19 February 2023
Yesterday's "emergency" National Assembly session finally concluded this morning after a representative who realized that they hadn't actually cast their ballot was able to vote. The session was called yesterday by VP Luke Fitzgibbins by the request of Minister Owen Itzen. Representatives were presented with five bills, all of which were presented by Minister Itzen. Only one of those bills ended up passing the Assembly. It was a revised version of the request to annex two new territories, Nueva Galicia and Nueva Andalucia. The bill was previously rejected by President Renny because of potential issues with the classification of the territories. In the first version of the bill, both territories were named as "dependencies". Under the constitution of Phillip, dependencies are subdivisions that are more than 85km away from the capital of the country. These two territories are both more than 250km away from Port Phillip. Due to the government's inability to govern territories that are that far away, the constitution grants dependencies a high degree of autonomy, allowing them to essentially act as a republic in free association with Phillip.
The issue with Neuva Galicia and Nueva Andalucia being classified as dependencies is that they are sparsely inhabited and wouldn't be able to form a proper government. Neuva Galicia only has two residents, while Nueva Andalucia is uninhabited. Another issue that comes with having a small population is that, like all subdivisions that aren't territories, they would both be able to send a representative to the National Assembly. Neither residents of the territories showed interest in being a part of the government, which would cause for there to be two vacant seats in the Assembly. President Renny promised to approve the annexation of the new lands if they were reclassified to "Dependent Territories". They would still have a lot of autonomy, but without the ability to have a representative.
As promised, President Renny approved the annexations. The two territories combined have increased Phillip's territorial size by over 600%. Phillip is now larger than both the Vatican City and Monaco. Both territories consist of farmland owned by Minister Itzen's family. Two of his family members are residents of the Neuva Galicia Territory and have become citizens. They will be represented by whoever wins the election for the National Assembly seat for the Territories this Tuesday.
Minister Itzen also presented two bills that would have changed the balance of power in the National Assembly. The first bill was the "National Assembly Veto Override Bill", which would allow the National Assembly to pass bills vetoed by the President into law if a two-thirds majority was reached. Many politicians in Phillip claimed that this bill would upset the balance of power between the President and the Assembly. The other bill, called the "National Assembly Anti-Party Majority Bill", provided procedure on preventing a majority from taking place in the Assembly. If passed, the bill would allow citizens of Phillip to silence a member of whichever party has majority in the Assembly from voting in any legislative sessions until the majority is removed. Both of these bills struggled to gain more than 40% support from members of the Assembly. Many representatives, such as Minister Reed Von, believed that the bills would upset the balance of power in Phillip.
Overall, today was an important day for the growth of Phillip. Hopefully these new territories will have a beneficial impact on our country.