Syskagate

### Cause

Controversial electoral bill, that would prevent people who didn't register prior to the general elections from voting

### Motive

* Disagreements between party leader @jacobsyska and party members on the election bill
* @jacobsyska announced that he would resign if his party didn't vote to approve the bill

### Aftermath

* Swearing in of MPs is pushed back one day (from Thursday 11 May 2023 to Friday 12 May 2023).
* Deputy Prime Minister @soclibben leaves the European Federalist Party to join the opposition party Raichu Minority Electoral Committee.
* Minister of European Integration & International Trade @Matas55125405 and Minister of Education, Culture & Media @giraff3nhals announce that they will vote against the bill.
* @jacobsyska resigns from Prime Minister, Member of the House of Commons and Party Leader, and retires from the simulation.
* @jacobsyska declares @Matas55125405 as a new temporary leader of the European Federalists Party and as a new Prime Minister.
* @soclibben rejoins the European Federalist Party, and becomes the caretaker leader and PM.
* European Federalist Party primaries are triggered.
* @Raffi\_\_Aditya, 18th on the European Federalist Party's list, enters Parliament (it is unknown if @actinglife3 renounced to join, as he was 17th on the party list).
* Screenshots of the Parliament chat and the private party chat are leaked and posted on @CrazyMockParl.
* @jacobsyska resigns from the simulation's admin team.

**Syskagate** is a name to refer to the **May 11th 2023 scandal**, which saw @jacobsyska resign from his positions of Prime Minister, MP and leader of the European Federalist Party following a controversy regarding an election bill he proposed.

The scandal blew up when @soclibben, Deputy Prime Minister in the Jacob Syska cabinet, together with other European Federalist Party MPs, criticized the decision of the then Prime Minister @jacobsyska of supporting voter registration, which was an unpopular measure that was opposed by both his government majority and all of the opposition parties, and announcing to resign had the bill not passed.

Afterwards, @soclibben announced that he would leave the party and join the Raichu Minority Electoral Committee, who sat at the opposition, as well as other ministers in the Jacob Syska cabinet publicly opposing the party leader's indication. @jacobsyska then resigned from every role he held and left the simulation. He then publicly stated that he "regretted wasting time on the simulation" on the official Mock Parliament account, and passed it on to Socialist Progressive Bloc MP Chappers.

## Background

On May 10th 2023, @jacobsyska proposed, on the Mock Parliament account, to postpone the swearing in of the House of Commons members, originally scheduled for the following day, by one day, without providing any context to it. The motion was supported by the European Federalist Party, while members from the opposition groups Socialist Progressive Bloc and Progress-Alternative voted against. The motion was then passed, rescheduling the swearing in to May 12th. The reason of the motion is still unknown to this day.

## The electoral bill

The following day, @jacobsyska announced, still on the official Mock Parliament account, that he supported introducing mandatory voter registration, which would be open up to 24 hours prior to the general elections and be necessary in order to validate submitted ballots. He supported the ballot as he thought that voter identification wasn't safe enough to prevent electoral fraud, and that only those who were truly interested in the simulation should be able to vote, in order to prevent election day retweeting. Every party in the Mock Parliament contested the bill, as well as the usage of the official Mock Parliament account instead of the personal/party account for proposals.

After one hour and a half, Jacob switched to his personal account to keep arguing in favour of the measure. @soclibben, who was actively opposing the measure, left the European Federalist Party group and entered talks with the leaders of the Christian People's Party and the Raichu Minority Electoral Committee, eventually joining the latter and sitting at the opposition with the Civil Accord group. Minister of Education, Culture & Media @giraff3nhals, Socialist Progressive Bloc member Chappers and Deputy Leader of Progress Party Liberaven announced that they would vote against any electoral bill that contained voter registration, regardless of its content. After @soclibben left the party, leaving the incumbent cabinet with a minority, and realizing that voter registration had no support by neither majority nor the opposition, @jacobsyska announces to leave the simulation and quits the Parliament, resigning from every role he held.

## Syskagate

Later that day, Deputy Prime Minister @soclibben reveals that the former Party Leader had told the other MPs from his group that he would resign and make the government collapse hadn't they voted for the electoral bill. The members still opposed the motion. In a leaked screenshot, Jacob is seen calling out @soclibben, blaming him for switching to Raichu Minority Electoral Committee and then back to the European Federalist Party group, allegedly to force the then Prime Minister and Party Leader to resign.

@soclibben would also reveal that the measure was proposed on purpose as the European Federalist Party had the most established voter base in the simulation, whereas other parties relied mostly on casual voters that would likely not register for the elections, therefore gaining an advantage over the opposition parties; according to this version, he wanted to penalize the Socialist Progressive Bloc, the 2nd most voted party at the May 7th 2023 elections. Jacob denied all of it by saying he was acting as a neutral admin, and @soclibben didn't bring any proof to support this theory. The message containing the allegations was also leaked on @CrazyMockParl.

## Aftermath

Following Jacob's resignation, @soclibben immediately rejoins the party and Jacob's appointed PM and new party Leader @Matas55125405 declares @soclibben the new acting Leader and PM, making Matas the shortest PM in the history of Mock Parliament. @soclibben then decided to host party primaries and not to run for them as he didn't have enough time. Jacob writes a final message on the Mock Parliament account, blaming the Parliament for being only interested in getting more interactions in the short term, rather than trying to keep the simulation running for a longer time. Head admin @velo\_trivia appoints Chappers to fill in for Jacob's admin role, and @Raffi\_\_Aditya, who was 18th on the European Federalist Party list on the May 7th 2023 general elections, entered the Parliament. It is unknown whether @actinglife3, who was 17th and first not to be elected, renounced to the charge of MP or not.

Some screenshots of the Parliament chat, as well as private chats between @soclibben and Jacob, were leaked on the gimmick page Crazy ass moments in Mock Parliament and are still available to this day.

The same night, Jacob left a message to the MPs of the Mock Parliament warning them that the simulation had become toxic and that @soclibben was overstating the situation on purpose, claiming that he didn't blackmail any party member but simply state a position, and called him out for leaking screenshots and switching political affiliations. Following the message, @soclibben left the simulation as well, agreeing with Jacob on the fact that it had become toxic.

An overnight note by Jacob states that, even after both left the simulation, @soclibben kept attacking him personally and eventually block him, and that Jacob had tried to DM @soclibben in order to squash the beef between the two, but it didn't receive a reply. The former European Federalist Party leader doesn't understand why his former Deputy Prime Minister took it to a personal level; on this aspect, Jacob had received support from his old simulation's MPs.