Positive Lovia

Positive Lovia, (Oceana: Positivni Lovia, abbreviated PL), is a popular centre-right political party in Lovia that supports a libertarian and classical liberal platform favoring minimally regulated markets, limited government, strong civil liberties and economic freedoms. The party was founded in December of 2011, its founder and incumbent leader being Christopher Costello. Many politicians site it as being the nation's leading libertarian-based party. It is allied with the Conservative Nationalist Party, the Green Party and the Social Liberal Party as part of an unofficial coalition.

2011
Positive Lovia was founded in December of 2011 by 2011 MOTC Christopher Costello, where it occupied only one seat in the 2011 Second Congress, which belonged to him. Costello founded Positive Lovia after reading Ayn Rand's politically inspirational libertarian science fiction novel Atlas Shrugged. He also suggested that it is the spiritual successor to the Walden Libertarian Party back when it was classical liberal, which Costello had supported for a time.

In a matter of days, Positive Lovia gained some 200 followers, many of which were wealthy individuals like Costello, who favored the new party because of its anti-far left/far right policies. In the following days, Bill An and other officials of Goyou of Lovia Incorporated swiftly converted to Positive Lovia, which caught the attention of many angry politicians and publishers, tying Positive Lovia in with the recent Goyou scandal.

Prior to this, the questionable company was recently put under the spotlight after having been accused of monopolizing public services. The company did not outright deny this, but instead claimed that because there weren't any laws against this, that they could not be accused. Members of congress proceeded to discuss their feelings towards Goyou openly after this, claiming that they would try to enact an anti-monopoly law. Once word of this reached the public, however, Goyou was clearly being pushed into a corner, and they decided to take the defense. Bill An, CEO of Goyou, vowed to cease the expansion of his corporation, in Lovia, while Artie McCand, former chairman of the Goyou Company Board left the company entirely.

In an interview, Christopher Costello, founder of Positive Lovia, discredited claims that Positive Lovia was receiving money from Goyou in exchange for their support In a later interview, Costello revealed that at one point, Goyou did urge him to allow them to establish bases for Positive Lovia across Lovia. Costello turned down the offer, however, assuring them that budget was not an issue. Things would proceed downhill from this point, however, one interesting point is that Positive Lovia was clearly against the monopolization of public services from the start. Though many had initially speculated that Goyou only sided with Positive Lovia because the offered a fresh political outlook, perhaps Goyou had aligned itself with Positive Lovia because they were planning to hide behind the party's anti-monopolization policy. Bill An recently announced that "He was always a centrist but nobody was interested in centrism."

Prior to the 2012 Federal Elections, Positive Lovia formed a coalition with the Liberal Democratic Party and the Conservative Nationalist Party. The agreement, however, was made a mere day before Positive Lovia was linked to the Goyou scandal. During the first day of the scandal, Costello claimed that he had not received any further news as to the state of the planned coalition. When asked if he feared the possibility of having unofficially been removed from the Coalition, Costello was confident that was not so, because Positive Lovia, the LDP, and the CNP were all parties with similar ideologies that wanted to support each other in elections. The LDP later released a statement saying that they wanted the coalition to continue as planned, but the CNP had not given a statement on the status of the coalition.

Relations between Positive Lovia and the Conservative Nationalist party would only deteriorate, however, after Costello found himself involved in a dispute between the Special Forces of Lovia and their attacker, Lukas Hoffmann. Lukas Hoffmann was accusing the Special Forces of being a militia, and seemed eager enough to bring about a trial. Costello, being a Civil War hero himself, however, took a defensive stance, aligning himself with the Special Forces. Costello would later discover that William Krosby, the LDP's leader, supported Hoffmann in the dispute. His rival was also favored by the conservative party. At one point, the public began to question wether Costello's alignment n the argument would affect Positive Lovia's plans to form the political coalition. Regardless, Costello held his ground. The argument would rage on, and eventually expand to cover other topics, such as why the Special Forces couldn't just be reformed into a Lovian army. Hoffmann's opinions on the matter were clear; that he did not approve of the military proposal that Costello had presented to the congress earlier, only to receive negative feedback. Costello felt confident that if Hoffmann was to wait until after the new congress was to be elected before he pressed charges, that the new he would stand a chance when proposing his act for a second time.

