2010 Congress

The 2010 Congress is the current Lovian federal legislature, elected in the 2010 Federal and Mid-term Elections. At the moment, it consists of four Liberal Democrats, three Communists, three Waldeners and six Members of the Congress who are either independent or the only elected member of their party. The 2010 Congress was inaugurated February 1, 2010, by Prime Minister Yuri Medvedev (CPL.nm). Among its greatest achievements are the Third and Fourth Amendments, as well as the 2010 Highway Plan.

Federal Elections
At the Federal Elections of 2010, twelve MOTCs were elected. Yuri Medvedev received the most votes and became for the second time PM of Lovia. Both the Liberal Democrats, Walden Libertarian Party and the Progressive Democrats got three MOTCs in the congress, totalling in nine MOTCs, three quarter of the MOTCs in the congress. The LCP ended with one MOTC in the congress, and so did LOWIA.

Achievements
In March and April 2010 the Third Amendment and the Fourth Amendment passed the Second Chamber, becoming one of the biggest achievements of the Congress. Also, the 2010 Highway Plan was developed, and unanimously accepted by the Congress.

The Third Amendment was an amendment to the Lovian Constitution and was proposed in early 2010 by Prime Minister Yuri Medvedev, with the inclusion of two proposals by King Dimitri I of Lovia. The proposals that were accepted by the required majority in the Second Chamber, concerned the lowering of the power of the monarch and Prime Minister, changes in the citizenship registration and several changes in regard to the monarchy. The entire cluster of changes was accepted March 10th, 2010, by Congress.

The Fourth Amendment was an amendment to the Lovian Constitution that was proposed in April 2010 by King Dimitri I of Lovia. The Fourth Amendment only amends Constitutional Article 11 that concerns national symbols and the language issue. Most notably, the amendment put an end to a two year long situation of uncertainty about what languages were considered official, national or generally accepted. The Fourth Amendment settled the issue by naming "English" the "national language" in stead of "(American) English", and defining "Lovian English" as "[the] variety of English spoken and written by the Lovians." The issue that caused most controversy, was the recognition of the Oceana language as a "regional minority language" that must be protected from extinction.

The 2010 Highway Plan or McCandless Highway Plan is a plan to reform the Lovian highway system into a more coherent and extended network of highways, proposed by Secretary of Energy, Environment and Transportation Andy McCandless (WLP) in February and March 2010, and accepted by Congress March 24th. The construction of new highways began April 1st.

Mid-term Elections
In May, the Mid-term Elections were held, to increase the number of MOTCs, since some resigned quite early in the congress. There were seven candidates and there was quite some campaigning in advance. The elections saw the rise of leftist and progressive candidates, with five progressive candidates and two centrists. Three candidates belong to the major parties in Congress, two were a member of the new LLCP, one ran with the newly founded NLS and another candidate ran as an independent. It was the first recent Lovian election in which two female candidates participated and got elected. Six new Members of the Congress were elected, after Pierlot McCrooke gave up during the elections and lost most of his votes. Martha Van Ghent (WLP) and Percival E. Galahad (LD) won the elections.

Ballots were opened May 17 by Prime Minister Yuri Medvedev. On the first day of voting, both Jon Johnson (CPL.nm) and Marcus Villanova (LLCP) did well. The people's view on these men was very favorable at the time, due to their high activity rates and political engagement. May 18, Percival E. Galahad of the Liberal Democrats, with broad support and backing of centrists and classical liberalists, caught up with Villanova.

By May 20, voting for Villanova stagnated. The leftist and center-leftist candidates fell in the polls, due to the sudden rise of the liberal and libertarian politicians. Both Van Ghent (WLP) and Galahad (LD) soared. May 21, both Galahad and Johnson led the polls. The next day, WLP's Van Ghent caught up with them.

From May 20 to May 24, independent Christina Kay Evans jumped above the Red Line and shared the fourth place with Villanova. Initially, she gained the support of liberals and conservatives, because her viewpoints were unknown and liberals thought her a fit alternative for the numerous leftist candidates in the race. She even garnered votes from the ultra-rightist IGP. Eventually, Evans revealed to be a progressive social democrat. Although she began campaigning at a late stage in the elections, she did rather well for an independent and a new politician.

