National Congress of the Istalian Republic

The Parliament of Istalia, officially National Congress of the Istalian Republic (Istalian: Congresso Nazionale della Repubblica Istaliana), often simply called The National Congress or only The Congress, is the national legislative body of the Istalian Republic. It is an unicameral legislature with 635 elected members.

=History= The first legislative body in the Istalian land was the Chamber of Representatives of the Kingdom of Istalia, established in 1848 granted by the king Vittorio Alessandro II after a long period of struggle between the absolut monarchy and the democratic bourgeois forces. Even though the elections were open only to a few people, chosen according to the census, it was in Istalia the first Parliament with the effective power to determinate the fate of the Governments.

After the Quanzari conquest of the island the Istalian Parliament on the Island, as it is called to distinguish it by the future Parliaments of the Istalian Republics, was dissolved and in Quanzar for more then a century the only admitted elective body was the House of Councillors (Majatran: مجلس المستشارين, translitteration: Majlis al-Moustacharine) a merely consultative body formed by Councillors appointed by the Emir, by the ahmadi clergy and by the professional and social world and finally by Councillors elected by a very narrow electorate based on census and ethnicity.

The House of Councillors in 1947 was transformed in the Parliament of Quanzar ((Majatran: البرلمان قانزاري, translitteration: al-barlaman qanzari) and to contain the democratic forces of the country its powers were expanded as well as the electorate even if the Emir continued to appoint a large part of the 100 members. Finally in 2095, forced by a popular uprising, the Emir granted to the Parliament the power to appoint and to deceive the Government and in 2097 took place the first election in which all the members were directly elected. However the electorate were still limited and in fact only few thousand of citizens voted at the time. But it wasn't too long before the universal suffrage was granted by the NeoSocialist Government and in 2109 all the Quanzar's citizens were admited to vote. Since 2097 the leftist forces controlled constantly the Parliament until that they led a revolution which overthrone the Emir in 2110 and that, after few years of turmoil, established the Union of the Quanzari Soviets in which theparliament was called People's Assembly.

When the Quanzari Union was about to fall, finally the istalian ethnicity arise and when was founded the first istalian republic, for the first 30 years called as Quanzarian Republic, the Parliament finally changed its name and in 2263 was officially called Parliament of Istalia and, as unicameral parliament, maintained this name until the end of the third millennium when was renamed National Assembly, maintaining this name until the Restoration of the Quanzari rule by part of majatran forces in the 32nd century.

After the restoration of the democracy and the foundation of the Fourth Republic, the Parliament assumed the official name of Parliament of the Istalian Republic. The Fourth Republic, however, to avoid in the future another fall of the istalian democratic institutions (the Fourth Republic was founded after the end of the third Quanzarian restoration), decided to establiah a Parliament based on a bicameral system, an imperfect

bicameral system with a strong Low Chamber but an Upper Chamber whose positive consent is necessary to change the Constitution, Upper Chamber elected on regional basis so to strengthen the demographic weight in each individual region of the various ethnicities and so of the preponderant istalian ethnic component.

The Senate of the Republic was created and it worked, since the fourth Istalian Republic lasts for almost a thousand years.

The Low Chamber was so officially called with the unformal name with which was always also known, Chamber of Deputies.

In 4555, after the Coup d'Etat led by Julius von Thaller and its Thallerist Party, once restored the democracy a new party, Glory and Rebirth, founded by General of Air Force Michele Appiano De Borromei, reformed the Institutions and the parliament became the National Congress of the Istalian Republic, which took the place of the Chamber of Deputies while the Senate was abolished.

=Powers= The Congress since 4561 elections has 635 seats and is elected with a pure proportional system based on five costituencies which perfectly correspond to the five istalian regions. The Congress is the only government body which can approve the laws, the budget laws, the treaties and which can declared war.

The Congress, furthermore, shall approve through a vote of confidence the Cabinet presented by the Head of State, can proceed with a vote of no-confidence against the President, the whole cabinet or single Ministers. The electoral system forecast the correction given by an electoral law never abolished, Electoral Law called "Honoris Electoral Law", which allows and promotes the formation of pre-electoral coalition for the parties, especially those which support a common candidate to the role of Head of State, a system which introduces majoritarian tendencies and a strong coalition responsibility which forces to a greater stability. On the basis of this law the first Government of the Coalition for the Democratic Cooperation was formed by Glory and Rebirth bring together several parties and assuring thus a majority for a new government.

=Membership=

The current membership of the National Congress after the latest political election of 18 February 4561:

Electoral Records of the National Congress
       See: Electoral history of the Istalian Parliament

=Location=

Since 4238 the Parliament is seated in the Palace of the Republic but for almost two century the previous two branches of the Istalian Parliament was seated in two different places. The Senate was seated in the Palace of the Congregation, ancient seat of a Church's council-like institution of the Romula's Clergy. The Chamber of Deputies instead met in the Palace of Quanzari Soviets built to host special sessions of modern Parliament in Romula, alternatively with the one in the Capital Nicomopolis, and meeting of the Representatives of the Councils of Workers, at the time of the socialist Union of Quanzari Soviets. However, at the begining of 43rd century the palace resulted in critic condition and in need of serious restructuring. For this reason the Republic take the decision to buil a totally newly building to bring back together the two Houses. In fact, previously, the Parliament was seated into Palace of Parliament (Istalia) until its destruction in 4042 by part of the leftist terrorist which targetted the Republic just before the Civil War of 4044-4045. This first palace was built between 2241 and 2246 in Revival style to host the Parliament of the Quanzarian Republic, first democratic state of Quanzar and first state which saw the Istalians rule effectively their nation. The Palace had an important role among the landmarks of the nation, because in this building Carlo Aurelio Gianti declared founded the first Istalian Republic. The destruction of the Palace was a great lose for the history of the Republic and of the architecture, and was the pretext for Antonio Battisti to demand special powers with which in the next two years established his personal regime.

=Seal of the Istalian Parliament= The Parliament has its own seal or, properly, an emblem, based on the same scheme adopted for the seals of the President of the Republic and of the Prime Minister of the Republic, thus consisting of a blue oval whose main axis is horizontal and in which is shown a stylized image of the facade of the Palace of the Republic under which there are the Emblem of the Republic and the inscription in Istalian "Parliament of the Istalian Republic".

Since the reform of the Parliament into the National Congress, a new seal has not been yet adopted and temporary the Congress continue to use the seal of the Parliament of the Fourth Republic.