Deputy Prime Minister

*This page's scope is restricted purely for the purposes of the Deputy Prime Minister of the several Republic of Polynesia (RoP) republics along with its 2nd republic as the Republic of Micronesia (RoM) in Polynesia Season 5; not any other entity.*

## The Deputy Prime Minister of the RoP

Seal of the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Polynesia (RoP)

### Position Type

Deputy to a National Head of State; Political Leadership Position

### Organization or Nation

Federal Government of the Republic of Polynesia; Executive Branch

### Current Holder

Deputy Prime Minister Jeffrey of the Forward political party

### First Holder

Britannia

The Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) of the Republic of Polynesia (RoP) is the second-highest office in the nation and assistant to the Head of State. The DPM also acts as the automatic successor to the Prime Minister (PM) of the RoP if the position becomes vacant. To date, there have been <> Deputy Prime Ministers appointed one or more times across 44 Governments from September 2019-March 2022; summing up to <> total individual Deputy Prime Minister terms.

**Page Last Updated:** February 10, 2022

### **Powers and Roles**

Other than acting as the emergency successor to the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister has no power during a fully staffed and functioning government. In such cases, the DPM mainly helps out the Prime Minister and Cabinet members in achieving their goals and at times acts as an extension of their authority when given permission or asked to do so. For example, the DPM will often times act as the main negotiator of peace during a conflict instead of the Minister of Home and Foreign Affairs when they aren't available, with the Prime Minister and Parliament acting as the ratifiers of the final results of negotiations. It is situations like these where particularly competent and trusted DPMs can be extremely powerful through the use of external authority entrusted to them.

During times when Cabinet ministers or the Prime Minister themselves are not present for an extended period of time, the Deputy Prime Minister gains their powers and may act on their behalf. The Deputy Prime Minister may also be given all powers of the Prime Minister despite the office still being occupied by the Head of State for a temporary period if the PM chooses to do so. An example of such a situation is when TsarPutin was given equal authority as Prime Minister ColonelKai for two weeks despite not being Head of State. This move of splitting tasks between equally powerful individuals was likely the biggest reason why Kai's government was able to withstand the worst political crisis in Polynesian history despite being understaffed. Of course, the Prime Minister can revoke the DPM's special powers at any point despite technically being equals and the same goes for any Cabinet minister who does so as well. The versatility of the office of the DPM gives the possibility for a government to increase the number of staff in a critical position when needed without reshuffling the Cabinet, allowing for efficient management of crises and political agendas.

### **History of the Position**

The office of the Deputy Prime Minister was established by Prime Minister Belgium on the first day of his first term in order to strike a cooperation deal with his governing alliance partner Britannia. The position would soon become integral in creating governing coalition unity and acted as a position to gain experience and fame for many ambitious politicians planning to become the Head of State. In fact, both of the longest-reigning Prime Ministers of the RoP, Britannia (174 days in office) and TsarPutin (84 days in office), gained renown for their roles as Deputy Prime Ministers for past governments before actively seeking the position of PM. Historically, the role has been either hugely important or completely irrelevant to certain parts of RoP political history. In most terms, its role as a political unifier was as far as things went. However, some terms saw the Deputy Prime Minister be either just as important as the Prime Minister and Cabinet or even more influential. Some terms where the Deputy Prime Minister shined were the 2nd-3rd CentreCo Governments, the 3rd-5th LeftCo Governments, and many others. By far, the most influential Deputy Prime Minister was Tsar\_\_Putin, although Britannia, Sealand, and Didneywurl4lif were hugely influential as well. Due to the office being considered as a part of the Cabinet, the position at times was left vacant, such as in the RoP 1st *Interim* Government. The DPM in many ways can be considered as the Prime Minister's "other half" or "right hand", which is why the Seal of the DPM is an upside-down version of the Seal of the PM.

## **List of all Deputy Prime Ministers in Alphabetical Order**

The chart below lists every Deputy Prime Minister in alphabetical order, the amount of terms they served, the political parties they were in while in office at any point, the names of the governments they led, and the total days they spent in office.