As of December 23rd, Positive Lovia possessed more candidacies in its run for Congress than any other political party. On December 30th, hours before the closing of the candidate submission period, Matthew McComb, a close friend of Costello's decided that he would also run for congressman, as a supporter of Positive Lovia. Positive Lovia would exit the submission period with nearly double as many candidates as its closely-tied runner-ups.

2012
By the end of the first week of the election period, things were looking optimistic for Positive Lovia and the coalition, which no longer included the Conservative Nationalist Party. Hoffmann stormed from the coalition talks after yet another dispute between him and Costello, this time regarding which of the two might be more qualified for the Minister of Defense seat offered in the early stages of a bill yet to be proposed by Krosby. Hoffmann's choice to leave the coalition may only have further weakened the CNP. The almost immediate success of Positive Lovia, however, posed an obvious threat to its competitors. In response to this, the following wave of voters chose to cast their votes out to groups such as the Moderate Centrist Party, the Conservative Christian Party of Lovia and the recently reformed Labour Party. Before the end of the voting period, the CNP rejoined the coalition when Costello decided that it would be unwise for him to claim the office of the Minister of Defense, and thus the position was claimed by Hoffmann.

The polls were closed on January 21st, and Positive Lovia had gathered approximately 2,100 votes; a perfect 15% of all votes cast. Positive Lovia emerged the third most-successful party. Oos Wes Ilava was voted into the office of Prime Minister, and the most notable changes present in the new Ilava I Government were Krosby's ministries. Members of the government were offered different seats, and Costello, now an ally of Hoffmann's, settled for the office of the Minister of Commerce, a field that he was also experienced in. Costello commented that he "looks forward to seeing what he can do for the Lovian people."

In September, when Costello announced that his party was not progressive, he received a very negative response from other politicians, particularly ex-Prime Minister and incumbent Labour Party leader, Marcus Villanova. On October 1st, Villanova publicly criticized Positive Lovia, describing it as a "horrible right-wing stereotype." Costello responded by humorously classifying Villanova as the stereotypical progressive liberal, but later admitted that he regretted having this unfortunate falling out with an old friend. Costello would later update his party platform in response to constructive suggestions from other officials and the general public.

Party platform
This party platform includes Positive Lovia's political positions and stances on different matters. Because the party is very open, not all of its advocates may support all of the below philosophies.

Economic

 * PL is supportive of achieving a market economy. Minimal governmental reforms will be necessary in order for the party to achieve its goals in this field.
 * PL supports many of the ideals of laissez-faire, free market capitalism, but feels that minimal government-issued regulation is necessary to ensure a basic level of quality in consumer products (namely in the food industry).
 * PL hopes to see government-owned enterprises operate in situations that could become potentially hazardous if left to multiple competing independent companies (namely in the field of public transportation).
 * PL believes that the ideal currency is based on the gold standard, however, it is doubtable wether Lovia has any hope of achieving this considering its lack of a gold reserve.
 * PL holds fiscal conservative beliefs regarding government spending, and hopes to hold the government to a federal budget system in the hopes of ever achieving an ideal, balanced budget.
 * PL supports a flat, proportional tax system (as opposed to progressive taxation) to support a strong economy.
 * PL supports the establishment of an effective social safety net system in an effort to reduce national poverty.
 * PL feels that a free, government-payed health insurance system should be offered to all citizens. All people should be offered the same quality of health care.
 * PL hopes to see unnecessary and economically crippling federal benefit programs removed.
 * PL supports organized trade unions to help negotiate working conditions and higher pay for workers.

Educational

 * PL supports the creation of more primary and secondary schools throughout Lovia at more easily accessible locations. Each island and region should possess a number of schools proportionate to the population in that region, with the minimum for each state being two primary and two secondary schools.
 * PL hopes to see the college education system improved through more diversity in courses.

Environmental

 * PL is willing to invest in the discovery of a clean, renewable energy source in order to prevent the depletion of fossil fuels, further global warming, and for the sake of the Lovian economy.

