First Minister of Essexia

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First Minister
FM seal.png
Seal of the
First Minister of Essexia
First Minister of Essexia
AppointerMonarch of Essexia

The First Minister of Essexia was the head of the government and Cabinet of Essexia. They also held the position of Leader of the Parliament of Essexia.

There have been 14 First Ministers in Essexian history, with tenures ranging from 3 days (Lord Jamie) to almost 260 days (Earl Finn). The last person to hold the role was the Rt. Hon. Jack MP.

The position was replaced by the Commissar General of Essexia on the 14th September 2021.

History

The inaugural First Minister of Essexia was Earl Finn, who was appointed by Emperor Terry of Essexia on the 19th of September after the Commonwealth of Essexia was formed from the Federation of Essexia, as Prime Minister of Essexia. He served until the 1st of January 2019, when Essexia became an Absolute Monarchy as Earl Finn resigned in protest.

Lord Chris then joined the Liberal Socialist and Cooperative Party so that he could become the next First Minister, as he was very popular with the Parliament. Following the establishment of the Essexian Political Commonwealth, and his departure from the LibSocs, Lord Chris resigned his post.

Following this, Earl Finn, being a fellow LibSoc, became the First Minister of Essexia. On the 22 May 2019 Earl Finn announced that on the 16th of June he would end his tenure as First Minister, as well as implying that they had intentions to leave the Essexian Senate. His coalition partners, the Royalists, announced that Lord Jacob would likely be replacing the Earl as First Minister. However, Earl Finn agreed to resign earlier, on the 26th May, as Lord Matthew of the Royalists threatened to end force him out of parliament if he did not accept.

On the 26th May 2019 Lord Matthew, party leader of the Royalist Party, announced that Lord Jamie would become Earl Finn's successor at midnight. Due to Lord Matthew's later disapproval of the Jamie administration and disagreement with Earl Finn, Lord Matthew and other Royalist rebels, supporting Lord Jacob to become FM, broke away from the Royalist Party and formed the Old Guard Party.

Made of mostly original citizens, but also some new, the Old Guard Coalition hoped to get the seats and take power. But due to Essexian parliamentary rules, when they resigned from the Royalists they would have to fight a by-election to keep their seats. Nonetheless the Old Guards still took away Lord Jamie's parliamentary majority until the by-elections. Due to misunderstanding of the electoral law by the Lord Matthew, it was claimed that after Lord Sam resigned from Parliament his seat would go to a by-election, which it would not, it would go to another member of the Liberal Socialists. Lord Matthew eventually convinced Emperor Terry to declare marshal law and have Lord Jacob take charge that way, as he was Minister of Defence. So Jacob became Lord Commissar Jacob after this, and thus appointed members of the 6 members of the Old Guard to the positions of power in the new military government. Jacob would go on to have the second-longest tenure as First Minister, and fundamentally altered the political landscape of Essexia.

Following the events of the Grey Weekend, Earl Finn once again became First Minister, as appointed by the Rhino Alliance. However, he was ultimately replaced by Lord Jamie again after the 2020 Essexian general election. Despite running with the Rhinos for the general election, Jamie opted to switch alliances to the Giraffe Concordat on the 25th March 2020.

Lord Sam became First Minister on the 30th May 2020, following the events of Snakey Saturday. Having overseen Essexia for over a hundred days, Sam resigned after the signing of the Third Constitution of the Commonwealth of Essexia.

After the signing of the Third Constitution of Essexia on the 11th September 2020 in Greater Danbury, Ben H formed a new Government as he had garnered the support to do so from almost all MPs to do so, despite his Government minority and lack of leadership experience. His government was formed with the support of the Giraffe Concordat and was initially backed by a super-majority of MPs. He stood down on the 19th February 2021 after the events of Hot Pink Friday.

Ben recommended that Jack D, a previous First Minister and leader of the ruling Giraffe Concordat, offer to form a Government. Jack did so, and Emperor James accepted. However, after just 11 days, the Greens were able to take power under the Rt. Hon. Newton MP following Becky's, Cracky's and Ben's decisions to leave the Giraffe Concordat.

Despite promising drastic reforms and a revitalisation of the nation, the Greens oversaw a period of inactivity until the 3rd May 2021, when Newton stepped down. Becky, as Second Minister, became Acting First Minister. A few hours later, Emperor James appointed Jack (Leader of the Royalists and the Giraffe Concordat) as First Minister as he was the only politician who displayed serious interest in taking up the role.

At the start of Jack's third term as First Minister, he set forward three goals on his agenda: Streamlining the cabinet, putting 'Boots in Mersea 2021', and greater foreign influence. His term came during his Chairmanship of the Grand Unified Micronational. His term started with efforts to update the MicroWiki after a long period of neglect under the Greens. He was able to win a Royalist majority in the 2021 Essexian general election, and formed the 4th Parliament of Essexia, continuing his term as the 14th First Minister and starting the 4th Giraffe Ministry. He was unable to implement serious reforms however, due to a lack of activity, decrease in population and the COVID-19 epidemic still hindering certain activities.

On the 14th September 2021, the military junta government (Backed by the Armed Forces and Supreme Justice) took power and dismissed the First Minister, the position being replaced by the Commissar General. As Jack was partly responsible for the coup, he made no attempts to retain his position as First Minister. This ended approximately 1,244 days, or 3 years 4 months and 25 days, of Essexia having a Prime/First Minister as the Head of Government.

