National Civic Forum

The Nationales Bürgerforum (National Civic Forum) is a right-wing populist political party in Hulstria and Gao-Soto, founded in 3622. Although it is obviously on the political right, commentators have been unable to pinpoint its exact ideological position (the party itself claims to be unideological), as it draws on diverse and sometimes conflicting influences such as libertarianism, conservatism and nationalism. The NBF claims to represent the interests of the ordinary citizen against various elites, which according to the party, control other Hulstrian and Gao-Soton political parties, and places and emphasis on grassroots democracy. The NBF's current Chairwoman is Edith Strötzel.

Schauer (3622 - 3625)
In late March, 3622, a three MdRs from the Liberal Volkspartei, joined by a fourth from the Hosianisch-Demokratisches Verbund, defected from their parties under the leadership of Edith Strötzel, who had served in the Reichstag as a member of the LVP since 3611, and announced that they would be establishing a new party. The Nationales Bürgerforum, as it was dubbed, was officially registered about two weeks later. In April, Wilhelm "Willi" Schauer, a prominent rural community leader, was persuaded by Strötzel to join the party and run for the leadership, and was elected Chairman at the end of the month. Shortly afterwards, two further defectors, this time from the left-wing Solidarität, joined the NBF.

The NBF's first major political confrontation occurred when the Ministerpräsident of Kuratha, Korbinian Meisnner (Sol.), used the death of Mikado Okatori Akihiko as an opportunity to phase in a republic. This perceived insensitivity attracted aggressive criticism from the NBF, especially from the party's Deputy Chairman, Dustin Urbanek. The party supported a censure motion in the Reichstag and even organised large protests against Meisnner. The issue took a year to die down.

In early August, 3623, Klaus Zinnberger, the former Vice-Staatsminister, Minister of Agriculture, Deputy Chairman of the LVP and Chairman of the Landbund, resigned from the Reichstag, leaving vacant his seat of Forstberg-Weitensfelde-Hügelland. The NBF fielded Satomi Tagawa, the former Director of the Air Medical Service, to run in the NBF's first electoral contest at the parliamentary level. After a vigorous campaign involving many of the most senior party figures, Tagawa won fifty-six thousand first preference votes (32.8%), which, after the distribution of preferences, increased to ninety-six thousand votes (58.5%), thus winning the by-election.

Manewhile, earlier in 3623, the NBF launched a major campaign to attract working-class support to balance out its petty bourgeois and rural supporters. This campaign appeared to pay off in September 3624. Due to a scandal involving, most seriously, corruption, four councillors from Luthur, a left-wing stronghold, stepped down along with the Bürgermeister, and a fifth seat was left vacant when the President of the Stadrat became the Mayor. The NBF won three of the five seats, allowing the party to claim that it had struck a chord with the working-class constituency which it had been chasing. These successes led the NBF to pursue a concerted policy of trying to attrach disaffected working-class voters, concentrating on Kuratha, where many were disappointed with the government of Meisnner.

The NBF played a prominent role in the 3625 campaign against Solidarität's controversial election promise to shut down all private schools, with Schauer offering especially harsh criticism of the policy, describing it as "depraved" and "malign". Schauer led protests and a letter-writing campaign against the policy, and spent so much time opposing the policy that he effectively left the running of the party to Parliamentary Leader Edith Strötzel for several weeks.

Zinnberger (3625 - 3626)
In mid May, 3625, Klaus Zinnberger dramatically announced that he would be joining the NBF, which gave the party a high-profile figure at its head. Additionally, eight MdRs from the LVP (most of them from the Landbund) followed their former leader into the NBF. Zinnberger launched the party's first manifesto, which also introduced its first official campaign slogan: The People's Party. According to a pre-arranged plan, Urbanek stepped down as Deputy Chairman, allowing Schauer to take his place, while Zinnberger became Chairman. The party grassroots overwhelmingly endorsed the plan in early June, allowing the party leadership to proceed with it.

Zinnberger led the NBF into the general election of 3626. Although he managed to increase the party's representation in the Reichstag from fourteen members to sixty-seven members, he was unable to win a seat and return as an MdR (the party suffered an unexpected meltdown in Mitrania more generally); he therefore resigned as the NBF's Chairman and retired from politics a second time, claiming that, this time, it would be "for good".

Strötzel (3626 - present)
After the resignation of Zinnberger, many expected that Schauer would want to return to the position of Chairman, but he decided to re-contest the post of Deputy Chairman instead. As a result, a four-way race for the leadership eventuated, with Strötzel, the party's Parliamentary Leader, as the frontrunner. The other three candidates were Secretary-General Kuniko Fujita, Martha Hellwegge (the Mayor of Luthur) and Anton Mutschler (a veteran legislator). As expected, Strötzel came first by a substantial margin in the initial round, and eventually won the contest with an impressive majority. Mutschler was subsequently elected Parliamentary Leader, while Fujita remained Secretary-General and Schauer retained his post without a contest.

