Jorge Liñan takes office as Governor General

LOUISE CHARLOTTE, 8 July 2024 - In a short ceremony attended by the members of the government and the Diet, as well as the eight Mayors and representatives of the army and the clergy, Mr Jorge Liñan Narvarte has taken office as Governor General of New Courland this morning.

Mr Liñan was originally supposed to be inaugurated last Monday, but the arrival of hurricane Beryl that day made the government decide to postpone the ceremony.

Mr Liñan was until recently the Mayor of Nuestra Señora del Perpetuo Dolor. He was elected as an independent candidate in 2015 and remained a popular politician not only in his municipality but nation- wide for his decisive actions against poverty in Nuestra Señora and his ability to arrange deals between unlikely parties. His non-partisanry and popular qualities were the main reason that a comfortable majority of the Diet supported his nomination.

During his inauguration speech, Mr Liñan focused of course on the necessity of rebuilding the country after hurricane Beryl caused great destruction last Monday. Aware of his popularity, he expressed the hope that he will be able to live up to the New Curonians' high expectations of him as Governor General and promised to represent both the Monarch and the people of New Courland as well as he can.

The Governor General of New Courland represents the Duke of New Courland, Charles, elsewhere known as King Charles III of the United Kingdom.

New Courland devastated by hurricane Beryl

LOUISE CHARLOTTE, 2 July 2024 - New Curonian society is slowly getting back on its feet to assess the damage, after hurricane Beryl devastated infrastructure in large parts of the country yesterday. Prime Minister Herbert Dalrymple said that Beryl was the largest and most profound disaster that had hit New Courland in many decades, and announced that relief response coordination was being set up by the Urban Planning Ministry with the support of the New Curonian Armed Forces.

"Our nation has been hit in the worst possible way, but the New Curonians are resilient; I am confident that we will recover with God's help!" the Prime Minister said.

Initial reports count thirteen fatalities as a result of the hurricane, while 29 people have been reported missing. Authorities expect that these numbers may rise in the next couple of days. Fortunately, the nation's main hospitals haven't suffered a lot of damage and Health Minister Valery Hamilton confirmed that they are so far able to handle the influx of patients.

There is a lot of material damage. Overall, it is estimated that more than half of the country's buildings were damaged in one way or another; in the town of Restless, around 90% of the structures lost their roofs. The road between Penllergaer and Altitude was damaged on multiple locations and has been closed until reparations can be made. The international airport near Louise Charlotte is accessible although the control tower was severely damaged, while in the capital itself the roof of the Parliament building collapsed. Train services between Louise Charlotte and Zelta Kalni have been interrupted indefinitely as a landslide near Ainava may have weakened the tracks.

Water and electricity have been disrupted throughout the country. The responsible agencies are issuing hourly reports to the government on their assessment of the damage and emergency repairs that are being made. Internet is also down in parts of the country.

International help has been promised so far by the CPSO; the government has pleaded for more.

Inauguration new Governor General postponed due to hurricane

LOUISE CHARLOTTE, 30 June 2024 - The inauguration of Jorge Liñan as the new Governor General, initially scheduled to take place tomorrow 1 July, has been postponed by a week due to hurricane Beryl that is expected to hit our country tomorrow.

"All citizens are urged to find shelter and any official ceremony will be postponed", Prime Minister Herbert Dalrymple said. "This includes of course the inauguration ceremony of the new Governor General."

Jorge Liñan, the incumbent Mayor of Nuestra Señora del Perpetuo Dolor, was selected last week as the successor of Sir Satyavant Bhandare, who has been Governor General since 2013. Liñan is a popular public figure, described as a 'man of the people' with an excellent bridge building capability.

As Sir Satyavant's end of term tomorrow has already been accepted by Parliament, Deputy Governor General Tomás Caycedo will be Acting Governor General until Liñan enters office.

Governor General announces retirement

LOUISE CHARLOTTE, 2 June 2024 - In a special television broadcast this morning, Sir Satyavant Bhandare announced his retirement from the office of Governor General as per 1 July this year. "After more than ten years, it is time for me to step down", the 67-year old former mayor of Louise Charlotte announced.

Sir Bhandare took office on 1 June 2013, succeeding Sir Ewen Grey as the representative of the monarch in New Courland. During his tenure, New Courland's membership of the Forum for International Cooperation and Trade (FICT) was consolidated, the country withstood the Covid-19 epidemic, and with Duke Charles got a new monarch upon the death of Duchess Elizabeth, who had been New Courland's formal head of state since the country's independence in 1962.

