United Kingdom of the Netherlands

Verenigd Koninkrijk der Nederlanden	Verenigd Koninkrijk der Nederlanden
Flag of the UKNL 	
Flag of the UKNL
General 	General
Name 	United Kingdom of the Netherlands
Capital 	Leeghwater
Largest City 	Leeghwater
National Abstract 	
Government 	Government
Government Type 	Parliamentary Monarchy
Head of State 	King Willem Frederik van Orange-Nassau
Head of Government 	Premier Johan de Stoute
Legislature 	Estates General
Demographics 	Demographics
Demonym 	Dutch
Population 	approx. 1.6 million
Official Language(s) 	Dutch, German, French
Spoken Language(s) 	Dutch, German, French, Frisian, other
Ethnic Groups 	Dutch, Flemish, Frisian, German, French, Walloon, other
Official Religion 	No state religion
Major Religions 	Christian (several denominations), Muslim, Marselism (minor), other
Politics 	Politics
Ruling Coalition 	MP (36 seats), BV (24 seats), PdN (19 seats), DVP (13 seats); 92 seats, majority coalition
 	
The United Kingdom of the Netherlands is a coastal state on the North Sea, straddling what used to be German, Belgian, and French land. Though it harbours large German and French populations as a result, it is dominated by the Dutch, both the descendants of the original survivors and those who assimilated over time. It styles itself as a parliamentary monarchy, with executive power split between the Estates General and the King, who exerts a great deal of indirect control over his government. The country is a liberal democracy with strong civil rights, but with a strong nationalist undercurrent that can galvanise the population and cause them to rally behind a national initiative. As such, the Dutch military is larger than its all-volunteer status might suggest, though still notably smaller than those that enforce service, and it is prepared for aggressive action should the need arise. Economically the Netherlands is still a predominantly agricultural country, though consistent subsidies have spurred the growth of urban industry in recent years, around which a commercial sector has cropped up to serve the needs of the industrial corporations and urban society as a whole. The most important national holidays are Koningsdag, Kingsday, which takes place on the reigning king's birthday (currently 18 June), and Sinterklaas, a traditional celebration on 5 December.
== History ==
The history of the UKNL is a fairly modest one of gradual settlement, restoration, and growth. Though the sheer volume of the rising flood water was far too much to hold back, at least at such short notice, there were early warning systems and evacuation protocols already in place in much of the country that ensured a relatively organised response, at least at first. As such, by the time it became clear that the water would not stop rising and the situation broke down completely as the rest of the country proved to be doomed as well, there was already a framework in place that would ensure the continued survival of Dutch culture and identity. Works of art, culture, and knowledge had been safely taken to high ground in the hinterland, and the majority of the royal family was successfully evacuated as well. When the dust settled and the outline of the new world became clear, this meant that, despite the country having disappeared entirely below the waves, the Netherlands would endure as a mostly coherent idea even as contact between the survivors waned, and the Dutch identity remained strongly grounded as the world collapsed around them.
This continuity of identity ensured that the Dutch survivors for the most part stuck together in groups of varying size, ranging from several families up to around a thousand individuals. Many of these groups settled close to the new shoreline, fishing and farming for a living. These villages born of hardship became beacons of stability in an increasingly chaotic world, and other displaced individuals and groups started drifting towards them and settling down, seeking safety in numbers and a difficult, but guaranteed means of survival. The unshakeable Dutch identity at the core of these villages and the availability of surviving textbooks caused many of these other drifters to become fully assimilated, their children especially, and they began to consider themselves Dutch as well. Over time, these villages grew and prospered, with their stable food supply ensuring consistent population growth, and over time, communications began to be restored.
The Dutch diaspora had always remained in tenuous contact with each other, with fishermen encountering other boats at sea and occasionally putting in at non-home ports in case of emergency, but for the most part, each village was a unit unto itself. However, in the late 21st and early 22nd Century, populations had grown large again, and the villages began to spread out. Farmers belonging to different villages began to intermingle in the increasingly extensive farmlands, road networks were linked up, and trade began to pick up. It wasn't long before different villages and towns began to cooperate more closely, forming municipalities, and then provincial governments. The Dutch diaspora was well on its way to becoming a decentralised, federalised state, when word began to spread that the King had been found. The historical and traditional component was an important pillar of the enduring Dutch identity, and the House of Orange-Nassau had taken on quasi-mythical proportions. However, in the chaos following the later stages of the evacuation, the exact location of the surviving royal family had been lost. The last King of the Dutch, Willem-Alexander, had chosen to settle down into a simple life with his family, becoming captain of a fishing boat in a small village, choosing to help support his people rather than demanding they support him. However, after a hurricane-level stormy night, the boat had drifted back to shore, its holds overflowing with fish, but captain and crew lost to the waves. After this, following a period of mourning in the village, the family settled into a normal, unremarkable life. When a provincial census taker visited the village a century later to the day, he found the Orange-Nassau bloodline alive and well, with a male infant born that very same day.
