the Partisan Democracy Act was passed and ratified, Mercia’s ideological schisms have leapt to the fore in a positive fashion, polarising opinion while simultaneously opening up avenues of dialogue and discourse between the far left and the far right. The first Mercian General Election, scheduled to be in May, already looks set to be a big date in the intermicronational calendar!