Chapter 245: Cabinet Election
After the report meeting for the Second Five-Year Plan ended, the relevant information mentioned by various departments of the government immediately became the most hotly debated news in Spain.
Most Spaniards were proud of it, excited about the progress the country had made in these five years, and more confident about the country’s future.
Carlo, as the king who had proposed making Spain great again at that time, was therefore adored with fanatic enthusiasm by the public.
If previously many Spaniards did not believe that Carlo could lead Spain to greatness, then at this point most Spaniards believed that making Spain great again was not just a simple slogan, but a reality that would soon be achieved.
The public had confidence in the country’s future development, and naturally they were more willing to make their own efforts for the country’s future.
After this meeting ended, the streets and alleys of cities across Spain were filled everywhere with headlines like “Make Spain Great Again!”, and some smart factory owners also put up such headlines and banners in their factories, encouraging workers to make efforts for the country’s future.
For those factory owners who were not too outrageous, the Spanish Government generally took an attitude of turning a blind eye. After all, Spain’s population was limited, which also meant that the number of Spanish workers was limited.
To effectively increase Spain’s industrial output, they still had to make the Spanish workers suffer for the time being.
Of course, Carlo knew his limits. As early as the beginning of last year, at Carlo’s indication, the Spanish Workers’ Party was quickly established and absorbed many workers to join in a short time.
The main purpose of the Workers’ Party was to protect the interests of Spanish workers and fight against capitalists on behalf of the working class.
Such a party that could utilize the political power of the working class was naturally established by Carlo to guide the working class.
On the surface, there was no connection between the Spanish Workers’ Party and the royal family and Carlo, but the party leader of the Workers’ Party and some key members were dispatched by Carlo.
Their main task was to rationally utilize the workers’ political power while deepening the conflict between capitalists and workers.
Of course, the capitalists here referred to private capitalists, not state-owned capital.
The income and welfare benefits of employees in Spain’s state-owned enterprises and royal enterprises were still relatively good, which also ensured that workers would not point their spears at enterprises established by the state and the royal family, but only hate those private enterprises that exploited workers’ interests, that is, enterprises established by capitalists.
That is also the reason why the regional council elections have long ended; otherwise, the Spanish Workers’ Party could also obtain some seats and thus qualify to enter parliament.
Even with just one parliamentary seat, a party’s political power is far greater than that of parties without parliamentary seats. After all, only by entering the Spanish Parliament can one qualify to be nominated as a cabinet member; if one cannot even enter parliament, this party has no presence in Spain.
From the proportion of House of Commons seats occupied by each party currently, most members of the next cabinet government will still be selected from Spain’s three major parties.
But unlike the previous cabinet election, the Conservative Party has become Spain’s largest party, and the living space of the Progressive Party and the Liberal Party has been squeezed.
If Carlo had not intentionally protected the Progressive Party and the Liberal Party, the Liberal Party would soon have to exit the historical stage. Advocating freedom and civil rights in a monarchy country is simply going against the Spanish Government.
If those radical republican democrats had not been purged once, Carlo would absolutely not allow the Liberal Party to continue to exist in Spain.
After the Workers’ Party obtains parliamentary seats, Carlo will stop protecting the Liberal Party.
At that time, the Liberal Party will have only two choices: either be jointly squeezed out of parliament by other parties, or completely abandon liberal democratic ideas and transform into a moderate reformist faction like the Progressive Party that leans conservative.
The Spanish Government in 1879 was absolutely quite busy. Less than a month after the summary report meeting of the Second Five-Year Development Plan ended, it ushered in a new round of elections for the Spanish Cabinet Government.
The good news is that the performance of various departments of Spain in the Second Five-Year Development Plan was quite good, and the ministers of various departments also showed their presence in parliament.
Of course, these cabinet ministers also knew where the key to their re-election lay. The current Conservative Party has become Spain’s largest party, and as the party leader of the Conservative Party, Deputy Prime Minister Cánovas also has a good chance of becoming the prime minister of Spain’s next cabinet government.
This also means that the key to whether most cabinet members can be re-elected depends on Cánovas’s attitude. As long as Cánovas becomes prime minister, whether the crowd can be re-elected is just a matter of one sentence from Cánovas.