Several months after the election, the Budenlar branch of the LVP and its NBF counterpart agreed to form a coalition, marking the first time that the NBF had entered government on a Crownland level. As the two parties were equal in seat share and also almost exactly equal in vote share (the LVP was ahead by less than a thousand votes in 9.3 million), the agreement stipulated that the LVP, led by the hardline libertarian Ekkehard Borkenstein (who deposed Harald Matsuyama as party leader shortly beforehand), would be the senior partner in the coalition for the first half of the electoral term, while the NBF would supply the Ministerpräsident for the second half. Willi Schauer became Vize-Ministerpräsident in the expectation that he would swap jobs with Borkenstein after two-and-a-half years. The policies of the LVP-NBF government in Budenlar were highly controversial, especially in the field of education. Borkenstein commissioned a review of the cirriculum, stating that it was too biased towards the left, resulting in calls from hard-left Solidarität members for a school boycott. The government also attracted further controversy over smoking and alcohol laws.

After the failure of coalition talks between Solidarität and the HDV, early elections were held in March 3628. Although it lost some of its seats, the overall result was a substantial increase in the NBF's vote share. The party gained seats in three of the five Crownlands, and surged dramatically in Mitrania, where its support had been unexpectedly low in 3626, emerging from the election with ninety-nine seats. Meanwhile, Klaus Zinnberger, despite his earlier pledge to retire, attempted a second political comeback and was elected to the Reichstag. During coalition talks between the LVP, HDV and NBF, an NBF leaker disclosed to the press that Strötzel preferred Sepp Holzinger as Staatsminister, instead of Ariane von Gehrfeld, who had led the LVP into the election, resulting in von Gehrfeld's resignation from the position of LVP Chairwoman. However, coalition talks eventually faltered, leaving the NBF's position in the government in doubt. A grand coalition between Solidarität, the LVP and the HDV was later formed.

In September 3629, Schauer died of a heart attack at the age of fifty-eight, resulting in the vacation of the positions of Deputy Chairperson and Chairperson of the Budenlar NBF. Fujita, Martha Hellwegge (who had earlier been elected Hulstria Chairwoman) and Mutschler contested the former position. Although Hellwegge was ahead in the first round, Mutschler's preferences allow Fujita to narrowly win the contest. Afterwards, Mutschler was elected Secretary-General and Karl Hellwegge (wife of Martha) was elected Parliamentary Leader.

In Budenlar, Edgar Mittermeier, the NBF's acting Budenlar Chairman (as well as acting Vize-Ministerpräsident and Minister of Economics), ran to succeed Schauer in Budenlar, but was defeated by Tina Kühl, the staunchly right-wing Bürgermeisterin of Neu-Liore. The earlier agreement between the LVP and NBF was amended so that Kühl, instead of Schauer, would become Ministerpräsident when that office was handed over to the NBF. However, Mittermeier was allowed to remain Vize-Ministerpräsident until the hand-over occurred, and to continue as Economics Minister until the next election, when he plans to step down and enter national politics. Kühl became the NBF's first Ministerpräsident at the beginning of February 3630.

After Meisnner announced in August 3630 that his government would fund the Socialist Patients Collective, a group of left-wing conspiracy theorists, Doris Etzbach, the NBF's leader in Kuratha, engaged in a high-profile confrontation with the Ministerpräsident. Ordinarily, the government's annual budget is left untouched by legislative committees in accordance with convention; however, Etzbach promised to try to prevent the grant to the SPC from going ahead by filibustering the budget in committee, which would allow her to delay the budget's passage despite her inability to muster enough votes to actually stop it. Although her filibuster failed, the SPC was later implicated in a terrorist attack, forcing Meisnner's resignation.

In April 3632, Kühl challenged Strötzel for the leadership, accusing her of having made too many concessions in an attempt to secure a place in government during coalition negotiations. In an acrimonious contest, Strötzel fired back at her challenger and characterised her as naive, saying that compromises were necessary if the NBF was to have a real impact on government policy. The actual vote was held in May. With just fifty-four percent of the vote, Strötzel was re-elected party Chairwoman. She subsequently made good on a promise to sign the LVP's anti-extremism pledge, which obliged the NBF not to co-operate with the newly established far-right parties.

In the election of March 3633, the NBF feared substantially losses to the right-wing extremist parties. However, the party lost a smaller-than-expected eighteen seats, as major losses in Budenlar were offset by small gains in the other Crownlands. The NBF became the second-largest non-extremist party in the Reichstag after the LVP. Initially, the party proposed a four-way coalition between itself and the LVP, HDV and Fortschrittspartei (a small centre-left party), with Strötzel as Vize-Staatsminister. However, with the collapse of the Fortschrittspartei shortly after the election, the only possible moderate coalition was now between the LVP, NBF, HDV and Solidarität. Eventually, after much wrangling, Strötzel was persuaded to agree to a coalition involving Solidarität despite her earlier reservations. Meanwhile, in Mitrania, a coalition between the LVP and NBF became the only realistic government. As a result, the HDV was dumped by the Ministerpräsident, Ellen Theuretzbacher, and Hubert Glathow, the party's local Parliamentary Leader, became Vize-Ministerpräsident.

