The Grand Senate is the lower chamber of the Parliament of Elysium, the legislature of the Elysium. Its membership consists of a proportional number of Grand Senators in each Commonwealth, who are selected by PLPR. Another set of Grand Senators, amounting to 30% of total seats, are distributed to parties based on the D'Hondt Method.

The Grand Senate is responsible for selecting the Chancellor of Elysium. The Grand Senate has the sole authority to pass acts, but amendments to the constitution and treaties require the approval of the Council of Imperial Delegates. Amendments and treaties can originate in the Council of Imperial Delegates in which case the Grand Senate must approve the proposal.

History

Grand Senate
Grand Senate
15th Grand Senate
Type
Type	Lower house
History
Founded	24 April 2019
Preceded by	Parliament of Elysium
Leadership
Speaker of the Senate	Thomas Bainbridge, ND ; since 7 October 2023
Deputy Speaker	Vacant ; since 18 March 2024
Chancellor	Elliot Doe, ND ; since 18 September 2023
Leader of the Opposition	Seán O'Neill, PLP ; since 18 March 2024
Structure
Seats	15 Senators
Political groups	HIM Government National Democrats (7)
Political groups	Opposition Progressive-Labor (6) (official opposition) Agrarian Party (1) Vacant Seats (1)
Elections
Voting system	MMP
Voting system	PLPR
Last election	September 2023
Next election	16 May 2024 or Sooner
Meeting place
	Discord

Early sessions (1 & 2)

The first Grand Senate was one of two grand senates which were appointed by the Grand Emperor of Elysium due to the nations small size. A few parties were present in the Grand Senate at this time the Progressives the predecessor to the PLPs, Democratic Traditionalist the predecessor to the NDs, WissenTech, the Communist Party of Elysium, and a few other small parties. The Grand Emperor had the power to appoint two Grand Senators from each Commonwealth but only the Grand Senate could remove members once they were appointed.

The first Grand Senate is most notable for drafting and passing the first constitution of Elysium. Despite this in future Grand Senates the first constitution was repealed due to many loopholes and grammatical errors in it and was replaced, but many ideas on how the government ought to function from the first constitution remain as do the offices of it.

The Grand Senate also passed other major acts such as the Judiciary Act by Adam Johnston which extended the power of the courts and of juries, the Ernst Fair Use Act which set out a basic copyright system, and the Marriage Act which ensured marriage equality. A State Industry Bill was proposed in this session but was defeated by the Democratic Traditionalist and WissenTech. Although all of the acts from this session have been repealed or amended the intent of the acts lives on other bills and amendments which merely fix the grammar and loopholes of these early laws. During this session powerful Grand Senators such as Sir Adam Johnston and Sir Spooky Johnston began their careers in the Grand Senate.

The second Grand Senate began on 25 May 2019 and lasted until 25 July 2019, making it one of the shortest sessions. This Grand Senate session was called following the completion of the constitution and is most notable for the entrance of Tau Barclay into politics and the first Speaker election in Elysium. Political newcomer Tau Barclay founded the Libertarian Party of Elysium, to oppose the conservative Democratic Traditionalist while also not joining the socialist Progressives, but shortly after merged his party with the Progressives to form the Progressive-Libertarian Party. Despite his belief that Elysium was in great need of reform and that the DTs were not offering his centrist views and activity gave him the support of both socialist and conservatives. He was elected as the first speaker of the Senate in a 5-2-2 vote, opposed by Johann Kummel (DT) and Alexander Irikladis (DT).