As early as last year, the cabinet ministers had strengthened their ties with Deputy Prime Minister Cánovas. They were not fools and naturally knew the reason why Cánovas was appointed deputy prime minister.
In the situation where Grand Duke Serrano is already elderly, the probability of Cánovas succeeding to the prime minister position is not 100%, but at least 90%.
The cabinet ministers did not have enough seniority to compete with Cánovas for the prime minister position. If they wanted to continue staying in the Spanish Cabinet, they could only stay in their positions by gaining Cánovas’s trust.
Of course, Carlo’s attitude was also indispensable. Even Cánovas was supported by Carlo, so the cabinet ministers naturally attached great importance to Carlo’s attitude as king.
In order to be re-elected, many cabinet ministers expressed absolute loyalty to Carlo, which also invisibly increased Carlo’s power a bit.
Unlike the period when Prime Minister Primó ruled and Carlo had no management power over the government, Carlo now has great power in the current Spanish Government, which also makes Carlo’s actions much more convenient.
With the power in hand, Carlo promulgated many policies, and these policies also brought great changes to some aspects of Spain.
One of them is the policy on Spain’s public hygiene.
Although Europe in this era was the most developed region in the world, the hygiene conditions inherited from the Middle Ages made the cities in Europe not so civilized.
Defecating and urinating anywhere and littering were common in European cities. “Perfumed cars, fine wines, and the stench of London” described not only London’s smog, but also London’s poor hygiene conditions and the stench of feces and garbage everywhere.
This was actually not an exaggeration. Even in posterity, some European cities still had the phenomenon of defecating and urinating anywhere.
If unlucky, one might not step on dog shit when going out, but there was a high probability of stepping on human shit.
Carlo lived in Madrid and did not want Madrid to become a city full of feces and garbage. As early as when Carlo first came to Spain, he had suggested to Prime Minister Primó to strengthen hygiene control in Madrid.
In the ten years since Carlo became King of Spain, Spain has built multiple public toilets in important cities such as Madrid, effectively reducing the behavior of defecating and urinating in public places.
To strengthen supervision of uncivilized behavior, the Madrid municipal government even formulated relevant punishment policies. People who defecate and urinate anywhere on the streets and alleys of Madrid would face fines of varying amounts at the lightest, and up to several months or even years of imprisonment at the heaviest.
Since such policies were promulgated, the streets of Madrid have indeed become much cleaner. Carlo also plans to promote such hygiene management policies to other cities in Spain, striving to make all cities in Spain hygienic cities without feces and garbage.
After hygiene environment became an important part of the mayor’s performance appraisal, the Madrid mayor became very attentive to the hygiene environment of Madrid’s streets and alleys.
Carlo believed that as long as relevant hygiene environment appraisals were added to the performance appraisals of mayors in various cities, these mayors would definitely try every means to reduce the situation of defecating and urinating anywhere.
Of course, defecating and urinating anywhere cannot just be prohibited; places for those who need to use the toilet must be provided, that is, public toilets.
If they only knew to prohibit but not build more public toilets, it would only arouse the anger of the public.
Carlo did not want the governments of these cities to implement a one-size-fits-all policy, ignoring the public’s wishes just for their own political achievements.
A month later, the giant conference room of the Spanish Parliament reopened. The members of parliament of the Lower House were to elect Spain’s new prime minister during the meeting, and the members of the Upper House were also to elect Spain’s new Minister of Justice and Minister of Colonial Affairs.
Of course, the Military Committee also had to elect a new Minister of Defense, and Carlo had to consider candidates for the Minister of Royal Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister of Spain.
Only after all these candidates are determined can the new Spanish Cabinet Government be considered formed.
Five years have passed since the last cabinet government election, and the Spanish Lower House has also undergone two elections in these five years.
The current Conservative Party has successfully become Spain’s largest party, with a full 146 seats, occupying 49% of the House of Commons seats, crushing the Progressive Party and Liberal Party single-handedly.
The Progressive Party has retreated to become the second largest party, with only 87 House of Commons seats left, occupying 1% of the total seats.
