Business Secretary (Morra)

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The **Secretary of State for Business and Energy** (Dutch: **Staatssecretaris van Handel en Energie**), often colloquially known as the **Business Secretary** or the **Energy Secretary**, is the leader of the Ministry of Business and Energy Affairs. Within government, the secretary of state for business and energy is a relatively junior position within government, but held greater significance between 2022 - 2023 and again from 2024 - 2029; the office is normally given to mid-level politicians within the governing coalition.

As with all other members of the cabinet, the secretary of state for business and energy is appointed by the president upon the recommendation of the speaker of the National Assembly, though the president retains the power to reject a recommendation. The incumbent must be a sitting member of the National Assembly in order to hold office, but is not subject to any term limits for their position. Instead, they serve at the pleasure of the president, who has the power to unilaterally dismiss the secretary of state for business and energy at any given point. Similarly, in the case of a presidential dismissal, the president is able to nominate a replacement member, who is then confirmed by a vote of the National Assembly; alternatively, the speaker may nominate a new candidate for office, who must be approved by the president. In the case of both channels for appointment occurring simultaneously, the speaker's candidate assumes office on a temporary basis until the president and speaker can agree on a new business secretary. Prior to 2029 and the formation of the Republic of Morra, the president appointed all members of government by themselves.

During periods of dominance by the Caucus of Corporate Republicans and its successor the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy, the role of business secretary was a significant and powerful position which oversaw coordination between the government and its many contracted private sector services, as well as EuroCorp. Following the nationalisation of EuroCorp in 2040, the business secretary became the overseeing government minister and held the position of Chairman and CEO of the company. In the business secretary's energy portfolio, the office oversees the state-run national energy company Morra Energie and is responsible for ensuring that the state has a sufficient degree of energy security to prevent it from being used as a political leverage against the government.

The office of secretary of state for business and energy was first created in October 2022, alongside all of the major cabinet level positions, during the first presidency of Werner Reinheart. Since the office's creation, there have been 4 people to hold office as secretary of state for business and energy, 3 of whom held office following the formation of the National Assembly of Morra. The longest serving interior secretary was Frank Wassenberg, who served for over 7 years; Guy Verhofstadt and Wouter Beke are the only individuals to hold office non-consecutively. The shortest serving business secretary was Peter Koonz, who served for 256 days during the short-lived Second Wassenberg Ministry between February and November 2037. Between January 2023 and September 2024, and from September 2039 to January 2040, the office of business secretary was not in use; in the former case, the role was briefly abolished, whilst in the latter it remained vacant for several months.

## See Also

* President of Morra
* Vice President of Morra
* Speaker of the National Assembly of Morra