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Hello reader,

Today, the MoI Friday School will publish its second article. There should have been published another article last week, about the history of the United Netherlands, but unfortunately, I was not able to write that one. Today, we will just continue with the program, which says that today, an article is to be published about politics in the United Netherlands.
If you have any questions about the history of the UNL, feel free to send a message to this org, or to Mattio (that’s me... 😛).

1. Political Parties
1.1 Your Political Party
1.2 Congress
2. The government
2.1 The Ministries
2.2 Ministers and State Secretaries
3. The Country President
3.1 CP elections
3.2 Forming the government and other duties of the CP
4. Summary of election days

1.Political Parties
1.1 Your Political Party
Maybe you are a member of a Political Parties. If you are a member already, you can find the page of your Political Party by going to My Places > Party.
If you’re not a member yet, you can chose to join one there. When you join a party, it is important to make sure you join a party with which you agree on several statements. There are some ways to find out if a party is suited for you to join:
- Ask a Party President or a Party Member what his party stands for.
- Every party has its own newspaper, with which they write articles to inform people about their opinions. These newspapers are a great way to see whether you would like to join a party. These are the newspapers of the five largest Parties:
Iron & Wine
Libertarian Social Democrats
Green Liberal Democrats
Independant Party
Workers’ Party

Every Political Party has a Party President (PP). The PP is the leader of a party, but he usually is assisted by a Vice-President (vPP or just vice). He can do a bit more than an average member. The gold that’s in the party treasure can be used by him to fund advertisements for his party. And also: it is he who decides which party members are allowed to run for congress every month. His position means that he is the one talking for his party and other PP’s will get in touch with him if they have questions.
The PP is elected by his party members, which is being done every 15th of the month. Running for PP costs 2 Gold and this gold is sent to the Party Treasure.

All large Political Parties have their own “island” on the national forum (click), where they can discuss about certain issues, such as the elections or the opinion of the party about the government. If you want to do more for your party than just being a member, you could join the forum and go to your party’s forum part. You can only see the forum part of the party you’re a member of.

1.2 The Congress
If you are a member of a party, you can decide to represent your party in Congress. Every 25th of the month, elections are held for congress. You can run for congress by going to My Places > Party and then check Run under the paragraph Congress. You can do so until the 23th of the month, because at the 24th, the PP decides which members will officially be running for the party.
You can run in one of the four regions of the United Netherlands (Northern, Eastern, Southern and Western Netherlands), but sometimes it’s smart to move to another region before you run, because some regions are very crowded and it’s harder to get elected there.
The Congress makes decisions concerning the course of the country. They vote on certain issues and they debate in a special forum part. The five largest Parties can send in party members to run for congress. In total, there are 40 congress seats, and if the Country President was not in congress yet, he gets the 41st seat.

2. The government
2.1 The ministries
The congress sets a course for the country by voting, but does not do anything else beside discussing and voting. It’s the government who takes the lead in the country. The government is built up out of ministries. These ministries all have their own duties.
You can find a list of the government here.

2.2Ministers and State Secretaries
The ministries are taken by Ministers, who are helped by State Secretaries. Together with the State Secretary, a Minister does the duty that comes with his ministry. This is a list of the duties of the government:

Ministry of Interior and Information: Informing citizens about what’s happening and writing informative articles like this one.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Maintaining good connections with other countries, by use of embassies.
Ministry of Defense: Sending out orders for the army, to fight wherever UNL forces are needed.
Ministry of Economy: Making sure the UNL economy runs well.*
Ministry of Finances: Keeping an eye on the state’s gold and NLG stock and making sure the state makes profit and spends its money wisely.
Ministry of Recruitment and Coaching: Getting more people to join the UNL and helping them getting comfortable with the game.

*These two directories are a part of the Ministry of Economy:
Directory of Raws: Making sure there are enough raws for the State Companies.
Directory of State Companies: Managing the State Companies.

There are five advisers in the government:
Advisers: Helping the Country President (CP) making decisions.

3. The Country President
3.1 CP elections
Every 5th of the month, new Country Presidents can be chosen, or the old one can be re-elected. Before the elections, every candidate seeks support by other parties, who might be supporting him if they agree with his statements. Also: the candidates write articles or start advertisements to get as many supporting citizens as possible and they have to form a government which would be activated if they win.
As off two months ago, it has become a “tradition” that a CP debate is held a few days before the elections. You could compare this to the debates we are following now for the RL parliament elections, but then it’s about who’s to become the new CP. These debates are held on IRC and afterwards, it is transformed to an article which is published so that everybody can read it.
Before the 5th of the month, the CP candidates can set national goals for their term. These goals are divided in three options:
- Citizen increase – with how many % does the CP candidate want his country to grow?
- GDP increase – with how many % does the CP candidate want his country to grow?
- Military expansion – which regions does the CP candidate want to have by the end of the month?

3.2 Forming the government and other duties of the CP
One of the most important things the CP has to do, is forming the government. In paragraph 3.1, you have read about this. Basically, it means that the Country President, before he’s elected, searches for people who want to take place in a government formed by him. Doing so, he can make new ministries or make minor changes in order to improve the “quality” of the government. He propounds his government to the country, so that voters know what they vote for.
But beside forming the government, the CP has more duties. For example: he is the representative of his country in Phoenix (or another alliance) and he is the one to press the button if his country is in a threat or the help of his country is needed in foreign military affairs. MPP’s can only be proposed by him in congress and he is the only one who can change the welcoming message (if he does so, there still has to be a congress voting about it).

4. Summary of election days
Basically, it is very easy to remember when elections are held. On every *5th of the month you can march out to the voting cubicle to let your voice being heard. Here’s the list:

Election days:
05th of the month: Country President elections
15th of the month: Party President elections (for Party Members only)
25th of the month: Congress elections

This was the Friday (Saturday) School Article for this week. We hope to have you informed well about the politics in the United Netherlands. Maybe you got interested in being (more) active in politics, and I can strongly recommend you to take a look at the forum of your party, or to read some articles to make a decision on which party to join. In no less than a week, there is the possibility to vote for a new Country President, so take a look at the media this week to see which people will be candidate for CP!

Class dismissed!
Mattio
Minister of Interior and Information