2042 Morranian Government Crisis

The **2042 Morranian Government Crisis** was a period of political turmoil within the government of the Republic of Morra between March 16th and November 17th 2042 surrounding Speaker Wilhelm De Croo's proposed reforms to the powers of the presidency of Morra. The crisis marked the beginning of the end of democratic rule in Morra, and resulted in the resignation of De Croo in May 2042, followed by the holding of new elections in November 2042 which returned a legislative branch with a majority for parties backing President Kairos Hemlock.

 **President of Morra**Koonz • De Croo • de Ruiter I, II**First Term (2039)**Assassination of Sunil Bakshi • 2039-40 Morranian Political Crisis • 2039 Morranian Vice Presidential Election • Brussels Massacre • Impeachment of Kairos Hemlock • People's Party for Freedom and Democracy**Second Term (2040 -)**National Reform Act of 2040 • 2042 Constitutional Referendum • **2042 Morranian Government Crisis** • Brussels Proclamation • Democratic Party of the People

 **Political Career**
Derigo Disease Debate • Assassination of Sunil Bakshi • People's Party for Freedom and Democracy

 **Electoral History**2035 National Assembly Election • 2036 National Assemblu Election • 2037 National Assembly Election • 2037 Vice Presidential Election • 2040 Presidential Election

In the afternoon of March 16, 2042, Speaker Wilhelm De Croo and the leaders of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy, Worker's Political Alliance, and the Progressive Party held a joint press conference to announce their proposal for a constitutional reform package which would see the presidency stripped of all executive functions and reduced to a ceremonial head of state. Under the proposal, a new post of prime minister would assume the executive powers of the president and speaker, with the latter also reduced to a purely procedural position. Having been unaware of the proposals made by members of her government until their publication, President Kairos Hemlock remained silent on the issue until March 18, 2042, when she held a press conference alongside Vice President Fachnan Opus to decry the proposals as "a blatant attack on our democracy and government" - it has been suggested that Vice President Opus was behind Hemlock's aggressive tone towards De Croo's proposals, and indeed many of Hemlock's speeches in the aftermath bore the linguistic style of Opus' writing.

Despite not having the support of the Democratic Party of the People or the Liberal Party, Speaker De Croo was able to pass through legislation to allow him to hold a referendum with the backing of opposition parties; De Croo's reliance on the VVD and APA to pass the required legislation severely harmed his personal approval ratings and that of the Party of the Labourers. Whilst many in the media expected President Hemlock to block the legislation, she unexpectedly signed it into law on March 29, 2042 after publicly claiming to not want to cause a constitutional crisis; leaked internal communications show that in fact, Fachnan Opus had persuaded Hemlock to allow the referendum and instead interfere with the results to make it such a defeat that De Croo cannot claim legitimacy for his government, thereby removing De Croo without being seen to be personally responsible.

Following the return of election results, which showed a 63% rejection of Speaker De Croo's proposals, a growing movement began to emerge both from the general public and in the National Assembly demanding that De Croo resign from office after his "spectacular miscalculation" of the public mood. Despite this, Wilhelm De Croo publicly remained defiant and refused to resign, instead alleging that he had seen evidence of electoral fraud conducted by the non-partisan Electoral Commission and made several unsubstantiated claims that there was an elite conspiracy against him and his government. Following an assault on commission chief Willena Barrow outside her house on May 20, 2040 by a left wing extremist, the Electoral Commission's executive committee collectively resigned citing De Croo's "malicious and deliberate attacks on democracy". Whilst Speaker De Croo claimed the committee's resignation as a victory, the move was near universally condemned by party leaders, whilst President Kairos Hemlock cautioned the move would lead to an undermining of democracy. Amid the crisis, party leaders from across the coalition were invited to the Presidential Palace by President Hemlock in the evening of May 21st to discuss nominating a replacement speaker.

On May 22, 2042, Kairos Hemlock gave a speech to politicians in Brussels where she gave an ultimatum to De Croo to resign or face early elections in which the Party of the Labourers (PvdA) would likely loose a significant amount of seats. Following the tabling of a motion of no confidence in his Party of the Labourers leadership the previous day, De Croo tendered his resignation as speaker to the National Assembly in the morning of May 24th and as leader of the PvdA the same evening, leaving finance secretary Federico Pinedo as head of the party. At the instruction of Kairos Hemlock, the governing coalition passed through a motion to hold a snap speakership election, which saw defence secretary and DPV leader Ophelia de Ruiter being elected as the seventh speaker of the National Assembly at the head of a near identical cabinet coalition. Whilst contemporary accounts largely overlooked the effect of the crisis on the state of democracy in Morra, it is generally regarded that Hemlock and the DPV did indeed manipulate the referendum results to inflict damage on Speaker De Croo, before twisting his correct allegations of fraud to make De Croo appear to reject public will and thus effectively end his political career.

With the replacement of Wilhelm De Croo as speaker, President Kairos Hemlock became the only remaining party leader of the coalition to retain a position of executive power within government, effectively making her the undisputed leader of the government. On June 17, 2042, Hemlock and Speaker de Ruiter announced the introduction of new electoral legislation in a joint press conference in Brussels, which passed into law on July 29th as the Electoral Reform Act of 2042; as part of the new legislation, the president gained the power to appoint representatives on the Electoral Commission's executive committee, as well as the power to remove members with the backing of the National Assembly. Additionally, greater restrictions were placed on voting abilities, with voters requiring identification cards in order to be eligible to take part in elections and referendums, and the National Reform Act of 2040 was amended so that government initiated referendums are a de-facto vote of confidence in the government.

On July 28, 2042, justice secretary Pierre Moscovici was elected as leader of the Party of the Labourers (PvdA) and began publicly voicing concern about the increasing transfer of powers to the presidency and the erosion of democratic safeguards; on August 14th, Moscovici revived the dormant United Opposition of Morra election group and was duly elected leader of the group, though the PvdA did not withdraw from government. Following a cabinet meeting on August 28, 2042, President Kairos Hemlock announced that she would exercise her executive power to dissolve the National Assembly and call snap elections after Moscovici had made clear his intentions to withdraw from government in protest against the consolidation of powers. On September 2, 2042, the National Assembly of Morra was formally dissolved and elections scheduled for November 6th.

On November 8, 2042, the results of the National Assembly election were made public by the Morranian Electoral Commission at a ceremony in Brussels, with the DPV receiving 108 seats, the PvdA receiving 64 seats, the BVDM receiving 37, the VVD receiving 29, the PPM receiving 17, the APA receiving 16, DENK receiving 12 the LPM receiving 12, the NP receiving 1, and independent candidates gaining 4 seats. The election was decried by observers, both domestic and international, as being institutionally biased towards parties supporting President Kairos Hemlock - in several cases, digital electoral registers were found to have been manipulated whilst databases with results were accused of having been edited by pro-Hemlock officials. Despite evidence of election rigging, all parties opted to accept the results and on November 10, 2042, Speaker Ophelia de Ruiter swore in all elected members of the National Assembly. After a week of negotiations, de Ruiter was re-elected to the position of Speaker of the National Assembly of Morra after successfully managed to form a new coalition between the Democratic Party of the People, Movement for Democracy in Morra, and Liberal Party, thereby ending the government crisis.

## See Also

* 2039-40 Morranian Political Crisis
* De Croo Ministry
* First de Ruiter Ministry