Structure
The Nationales Bürgerforum was initially known for its loose heirarchy which relies on grassroots participation instead of a powerful organisational structure, where the party leadership exercised less power than that of most other political parties in Hulstria and Gao-Soto. However, as the party grew into a serious political force, the party organisation has become more structured and an effective so-called party machine has developed. Nevertheless, the party is still characterised by a higher level of grassroots participation than some of the more established parties.

The Executive Committee of the NBF is the governing body of the party. It consists of nine members. Four are ex officio members: the Chairperson, who leads the party; the Deputy Chairperson; the Parliamentary Leader, who leads the party's faction in the Reichstag; and the Secretary-General, who is ostensibly responsible for administration but also plays a major unofficial political role. The remaining five members of the Committee are delegates from the Crownland branches, each of which elects one delegate. This structure is mirrored at the Crownland level and the local government level (although with a Council Leader instead of a Parliamentary Leader). The Chairperson at each level of the party is responsible for appointing the party's senior spokespeople who form the party frontbench.

Economic policy
The economic policy of the Nationales Bürgerforum is broadly neoliberal, advocating low taxation, deregulation and free trade. However, the party does make a number of exceptions of these policies, most notably in that it sometimes promotes protectionist policies as befits its populist stance (for example, it recently pressed - unsuccessfully - for a ban on foreign majority ownership of public companies). Furthermore, it tends to promote the interests of small businesses over those of larger businesses, and it opposes what it sees as excessive union influence in the economy.

Social policy
In the field of social policy, the NBF supports a hybrid approach whereby the government is responsible for investment into public services such as health, education and welfare, and for maintaining high levels of access for those who may not otherwise have access to these services, but where individuals have choice and control over public services. As such, the NBF strongly supports private healthcare, independent schools, private pension schemes and the like, and backed the government's plans to allow local communities to take over the provision of services where they could do so more effectively than various other government bodies.

In terms of its approach to moral issues, the NBF does not have a defined position due to the wide divergence of opinion on issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion within the party. However, the NBF has previously made clear that it stands against political correctness.

International and security policy
In foreign policy, the NBF is somewhat isolationist, and believes that Hulstria and Gao-Soto's over-riding aim in foreign affairs is its national interest. This means that the NBF is sceptical of foreign humanitarian intervention (and foreign intervention more generally), and has previously pushed for cuts to foreign aid. It also advocates a reduction in immigration, a policy which was recently introduced with NBF support.

The NBF takes a strong law-and-order approach to crime and security, believing in giving the police strong powers and tough criminal sentences, although it claims that it works to balance security concerns with civil liberties.

Internal factions
The NBF has a number of unofficial internal factions. Although largely united on issues of foreign policy, party members have widely divergent opinions on economic and social policy: they range from centrist to hard-line neoliberal on one axis, and from ultra-conservative to libertarian on the other.

Although the NBF as a whole is populist, the party's numerous working-class supporters most clearly express this tendency. They form the largest internal grouping within the party. On economic issues, they tend to be centrist to centre-right, and are moderately conservative, although they tend to see economic issues as the most important. They are strongly patriotic and often hold nationalist, even racist, views, although the party leadership frowns on open racism. These party members are scarcely distinguishable from another substantial group of supporters - the urban petty bourgeois.

Traditionalists from another major part of the party membership. This section of the party is concentrated in rural areas, especially in Mitrania. Traditionalists tend to hold similar political views to the NBF's blue-collar workers, but are likely to believe that government policy should prioritise agriculture over industry. Their conservatism is frequently manifested in a strong sense of nostalgia and a general resistance to change (unlike many other conservatives, who view change as acceptable except where social mores are concerned).

Another major group of NBF supporters are libertarians. They are the only hard-line economic right-wingers in the party and do not endorse the conservative of most other NBF members. In other words, they support both economic and personal freedom. They differ, however, from LVP libertarians in the sense that they are often willing to make exceptions to their ideology to restrict large corporations, especially foreign corporations, believing that excessive corporate influence can undermine genuine freedom for the masses.

The NBF also includes a number of ultra-conservatives. They tend to range from centre-right to right-wing on economic issues, but it is their attitude to social issues that marks them out - they are strongly against what they view as moral permissiveness, and are very supportive of a greater role for religion. Their strong conservatism is often paired with homophobia and racism, although the party leadership tries to attenuate these tendencies.

A fifth group of supporters is the disparate group of politically disaffected individuals who do not necessarily support the party's policies or general ideological leanings - a handful disagree outright - but instead support it as an act of protest against the major parties, which they view as elitist and out-of touch. However, these people are seen as unreliable supporters and are far more likely to vote for the party than actually join it.