Major legislation from this session includes the Political Party Act which set standards to make a new party, the Government Continuation Act which set out a formal order of succession, the first legislative format, creation of the Deputy Chancellery, admitting Orini as a Commonwealth, and the Archive Act which made a formal archive. Of these acts all of them have been repealed or amended but the intent of the act remains in the law with the exception of admitting Orini. Another notable event in the second session was the rise of the Nationalist State Party of Elysium one of the most far-right parties to enter the Grand Senate. The NSPE campaigned on ending the monarchy but replacing it more authoritarian institutions, stripping away the powers of the nobility all altogether, and ending marriage equality. The leader of the party Frederick Garrison was removed from the Grand Senate due to accusations he had led coups in other nations. While in the Grand Senate, he proposed legislation which would make it so there could only one party for the left, centre, and right he proposed the Progressive-Libertarians be the party of the left, the Democratic Traditionalist of the center, and the NSPE of the right. His act failed to pass.

The second session came to end due to the campaigns of Stanley Kenny in which he called for the end of an appointed legislature believing the nation had grown large enough. His calls were soon joined by those of Adam Johnston, Spooky Johnston, and other reformists and Grand Emperor Robert II briefly considered stepping down when the calls began to be directed against him for incompetence. Chancellor Kyle Smith convinced Grand Emperor Robert II to not step down and rather elections were organized to reform the government. A Great Elysium Council was called including Governors, the Grand Emperor, Chancellor, Deputy Chancellor, Cabinet, Nobles, and Grand Senators met to discuss reforms. The most active members of this council were Grand Emperor Robert II of the moderate camp calling for reform but nothing radical, Kyle Smith, Suyash, and Tau Barclay supported the same policy, Adam Johnston and Stanley Kenney led the reformist faction of the council, and Christina Nowell led a group who opposed reforms and wanted to expand the power of the monarchy. Despite the split groups in the council major reforms were passed and an election to the third session was arranged. The Elysiumite July 2019 senatorial election was the first true election to the Grand Senate in which the DTs led by Kyle Smith won 42% of the vote. Progressives came in second and Political Evolution in third, the Unity Party would have won a seat but their candidate renounced his citizenship before the results were released.

Third Grand Senate

The third Grand Senate saw the election of Adam Johnston, Progressive-Libertarian, as Speaker following Tau Barclay becoming the Deputy Chancellor. With his new office of Deputy Chancellor to DT Chancellor Kyle Smith, the Progressive-Libertarians greatly expanded their influence both in the legislative and executive branches. The party while still smaller than the DTs had grown to four Grand Senators and various smaller parties had joined them.

The Progressive-Libertarians began to pass some aspects of their more moderate agenda with support of moderate DTs including reforming the Deputy Chancellery to give the Grand Senate more power in the process to select one, passing the Johann University Act which made a digital university for Elysium, Senate Reform Act which increased the power of the Senate Majority Leader, Office Definition Act which curbed citizen sharing. The PLP also blocked some of the more right-wing agenda of the Democratic Traditionalists with the help of moderate DTs such as the Unification Act which made it harder for new provinces to be admitted. Despite this Chancellor Kyle Smith still enacted the most controversial part of his legislative agenda the creation of the House of Nobles which operated as an unelected legislative body. The DTs justified the creation of this legislature as they believed it would encourage people to work hard to get noble titles, and due to the Grand Senate being able to block acts from the House of Nobles but the House of Nobles being unable to block acts from the Grand Senate. Despite this the House remained controversial even with Grand Emperor Robert II campaigning for it. Democratic Traditionalists also passed the less controversial Resignation Act which gave officeholders twenty-four hours to nullify their resignation and the Cabinet Reform Act which increased transparency.

On the 21st August 2019 Adam Johnston faced another speakership vote which he lost to Johann Kummel of the DTs, this election was not due to any particular parliamentary issue but ought to spite of DTs not controlling the office of Senate Majority Leader. Following this, the Democratic Traditionalists passed the largest administrative reform of the session with the Federation Reform Act which devolved more power to regions and gave them the power to create legislatures and establish regional courts. Following this, the Legislative Reform Act established that Provinces and autonomous regions would both have two seats in the Grand Senate from then on. Despite legislative and executive success Chancellor Kyle Smith resigned from his office due to his belief that he had not been active enough and that Elysium deserved a better Chancellor. Due to this Progressive-Libertarian Tau became Chancellor and he nominated Progressive-Libertarian Adam Johnston to become his Deputy. Despite them taking the executive branch due to the appointments the Progressive-Libertarians lost some of their Grand Senates and where replaced by DTs giving them a majority.