Powers

The powers of the First Minister, until the Parliamentary Constituency and Prerogative Act, were largely ambiguous and uncodified. With the Emperor holding ultimate sovereign powers, there was a persistent debate over the authority the office of the First Minister had in decision making and policy. The Prerogative Act in 2019 clarified a few of the constitutional prerogatives given to the First Minister from the Office of the Emperor. They included;

  • The power to dissolve Parliament and call an election
  • The right to appoint his own Minister of Foreign Affairs, without Parliamentary interference
  • The right to receive foreign dignitaries and representatives (instead of the Emperor doing so) whereby he sees it fit to do so
  • The right to declare war (although, by convention, this may require consultation in parliament and the wording in the act is unclear.)
  • The right to appoint and remove Ministers of the Crown
  • The duties of the supreme commander of the military, with executive authority over all actors but the Emperor
  • The right to lead and be the executive in the Essexian National Order
  • The power to call national referendums
  • The power to declare martial law
  • The right to implement legislation
  • The power to appoint and remove the Supreme Judge

First Ministers

In order of chronology

The parties are as follows:       Progressive Worker's Party/Liberal Socialist and Cooperative Party,       Royalist Party,       Old Guard Party,       Weeaboo Rights Party,       The Greens and Co-Operatives

Portrait Term in Office First Minister Party Government Notes
1 Hawarden Arms.png 19 April 2018
to
1 January 2019
257 days 		Earl Finn* Liberal Socialist Hawarden Ministry
  • Inaugural First Minister.
  • Emperor Terry's first First Minister.
  • Technically the longest tenure as First Minister. Lack of records to confirm this however, and start of term preceded first ever Constitution (The Constitution of the Empire of Essexia, c. 20th July 2018).
2 ChrisESX.jpg 1 January 2019
to
12 February 2019
42 days 		Lord Chris Liberal Socialist/Royalist Essexian Political Commonwealth I
3 Hawarden Arms.png 12 February 2019
to
27 May 2019
104 days 		Earl Finn Liberal Socialist Essexian Political Commonwealth II
  • First First Minister to serve two non-consecutive terms.
4 JamieESX.jpg 27 May 2019
to
21 July 2019
57 days 		Lord Jamie Royalist Jamie Ministry
  • First Royalist First Minister.
  • First to be elected.
  • Elected via 2019 Essexian General Election, to this day still the largest mandate a single party has ever received.
5 Essexia Jacob.png 22 July 2019
to
5 January 2020
167 days 		Lord Jacob Old Guard Jacob Ministry
  • First Old Guard Party First Minister.
6 Hawarden Arms.png 5 January 2020
to
14 February 2020
44 days 		Earl Finn LSC Rhino Ministry
  • First to serve three terms.
  • According to what is recorded on this page, this third term put Finn's days in office as FM over one full year (In total, 405 days).
7 JamieESX.jpg 14 February 2020
to
17 February 2020
3 days 		Lord Jamie Royalist Transferal Government
  • Shortest tenure.
8 Essexia Jack.png 17 February 2020
to
3 March 2020
15 days 		Earl Jack Old Guard Interim Giraffe Government
9 JamieESX.jpg 3 March 2020
to**
30 May 2020

88 days

Earl Jamie Royalist Rhino Ministry II (3 March 2020 - 25 March 2020)
Giraffe Ministry (25 March 2020 - 30 May 2020)
10 SamESX.png 30 May 2020
to
11 September 2020
104 days 		Lord Sam Progressive Workers' Party Rhino Ministry III
11 Essexia Ben.png 11 September 2020
to
19 February 2021

161 days

Lord Ben Weeaboo Rights Party Weeaboo Ministry
  • First Weeaboo Rights Party First Minister.
  • Oversaw the first changing of the Monarch.
  • Emperor Terry's last First Minister.
12 Essexia Jack Fancy.png 19 February 2021
to
2 March 2021

11 days

Rt. Hon. Jack MP Royalist Giraffe Ministry II
  • Emperor James's first new First Minister.
  • First and only time a FM has served multiple terms under two different parties (First as OGP, second as Royalist).
13 File:Newtonvonuberquie 1.jpg 2 March 2021
to
3 May 2021

62 days

Rt. Hon. Newton MP The Greens von Uberquie Ministry
  • First Green First Minister.
  • First non-Essexian born to become First Minister.
14 Essexia Jack 3.jpg 3 May 2021
to
14 September 2021

134 days

Rt. Hon. Jack Royalist Giraffe Ministry III (3 May 2021 - 16 July 2021)

Giraffe Ministry IV (16 July 2021 - 14 September 2021)

  • The 2021 Essexian general election, on the 11th July 2021, was the first time Jack was elected to be FM. It had the lowest turnout of any previous Essexian general election.
  • Last First Minister

*For Earl Finn's first term the role was known as Prime Minister and the senate had greater power as it was prior to the Monarchical Powers Act 2018.
**Earl Jamie changed alliance part way through his term on 25/03/2020, from Rhino to Giraffe.

In order of longest tenures

Name Total time as First Minister No. of Terms
Finn 405 days | 1 year, 1 month, 1 week, 2 days 3
Jacob 167 days | 5 months, 2 weeks 1
Ben 161 days | 5 months, 1 week, 1 day 1
Jack 160 days | 5 months, 1 week 4
Jamie 148 days | 4 months, 3 weeks, 5 days 4
Sam 104 days | 3 months, 1 week, 5 days 1
Newton 62 days | 2 months 1
Chris 42 days | 1 month, 1 week, 4 days 1

In order of parties with longest tenures

Name Total time with First Ministers in office No. of First Ministers No. of Terms
PWP/LSC/LS 551 days | 1 year, 6 months, 5 days 3 5
Royalist 293 days | 9 months, 20 days 2 7
OGP 182 days | 6 months, 1 day 2 2
WRP 161 days | 5 months, 10 days 1 1
The Greens 62 days | 2 months 1 1

Timeline

  • Timeline of First Ministers, 19 April 2018 - 14 September 2021.
  • First Minister Timeline with Monarchs timeline, 26 December 2017 - 14 September 2021.
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