The Liberal Party still retains the title of Spain’s third largest party, but the Liberal Party’s seats are continuously declining. Currently, the Liberal Party only retains 27 House of Commons seats, occupying only 9% of the total House of Commons seats.
Outside the three major parties, a few small-scale parties also have cabinet seats, but the numbers do not exceed two digits. The total cabinet seats of these parties combined are about the same as the Liberal Party, with a total proportion of only 4%, that is, 25 seats.
In addition to these parties, there are also 13 seats in the Lower House belonging to independents. The decline of independents was predictable, after all, parties have greater advantages in elections.
Parties can obtain donated political donations from the public, while individuals cannot obtain political cash. Parties can unite the common efforts of many people, while individuals can only rely on their own efforts.
In the political arena of any country, the political power of parties is far greater than that of individuals. Many previous independents either joined one of the three major parties or established their own parties, and few continued to maintain independent status.
From the proportion of House of Commons seats occupied by the three major parties, it can also be seen that the Conservative Party has a huge advantage.
The Conservative Party itself already accounts for nearly half, and it only needs to gain about 30 more seats to secure the position of Prime Minister of the Spanish Cabinet.
No other party can compete with the Conservative Party, after all, to obtain the position of Prime Minister of the Spanish Cabinet, one needs to gain more than 60% vote support.
The Conservative Party will not vote for its political enemies, which also means that these parties have no other way to join the Spanish Cabinet except to choose cooperation with the Conservative Party.
The cabinet election is a relatively major political activity in Spain, and Carlo, as king, is of course also participating in it.
The good news is that the meetings of the Upper House and Lower House are both held in the parliament building, which also allows Carlo to participate in the elections of the Upper House and Lower House at the same time.
The Lower House is electing the Prime Minister of the Spanish Cabinet, while the Upper House is electing the Minister of Colonial Affairs and Minister of Justice of Spain.
Although not as important as the prime minister, these two cabinet minister positions are still quite important. The Minister of Colonial Affairs assists Carlo in managing colonial affairs, with a status higher than the governors of various colonies.
The Minister of Justice is the highest leader of Spain’s judiciary, like the Minister of Royal Affairs, not subject to the control of the Spanish Cabinet Government.
The Minister of Justice only needs to be responsible to the Upper House and the king, with the purpose of ensuring the loyalty and reliability of the Minister of Justice.
Compared to the Lower House election, the Upper House election was also quite lively. Both councils have over a hundred members of parliament, and every election scene is quite lively.
However, compared to the Lower House, the Upper House is an institution completely controlled by Carlo, and Carlo can even control the election results of the two cabinet ministers.
The parliamentary election lasted a whole day and finally successfully elected Spain’s prime minister and several important ministers.
As expected, former Deputy Prime Minister Cánovas successfully won the prime minister position, and because the vote exceeded 60%, he obtained the power to form the cabinet alone.
This also means that the candidates for the nine departmental ministers of the Spanish Cabinet Government will be at the whim of Prime Minister Cánovas. As long as he is willing, any member of parliament of the Lower House has hope of becoming a highly positioned cabinet minister.
The Upper House election ended earlier than the Lower House election, and the Minister of Colonial Affairs and Minister of Justice also had candidates early.
The one serving as Minister of Colonial Affairs is former Cuba Governor William. He is quite familiar with several Spanish colonies and belongs to a member of the Spanish nobility, with relatively reliable loyalty.
The one serving as Minister of Justice is Manuel Díaz Santos. Carlo is also quite familiar with this name, and as expected, he is also a member of the nobility.
However, Manuel is not an old aristocrat, but a member of the new aristocrats. Manuel is quite familiar with legal work; before entering the political arena, he was a lawyer.
The identity of nobility plus the fact that he was once a lawyer allowed Manuel to smoothly become Spain’s Minister of Justice. Carlo does not place too much emphasis on the ability of the Minister of Justice, after all, Spain’s judiciary does not rely solely on the Minister of Justice, but also on the efforts of a series of institutions and personnel.
The position of Minister of Justice values loyalty more, after all, it is completely independent of the cabinet government and can supervise Spanish officials and members of parliament, and also supervise civilians.
