Founrath Cabinet

The first cabinet of Gindyr Founrath is the present Government of Bigicia. It is a coalition, consisting of two parties: the Founders Party and the Reform Party. The cabinet was installed on 25 April 2021, during a formal government meeting with King Torrhen III. The government is the result of the aftermath of the 2021 Bigician legislative election, which saw the rise of the two parties - Founders and Reformists - at the forefront of Bigician politics.

Political negotiations
Following the elections, a center-right coalition government was formed by the Founders (TFP) and the Reformist Party (TRP) with Gindyr Founrath, 5th Duke of Balmora as Prime Minister. The coalition has been met with shock by the public as it was generally thought that the Founders and the Reformists were irreconcilable after the dissolution of the High Council, not to mention the nomination of Duke Gindyr, the Reformist leader, for the role of Prime Minister.

Vote in the parliament
After the king proposed Gindyr Founrath to the function of Prime Minister on April 25, the proposed government was subsequently also brought to the parliament for the voting procedure on April 26. All minister propositions had passed the hearings in the parliamentary commissions on the same day. It was approved by the parliament, with 265 votes in favour and 201 votes against giving the Founrath Cabinet confidence, more than the minimum 233 necessary votes.

Party breakdown
Party breakdown of cabinet ministers:
 * The Founders Party 8/20
 * The Reform Party 9/20
 * Independent 3/20

The Cabinet's Performance
The premiership of Gindyr Founrath began on 24 April 2021 when Founrath accepted King Torrhen III's invitation, at his prerogative, to form a new administration. The cabinet was installed on 25 April 2021, during a formal government meeting with the monarch. It followed the 2021 Bigician legislative election, which saw the rise of the two parties - Founders and Reformists - at the forefront of Bigician politics. Despite his well-known rivalry with Founders leader Brendanus Ilona, both parties agreed to form a coalition following a night meeting between the two.

Basmath Tendaji, an executive at the media conglomerate North Star, was appointed chief business adviser to the Prime Minister. Dennas Bryne, former leader of the party and chief of the electoral campaign for the Reformists, was appointed into a role as a senior advisor to Founrath.

Founrath's key cabinet appointments were Brendanus Ilona as Deputy Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer, Morndilin Salingire as Minister of Education, Sara Kamal as Minister of Energy, Selah Oswald as Minister of Economy, Kelina Nerevau as Minister of Environment, Archie Mavis as Minister for Transport, Lebesu Cholneith as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Balwûr Cenric as Minister of National Defence, Bracus Talurn as Minister of Labour, Hadiya Sarlamin as Minister of Justice, Theodemar Presqen as Minister of Health, Maraquo Hestohrin as Minister of Internal Affairs, Bauron Masoud as Minister of Culture, Achivoine Tailencel as Minister of the Sea and he invited High Priestess Phelaks to serve the role of Eleven Forces Emissary.

First 100 days
On 26 April 2021, Founrath entered the Oversoul Palace for the first time as Prime Minister. He used his first speech to promise that a new Constitution would be adopted within 99 days.

Founrath focused on strengthening the democratic institutions within his first few days in office, creating a special commission to explore and compare the fundamental laws of Natia's nations and compile the best ideas out of them. The new constitution was intended to replace the many constitutional laws of the High Council era, the Fundamental Laws of the Realm, and turn Bigicia into a constitutional monarchy by removing many of the King's powers and giving the Parliament a foundation on where to build the democracy and rule of law. The feat of creating a democratic system without breaking the structures of power of the state was made possible by the approval of the Political Reform Act of 2020, passed by the High Council and approved by King Torrhen III as the last Fundamental Law. The new constitution was drafted by a committee of jurists in collaboration with the Minister of Justice Hadiya Sarlamin, the High Magister of Bigicia and it took first three months of his premiership to be completed.

Before the parliamentary vote, Prime Minister Gindyr Founrath sent a letter to leaders of parliamentary parties in order to invite them to a consultation on the referendum, the Republicans being the only party to decline the invitation. On 16 September 2021, the common judiciary committees of the two chambers of the Parliament approved the referendum, the Parliament did so the next day in a non-binding vote. Even though the opposition requested several articles to be introduced related to regional autonomy, government MPs disagreed, thus the report was adopted with 259 votes in favor, 9 votes against and 1 abstention.

The constitution was adopted on 27 September 2021, following the vote in the constitutional referendum, where more than 8 million (75%) were in favor, while around 3 million (28.9%) opposed the changes; 60.9% of 18 million eligible voters turned out to vote. This was viewed as a massive success by both the Founders and the Reform party, in part because despite their many differences, both parties agreed that a streamlined fundamental law was needed in the new political climate.

First cracks in the coalition
The cabinet worked as a well-oiled machine in the weeks following the Constitutional referendum, riding on the electoral success high. However, the disagreements that were a common occurrence during the High Council era started to resurface. In practice, the cabinet was filled with the same people who were previously members of the council, being a new government but in name. Seeing how popular Founrath is with the commoners, Brendanus Ilona followed his lead when it came to the referendum, but when it came to other policies, they strongly disagreed and cabinet meetings were a circus and a half. Despite Illona's threats that he will leave the coalition, he didn't proceed with them, as there was really no other party who would agree to work with the Founders.

