Sanctus – Chancellor Bethany Greer is expected to use the traditional New Years Eve speech by the head of government to announce a snap general election for the Divine Federation in February 2025. Greer, who took over the Chancellorship in June of this year following Ethan Ringrose’s resignation in the midsts of a financial corruption investigation, is expected to say the change in Chancellor “demands a mandate from the public”.
Greer’s last six months has Chancellor has generally been considered a success, however a breakdown in relations with their Green coalition partners has likely played a part in her decision. Although not strictly leader of the DLP, that is Nicola Allman until the end of the parliamentary term, it is expected that the DLP will formally adopt Greer as leader, with her personal ratings with the public through the roof, and the DLP leading other parties in the polls in the double digits.
This is also a factor in Greer’s decision – relations with the Greens, as bad as they are, is not as attractive as capitalising on the DLP’s surge in the polls under her leadership. A majority DLP government, which the polls suggest, would give the party more freedom in executing their policies, particularly in energy, housing, and foreign policy, without their coalition parties forcing them to water them down, as they see it.
It is a gamble though. The appetite for another election, even with an in-term change of Chancellor (the first in Sanctarian history), does not seem to be there. Greer’s messaging around legitimacy and having a mandate may resonate with the more politically inclined, but for the general public, this may be perceived as a cynical ploy for power, and a waste of public monies, more than three years before another election is needed. It is also expected that Greer will use the opportunity to exercise her constitutional ability to call new Senate elections too – with the next scheduled Senate elections to be held in 2026, less than 30 months will remain of their term at the time of the House’s dissolution, triggering the Chancellor’s reserve power to also call those elections.
Greer will also use her NYE speech to touch on community spirit, the strong economy, as well as human dignity, within Sanctaria, likely in rebuttal to the New Sanctaria Party’s recently proposal to ban vagrancy.
SOULLA WILDE, Political Correspondent
