Würtige Bloc
 | This article needs to be updated. |
| Würtige Bloc | |
|---|---|
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| General information | |
| Sector founded | 2020 2016 (as the Avant Entente) |
| Membership | |
| Organisations in area | Würtige Empire |
| Notable people in area | Henry Clémens Karl Friedrich James Frisch Patrick Renwick Newton von Uberquie |
The Würtige Bloc refers to the various personal and national alliances which emerged from the Würtige Empire, particularly in the context of voting blocs within the Grand Unified Micronational. In the present day, it generally refers to a group of five micronationalists known for their close friendship and interaction, tracing back to their earliest years in the MicroWiki community. This group is composed of five members - Henry Clémens, Karl Friedrich, James Frisch, Patrick Renwick, and Newton von Uberquie - who joined the MicroWiki sector between 2011 and 2014. The prominence of its members, their involvement in several major community events over the years, and their revival of the Würtige Empire have led to them being considered a highly influential group.
History
First Bloc
When the Wurtige Empire was established, it had three active member states in the Grand Unified Micronational: Wurtigeland, Burnham (later Clyro and Mercia) and Nolland. After the creation of the Empire, worries about the states' representation within the GUM resulted in discussions between Arthur Lobao, Richard Hytholoday and the Grand Unified Micronational. This culminated in Hytholoday putting forward an argument to the entire Quorum of Delegates in early January 2013, which resulted in the GUM allowing the states to being separately represented in the Quorum. This naturally created a small voting bloc of Wurtige-aligned GUM member states, something which was, for the most part, unprecedented in GUM history. The bloc quickly demonstrated its rising influence when Hytholoday was elected Chair of the GUM in March 2013.
Early during the term of Ciprian I of Juclandia as Chair of the Quorum in January 2014, pressure was applied to reduce the number of Würtige Empire memberships from three (Würdigeland, Nolland and Clyro) to one pan-Imperial membership. This was strongly opposed in the Würtige Empire itself, and the Ashukov Federation's delegate in a Quorum that month made a statement criticising the move. The pressure from the Chair and the Supreme Judge (Bradley of Dullahan at the time) was dropped, and the Supreme Judge later declared support for multiple Imperial memberships.
In June 2014, Hytholoday ran again for the GUM chairmanship, but lost to Vera Hewitt of Ashukovo. This marked a rare failure for the Bloc, as despite collectively voting for Hytholoday, and receiving support from newer nations such as Adammia, they were outnumbered by more old-guard nations such as Austenasia and Wyvern, which voted for Hewitt. Even more stark was the simultaneous GUM Supreme Judge election, in which the Bloc's candidate, Thomas Cassidy, failed to secure any votes outside the Bloc, losing by a landslide to well-established community lawyer Taeglan I Nihilus.
In the September 2014 GUM election, the Bloc effectively decided the election by collectively voting for Adam Belcher of Adammia, who defeated Hewitt's re-election bid by just two votes. At this time, Adammia and Ashukovo were both close diplomatic partners of the Wurtige Empire. The Bloc also used its numbers to ensure that Hytholoday was elected Secretary for Cultural Affairs and Micronational Education, defeating Andrew.
The decline of both the GUM and the Wurtige Empire in 2015 signalled the end of the First Bloc. However, the Wurtige tradition would live on through Mercian leaders and politicians. The union of Clyro and Loringia to form Mercia in 2014 had introduced Karl Friedrich to the group, effectively adding Lurk to the bloc. Mercian politics in 2015-16 arguably introduced many of the leaders of the second Bloc to each other. New Winterdown, which did not join the Wurtige Empire initially, had been a part of the Empire's predecessor, the Confederate States of Prosperity, and was very closely alligned with the Empire. After it became Beacon City in 2014, its leader, James Frisch, became Speaker of the Mercian Parliament House. Meanwhile, Newton von Uberquie, a prominent Mercian politician, founded the Palatinate of Uberquiesenberg in 2016 as a Mercian colony, whilst Esse, led by Henry Clémens, also became a Mercian colony around this time.
