Monteregian Federation

Monteregis (/WIP/ MONT ih REE gis; French: /'monte'røzhi/ MON te REU ji), officially the Monteregian Federation is a sovereign state in North America. Monteregis covers an area of around 692,227 km2 (267,270 sq. mi.) and has a continental climate. As of the 2016 estimate, the population of Monteregis is 31,816,000.

History
WIP

Geography
Monteregis' long rolling hills, mountains, and jagged coastline are glacial landforms resulting from the retreat of ice sheets approximately 18,000 years ago, during the last glacial period.

Monteregis is geologically a part of the Monteregis province, an exotic terrane region consisting of the Appalachian Mountains, the Monteregis highlands, and the seaboard lowlands. The Appalachian Mountains roughly follow the border between Monteregis and Pennsylvania. The Berkshires in Massachusetts, and the Green Mountains in Vermont, as well as the Taconic Mountains, form a spine of Precambrian rock.

The Appalachians extend northwards into New Hampshire as the White Mountains, and then into Maine and Quebec. Mount Washington in New Hampshire is the highest peak in Monteregis. It is the site of the second highest recorded wind speed on Earth, and has the reputation of having the world's most severe weather.

The coast of the country, extending from southern Rhode Island to central Quebec, is dotted with lakes, hills, marshes and wetlands, and sandy beaches. Important valleys in the region include the Connecticut River Valley and the Saint Lawrence River Valley. The longest river is the Saint Lawrence River, which flows through Quebec for 1,197 km (744 mi), emptying into Atlantic Ocean, roughly bisecting the region. Lake Champlain, wedged between Vermont and New York, is the largest lake in the region, followed by Moosehead Lake in Maine and Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire.

Climate
Monteregis has a humid continental climate (Dfb in Köppen climate classification). In this region the winters are long, cold, and heavy snow is common (most locations receive 60 to 120 inches (1,500 to 3,000 mm) of snow annually in this region). The summer's months are moderately warm, though summer is rather short and rainfall is spread through the year.

Government and Politics
The Monteregian Federation is a federal semi-presidential republic with strong democratic traditions. The constitution of the Monteregian Federation was approved by referendum on 5 March 1874. It greatly strengthened the authority of the executive in relation to parliament. The executive branch itself has two leaders: the President of the Republic, currently Jean-Jacques Gauguin, who is head of state and is elected directly by universal adult suffrage for a 4-year term (formerly 5 years), and the Government, led by the president-appointed Prime Minister, currently Xavier Laporte.

The Monteregian parliament is a bicameral legislature comprising a House of Delegates and a Senate. The House of Delegates deputies represent local constituencies and are directly elected for 3-year terms. The House has the power to dismiss the government, and thus the majority in the House determines the choice of government. Senators are chosen by an electoral college for 6-year terms (originally 9-year terms), and one half of the seats are submitted to election every 3 years starting in September 2008.

The House of Delegates' legislative powers are limited; in the event of disagreement between the two chambers, the Senate has the final say. The government has a strong influence in shaping the agenda of Parliament.

Monteregian politics are characterised by two politically opposed groupings: one left-wing, centred on the Monteregian Democratic Socialist Party, and the other right-wing, centred previously around the Liberal Front, then its successor the Union for the Centrist Fronts (UCF), which in 2015 was renamed Les Centristes. Since the 2012 elections, the executive branch is currently composed mostly of the Democratic Socialist Party.