Darnussian First Republic

Politically, the First Republic was dominated by the National Liberal Party who won every election between 1966 and 2026. The NLP's defeat at the 2026 election was the catalyst for the disintegration of the party and the transformation of the country into the Second Republic.

Formation
From the late nineteenth century, the Kingdom of Darnussia had been a constitutional monarchy with the King as head-of-state and a bicameral legislature consisting of the upper-house Assembly of Nobles (Herrsam/Heersamen) and the lower-house Assembly of Commoners (Gemeinsam/Gemeensamen). The lower-house represented the deeply-conservative Darnussian population, while the upper-house was the domain of the more socially liberal aristocracy, in an unusual reversal of the more common political cleavages.

The monarchy, with their foreign-educated members, were seen as a particularly modernising force, often interpreted by the commoners as an interfering and out-of-touch liberal elite. The tensions grew as Darnussia's middle-classes increasingly opposed the monarchy's attempts to create a more modernised, liberal state. This culminated in the abdication of King Cecil, a keen social reformer, who had attempted to curtail the powerful standing of the Church in Darnussian society and declare an officially secular state. In the outrage that followed Cecil was forced to stand down, and his brief successor Darntus XIII formally declared the abolition of the monarchy following weeks of intense protests across the country. The result was the establishment of the political system as described below.

NLP dominance and political stability
Elections were dominated by the National Liberal Party, a broad church centre-right to right-wing catch-all party designed to be Darnussia's perpetual party of government. The NLP won a parliamentary majority in every election from 1966 to 1991, where after it occasionally ruled as the senior partner of a coalition government. Darnussian politics in this period were generally stable and unremarkable; Secretary Generals and Governor Generals generally had long, uninterrupted careers across multiple terms and official parliamentary opposition was generally too weak to have any meaningful effect. The 1980s saw the emergence of the Darnussian Socialist Party as a major left-wing challenge to the rightist hegemony, but despite capturing a large portion of the working-class vote, appeared condemned to exist permanently in opposition.

Collapse of the First Republic
The NLP's dominance eventually began to cause general stagnation throughout the country, both socially and economically. The NLPs hegemony was such that they appeared to act with impunity, and it was this precise lack of accountability that eventually caught up with it. In 2016, the NLp failed to win a majority, prompting the resignation of Laurent Frank as Governor General, who was replaced by the bureaucratic Marcus Ruben. Ruben took over a party which was panicking over the seemingly unstoppable rise of the Socialists against the backdrop of a faltering economy and stunted economic growth.

Ruben embarked on an ambitious foreign policy programme in an effort to show off Darnussia to the world. In the process, domestic affairs seemed to slide away from his grasp. Fear of socialism was just enough to win his party a razor-thin majority in the 2021 elections, but almost immediately afterwards the first of the major corruption scandals that were to define his time in office came to light. A new scandal emerged almost weekly, as it became clear that the last five decades of NLP rule had been completely awash with bribes, cutbacks and cover-ups. Sexual abuse was hushed up, huge bribes were paid to top ministers in return for favourable policies and even Darnussian security had been compromised by allowing smuggling operations to operate within the country.

In 2025, Ruben was forced from office after a number of his parliamentary delegates left the party in disgust. His replacement, Ivan Krebs, lasted a little over a year as head of a party that was headed for electoral disaster. The 2026 elections resulted in the NLP placing third, and the DSP becoming the government alongside the liberal Darnussian Democratic Party. 2023 had witnessed the election of the right-wing strongman Eric Van Haldon as Secretary General, who had vowed to block any Socialist legislation that came his way. As a result, the DSP and DDP approached the Republican People's Party with an offer to create a semi-presidential republic with a directly elected president. In mid-2026, an agreement was made and the First Republic ceased to exist on 11 January 2027. In the meantime, the NLP had completely split apart, dividing into the Darnussian National Front and the Yeudi-Hosian Alliance of Patriots.

Government
The First Republic had a complicated system of government. As in most parliamentary democracies, legislative power was held by the Parliament of Darnussia (Gemeinsam/Gemeensamen) which was elected every five years by universal suffrage in elections held using proportional representation. The Government (Gouverung/Gouvering) was made-up of any parliamentary grouping which could command a majority in parliament, while the head-of-government was the Governer General (Gouverner-General/Gouverneur-Generaal).

Meanwhile, executive power was derived from a complex power-sharing agreement between the Government and the Secretary General (Sekretar-General/Secretaris-Generaal), who served as the head-of-state. The cabinet was chaired by both the Secretary General and Governor General simultaneously, both of whom constitutionally had equal power over the Government.

Darnussia's unusual system was the result of the compromise between republican and monarchic parties during the time of the transition to a republic. The Secretary General was elected for a seven-year term in a tripartite arrangement between the Parliament, the otherwise powerless Assembly of Nobles (Herrsam/Heersamen) and the Church of Darnussia, who each had an equal one-third vote in the elections. The Secretary General, despite being head-of-state, often played a subordinate role to the Governor General, and was usually an elder noble or veteran statesman; however it was not uncommon for the Secretary General to clash with his government in major areas of policy.

This system was often criticised as undemocratic and inefficient and its unpopularity was key in Darnussia's transition to a semi-presidential republic in 2027.