Avant Entente
The second Würtige Bloc originated as the "Avant Entente," a Skype chat composed of Henry Clémens, Stephen Freayth, Patrick Renwick, and Newton von Uberquie. The chat - and its discussions - remained highly secretive, and continued with varying levels of activity until Clémens' departure from MicroWiki in 2018. In 2020, Clémens returned to the community, and had united with Uberquie and Renwick once again, this time in addition to Karl Friedrich and James Frisch (the latter whom had recently returned to MicroWiki himself).
Within Mercia, several of the group's leaders were instrumental in the 2016 vote of no confidence in the government of Alejandro Whyatt, a turning point in Mercian politics that resulted in the dissolution of the People's Democratic Party and the election of Uberquie to the post of First Minister.
Mercia returned to the GUM following its re-establishment in 2016, though it did not vote in line with other former Wurtige-aligned states in GUM elections at this time, suggesting that there the fledgling second Bloc was not focussed on the GUM at this point in time. Clémens of Esse was elected unopposed as GUM Chair in June 2017. In 2018, Mercia, Uberquiesenberg and Paravia all supported Emperor Adam I of Adammia's unopposed bid for GUM Chair, just as the first Bloc had done so four years previously. Mercia, Uberquiesenberg and former Wurtige state Nolland all supported Adam's re-election bid in December 2018, giving him a clear margin of victory over Nicholas Randouler of Posaf, and making him the only Chair in GUM history to be elected to two consecutive terms.
The group's leaders all eventually grew to be active in the Abeldane Empire. Uberquie eventually ascended to become Emperor of Abelden, while three members of the group - Uberquie, Renwick, and Clémens - each served terms as Vorsitzender.
The Avant Entente did not vote in a unified manner in the June 2019 GUM election, in which Mercia supported the successful campaign of Bradley of Dullahan, whilst Uberquiesenberg supported Ashley Jaax of Iustus. This continued into the December 2019 election, in which Uberquiesenberg voted for the successful Thomas Bainbridge of Hrafnarfjall, whereas Mercia voted for Dionisiy I of Montescano.
Second Bloc
Within the Essian Commonwealth, James Frisch became the longest-serving Heaminister in the state's history, and later held the office of Gonfaloniere following Esse's merger with Uberquiesenberg. Following said merger, Karl Friedrich - Lord Temporal of Mercia - became the inaugural Heaminister of the Uber-Essian Union.
In the June 2020 GUM election, the Bloc saw its first Chair since Clémens elected, with Newton von Uberquie winning by a landslide against Jayden Lycon. Bloc members Mercia, Abelden, Paravia and the Serene Beaconite Republic all supported Uber-Esse in the bid, alongside former Wurtige state Nolland and historical Wurtige allies Adammia and Ashukovo.
In the December 2020 GUM election, the Bloc largely abandoned its previous support for Adam Belcher by collectively voting for Jack Dean of Essexia, helping him to deliver a decisive win over the Adammic emperor. Only Nolland - which, by this point, had become more closely aligned with Adammia than the rest of the Wurtige Bloc due to the Cardiff Pact and the so-called "special relationship" between the two countries - voted for Adam.
The Bloc's influence was harmed by events in the Abeldane Empire in 2020. Newton's forced abdication, followed shortly thereafter by revelations that Abelden's voting system had been rigged for years, resulted in Freayth leaving the group.
In early 2021, the five members of the Bloc spearheaded a revival of the Würtige Empire. With Arthur I's abdication finally acquired, there was a brief reign by Richard Hytholoday in December 2020, before Newton assumed the Wurtige throne a few weeks later. The renewed Wurtige Empire included the SBR, Uber-Esse, Mercia and Paravia as its members, once again giving it a more formal voting bloc within the Quorum of Delegates. They collectively voted to back the Chairmanship campaign of Anthony Clark - the leader of New Florence, a former constituent state of Abelden - and in doing so helped to give him a considerable majority over Abrams Wiucki-Dunswed of Ikonia. At the same time, Newton became Supreme Justice of the GUM, with fellow Bloc members Patrick I of Paravia and James Frisch, alongside Bloc ally Adam Belcher, filling out the rest of the Supreme Court as Associate Justices, giving the Bloc an unprecedented level of power within the GUM's judiciary.