According to insiders, the Covid-19 epidemic was the reason that Sir Bhandare stayed in office beyond his 65th birthday, to avoid the extra policial upheaval in a period when people should not have been meeting other people.

The main political parties will soon engage in talks about a successor. Although it is formally the Duke who appoints the Governor-General on the advice of the Prime Minister, the largest political parties generally discuss the matter before the prime minister takes his decision, so as to ensure a choice that is sufficiently widely supported by the people.

Police to start bribery investigation after FICT summit

LOUISE CHARLOTTE, 19 May 2024 - A bribery investigation has been started by the Ducal Police following the surprising election of Jeffrey Kjær as the new Director of the FICT Social Investment Bank (FSIB) by the delegations of the member states of the Forum of International Cooperation and Trade yesterday.

Kjær, a former mayor of the Yuklandic town of Vítgarð, was elected despite the other two candidates, former Prime Minister Guillaume Keztil Surt of Île de Romanhe, and especially the incumbent chairwoman of the Banking Association of New Courland (BANC) Paula Bļodniece having more evident experience, both politically and - in the case of Bļodniece - also factually.

Although Bļodniece herself did not say a lot on the matter after she didn't even receive enough votes to go on to the second round of voting, but Opposition Leader Xavier Samaroo of the Progress and Development Party immediately after the summit wondered if Prime Minister Herbert Dalrymple had been sleeping on the job.

"Our candidate, Ms Bļodniece, obviously did not seem to have had the support of the government", Samaroo said. "Why propose her in the first place if you're not at least going to try to push her through?"

As the delegations of the FICT member states left the country soon after the summit - and enjoy diplomatic status anyway - the Ducal Police admits that the investigation probably won't lead to any satisfactory results, but "it is the principle that counts in the defence of our fellow countrywoman", a Ducal Police spokesman said.

The summit of FICT is held twice a year in one of the member states. Yesterday's 23rd summit saw, apart from the election of Kjær as new FSIB Director, the awarding of the Lowok Aralangit Prize to the Voskian Sisters of Charity of Palipuli for the FICT-wide organisation they set up in support of mono-parental families, an the Green Prize to both Ms Serẽ Neves Aracary from Yutyrama for her research in the replacement of plastics by vegetal fiber and Mr Alfaris Tawahutu from Kaupelan for his activities to improve residential waste recycling in Purikali, the capital of Kaupelan.

Successful FICT summit with new FSSC director from DNC

PURIKALI (KP), 12 May 2019 - A successful summit of FICT was concluded yesterday in Purikali, the capital of Kaupelan, during which the director of the New Curonian Oceanographic Institute Dr. Cornwall Flores Caamaño was appointed as the new director of the FICT Secretariat for Scientific Cooperation (FSSC), succeeding Faruk Yeriyeg from Harrawi as of 1 June. Yeriyeg wasn't reelegible after completing his first three year term.

Dr. Flores Caamaño (52) is a maritime biologist specialised in hippocampinae indigenous to the eastern Caribbean and has been heading the Oceanographic Institute for almost five years. According to some of the local gossip press, Dr Flores Caamaño will be glad to move to Clive-on-the-Hill in Guelphia, where FSSC's headquarters are located, following his messy divorce to singer Andrea Moorecombe last month. Minister of foreign affairs Andrejs Berķis called Dr. Flores Caamaño's appointment a 'festive moment' as it has put our country in the spotlights within FICT.

The rest of the meeting proceeded without much ado: Adzhatia was selected as the host country of the 2021 edition of the FICT Games and a delegation from the Kronenburg was present to discuss the possibility of membership. Kronenburg has been named as a potential member of FICT ever since the organisation was founded in 2011 but successive Kronenburg governments had so far declined any such possibility. A change of composition of the coalition government earlier this year however has put FICT membership on the table. New Courland has been in business with Kronenburg already via the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Exumbran Convention (ExC).

Backlash for PDP as Labour secures Jauna Piltene

JAUNA PILTENE, 25 March 2019 - An unexpected drama took place during the mayoral elections in the municipality of Jauna Piltene yesterday when incumbent Mayor Everett Bailey (Progress and Development Party, PDP) lost to oppositional candidate Doris Emerson-Truro of the Labour Party: Emerson won decisively with more than 60%.