Martha Van Ghent began leading the polls by May 23, Galahad following her closely. Van Ghent would maintain this position until the 27th. She then fell back a bit and shared the first position with the Liberal Galahad. They kept their positions until the end and both won the elections.

Until May 24, both Pierlot McCrooke (LLCP) and Ferenc Szóhad (NLS) stayed under the Red Line. Whereas Szóhad began to rise by that time, gathering support from CPL.nm leftists, McCrooke began losing votes. It is generally believed that the voters sanctioned McCrooke for his party illoyalty in the months before the elections. May 25, he resigned as a candidate and immediately fell under the legal voting requirement. Prime Minister Medvedev then announced to move up the Red Line to six candidates - in effect removing the Red Line from the 2010 Mid-terms and allowing all remaining candidates to be elected to Congress. As can be seen in the voting registers, both Johnson (CPL.nm) and Szóhad (NLS) profited from McCrooke's resignation.

May, June and July
The NLS took a step back in the first weeks after elections, but recovered in early July and proposed quite a few bills concerning abortion -one of the things the NLS wants to legalize- alcohol, narcotics, border controll, copyright and so on. Szóhad rewrote together with Damian Carter and David York the alcohol law, adding some rules and broadening the law towards matters concerning narcotics.

TRM wrote the following abou the proposals of Szóhad, Carter and York:


 * July 1, NOBLE CITY - Today, the NLS proposed a new bill in the First Chamber, full of long forgotten issues about alcohol and narcotics, and reopening the debate about the capitalist laborers medicine. Szóhad opened with stricter rules about alcohol by rewriting an already existing bill, and eventually added laws for narcotics as well. The First Chamber is discussing the matter right now, and probably in a few days time the bill will pass on to the Second Chamber.


 * The bill fills gaps in the Federal Law, now full of holes - with special credits to the capitalists. Stricter rules for alcohol use are proposed, as well as new rules for the use of narcotics, a subject not discussed before, and a subject lacking proper rules. The law is going to be a succes, according to us, as PM Medevedev pointed out in the First Chamber: "I can find myself in this law".


 * In addition to the new proposals concerning drugs and alcohol, Ferenc Szóhad designed together with David York two other bills, concerning customs and copyright. "We don't want to get nearer to the American way of lawmaking, but we certainly need more and better rules concerning copyright matters", thus pointed out David York in a talk with TRM. "All three bills will pass on to the Second Chamber in a few days", thus said Szóhad, "but first we need to look at it in more detail and add some more rules concerning medical use, since several MPs already complained about the lack of rules about that certain topic in the bill". He continued, responding on fears of the copyleft organisation that Lovia will loose its "free for all" policy: "we are not a banana republic, and certainly not a place for obscure organisations with impossible demands."

After the bills concerning abortion and so on were moved to the Second Chamber on the 4th of July, the NLS proposed on the 5th of July together with the CPL.nm an additional bill concerning the nationalizing of the Ecompany, Walkernet, Newhaven Express, Newhaven Connect and the Pacific Railroad Company, in order to stabilize the economy and to pull Lovia towards a more communistic economy. The NLS proposed a sixth amendment in the Constitution as well, but the CPL.nm disagreed and the NLS is reconsidering the amendment.

In the meantime the abortion and revised alcohol bill was -together with the other bills- voted for in the Second Chamber. The CCPL, lead by Oos Wes Ilava, strongly disagreed with the bills, and voted against both bills on the 4th of July.

Members
At present, there are sixteen Members of the Congress. Ten of them were elected in the 2010 Federal Elections in January. They are referred to as Senior MOTCs. The others, elected in the recent Mid-terms, are known as Junior Members of the Congress.

Religion
More than half (56.25%) of the current Members of the Congress considers himself Atheist, Agnostic or Freethinking. About 18.75% of Congress is Christian: one Roman Catholic member, one Eastern Orthodox Christian and one unaffiliated Christian. One member (6.25%), Marcus Villanova, calls himself a "Freething Jew". About 18.75% of the Members of the Congress do not specify their religious beliefs.