Konkrëse
Konkrëse | |
---|---|
3rd Konkrëse | |
![]() | |
Type | |
Type | |
Houses | House of Aristocrats House of Councillors |
Term limits | Life-long (Aristocrats) 1 year (Councillors) |
History | |
Founded | March 8, 2021 |
Leadership | |
The Duchess of Frumar since 5 December 2022 | |
Vice Lord Speaker | |
Deputy Speaker | |
Francisco Arrais, PN since 5 December 2022 | |
Structure | |
Seats | 37 22 Lords of Congress 15 Councillors |
House of Aristocrats political groups | Non-partisan (22) (House members are non-partisan in character, but are free to affiliate with any political parties) |
House of Councillors political groups | Government (7):
Opposition (5):
Other groups (3):
|
Elections | |
First-past-the-post | |
House of Councillors last election | 12 October 2022 |
House of Councillors next election | 12 October 2023 |
Meeting place | |
Raych Halle, Malmünd de jure Discord de facto |
The Konkrëse, officialy called Der Konkrëse der Raych (Portuguese: O Congresso do Reino, "The Kingdom's Congress"), and often simply referred as The Parliament, is the supreme legislative body of the Kingdom of Ebenthal. The Konkrëse is a bicameral parliament consisting of the House of Aristocrats, formed by an unlimited number of appointed nobles serving life-long terms, and the House of Councillors, formed by fourteen elected members serving 1-year terms. The political party or party coalition that controls the majority of seats in the lower house (councillors) chooses the national executive for the country, the Prime Minister of Ebenthal, who is also a member of parliament. His and his cabinet's position depends on the parliamentary confidence, otherwise, lose their office.
The Konkrëse was officialy innaugurated in 8 March 2021 with the approval of its creation sanctioned by the King in substitution to Ebenthal's former unicameral parliament, the College of Peers of the Realm, which was active since 2014 and underwent a reformation in October 2020.[1] The Konkrëse was founded with three active parties: The Conservative Party, the Moderate Party and the Worker's Party, but there is no limit to the number of political parties that can act in parliament.
The Konkrëse's upper house, unlike what happens in most countries, is de facto as powerful as the lower house, although both constitutionally holds specific powers each.By convention, the House of Aristocrats's speaker, entitled Lord Speaker, is the acting political head of the parliament, taking the lead in most legislative matters, concurrently with the Councillor Speaker, the House of Councillor's speaker of the house. Legally all legislative power draws from the King of Ebenthal, and thus, the King retains powers to issue decrees with effect of law and to dissolve the parliament at will.
Etymology
The word Konkrëse comes from the Riograndenser Hunsrückisch, a Brazilian-originated German dialect, translating to "Congress", or "Congresso" in Portuguese. It is similar to he original German word "Kongress", but it actually evolved from the Portuguese word phonetics as a "germanization" (Brazilians spell the word konkrëse more similarly to the word congresso than to the word kongress, mainly because of the last vowel).
Legislative functions
The Konkrëse perform powers on the legislative sphere. It enact laws, amends the constitution (this one requires a majority of two-thirds), holds the power to dismiss a government through a vote of no confidence (under the monarch's sanction), to authorize the government to apply or exempt taxes, take and grant loans and to deal in trade and commerce, to ratify treaties and other kinds of international agreements (with very few exceptions), to deal with conciliation and arbitration when required, to legislate on immigration and citizenship, tor recognize the throne's heir and to legislate in matters regarding the military institution. The Konkrëse also creates and appoints members of special comissions and committees.
Political opposition represented in the parliament has the power to review the cabinet's actions, make counter-proposals and mimick the Royal Cabinet with its own (labeled Shadow Cabinet), although with the only goal of scrutinize the government's one.
Procedure
A legislative bill can be formally introduced by any member of both legislative houses, as well as by the Sovereign and the Federal Princes rulers of the Ebenthal's individual federated principalities, although it is more commonly introduced by the parliamentary houses only, specially the House of Aristocrats. The Lord Speaker or the Councillor Speaker read the proposed bill and puts it up to voting by their respective chambers. If a bill is approved in the upper chamber, it is immediatly sent to the King's office for his royal assent or veto; if it is approved in the lower chamber, then it goes to the upper chamber to be voted there, with a few exceptions which may be directly sent to the King's office. If a bill fails, in both chambers, it can be voted on again in the next session; if the second vote is approved, it follows normal procedures; if it is rejected again, the bill is shelved and can only be revived after a month. If a bill approved in the lower house is rejected in the upper house, then it is returned to the lower house and submitted to changes, so it must be voted and approved there again to be sent to the upper house for their judgement.
The King possesses constitutional power to sanction and veto any parliamentary decision at his will regardless of whether they were approved by the majority or not.
Composition
House of Aristocrats
The House of Aristocrats is made up of as many members as the monarch appoints, selected exclusively from among the Ebenthali nobility; not all nobles are members of the House of Aristocrats. Members, often called Lords of Congress, Aristocrats or simply Members of the House of Aristocrats, do not represent constituencies and their lenght of term is lifetime. When a member dies or relinquishes his title, if there is a clear heir, he assumes the deceased member's position in the house. In concurrence with the result of elections to the House of Councillors, the monarch appoints a member of the Aristocrats to be the Lord Speaker, who in turn appoints the Vice Lord Speaker. By convention, the monarch appoints as Lord Speaker a member of the party or coalition that has a majority of seats in the lower house, or some noble on the Prime Minister's advice.
