Greetings, ladies and gentlemen, citizens of Alexandria and distinguished guests,


We are pleased to announce and host the very first electoral debate between candidates running for the position of Prime Minister of the Empire.

In this debate, all candidates will have their chance to expose their projects and provide explanation about their plans to help our Empire prosper; each candidate will respect their turn and will respect other's.

All candidates will conduct in a properly and civil manner and will restrain from personal attacks or foul language.

Even those candidates who do not qualify have the right to participate in this debate.

The topics to consider in this debate are the following:

1. Rec-War Preparation/Participation
2. Immigration/Citizenship
3. Activity
4. Intelligence/Security
5. Expansionism/development
6. The Economy

Candidates will appear in order their papers were filed, and will have a chance for a brief introductory speech prior to continue with the established topics:

1. Mssr. Franco Torres / UCN
2. Rt. Hon. Juan Ciervo / ACP
3. Hon. Freddy Francois / AAP
4. Mssr.Nicholas Bertrand / Alternative Liberale
5. Mssr. Fréderique Lacoste / Independent
6. Mme Valeria Gonzalez-Ortega / Socialist's Workers Party

Your highness,

My name is Valeria Gonzales-Ortega. I am running for Prime Minister of Alexandria because I feel that our nation could be far stronger and more just. I am of creole-Spanish origin, but I do feel that it is my responsible to represent all Alexandrians regardless of language, culture, race, or creed. Right now our nation is in great need of social justice, and I represent the values of Social Democracy. I promise that I will stick to maintaining our democratic insitutions and work with the other parties in creating this new society.

Military force is necessary at times to protect our freedoms, our territorial integrity and our fellow citizens. I do plan on preparing our defense forces in the case of an unwanted conflict with an aggressive power. Moreover, our military should also reflect our moral values and we should not hesitate to use it to bring down tyrannical or genocidal governments if it is necessary. I will immediately pursue enactment of national service and the creation of a war industries council to prepare our economy for war. Should war come about, I won't hesitate to defend our nation and ensure that our military has the troops and equipment that it needs. The same goes for our intelligence and security forces.

I feel that Alexandria should have free and open immigration laws, as indeed we are a diverse nation of immigrants. I promise to maintain activity while as Prime Minister, and I will push for an immigration policy that assures our continued security while providing a humanitarian refuge for new immigrants. It is with those ideals that I promise to maintain our commitment to democracy and the rule of law, and that I will keep those values in mind should any issues of national security come up. We must not tear down the freedoms we are trying to defend.

I am not an expansionist and I do need believe in war for territorial acquisition. As a Social Democrat, I am obligated to eschew jingoism and expansionism. Now, I will pusue development through a combination of policies designed to encourage foreign investment, while nationalizing key industries to help coordinate economic development.

Lastly, I plan on strengthening our social welfare insitutions- our national health care system, our social security system, and our educational system. I will seek to implement these other policies: a living minimum wage indexed to inflation, a national child care program to allow families to place their young children while the parents are out working, a stronger safety net to promote social mobility and help our working families pay the bills, and making our tax code fairer, simpler, and more progressive to ensure that the wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share.

Thank you all and I hope that on election day, you all will choose the party of progress and a Prime Minister who will create a fairer and more just society.

Madame Gonzalez-Ortega,

We all thank you for your enthusiasm and your love for our nation, but I have to remind you to follow procedures as established.

Mssr. Franco Torres is the candidate to open the debate, while he has shown, in my opinion, lack of interest, we are giving him no more than 24 hours from this moment to either post or decline his invitation, in which case the Rt. Hon. Juan Ciervo is the next in the list.

It is now well past 24 hours and Juan Ciervo has also failed to turn up

apologies, I had internet troubles this weekend. I have been on the phone all weekend complaining. As has been posted elsewhere though I believe I may be ineligible as a candidate?

Good Evening Your Highness, those here in attendance, and to everyone watching from their homes or wherever you are.

It is an honor to be here to participate in this historic debate.

To begin, I want to tell you why I am running for Prime Minister. Alexandria has so much potential. Its citizens are the best ones around. We have so much enthusiasm and desire to help our Empire achieve new levels. I believe that it is through my leadership that this great Empire can become so much better.