During the campaign, a victory by Emerson, despite her incessive listing of everything that had gone wrong in Jauna Piltene under the previous Mayors Edgars Ķīlis (Conservative Party, 2007 - 2015) and Bailey (2015 - 2019), seemed unlikely and Bailey's campaign had therefore been directed mostly to his Conservative opponent Dylan Stanley, son of Jauna Piltene's first Mayor John Stanley. Together with Emerson, a majority of the electorate must have felt ignored by the usual suspects to gain the municipality's leadership and so they cast a surprise vote for Emerson, who will be the first Labour Party mayor countrywide since Peter Hunter was defeated as Mayor of Nuestra Señora del Perpetuo Dolor in 1990.

Mayoral elections in Maza Osta/Little Harbour that took place as well yesterday were less eventful: PDP candidate Guna Pauļuka won the election as expected from her opponents of the Conservative Party and the Social Consideration Party and will succeed her three time victorious fellow PDP member Roger Halkett (2007 - 2019) as Mayor.

Next Diet elections on 2 June

LOUISE CHARLOTTE, 1 March 2019 - The next elections for the Diet will take place on Sunday 2 June. This was announced by Prime Minister Laila Miró-Rozenberga (Progress and Development Party, PDP) today.

By law, parliamentary elections have to take place within 1500 days after the last one; as the last election took place on 7 June 2015, the deadline for the next one is on 15 July this year. The number of seats per municipality will be as it was during the last election (Louise Charlotte 10, Zelta Kalni 6, Yeovil 4, Jauna Piltene 3, Penllergaer 2, Kettler's Port 2, Nuestra Señora 1, and Maza Osta 1); the next revision is scheduled for 2022.

Although unexpected surprises may happen, it is expected that the Prime Minister will be allowed another tenure. Miró-Rozenberga was selected as a compromise party leader and therefore became Prime Minister after her precedessor Prime Minister Luis Lavalleja lost the support of a party majority after the PDP lost seats for the fourth time in a row, despite winning the election. Neither he nor his main rival Thomas Seneviratne the popular major of Yeovil, were able to secure a stable support and Miró-Rozenberga was elected instead.

During her tenure as the tenth Prime Minister of the Duchy of New Courland, she proved to be a competent and efficient leader under whose leadership a so far successful plan to curb emigration from young New Curonians to larger countries (most importantly the United States) was introduced.

Miró-Rozenberga's main rival is Ilga Lieckalniņa of the Conservative Party who seeks to have her party return to power for the first time since 2006. Currently the Conservative Party has 9 seats in the Diet but according to polls their support has steadily grown in recent years. Most of this growth seem to have been at the cost of smaller parties however such as Constructive Vision and the Independence Party, whereas the ruling PDP has so far managed to keep the small majority of 15 seats that they obtained after the 2015 elections.

Diet ratifies new FICT Trade Agreement

LOUISE CHARLOTTE, 12 May 2016 - The Diet has ratified this morning the new Free Trade Agreement that was concluded on the FICT General Assembly that was held last Saturday in Bizet, the capital of the Republic of MAS. Prime minister Laila Miró-Rozenberga defended the agreement, claiming that it may cause a diversifying boost to the New Curonian economy that is dominated by the nearby Caribbean economies.

"Since Saturday, FICT has thirteen member states, which gives our country access to almost every corner in the world. This is a great unity to benefit from them, and they from us", she said. The Diet also welcomed undation of the FICT scientific research institute during last Saturday's General Assembly.

Some members in the Diet criticised FICT for allowing Amargo and Pannonia to join the organisation, and the government for turning a blind eye. Both countries have dubious records regarding democracy, Amargo effectively being a dictatorship under king Edward, and Pannonia imposing socialist conditions on political parties' ideologies. Conservative Party leader Ilga Lieckalniņa emphasised the difference with the Exumbran Convention, that would have imposed restrictions especially on Amargo.

"FICT does give the impression that 'anything goes'", Lieckalniņa said. "Does the prime minister not have moral doubts being in the same club with nations that oppress their people? By ignoring the situation in these countries, won't New Courland be accessary in oppression?"

Prime minister Miró called Lieckalniņa's attack preposterous. "Despite ongoing claims that Amargo and even Pannonia are dictatorships, both countries have regular elections, multi-party systems and so on. Their government system is different from ours, but there is no evidence that these countries' peoples are oppressed; if there is, we will of course address it in any diplomatic way possible."