[NN] Congress Elections - determine your vote!

Day 2,680, 18:24 • Published in Netherlands Netherlands • by Mattio


Dear reader,

Every 25th of the month, new Congress elections will be held. Many of us, who are a member of a party, already know what to vote. For those who are not sure yet or those who want to know if they are actually in the right party, I presented prominent members of every major party the following 7 questions.

Some of these questions may be of interest for the present day, others may not be a debate at the moment but they are meant to determine your “way of view”. Please answer the questions for yourself and compare your answers with those that were given by the parties. There are 7 questions in the subjects of Military, Economy and Politics.

The parties’ stances were determined by averaging the given answers. If the party’s members gave some explanation to their vote, these explanations were averaged as well to present a common party point of view.


To make this test work, please give yourself an honest answer to every question before reading the votes and explanations given by the parties.

1 = I don’t agree at all.
4 = neutral.
7 = I fully agree.


Military
Hungary currently holds two of our regions (Eastern and Southern Netherlands). We have an agreement which lets us both keep 2 of the original Dutch regions. We currently have no Mutual Protection Pacts with any country in the world.

Questions
1) We should stop negotiating with our oppressor, Hungary.

ReL (3.33): Negotiating isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it should be done by the correct people.
I&W (2.50): Hungary holds these regions to invade the United Kingdom, which it hasn’t done yet. It has no need for the regions itself. If we want our regions back, negotiating is the first and only solution.
DemNL (1.50): Negotiating is always good and, for now, the best option. However, there are other opportunities we have to look out for.
VN (1.67): Negotiating is good, but at the moment we aren’t even really negotiating. We’re on our backs and the current government thinks it’s OK the way it is.


2) We should try to reconquer Eastern and Southern Netherlands by force.

ReL (4.67): This could work, but only if everybody fights.
I&W (3.50): This would only work if a perfect scenario presents itself. However, most of the time diplomacy works best if you’re up against a bigger country. We tried fighting Poland and it kept us off the map for months.
DemNL (3.50): This is an option, but we can’t do this without negotiating first. We are too weak to do this on our own and it would be foolish to try.
VN (2.00): Alone we don’t stand a chance so we would need a lot of support, and we mean support in actions, not in words like NSPP countries did in the past.


3) Our country should actively seek and sign Mutual Protection Pacts.

ReL (3.67): Signing MPP’s is a good thing at base, but at this stage, signing MPP’s is a complete wast of money as we have no real allies we need to support, and we never have any of our own real wars for which we need support.
I&W (3.50): MPP’s are pretty useless unless we are actively in a war, and then one or two would suffice. Currently we are barely in any wars and no country or countries will probably have a war next 30 days or most of it. Signing an MPP would be a waste of money. To profit from existing MPP’s, move to the UK or the USA. With normal wars, you can stay there and they have the MPP’s we need.
DemNL (4.00) MPP’s would be nice, but at this moment it’s not really necessary. Also: they don’t have value if you don’t put any effort in them. We’d bather work together with other countries than to just sign some MPP’s.
VN (3.00): There is no point in signing more MPP’s. We can’t afford signing MPP’s ourselves and there are barely any pro’s to it. It might work if the other country would pay our MPP as we did in the past, however that takes an active CP and MoFA and at this moment we don’t have one.


Economy
Our country earns around 750-800 NLG everyday and holds a treasury of a little above 200,000 NLG. The minimum wage of the Netherlands is 1.00 NLG. The income tax is 4.00% (this is taken from your wage and added to the state treasury).

Questions
4) The current minimum wage of 1.00 NLG is nonsense and should be raised.

ReL (2.00): Raising the mimimum wage makes no difference as better wages are available outside of the Netherlands anyway.
I&W (2.50): If you are smart, you don’t work in eNL. No one here can match the wages on the international market. Raising the minimum wage to 5 CC is possible, however, some people do not work for money but they get tanks donated instead. If the minimum wage raises that might make it impossible for these people to continue working this way. Raising the minimum wage would be mostly a cosmetic thing.
DemNL (2.00): The minimum wage is meant for commune holders and others who pay their employees with weapons instead of money. However, we do advice people who work for weapons to do so in a country with a weapon bonus.
VN (3.00): Raising the minimum wage would only cause problems. If you want a commune-like working place to work you should keep the minimum low.


5) Our country has enough money and we should lower the work tax.

ReL (5.33): Lowering the work tax may encourage investment in the manufacturing sector as the return on investment would be increased slightly. In theory, the higher the amount of goods manufactures in the country, the more goods will be sold on our market, so we should get some of the tax back in VAT. However, at this stage, we have more than enough money anyway, so there is no real need to take the money out of the citizens’ pockets.
I&W (2.50): Lowering the work tax is an option. However, having a lot of money doesn’t mean we can lower taxes. We have expenses like MPP’s (if we were to sign them) and such and eNL already has a low income. We have to keep in mind that lowering the work tax means getting significantly less income.
DemNL (2.50): This is possible, but there is no apparent need for it. A work tax of 4% is not really much.
VN (4.00): We should lower the work tax. A high work tax makes commune work only harder in eNL.


Politics
Our law (chapter III, article 1.5 and chapter II, article 12) states that members of the government can be removed from office by the Country President or a majority of Congress. Currently, Congress holds 20 members coming from 5 different parties.

Questions
6) Not the Country President, but only Congress should be able to remove the Vice President from his office.

ReL (3.00): Both the President as Congress should be able to remove the Vice President.
I&W (1.00): The Vice President is appointed by the President to help him and as such, he is a member of the cabinet whom the President should have the full rights of firing.
DemNL (1.00): The CP is the one who gives government members their jobs, so he should be able to get rid of them as well. Congress’s task is to check on the government, not manage it.
VN (1.33): Congress should have nothing to say about that, the VP is appointed by the CP.


7) Our Congress is small yet has relatively many parties. The government should consist of members coming from at least three parties.

ReL (2.33): There is no need for a quota here. There is no reason the government can’t consist of members from one or two parties provided they are big enough and have active citizens.
I&W (2.75): The President should try to have people who represent as many parties as he can. Most CP’s try to do this. However, this isn’t always possible as some parties don’t want to co-operate with others. Forcing them will only result in a bad government.
DemNL (1.50): The idea itself is good, but the CP should be free in whom he wants to be part of the government and whom he doesn’t want. A good opposition to the government is also very valuable.
VN (1.67):
We need the best people in place, no matter what their party. On a side note: 4-5 parties should be the max there are in our country. We have way too many parties now.


I hope this test gave you more insight in the party stances and you made up your mind as to which party will get your vote next 25th of March! Please remember to take some time vote, as every vote can make the difference in our small country!

I thank all members of the top 5 parties of eNL who contributed to making this test by answering all questions honestly!

I salute,
Mattio