Open Loyalist Convention (2048)

The Open Loyalist Convention of 2047 was the third Loyalist convention. It was an advanced one, because of the resignation of Jonathan Montgomery as leader. The convention was held in Brussels in the department of Belgium.

Prelude
October 1, 2048 Jonathan Montgomery was dismissed by Emperor Saviël-Citus I as Prime-Minister of the Batavian Empire. Prime-Minister Montgomery and he had many differences in opinion which already started during the formation of the 2nd Cabinet-Montgomery. The Cabinet, but especially Prime-Minister Montgomery proposed laws, which the Emperor extremely opposed. As soon as Saviël vetoed the complete annual budget Jonathan Montgomery refused to visit the Emperor and skipped his weekly audience. After he skipped the second audience the Emperor dismissed him and appointed his Deputy Prime-Minister Friso Northam as the new Prime-Minister.

After the dismissal of Jonathan Montgomery as Prime-Minister, he also chose to step down as party leader. Friso Northam became the temporarily leader as he was the new Prime-Minister. The moment Jonathan Montgomery was dismissed the Social-Democratic Party withdrew it's support and their ministers resigned. Friso Northam formed a new rump-coalition with the Right-Wing Conservatives and the Royal Legion of Honour. Together they still lacked 31 seats, exactly the amount of seats the African National Front had. After some negotiations Lancin Bombar offered support, which gave Northam a 251 seat majority, exactly the amount needed for a coalition. They continued ruling about 20 days, but while the temporarily appointed ministers were being nominated and questioned by the House it was clear that also Consuls of the Loyalist Party decided not to back the coalition fully, but rather vote free in many cases. After the refusal of 2 ministers the Emperor dissolved the House. The cabinet continued governing demissionary until January 2048. As soon as the House was dissolved, the Open Loyalist Convention was scheduled for October 30 in Brussels.

Candidates
Friso Northam was certainly the most favorite party member to become the leader, but he chose not to run as he saw himself not fit to be the party leader during that time. He had already battled one time for the candidacy in 2042 but only gained about 5% of the votes. Friso Northam was appointed Imperial-Governor of East-Britain by the Emperor after the election.

Sam Bogart was nominated to be candidate, he had served in the House of Consuls for 6 years for the Loyalist Party, and was a young and bright face many people saw as the new representative of the loyalism. He came from the department of the Netherlands and had a lot of support in Europe.

Lara Sheperd was however also a very popular candidate. She had served for 4 years as one of the Senators of Amsterdam (2042-2046). She chose to step down in 2047 and instead chose to become Consul. She was elected in the election of 2046 and proved to be a very strong politician, after the resignation of Jonathan Montgomery she was temporarily appointed Deputy Prime-Minister. She had an Iranian background and had a lot of support in the Islamic world.

Election
It was the most excited convention thus far, as Sam Bogart and Lara Sheperd were tied for a long time. When the evening fell, Sam Bogart gained just a bit more votes than Lara Sheperd. He enlarged his victory with almost all the delegates from the American departments (except Jamaica). He won with the smallest margin of votes thus far: with a difference of only 40.397 delegates.

Aftermath
Although Sam Bogart was very popular among the people, the Loyalist Party had lead severe damage after the dismissal of Jonathan Montgomery and the dissolution of the House. In the polls his party would gain only 80-90 seats but Sam Bogart tried to fix this. He worked hard to rebuild the image of the party, despite his hard work he lost 82 seats, but they became the second largest party with 112 seats, which was a lot more the polls had expected. Just one seat behind the Union of Social and Liberal Democrats (113 seats). The Loyalist Party joined the coalition and Sam Bogart chose to leave the House to become the Deputy Prime-Minister. Lara Sheperd was appointed by the Emperor as Chancellor of Amsterdam right after the election.