National Front (Plushunia)

National Front
President	Iepuroi Hop
Vice President	Judy Hop
Founded	20 October 2017 27 June 2019 (re-foundation)
Membership (2019)	8
Ideology	Civic Nationalism Strong state Right-wing populism Conservatism
Political position	Right
International affiliation	Conservative Union
Colors	Blue

The National Front was a right-wing party from Plushunia. It was founded in 2017 and re-founded on 27 June 2019 by right-wing politician Iepuroi Hop. The party was a strong supporter of statist policies and of centralisation, however it eventually merged with the Democratic Party in August 2019 because of its continuously decreasing scores in polls.

History

Hop era

The National Front was founded on 20 October 2017, on the same day as Plushunia its leader, Iepuroi Hop, being shortly remarked by the President and was made provisional Prime Minister. During his provisional tenure, Iepuroi Hop eagerly negotiated an alliance with other new right-wing political parties, like the National Liberal Party, the Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Union, forming the Democratic Convention. In the 2017 legislative elections, the Convention won a majority, with Iepuroi Hop becoming Prime Minister of the Hop Cabinet. However, after a rather disastruous term and the defection of the Liberals, and later of the Democrats to the opposition, it was clear that the National Front and the remnants of the dying Convention had no more political capital to win (or even get a decent score) in the Plushunian 2018 snap legislative election where the Convention only won 6 seats, 2 of which went to the Front. Defeated and having lost all its prestige, Iepuroi Hop's party was forced to go into opposition.

Socialist era, first dissolution and revival

After spending one month as a rather insignificant party of the opposition, the National Front was made a coalition offer by the Social Alliance, the winners of the Plushunian 2018 snap legislative election. The offer was made following the defection of the Democratic Party to the new Alliance of the Liberals and Democrats, then in opposition, thus leaving the Parliament in a 50/50 deadlock. To solve the crisis, then-Prime Minister Ursu Polarescu offered the National Front two portofolios in his new cabinet. Hop accepted, thus making the National Front a government party once again.
However, during the Plushunian Civil War the National Front withdrew from the government and supported the rebels, after the war even merging with the Revolutionary Movement, a political movement created by the former rebels, to form a new party, the Save Plushunia Union, party which is often compared with the Save Romania Union and with Juclandia's former party New Democracy. Despite the fact that the Union obtained surprising results at the Plushunian 2019 snap legislative election (7 seats out of 30), it did not last for long, the Iepuroi Hop parliamentary immunity scandal (see the Plushunian News Service article) leading to the re-foundation of the National Front by the pro-Hop faction of the Save Plushunia Union, the re-founded party going in opposition in protest of the ALDe members' attitude towards the scandal.

Demise

The re-founded party however did not enjoy the success of the original National Front, and it quickly dropped in polls (from 10% in June 2019 to less than 5% in late July), many members fearing that the party would fully vanish from the political stage, ending the political careers of its members. In order to avoid such an event, the leadership of the Front started merger negotiations with other parties, and eventually reached a consensus with the Democratic Party, which absorbed the Front on 27 July 2019.

Electoral performance

Election	Votes won	Seats won
October 2017 legislative election (Democratic Convention common list)	230 / 475	5 / 30
June 2018 snap legislative election (Democratic Convention common list)	57 / 300	2 / 30