The first topic of tonight is preparation and participation in Rec-Wars. As the Grand Admiral of the Imperial Navy, I believe that Rec-Wars are essential to the protection of our Empire. The Rec-Wars allow the members of our military to practice the art of war. This practice makes our military stronger, giving Alexandria the best defense and offense we can have.

I would like to applaud Lord LeClerc who has served as the Minister of Interior for my last term. He has done a remarkable job in keeping the Ministry of the Interior in top shape and in performing all the duties that he is required to do. The Citizenship Application process no longer takes a week or more to go through. Under Lord LeClerc’s, the Ministry doesn’t take more than a couple of days, if that, to approve or disapprove any application. His dedication and hard work has not gone unnoticed, and I for one am honored to work with him.

I believe that in order for Alexandria to become a stronger Empire, we must increase our recruiting efforts. But we can not stop there. It is one thing to bring in new citizens, but it is another to get them to stay active. This is where part of our Activity problem lies. We see many new citizens who submit an application for Citizenship, get it approved, post a few posts somewhere, and then fall off the radar. We as citizens should make it our obligation to make them feel welcomed and to make them want to stay and participate in all that this Empire has to offer.

Once we have more than enough citizens who stay and remain active within the Alexandrian Society, our Activity problem should resolve itself. We need to ask ourselves if we know of someone who we think that would have something to contribute to this Empire and would have the capability of remaining active. If there is someone you know of, then it should be your responsibility to ask them to join up and participate in something unique and amazing.

I want to take this opportunity to challenge each and every citizen right now: I challenge you to invite one person to Alexandria within the next month. Regardless of who is elected to be the next Prime Minister, it should be all of our responsibilities to invite our friends so that we may end this period of uncertain Activity within Alexandria. Political Parties and movements come and go within Alexandria, but its active citizens will remain.

I am pleased to say that under my last term as Prime Minister, our intelligence agency has been a top priority. We once had an intelligence agency that was defunct, but now, it is functioning. There is still much more room for improvement, but with more time, Alexandria will soon have an intelligence agency that it deserves, and I know that Director Benavides and I can, and will make the necessary improvements.

Our military is one of the best around. We have the capability of defending Alexandria as well as taking offensive measures if necessary. As with anything, there is room for improvement and I intend on doing whatever is necessary to ensure that our military is at its best.

Security is not only a matter of military though,i t is also made up of diplomacy. I have played an active role in our Empire’s diplomatic activities. I have visited other nations and have made the efforts in reaching out to them. HIH Prince Enrique, who has served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs has also done remarkable job in this post, and I am grateful for his service, as well as his advice and counsel that he has given to me over these years.

“The Empire of the Alexandrians shall have as its official policy not to expand anymore in the Giess or Micras maps, and officially disavows any future expansions for the time being.”

This is the official policy of the Empire right now. I supported it then, and I support it now. We do not need to worry about expansion right now. We need to worry about our activity.

Throughout my entire time in Alexandria, I have seen a few economies come and go. None of them worked out the way they hoped. The Rt. Honorable Jose Frias, who serves as the Minister of Finance has done some amazing work in the last few months in establishing the steps to creating an Empire-wide Economy.

I believe that a functioning economy will help create the activity that Alexandria requires. Under a functioning economy, paying jobs will be created and new citizens will have something to do from the time they join. This will help our activity grow, as well as our population.

If elected, I will work with anyone interested to make the Alexandrian economy a reality, not a plan.

In closing, I would again like to thank those for hosting this debate, as well as the other participants. Good luck to us all in the proceeding days, and when the time comes, remember to vote for the candidate of who has the experience and leadership skills to take Alexandria to the next level. Remember to vote Ciervo!

Fellow citizens,

“A step forward is worth more than all the centuries”. These are the words of the American philosopher Ralph W. Emerson.

Today our nation has undeniably ascertained its leading position in the anglophone micronational world and as Prime Minister Ciervo so rightly indicated in his speech, the potential of our nation and its citizens stands high. Some may think that this alone offers a guarantee: a guarantee for our nation to last longer than the wheel of time; a guarantee to remain a more attractive and outstanding micronation than any other.

I believe in the absolute and continuous necessity of progress, and it will be the aim of my policy as prime minister to counter any kind of standstill, something our nation seems to be enduring at the moment.

