Interview with President Willem The Conqueror

Day 2,636, 12:46 • Published in Netherlands Netherlands • by lancer450
Good day everyone,

As I’m sure you’re all aware, just a couple of days ago Willem The Conqueror was elected to his third term as Country President of the eNetherlands, having served prior as CP in October and as the interim-CP just a couple months ago. And, luckily for me, I had the amazing opportunity to be able to interview him just as he was settling into his new office, sans the Ariana Grande posters as he had duly pointed out in his first publication after the election here.

Personally, I feel this is the new CP’s first mistake and, honestly, I feel it is a real travesty. But, I guess we’ll let it slide this once. Hehe. 😉

Anyways, on to the interview!

lancer450: Hello, Mr Willem! Let me begin first by congratulating you on your victory in the presidential election. With such a mandate, surely you must feel confident that you have fairly widespread support for yourself personally and your vision for the country. So, what have you been concentrating on these first few days as CP?

President Willem: An hour after the elections results were made public, I immediately began making the ministry chats and the main government chat. Opened the government IRC chat and all the stuff that has to be done in the first few hours of the term. After that I instructed the ministries what I'd like to see this month, especially the Ministry of Recruitment and Coaching as this term is focused on recruitment and coaching. Work began immediately after that, so I'm very pleased with that. Nothing has been finished yet, but we hope we can have drafts of new articles etc. in the upcoming day(s). I've also had several talks with foreign governments and presidents.

lancer450: It sounds like you've got the ball rolling rather quickly to start off. How do you feel the start of this second term has compared to your previous term as CP?

President Willem: I feel like this start was faster than the previous one, I had the org keys a lot faster and work at all of the Ministries began immediately. I had talks with governments early on, so I really feel like this star was faster than the previous one.

lancer450: That certainly must make you feel more confident about the potential progress you can make this term. As you said yourself, your term is going to be focused on recruitment and one of the goals of your term is to renovate the coaching articles for new players. Can you explain more about that and why you have decided to place so much emphasis on recruitment?

President Willem: I hope to rewrite the articles in such a way that the articles are easy to read, so not too much text, is straight to the point and also got some explanatory images in it so everything will be clear. The ministry and I are also looking at the possibility of putting links in the welcoming message to these articles so new people can find these articles easily.

This is such an important aspect as I want to have new people the best start they can have, this increases the chance they will stay and maybe give us a little more citizens. It may not be that much, but everything helps!

lancer450: I see. You've also said that you would like to have new banners made for the government. Do you have any ideas about how you would like those banners to look and have you managed to contact someone, or vice versa, to help to do that?

President Willem: Indeed I have said that, and I already had contact with a person who is capable of making new banners before the term started. Unfortunately he doesn't respond anymore to any of my messages. Today I had a conversation with the Cuban CP and he sent a message to the person who made the Cuban banners. The Cuban CP asked the person if he would like to make a test banner so the Dutch government could look at it, and we fortunately got a positive response. The Cuban CP has sent my wishes on how a banner should look like and I hope to receive another sample banner soon. The Recruitment and Coaching ministry also said something about a contest, so if the sample banner isn't really what we look for we could also arrange some contest like that.

lancer450: Definitely sounds like some progress is being made on that front then. You’ve also made it a point in your campaign articles that you would like to begin rewriting the Law Book again, but have not promised to finish it within the term. Some on the forum have started a discussion how to do this; some have suggested forming a group of players and tasking them to write it together as has been tried before. Yet, in your article, you appeared to want to place that task with your Home Affairs team. How would you prefer to have this accomplished? Also, what is your overall goal(s) for the new/reformed Law Book?

President Willem: I've changed my point on putting Home Affairs on the task of rewriting the law book, I want to let congress do it as they seem to like to rewrite it. So I don't have any intentions yet to start on rewriting it with my government. However I've said in the Recruitment and Coaching chat (as the discussion started there) that if things are going too slow we may want to intervene, but that's a decision that has to be made later on. My vision of a new law book, is simple, straight to the point and not too many loopholes.

lancer450: As you know, right now we currently have one region, the region of Eastern Netherlands, and eHungary currently occupies our other three regions. For those who may not be aware of what has happened over the past month or so, could you explain the current situation between our two countries? And can you also explain what our primary objectives are for our foreign affairs policy for this month?

President Willem: Okay kids, time for a story, Poland lost a major war of alliances and a peace treaty was signed which states that Poland was only allowed to have their core regions. Hungary came here to get the bonuses for the alliance. That's how Hungary came here. Now our relation with Hungary is quite good, there are talks every day/week and cooperation is at a high level.

As you may or not know, the new resources will be implemented on the 11th of February. The previous government has made a good decision in choosing the resources that are the least valuable for other nations. We hope that, after the 11th, we could start some new negotiations with Hungary and try to get other core regions of ours free.

lancer450: Regarding battle orders, how often should we expect the Ministry of Defence to be publishing orders?

President Willem: That's something I trust the Minister of Defence with, I expect him to publish orders on when they are necessary, a prio list has already been made and I think he already has sent them to the MU commanders.

lancer450: Fair enough. Now these next questions are going to be rapid fire so it's gotta be fast.

lancer450: Winter or summer?

President Willem: Fuck both. 😛

lancer450: Favourite meal?

President Willem: Pfff ehm I thought of pizza.

lancer450: Favourite colour?

President Willem: Blue.

lancer450: Favourite song or artist?

President Willem: Jacques Brel/Charles Aznavour and favourite song is a hard one. La Bohème (Charles Aznavour), Hier Encore (Charles Aznavour), Ne Me Quitte Pas (Jacques Brel), Quand On N'a Que L'amour (Jacques Brel); there are actually lots more I really want to add, but then the list gets too long.

lancer450: Favourite film?

President Willem: Star Wars, Harry Potter, and recently Earth to Echo.

lancer450: Do you have a favourite number? If so, what is it?

President Willem: Nope.

lancer450: Cats or dogs?

President Willem: Cats.

lancer450: Invisibility or the ability to fly?

President Willem: Ability to fly.

lancer450: Where would you visit if you had the opportunity? (IRL or in-game)

President Willem: In-game: eSwitzerland, when I retire for a moment. 😛 IRL: Just travel to whole world and experience how beautiful and unique our planet is.

lancer450: Best memory on eRepublik?

President Willem: Best Memory? Ehm, my golden bicycle award. 😃

lancer450: Most embarrassing thing that happened to you? (IRL)

President Willem: Classified.

lancer450: Advice for any new players who may read this?

President Willem: Don't fight, go train. And see what you can do in this game, otherwise it will get boring quickly. 😉

lancer450: What is your goal in life? (IRL)

President Willem: Have fun, don’t get a shitty job, and to be able to travel.

lancer450: Thank you so much for your time, Mr Willem, and good luck and best wishes for the coming month!

President Willem: Hehe thx lancer. 🙂

There you have it folks!

I hope you enjoyed and please remember to vote and shout if you liked it (maybe a comment too? 😛)

Again, I would like to thank President Willem for giving me the opportunity to interview him today and thank all of those who read it.

Thanks,