National

 * PL believes in achieving a minimal, libertarian government whom's only purpose is to protect the people.
 * PL represents itself as being strongly opposed to far-left and far-right ideologies such as communism, fascism and radical social change.
 * PL supports the current Federal Police model because it considers the present, unified system to be more objective than having individual, localized agencies.
 * PL feels that the Federal and State government should remain as small as possible, and does not feel that the Federal government needs to be decentralized any more than it is currently.
 * PL aims for Lovia to adopt a national military, focused on the defense of its people.
 * PL feels that Lovia should seek to become a superpower, or at least to be taken more seriously in international politics.

Societal

 * PL believes that the government should approach all people with social equality.
 * PL believes that it is unsporting of the government to enforce the principles of social justice, because it infringes on the people's basic freedom of expression. (For instance, people have a right to express racism, but physically committing a crime based on this racism would count as a crime regardless, and despite of how universally and ethically wrong racism is, it is important to stay objective in the enforcement of laws.) This is one issue that PL feels strongly on.
 * PL feels that it is important to distance religiously-inspired morals or morals in general with any form of governmental law, for the sake of the basic right to freedom of religion. The government should continue to treat all religious institutions with indifference and allow them to influence the opinions and actions of its own members.
 * PL feels that the government should be indifferent regarding personal matters such as same-sex marriage and abortion, leaving it to religious institutions to continue to voice their opinions on the matter and attempt to persuade the people. In situations such as with same sex-marriage, it should remain up to the institution on wether or not to conduct the ritual, and the government should not involve itself.
 * PL does not support secularism to the extent that it can be used to alienate religion.
 * PL feels that the government should be responsible to its people, and not vice versa. People should not be expected to contribute to their society.
 * PL does not believe in harsh criminal punishment, especially capital punishment, and would much rather see the rehabilitation of criminals whenever possible.

Sumptuary

 * PL believes that sumptuary law should be minimal and only for the purpose of protecting the people.
 * Prohibition of drugs is only necessary for those that are particularly harmful or dangerous, not necessarily cannabis.
 * PL feels that some restrictions should be placed on alcohol and smoking.
 * PL believes that the possession of firearms should continue to remain legal for hunting purposes, and ideally, this should be extended to cover personal defense as well.

Criticism
On October 1st, 2012, Labour Party leader Marcus Villanova commented on the party leader and the new party platform. He commented saying "The obvious flaw in the platform is now they've proven a horrible right-wing stereotype. They don't know what they're talking about and they always move to the right instead of compromise. The leader doesn't understand the political spectrum claiming center-left and progressive politics leads to Communism whereas, hypocritically, doesn't comment on how the right does the same. If it were true, I think he should know people do have convictions unlike his party, and stick to basic principals." He added on "At least if I don't agree with another party like the CCPL or the CNP, I know they're reasonable good politicians."

Locations
Positive Lovia is headquartered on the seventh floor of the Costello Tower in Downtown Noble City.

Its other offices are located on the first floors of the B sections of the Plaza Downtown, also located in Downtown Noble City, and in the Plaza Sofasi, in Sofasi. There are also offices on the second floor of Federation Building A in Malipa, Newhaven and in the Elgin Offices in Kinley, Seven.

Propaganda
Since 2012, Positive Lovia propaganda typically comes in the form of small posters of flyers painted with retro style figures, reminiscent of the culture of 1950s America. When asked about this, Costello explained that this artwork was fun and innovative, and that is subtly represented a golden age when capitalism was expanding, the Red Scare made the rise of communism a known threat, and the future appeared infinitely bright. Retro themes haven't been seen much in Lovia since the 1950s, and this imagery represents a revival of what much of the nation stood for during these times.

The PL decided not to run for any positions during the 2012 State Elections. Instead, it produced promotional material openly supporting Hoffmann and the CNP. Their campaign was a success, largely because they had the support of loyal PL voters.

International influence
In late December of 2011, a similar centrist political party was established in Brunant, going as Positive Brunant. Christopher Costello officially announced that the parties were not related, despite attempts on Positive Brunant's behalf. Costello concluded the hearing by saying that "imitation is just a form of flattery." Costello didn't want to be involved because of the negative response that his party would receive if people thought that he aimed to create an international empire.