Progress requires good governance, something our nation seems to be missing at times. It is the task of the government not be content with the great potential of this nation and its citizens, but to create a climate and structure in which each citizen can fully realize his ambitions. Therefore, it is my plan to reinvigorate and re-evaluate the policies of the current government, as well as to genuinely give effect to new policies developed under my leadership.

One of these policies will be the development of a micronational economy. I take this as a real and serious challenge. I am of course fully aware that no micronation has - to this date - succeeded in keeping a working economy afloat for more than a couple of months. Nonetheless, I am confident that the citizens of this nation have the expertise, willingness and even stubbornness to beat the odds in this matter.

I acknowledge that the current government has done the ground work in setting up an economy and intend to continue down that road, but not as a blind man. I believe there is room for progress. The guidelines of my economic policy will be:

- to create demand for products and leave enough room for private actors on the market. Under my leadership the government will not subsidize private companies and will limit or even reduce the number of government-owned companies.

To illustrate this with an example: Instead of subsidizing a private web design company or even setting up a governmental web design agency , the government should tender for web design services on the market.

- not to impose taxes on personal income as long as private employment is not a genuine reality. Taxes only become effective if it allows the government to take a cut on purely private transactions. Every accountant knows that taxation on government expenditure (such as public servants’ wages) is nothing more than a hidden wage cut.

- to take measures against the “sinking” of money by which I mean that people who recurrently receive money, do not reinvest that money into the economy. Consumption and investments should be encouraged if we want to keep any kind of economic system standing.

Another policy of my cabinet will be to re-evaluate the functioning of Alexandria’s military forces. We must be aware that experience and equipment alone do not win (rec)wars. Sound strategies and a grasp of the art of warfare do. Therefore, guidelines of my policy will be to redefine the command structures of our defense forces as well as to invest more and better in the training of the men and women member of these forces. Again, I believe there is room for progress.

The art of diplomacy is also a matter in which our nation should strive to excel. As much as can be lost at war, so many can be gained by diplomacy. Our nation should not endeavour in expansionist policies, but should resolve to promote good practices and standards across the micronational world. Both our internal and our external policies should set an example to follow for other micronations. To that end, we should closely cooperate with our allies and should convince them that progress can benefit the entire micronational community.

Finally, with regard to immigration, I would like to indicate that proactive immigration often tend to have little success. In this matter, our government should not enter into a race for ever increasing numbers of citizens, of which most barely remain active after a few days. Making of Alexandria a well-governed micronation progressing each day of the year, is the only sound immigration policy.

Under my leadership our government’s immigration policies will therefore be aimed at guiding and integrating new immigrants who have themselves chosen to make our nation part of their future, without presenting demographic statistics as a measure of success or failure.

Fellow citizens, I thank you for your time and hope that you will send a strong message at election day: a message that we can no longer stand still and that it is time for progress.

Good evening Your Highness and to all Alexandrian citizens,

I would firstly like to comment on what has been said in the previous two speeches.

Juan Ciervo, you are totally correct, I agree with you wholeheartedly. Alexandria is a nation bursting with untapped potential, but I would like to ask, if you recognise Alexandria's potential and have all of these big ideas for our nation's future why haven't they already been implemented? You have already had a full term as Prime Minister in which you have done next to nothing, why should the people of Alexandria expect a sudden turnaround if you are re-elected?

Freddy Francois, you talk a lot about "good government" and how we haven't had any under the current administration, when up until very recently you were a member of the ruling ACP. Why didn't you use your power as an MP to get these things done that you are promising to carry out if elected Prime Minister? Can the Alexandrian people even trust you and your judgments when you have crossed the floor from a conservative to a liberal party? What do you actually believe in?

People of Alexandria, I am just as fed up as you are of these two main parties who are identical in all but name, that is why I am standing for Prime Minister.

Firstly to deal with Recwar participation and preparation.
I feel that it is of utmost importance that Alexandria maintains a highly trained and efficient army. In the micronational world you never know who is going to attack you and when. We have to constantly be on our toes so that whenever an opportunist nation comes along and infringes on our territory or that of our allies then we can strike, and we can strike them hard. If I am elected, I will make sure that any nation that dares to challenge our mighty Empire is faced with the full might of our army, navy and air force, showing that we will not tolerate attacks on Alexandrian soil.

