2017 Gianlucian federal election (Pacifica)

2017 Gianlucian federal election

File:GI-Land Flagge.png
10 September 2017
All 650 seats in the Königspalast 326 seats needed for a majority
Registered	22,950,154 0.3%
Turnout	16,524,111 (72,0%) 1.2%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Tom Kirchmann Marco Chulz Marja Sanddorn Party SLP SDP Green Leader since 5 January 2017 Leader's seat Freudstadt-Becher I Atlantis-Südstadt Last election 293 seats, 45% 117 seats, 18% 53 seats, 8.1% Seats won 240 151 84 Seat change 53 34 31 Popular vote 5,866,059 3,602,256 2,639,268 Percentage 35.5% 21.8% 11.5% Swing 9.5% 3.8% 3.4%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Moritz Strabinger Archduke Ikaros VIII of Atlantis Lara Byt Party Pirates KPHA Left Last election 37 seats, 5.7% 0 seats, 0.0% 53 seats, 8.2% Seats won 75 56 44 Seat change 38 56 9 Popular vote 2.340,916 1,652,411 1,239,308 Percentage 10.2% 7.2% 5.4% Swing 4.5% 7.2% 2.8%   Seventh party Eighth party   Leader Franz von Neptunsberg Nicole Klacena Party AVP FDP Last election 34 seats, 5.3% 63 seats, 9.7% Seats won 0 0 Seat change 34 63 Popular vote 872,106 826,206 Percentage 3.8% 3.6% Swing 1.5% 6.1%
Chancellor before election Harald Schmidt SLP Elected Chancellor Tom Kirchmann SLP

On 10 September 2017 the 17th Gianlucian federal election was held to distribute all of the 650 seats in the 2nd Königspalast. It was the second federal election since the incorporation of Atlantis in 2011.

While the Social Liberal Party (SLP) led by Tom Kirchmann won 240 seats with a majority of 35.5% of the votes, they still had the biggest swing of all parties. 9.5% of their voters from 2013 decided to vote differently this time. The former coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party led by Marco Chulz however gained votes and seats in this election, which gave them overall a more powerful position in possible coalition talks and later on in the opposition.

One new party, the King's Party of the House of Atlantis, joined the parliament with 7.2% of the votes. The party of the former King of Atlantis Ikaros VIII advertised with a conservative program that was more moderate than that of the Atlantic People's Party, which lost all their seats in parliament after only one legislative period. The same happened with the Free Democrats, as KPHA as well as SLP both aimed in their campaigning strategy to get more liberal votes, while sticking to the concept of a social market economy. The Free Democrats, that were discussing a move to a completely free market model, were therefore after 63 years no longer part of the Gianlucian parliament.

The Greens, Pirates and the Left completed the elected parliament with altogether 203 seats, however no party was able to reach an absolute majority of 326 seats.

Barely a week after the election SLP, Greens and Pirates came to an agreement on a coalition treaty. This depicted one of the quickest government formation processes ever in the history of the country. A continuation of the "social-coalition" out of SLP and SDP was outruled by SDP's leader Marco Chulz during campaigning.

Background

In the elections of 2013 a coalition out of the Social Liberals (SLP), which lost their absolute majority, and the Social Democrats (SDP) gained a majority and with that secured a second chancellery term for Harald Schmidt. Due to the aftershocks of the incorporation of Atlantis in 2011 the nationalistic Atlantic People's Party (AVP) gained more than 5% of the seats in parliament and established themselves as the biggest opponents of chancellor Schmidt.

The so called "social coalition" was introducing a minimum wage of 8 Tacks per hour in 2015, opened the Atlantic Strait Tunnel at the start of 2014, decided on new high-speed railroad tracks, finished the move of the capital of GI-Land from Gianlucastadt to Atlantis and elevated esports to their current status as "sports-like activity". The chancellor furthermore attended the conference to establish the World Forum in the beginning of 2017.

Schmidt announced in December 2016 he won't run for chancellery again. Media reports suggesting that this decision was made based on health related questions were left unanswered. Political experts think, he stepped back due to his age and the strong mistrust in his person especially by Atlantic voters.

The SDP proclaimed later they will not aim to get into another coalition with the social liberals, reasoning that SLP denied motions regarding a reform of the educational system of GI-Land and are the main reason why the minimum wage was set as low as it was in 2015.

In April 2017 former king of Atlantis, Ikaros VIII, announced his nomination for chancellery to the media. His party, who was only ever part of state elections up until then, declared themselves as the enemies of the strongly nationalistic AVP, since they "don't carry the Atlantic spirit". Their goal was to prevent AVP from joining parliament again and to possibly install Ikaros as new first or vice chancellor of GI-Land. This shall reach that the Atlantic voices, that they felt have gotten supressed under the rule of Schmidt, get heard better in the royal palace again. After this announcement support for AVP dropped steadily until the election.