2017 Gianlucian federal election (Pacifica)

2017 Gianlucian federal election
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%
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 Gianatla 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 Gianatla 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 Gianatla. 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.

Date

According to the Constitution of Gianatla the federal elections shall be held on a Sunday 45-50 months after the most recent federal election took place. Since the federal elections in 2013 have been done on the 15 September 2013, this meant the earliest election day could have been the 18 June 2017 while the latest date could have been the 12 November 2017.

In January 2017 King and Leader Gianluca IV scheduled the election on 10 September 2017.

Electoral System

One month later the ministries of political education and research presented a new voting system for the election set to be in 7 months time. The new Preferential Mixed-Member Proportional-system developed by the Gianlucian government, several political scientists from Ryccia and Gianatla, and former king Ikaros VIII shall replace the MMP-system without overhang seats that got used in the federal elections before 2017.
In PMMP every voter has two votes. The first vote goes to exactly one party. The party with the most first votes gets distributed the most seats in parliament, the party with the second most first votes the second most seats, etc. Parties that haven't overcome a 5%-threshold were - once again - not granted any seats in parliament.
The second vote goes to one or several individuals that run for parliament in the constituency. When voting for several people, a clear ranking has to be made, because even if a politician has a simple majority in the constituency it won't be necessarily enough to join parliament. In that case the vote counters will recount all votes for a certain candidate and take a closer look at the voters' second preference and whether they can join the parliament for their party or not. This process continues until all of the 650 seats of the Königspalast are filled.

Opinion Polling

Königspalast Opinion Polls between 2013 and 2017

Results

Albeit losing huge proportions of the vote, SLP stayed the strongest party in parliament by receiving 35.5% of the votes. Their former coalition partner SDP as well as their future partners, the Green Party and the Pirates, gained more votes than the polls have suggested shortly before the election.

KPHA achieved their goal to win over AVP-voters for their cause and were titled the "true winners" of the election by a media. With 56 seats won in the Königspalast, the party that only consisted of Ikaros VIII, his family and some former servants had difficulties to find enough designated MPs to send into parliament.

The biggest loser after the SLP were probably the Free Democrats that lost all their parliamentary seats after having only gained 3.6% of the votes. The AVP did so too, but unlike the FDP they had a stronger direct opponent in their ideological spectrum.

Full results of the Election
Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/-

	Social Liberal Party	5,866,059	35.5	240	-53
	Social Democratic Party	3,602,256	21.8	151	+34
	Greens	1,900,273	11.5	84	+31
	Pirates	1,685,459	10.2	75	+38
	King's Party of the House of Atlantis	1,189,736	7.2	56	+56
	Left	892,302	5.4	44	-9

	Atlantic People's Party	627,916	3.8	0	-34
	Free Democratic Party	594,868	3.6	0	-63
	Party for Animal Protection	59,973	0.4	-	-
	Conservative-National Party	53,876	0.3	-	-
	The Party	14,114	0.1	-	-
	Economic Lobby Party	12,944	0.1	-	-
	Cat Party	5,255	0.0	-	-
	Communist Party	4,653	0.0	-	-
	Militaristic Party	2,910	0.0	-	-
	Spiritual Party	2,907	0.0	-	-
	Party of the National Community	1,855	0.0	-	-
	Christian Value Party	1,286	0.0	-	-
	Jewish Party	956	0.0	-	-
	Action for Direct Democracy	940	0.0	-	-
	Party of the Word of Allah	433	0.0	-	-
	Party for the Families and Retired	398	0.0	-	-
	Gender Party	157	0.0	-	-
Invalid		2,584	0.0

The 8.4% of the vote that went to the parties not being able to overcome the threshold got equally divided among the parties having reached the threshold. Thus the composition of the Königspalast looks a little different.

Constitution of the 2nd Königspalast and Government formation

The opening session of the 2nd Königspalast was just two days after the election on 12 September 2017. On that day the parliament decided on its presidium. Traditionally the party with the most seats - in this case the SLP - gets the right to propose a candidate to be the speaker of the Königspalast. The Social Liberals proposed former minister of infrastructure, Dr. Frank Carlos, to be the house's speaker. He got elected with 257 yes-, 147 no- and 246 abstention-votes.

The other parliamentary groups may get represented by one vice-president each in the presidium too.

The SDP group gets represented by the former minister of defense, Siegfried Hentzsch, who got approved in the first ballot with a vote of 197-89-364.
The Greens group gets represented by Sabine Meischel, who got approved in the first ballot with a vote of 120-13-517.
The PPG group gets represented by Janina Groß, who got approved in the first ballot with a vote of 75-0-575.
The KPHA group gets represented by Ikaros' son, Prince Triton of Atlantis, who got approved in the first ballot with a vote of 56-50-544.
The Left group gets represented by Lara Yt, who got approved in the first ballot with a vote of 48-1-601.

After the constitution of the parliament SLP started coalition talks with KPHA, Greens and PPG. After just three days of negotiations SLP announced, the talks with KPHA have failed to succeed. On the same day, at the evening of 15 September 2017, they declared a success of the talks with the Greens and Pirates though. The newly formed coalition, that calls itself the "green-liberal coalition" has presented the following goals for their legislative period:

deepening of Gianlucian foreign relations
negotiations on trade agreements with other countries
reduction of bureaucracy and introduction of digital departments
more money for research and new technologies
introduction of a Gianatla--wide regular interval timetable
creating a constitutional right on personal data
merging public and private health insurance to one common health insurance
putting animal rights into the constitution
closing of all nuclear power plants
disarming Gianlucian nuclear weapons