Immigration is the life force of any micronation. if elected I will appoint "Missionaries" within the Interior Ministry whose sole purpose will be to advertise our great nation abroad and across the internet. It is inevitable that some people that we attract will not stick around with the dedication of you or I, but this is a fact of life and it doesn't mean we should give up and try and recruit our grandmas and babysitters as some people suggest.
Let's make Alexandria a more open and friendly place and welcome new citizens with open arms.

The subject of Activity is always going to come up in the micronational world. My proposal for solving the current stagnation seen under the Ciervo/ACP administration would be to open up politics and government to everyone in Alexandria. I believe we need to listen to our wonderful Interior Minister Lord Leclerc. He has some amazing ideas and if elected as Prime Minister, I would give my full support to his election reforms proposals in order to get everyone involved in Parliament. Too many people, including myself, have been left out in the cold in the current system. Inactive and ineffective officials are elected from constituencies where they are the only candidate whilst ambitious and able candidates have to face it off in real elections, and the only loser is Alexandria as we can see from the inactivity and idleness of the current Parliament.

If we want people to immigrate to Alexandria and remain here then we have to ensure that they are able to get involved otherwise they won't be interested.

Now I will move on to intelligence and security. It is a nasty business but is common sense that every nation should maintain an intelligence and security network. We need to be 2 steps ahead of our enemies to ensure the survival of our people and our nation. We need to start to share information and intelligence with our allies abroad to ensure that Alexandria is never caught unawares and so that we can maintain our role as a superpower in the micronational world.

Now, Expansionism and development.
I am not an expansionist. I don't believe in invading other nations and taking over like some bully on the playground. We should do our utmost to discourage expansionism abroad and to protect weaker nations from rabid imperialism.
I do, however, support the wish of any nation, province or territory that wishes to become a part of the Alexandrian Empire. We should always have our door open to anyone who would like to join the Alexandrian family.
In terms of development, I think it is high time that we integrated the Overseas Territories into the Empire by making them full provinces and giving their citizens the full rights of any other Alexandrian.


Now onto one of the biggest current issues, the economy. I will echo the views of the other speeches given tonight in giving my full support to a real, working economy for Alexandria.
If elected, I will form a committee composed of members of all the political parties in Alexandria in order to decide the best way to create and deal with a new economy.
I will give tax cuts to small and new businesses and cuts to companies who expand abroad. I will also give grants to companies that set up in deprived areas to ensure that our nation has suitable growth.

I would like to thank you all for listening to me tonight and I ask every Alexandrian citizen to join me in my crusade for a new, freer, fairer and richer Alexandria.

Vote for a Brighter Future. Vote for Bertrand!

Many thanks to all participants for such a civil and respectful statements, we now have one more candidate to come, Mssr. Fréderique Lacoste, who is expected to appear in the following 24 hours; the initial statement of candidate Gonzalez-Ortega will be considered complied, as she has gone one step ahead of us.

Mr. moderator,

I would like to rebut the statements made by mr. Bertrand with regard to my person.

Let it be clear that I have never been a member of the Conservative Party and that I have been elected as an independent member of parliament on behalf of the province of Baudrix.

Secondly, I have been far from inactive as a member of parliament. For one, I have contributed to mr. Leclerc's proposed electoral reform, which is so supported by mr. Bertrand. I would like to point out that the consolidated version of the electoral reform bills has been drafted by me.

Despite my speech, of which he has seemingly only read the emboldened and underlined words, mr. Bertrand asks what my beliefs are.

Perhaps I should indeed emphasize the following: Alexandria needs a PM who shows good leadership. Good leaders inform themselves well, then set out a policy, implement it correctly and finally, take time to evaluate what has been realised.

I leave it to the voters whether mr. Bertrand, mr. Ciervo and/or I do meet the profile of a good leader.

OOC: Yeah sorry I posted early, just had no internet over weekend so I wanted to get it done early.

A rebuttal will indeed be given to the two candidates that were questioned by Mssr. Bertrand.

Juan Ciervo and Freddy Francois: Your rebuttals.

I apologise Mssr Francois it was a simple case of confused identity!
What with all of these people joining parties or setting new parties up it is hard not to get your head in a spin.

I would like to offer a rebuttal as well.

If Mr. Bertrand is correct in his claims that I haven’t accomplished anything for this Empire, then he is sadly mistaken.