House of Councillors
The House of Councillors is formed by an unspecified amount of members elected in proportional representation, that is, each province elects as many councilors as it has inhabitants. In Ebenthal, for every ten permanent residents, one councilor is elected (the same applies if the province has less than ten residents). The election takes place through the first-past-the-post system in which each citizen votes for only one candidate, and the candidate who receives the most votes wins. Members, often called Councillors of Members of the House of Councillors, represent constituencies corresponding to the country's provinces and their lenght of term is that of 1 year, with possibility of unlimited re-election. Members of the party or coalition with the most seats appoint the Prime Minister, who in turn appoints the Councillor Speaker, who in turn appoints the Deputy Speaker.
Parties
The table below lists parties currently represented in the College.
Name | Ideologies | Leader | Current seats | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
PN | National Party Partido Nacional |
Conservatism | Francisco Arrais | 5 / 15
| |
PR | Republican Party Partido Republicano |
Republicanism | Alessandro Rosas | 0 / 15
| |
ND | New Democratic Party Partido dos Novos Democratas |
Centrism | The Duchess of Frumar | 7 / 15
|
Seats
Aristocrats
Appointed MP | Party | State | Took office | Seat # | Notes | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Appointed | ||||||||
The Marquis of Rozandir | Non-partisan | ![]() |
2 February 2020 | 1 | Vice Lord Speaker | |||
The Count of Lyns | Non-partisan | ![]() |
5 March 2019 | 2 | ||||
The Count of Reccared | Non-partisan | ![]() |
14 August 2022 | 3 | ||||
The Prince Pedro II | Non-partisan | ![]() |
14 August 2022 | 4 | former reigning Prince of Belmonte | |||
The Prince Fernando | Non-partisan | ![]() |
30 October 2015 | 5 | ||||
The Marquis of Recceswinth | Non-partisan | ![]() |
13 September 2014 | 6 | ||||
The Count of Nordwind | Non-partisan | ![]() |
7 September 2018 | 7 | ||||
The Count of Goethe | Non-partisan | ![]() |
13 October 2022 | 8 | ||||
The Marquis of Telesia | Non-partisan | ![]() |
1 July 2020 | 9 | ||||
The Count of Galla Placidia | Non-partisan | ![]() |
5 July 2020 | 10 | ||||
The Count of Ivrea | Non-partisan | ![]() |
28 February 2020 | 11 | ||||
The Marquis of Savassi | Non-partisan | ![]() |
16 February 2020 | 12 | ||||
The Prince Hugo III | Non-partisan | ![]() |
10 March 2021 | 13 | former reigning Prince of Schwarzberg | |||
The Duchess of Frumar | Non-partisan | ![]() |
31 December 2019 | 14 | Lady Speaker | |||
The Duke of Ambarino | Non-partisan | ![]() |
14 August 2022 | 15 | Prime Minister | |||
The Countess of Barcelos | Non-partisan | ![]() |
10 March 2021 | 16 | ||||
The Marquis of Soutofeld | Non-partisan | ![]() |
14 August 2022 | 17 | ||||
The Marquis of Nova Gallar | Non-partisan | ![]() |
14 August 2022 | 18 | ||||
The Count of Theudigisel | Non-partisan | ![]() |
14 August 2022 | 19 | ||||
The Count of Balten | Non-partisan | ![]() |
24 December 2018 | 20 | ||||
The 2nd Duchess of Montana | Non-partisan | ![]() |
8 March 2021 | 21 |
Councillors
Elected MP | Party | Province | Took office | Seat # | Notes | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Elected | ||||||||
The Duke of Sternachten | New Democrats | ![]() |
8 March 2021 | 1 | Speaker of the house (councillor speaker) | |||
Wellington Muniz | New Democrats | ![]() |
8 March 2021 | 2 | ||||
Bernardo Barcelos | New Democrats | ![]() |
8 September 2021 | 3 | ||||
The Duke of Grünewald | New Democrats | ![]() |
12 October 2022 | 4 | ||||
The Marquis of Falkner | New Democrats | ![]() |
12 October 2022 | 5 | ||||
Daniel Vilela | New Democrats | ![]() |
12 October 2022 | 6 | ||||
The Duke of Novaes | New Democrats | ![]() |
12 October 2022 | 7 | Deputy speaker | |||
Eric de Pádua | Independent | ![]() |
8 March 2021 | 8 | ||||
The Marquis of Liuva | Independent | ![]() |
8 March 2021 | 9 | ||||
Henri Sãens | National Party | ![]() |
8 September 2021 | 10 | ||||
The Marquis of Braunau | National Party | ![]() |
12 October 2022 | 11 | ||||
Francisco Arrais | National Party | ![]() |
8 March 2021 | 12 | Leader of the opposition | |||
Gabriel Carvalho | National Party | ![]() |
12 October 2022 | 13 | ||||
The Count of Allesgüt | National Party | ![]() |
8 March 2021 | 14 | ||||
Vacant | Not yet elected | ![]() |
Not yet elected | 15 |
References
- ↑ Ministry of Information. New legislature, new government. Published on 28 March 2021. Retrieved 9 July 2021.