Bloca Parliament

The Parliament of Bloca is the the deliberative assembly of the Bloca Legislature for the Province of Bloca, Doggerland,and is seated at the Bloca Legislative Building in the provincial capital of Raitho (Deutschmind). The House of Councillors is a unicameral assembly of 150 members, elected Mixed Member Proportionally from single-member electoral districts. Members are elected from an equal amount of constituencies around the Province. Each electoral district has an average population of 2,272 residents. They are elected to two-year terms and are limited to 20 years cumulative in the Parliament. Bills passed by the legislature are ratified by Gil Van Aitzema, Premier of Bloca.

Bloc A
Bloc A is a movement that gained traction in the 2021 Legislative Elections. The current leader of the Bloc is Gil Van Aitzema, who is a businessman. It split from the Bloca Civic Union and was not expected to gain such traction during the election due to it’s weak base. It scored especially well with the rural population, along with the Doggish majority constituencies. The success of the party is attributed to Van Aitzema’s ability to benefit from the national government and the establishments in the Civic Union and Liberal Party. He also ran a pro-oil and business friendly campaign that saw Northern Independence the only way to revitalize jobs within the Province. It was formerly known as the Bloca National People’s Party. Bloc A leader Gil Van Aitzema was key in assisting in the formation of the national Ús Noardlân party after being nationally unaffiliated for the better part of the year.

Bloca Civic Union
The Bloca Civic Union is led by Premier Lotte Baker. It is a center-right to right-wing party with an indifference to the Northern Independence movement. Former leader Gen. Peter Spiegel was the leader of the party and led the government from 2005 to 2020. Spiegel balanced the moderate and populist wings of the Civic Union. He resigned on June 5, 2021 when the 2020 Bloca Civic Union Leadership election was triggered leading to the election of Lotte Baker as the new Premier.As mentioned, the party has two main factions: the moderates, who support liberal-conservative ideas and are generally in urban areas. The populists on the other hand advocate for further right wing principles, along with populism of course, and are located in rural areas. To achieve a victory in most elections, it is typical for leaders of the party to cater to both wings. There is a growing rift in the party between separatists and unionists within the party.

John Lounsbrough, a CU Provincial MP-elect, has confirmed that he will contest the leadership due to Baker not focusing on the Northern Independence Movement enough.

Terpstra Team
Terpstra Team is a localist, centrist political party operating in the Dogger province of Bloca, named for its leader, Nik Terpstra. Terpstra, the former mayor of Nivelford, founded the party as his political vehicle, and ran on a campaign of greater autonomy for municipalities and economic reform. Terpstra has been described as a radical centrist with a populist bent, and his party has done well to counter the growing left wing influence in council.

Bloca Liberal Party
A party in a dynasty of sorts, the Liberal Party continues to elect members of the Akkerman Political Family to be leaders into power. This contributes to some of the outrage against the establishment parties, reminiscent of the Indian National Congress. It is led by Zoe Akkerman, who stressed the importance of unionism, that is the unity between the north and the south. However, Akkerman didn’t really give an argument for the ideology, simply putting it into her manifesto. The party also is very centrist in nature, sticking with classical liberal values as well.

Bloca Workers' Party
The Bloca Workers' Party is a social democratic and progressive party associated with the Labor Workers' Party of Doggerland at the national level. It is the oldest extant party in Bloca, and also the smallest of the major parties. The party has struggled since the Crowley era, but has managed to hang on to a decent chunk of its support. There are four significant factions within the party, though all largely represent an older, more union left wing. The current leader as of the most recent election is Mark Pastor, though everyone within the party feel his retirement is likely.

Change Bloca
The Change Bloca Party is a democratic socialist politcal party that fields candidates in the Province of Bloca, operating with the support of the national United Left People’s Party. The party was formed in 1989 as a response to the third way neoliberal reforms enacted by the BWP-led government of Premier Greg Damon. Since then, the party has merged with the Ecologist Party of Bloca and as such has taken an ecosocialist direction. Of the dominant socialist parties at the provincial level, the Change Party is the most moderate. The party represents much of the urban and youth left within Bloca.

Independent Democratic Party
The Independent Democracy Party of Bloca is a syncretic populist political party, and is the provincial branch of the Independent Democracy Party of Doggerland. The party has been labelled as far right by many of its detractors, which the party refutes by pointing to its strong support of socialist economic policy. Much of the party’s support comes from ethnic Doggers, as the IDP have functionally served as the voice of the Doggish people. The party is by far the most controversial party in Bloca politics, with every party currently represented refusing to work with them.

Liberty First (Independence Second)
Liberty First (Independence Second) is a libertarian and classical liberal political party, operating as a provincial affiliate of the national Libertarian Party. Formerly known only as Liberty First, the inclusion of Independence Second reflects the party’s embrace of the Northern Independence movement, within the context of libertarian small government. The party has consistently been the smallest or 2nd smallest party in the Council since its inception.

Raitho Group
The Raitho Group are a regionalist Social Democratic party that is moderate on social issues; they represent Raitho regionalist interests such as making Creole an official provincial language, as creole academics have recently begun to standardize the language, and making efforts towards an independent Bloca(or even purely independent Raitho). The party places a particular emphasis on urban issues like police reform, public transportation and city housing. The party is distinct from the other left-of-center parties by supporting regionalism and separatism. While very popular within Raitho, the party has found it difficult to expand outside of the Raitho Riedsleden and Raitho constituencies, and efforts to expand into Creole and Doggish constituencies in the provincial elections have failed so far.