The new Tau administration rapidly began to propose its more moderate agenda. On 8th September 2019 the Grand Senate passed the Globalization of Trade Act which made a formal biasness registry and the Budget Act which created a formal process to create a budget. On the same day, the DT proposed Military Reform Act which formalized the creation of an Elysium military passed, and the Pacoist proposed Practice for Cactus Act passed. The Progressive-Libertarians passed the Senate Elections Act which increased the frequency of elections to occur on the 14th of every month. The last proposed act of that session, Tau's Tax Act created a new Department to look into the creation of a tax code.

Fourth Grand Senate

Despite high legislative success for the Progressive-Libertarians the Democratic Traditionalists saw a surge of support following the return of Kyle Smith to politics. Kyle Smith was unanimously elected by his party to become their Grand Senate leader and he led them to the party's largest victory in the Grand Senate with seven out of twelve seats. The Libertarian Progressives only won two seats but the Liberal Unity Party in third place won one seat and soon merged into the party. The Pacoist and Magistrate Party both won a seat. Kyle Smith beat the LP nominee Johann Kummel in the Senate Majority election in a 7-4. Due to the Right Revival as it came to be known the Progressive-Libertarians moderated their tax plan to get the plan to pass. The 5-5-5 Tax Plan established a corporate tax of 5% in Elysium the first of any kind, as well as an optional individual tax.

Despite these legislative victories, Tau Barclay's approval rating fell due to a series of public debates with the Grand Emperor over Tau's proposal for a new constitution. While support for rewriting the loophole-ridden first constitution was high Tau Barclay's attempts to greatly reduce the powers of the monarchy brought him into a fierce debate with the Grand Emperor. After the Grand Emperor released an imperial speech to the Grand Senate urging the Democratic Traditionalists to hold strong and not throw away imperial tradition Tau Barclay and Robert Smith came to an agreement. Tau Barclay was given the right to finish his draft and Robert Smith was given the power to amend it before it went to voting. Despite this agreement, the next Grand Senate election was called before it could be finished. A few days before the election the libertarian faction of the Progressive-Libertarians and the Democratic Traditionalist merged to form the centre-right Reformist Party.

Fifth Grand Senate

The fifth Grand Senate election was the worst defeat for the Progressive Party, at that time Leftist Alliance, following the creation of the Reformist Party and the Free Society Party. The FSP believed that Reformist Party was trying to get a monopoly on power in the nation and as such they campaigned as a big-tent party, in reality, the leadership of the party was firmly right-wing. Between these two parties, The Progressives fell to one seat and third place for the only time in the parties history. The Reformist won six seats and Free Society won two. Despite this poor result, a member of the FSP resigned after the election and a Progressive was appointed to fill his seat giving the party the status of second largest once more. The Progressives were invited into a grand coalition into FSP which they accepted and the Reformist and Progressives worked together on legislation. Despite their alliance, Kyle Smith was re-elected Speaker against Adam Johnston, James Xarca, and Chris Ramsay.

The Reformists proposed, and with the support of Progressives, passed The Second Military Reform Act which created local units in the military, and the Second Federation Act which standardized regional governments.

Powers

The powers of the Grand Senate are laid out in Section Two, Article Two of the Elysium Constitution. Among these powers are:

Pass legislation
Overturn a veto with a 3/5 majority
Declare war, with approval of the Chancellor
Impeach an official. Should an impeachment vote receive over 50% of support from the Grand Senate but less than 2/3 of the votes; a referendum occurs among the people are large on whether or not the official should be impeached
Hold a vote of confidence in the Prime Minister, should less than 50% of the Senate vote confidence in the Prime Minister an emergency election shall be called
Hold confirmation votes in Ministers
Amend the constitution of Elysium

Grand Senate (Elysium)

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