The first big disagreement between the two political forces came when the Prime Minister announced his wishes to reform the local administration as well, following closely the system he established in the city of Balmora. Brendanus Ilona as well as other highly-positioned Founders were strongly against any such ideas, as they ruled their dukedoms and counties without being questioned. Local elections was a step too far for the upper class nobility. High Magister and Minister of Justice Hadiya Sarlamin pointed out that there is no need for mayors or local councils as long as the nobles can hold court in their respective peerages. Despite his efforts, Founrath suspended his reform plan when even his close friend Archie Mavis, 1st Count of Zmeos was not very fond of the idea. The national press, as well as international press argued that this was a sign of cowardice from the cabinet, not willing to push the reform to the very end and abandoning its mission half-way.

The government also faced new challenges when the temperatures started to drop alarmingly at the beginning of the month of November 2021, the northern cities experiencing an early harsh winter. The cabinet had to use the national reserve fund after the power and heating generation company Aurora, controlled by the Government, stopped hot water deliveries in three of the kingdom's cities, without notifying the municipality’s heating distribution operator. The press once again condemned the excessive centralization of the state and the sorely needed local representation who could deal with such problems instead of the government. Duke Brendanus Ilona's city of Driftmark was also hit by the sudden winter, with pipes bursting from the cold.

The Spring Respite
The spring of 2022 has blossomed into a calm, peaceful time for the realm. The rapid economic growth and general prosperity has made even the staunchest adversary of this unsteady coalition to become more mellow. A shadow was lurking behind it all however, the shaky health condition of the king. Despite the predictions that he'd quickly pass away after the 2020 Great Council, the king pushed on and now he reached the venerable age of 93 years old. In April 2022, the king suffered a hypoxemiac episode and ended up in hospital for two weeks. Fortunately, he recovered and his health condition improved but not enough to leave the bed. Crown Princess Majlinda became a much more active player in the politics of the realm since then.

The Zechonian Summer Revolution
In July 2022, the period of peace and prosperity which characterized the last decades in Zechonia has ended in turmoil, with the Zechonian state turned to dust once again, as oft it happened during their bloody history. Due to the highly polarized struggle between left and right ideologies, a group of colonels overthrew the government a month before scheduled elections and now they're ruling under a military dictatorship. The former Prime Minister is not yet ready to relinquish power however and the struggle will more than likely turn into a civil war.

After hearing about the tragic end of the Fifth Zechonian Republic, Prime Minister Gindyr Founrath began to worry about the safety of Bigicia's southern border. Troops were deployed along the border and military spending became one of the cabinet's priorities.

The Zechonian conflict continued near the army headquarters, the presidential palace and the airport, with heavy weapons used. Observers determined that the army was controlling access to Zechonia's capital and trying to cut off supply routes to ZRF (Zechonian Resistance Force) fighters. Thousands of residents fled Zechonia by foot or by vehicle to safer parts of the country and tried to enter Bigicia.

November 2022 migrant crisis
As of 20 November, the Bigician government had reported 989,357 Zechonians entering the kingdom. Bigician Minister of National Defence Balwûr Cenric announced on 28 November that Bigicia cannot receive any more refugees and asked for international aid. Most of the refugees were settled in the Merid-Ciupean region, which sparked controversy in the parliament, with the Merid-Ciupa Concordat asking for equal quotas throughout the realm and asking for compensation for the region taking the brunt of the crisis. The Minister of National Defence General Balwûr Cenric, Commander of Raylight Keep resigned on 25 November 2022, quit his membership in the Founders Party and joined the Merid-Ciupa Concordat. Prime Minister Gindyr Founrath failed to address the situation and sparked even more dissension. Both the TFP and TRP parties started plummeting in polls.

December 2022 cabinet reshuffle
The November crisis culminated with the cabinet reshuffle one month later, with the Prime Minister trying to get rid of the controversial ministers. The reshuffle saw a significant restructuring of government departments. New departments included those for Regional Development and one for International Trade. Due to severe health issues, Brendanus Ilona suffered a stroke in August while he was attending a ministerial meeting in Pyreica. After recovering, he resumed parliamentary work, but his condition became very unstable so that he resigned from politics in December. Thus, there was a dire need to occupy the vacancies of Deputy Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Minister of National Defense.

Due to the premiership being in the hands of the Reform Party, the expectations were that another Founders Party leader will get the Deputy premiership. The unfortunate situation was that Brendanus' sudden exit left a power vacuum inside the party, with both Lebesu Cholneith, 6th Duke of Wrainwreth and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Achivoine Tailencel, 4th Duke of Driftmark and Minister of the Sea, vying for the position and tearing the party apart with their strong personalities now free to express out of Brendadus' shadow.

In the end, Prime Minister Founrath picked Dennas Bryne, the former interim president of the Reform Party and old rival now turned friend. The Founders Party did not take this controversial decision lightly, but due to the disarray in which the party's leadership continued to be throughout the month of December 2022 and later, they couldn't do much about it. Trying to appease the Founders somewhat, Prime Minister Founrath awarded the Minister of Regional Development, the freshly created ministry with a lot of funds, to them.

March 2023 government crisis and snap election
In March 2023, following a government crisis as a result of the failure induce Parliament to approve a revised income tax law, the popularity of the Founders Party plummeting even further in the polls and the rise of the Social Democrats, Prime Minister Founrath called for a snap election which the Chamber of Representatives supported via the Early Parliamentary General Election Act 2023. The relations between the Founders and the Reforms reached an irreconcilable level, thus Founrath started looking for new coalition partners, who are willing to pass reforms.The date chosen for the 2023 general election was 5 May 2023.