News travelled fast, and as a whole, the Dutch rallied around this symbol of national pride. Plans for federalisation were quietly shelved, and replaced with a centralised state built on the template of the various stages of Dutch history, with an elected parliament in the form of the Estates General, numbering 150 seats in total, to run the civilian government, and a King with broad powers and near-absolute control over the military, with the 151st vote in the Estates General. The village where they had been found was dubbed Willem-Alexander, a monument was erected in his honour, and the royal family was moved to the new capital city of Leeghwater. News of the coronation of King Willem IV spread beyond the borders of the newly-restored Kingdom of the Netherlands, to Dutch settlements that were still independent, as well as fully German and French communities along the coastline. These communities, up until then content being independent trade partners or semi-independent protectorates, rushed to apply to join the newly-restored country, which in four short years more than doubled in size, stretching along the coastline east and west of Leeghwater, now officially being declared the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.
== Politics ==
The civilian side of the UKNL government is a fairly liberal democracy, slanted somewhat towards the left. The Estates General are elected once every four years, and the largest parties tend to form cooperative coalitions in order to obtain a majority vote, as no single party has ever grown large enough to rule alone. These coalitions tend to divide cabinet positions between them as part of their negotiations, offering up a ready-made cabinet to the King. However, since the King is legally empowered to hand-pick his cabinet, it is still possible for him to choose outside candidates, though this is a rare occurrence, and the Premier is elected freely by the Estates General at large, though again it only rarely happens that they do not elect the candidate the King votes for, even if said candidate comes from outside the government coalition. The Minister of War is a special case; since the King has command of the military, the position is little more than ceremonial, and it is given out as a ceremonial position, usually to elder statesmen on the verge of retirement, in particular those who have been very active in the Estates General and politics as a whole, but who have never held a ministerial position themselves. It is considered a mark of honour and acclaim to retire after serving as Minister of War.
The political parties can be broadly divided between the "government" and "opposition" parties, though while these terms have entered the common parlance they are somewhat inaccurate, as there has to date been no coalition formed of all "government" parties at once and several "opposition" parties have in fact been a part of the ruling coalition at one point or another. Nonetheless, these terms serve as useful shorthand to distinguish the parties that tend to receive large shares of the vote and who form the backbone of any coalition, and the parties that usually remain smaller and mostly operate from the common floor of the Estates General. In no particular order, the "government" parties are the Blue Alliance (Blauwe Verbond; BV), a pro-industrial liberal faction, the Monarchist Party (Monarchistische Partij; MP), usually called the Orangists, a moderate social conservative party with a pro-monarchist agenda, the Labour Union Party (Vakbondspartij; V), left-wing social democrats, and the Nation Party (Partij der Natiën; Partei der Nationen; Partie des Nations; PdN), a mostly centrist party that champions the cause of the non-Dutch parts of society.
The major "opposition" parties are the Environment Group (Milieugroep; MG), who champion the environment but otherwise vote according to personal preference, the Christian Democratic Appeal (Christendemocratisch Appel; CDA), a Christian social-liberal party, the Syndicalist Democratic Labour Party (Syndicaat-Democratische Arbeiderspartij; SDAP), a far-left revolutionary party, National Popular Front (Nationaal Populair Front; NPF), a far-right ultranationalist authoritarian party with a segregationist agenda, German People's Party (Deutsche Volkspartei; DVP), a moderate right-wing conservative party that in addition to championing the cause of the German population also aims to decentralise the government and federalise the provinces, and the Unity and Restoration Party (Partie de l'Unité et de la Restauration), a decidedly left-wing French separatist party. The latter two parties almost invariably deliver speeches and conduct debate in their native tongue; though all three languages are officially approved for government use, and almost all politicians can at least understand German and French (though the NPF pretends not to), Dutch is the conventional language of the Estates General, so the use of German and French respectively by these two parties is a deliberate sign of national pride and, often, protest.
== More To Come ==