Before I ran for this term as Prime Minister, I enjoyed the solitudes that private life had to offer. But then I decided to run for the seat in Parliament as a member of the People’s Democratic Party to represent Rio Grande only to be defeated by the ACP.

I think we all know what came next. Parliament, with its new super-majority ACP, fell into the depths of Inactivity. My own province was one of the many provinces whose MP disappeared. Frustrated with this new problem, I started working with the Right Honorable Jose Frias in coming up with a plan to get into Parliament. I knew that I could help turn it around.

Mr. Frias agreed and following the rules, I was appointed to represent the Rio Grande province in Parliament after my joining the ACP. Shortly after that, I ran to become the Speaker of the Imperial Parliament. It was with the help of the Right Honorable Pete James that we got Parliament moving again.

So Mr. Bertrand, your claim that this is inactivity is my fault is completely inaccurate. I have done, and I continue to do all that I can to ensure the continuity of our Parliament.

Here’s another example Mr. Bertrand. Upon the resignation of the late Liam Sinclair, I issued a Writ of Election to fill his seat. The delay again was not on my part, but on the part of the SEC.

This problem of inactivity is one of my biggest frustrations this term. I will vow to do everything I can to turn Parliament around.

You claim that I haven’t done anything for Alexandria, yet you have done nothing yourself but creating a political party.

I have served as an officer in our Military, as the Grand Admiral of the Imperial Navy, as our Empire's first Lord Chief Justice, as a member and Speaker of Parliament, and as Deputy Prime Minister. I think that I have proven that I am an active member of this Empire who as done much for this Empire and still has much too offer.

So, does Alexandria want a Prime Minister who disappears only to reemerge to run for Prime Minister or one who has been an active member for quite some time?

Mr Ciervo, the buck stops with you. You can't blame your Government because it's your duty to appoint effective and efficient ministers. You are the most able in the entire nation to solve problems with the powers of your office yet I still see no real change.

With regards to your comments about my lack of achievements, that little political party I created 5 months ago is now the largest political party without representation in Parliament.

I have not been able to get much done for the nation because unlike every single ACP MP I was not elected by default. You make it sound like the ACP is undefeatable but it is just because they have been unopposed.

It is time for fresh government in Alexandria.
The Liberal Alternative is ready.

The last time I checked, the problem of inactivity is in Parliament and not with the ministers I appoint. Not everything that happens in the Chamber Council is made public, so it’s hard for someone to say that the Cabinet isn't active unless you have unauthorized access to the Council Chamber.

I never said, nor did I ever imply, that the ACP is undefeatable. I know full well that this party isn't, otherwise, I never would have won my first term as Prime Minister as a member of the People's Democratic Party against Jose Frias.

Congratulations on your party’s achievements, Mr. Bertrand. It’s a good sign when you see something like this happen in Alexandria, and I mean that.

And now, since you have the largest party but no members in Parliament, I’m hoping that at least some of your members stand for election. Otherwise, the ACP will continue to win seats by default.

Now, you can’t blame the ACP for your lack of achievements because this party wins seats in Parliament by default. It is the responsibility of the other parties to put forth candidates so that wins by default do not happen. Default wins should be rare, not common, and we win those seats because no one else is running for it.

We aren’t holding you back Mr. Bertrand. In fact, we welcome the new ideas that each and every citizen has to offer regardless of party affiliation. These ideas are what keep Alexandria going.

Now that you finally feel like participating in Alexandrian Politics, why don’t you start by taking responsibility for your actions rather than blaming others for your lack of them!

Let me just add to that the pending electoral reform as proposed by mr. Leclerc will surely make an end to default seat-winning, as a national constinuency will be created.

I also would like to react to the following statement:

"it’s hard for someone to say that the Cabinet isn't active unless you have unauthorized access to the Council Chamber"

Should it not be the policy of the ministers or the PM, as leader thereof, to issue regular press announcements on what is going at the executive level. Of course, some information and some details should remain secret for security or for other strategic reasons, but no government should hide behind the doors of the Council Chamber.

Action must be noticed. Communication is the key.

In the months that I have been in parliament, I have never seen or noticed any form of communication between the executive and legislative branch, other than the submission of bills, which often goes unexplained.

What I miss, mr. Ciervo, is (a) policy paper(s) made public. This communicative flaw evidently leads to the criticism uttered by mr. Bertrand: is this government doing and implementing policy?