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Good Day eNetherlands!

On the 25th a new Congress has been elected, I would like to take that opportunity to introduce our new Members of Congress, as well as sharing with you the plans of the future.

Elections
With 58 votes (which has been a slight increase from the September elections, in which only 50 people voted) the citizens filled 20 Congress seats. DemNL remains by far the largest party, occupying 34.48% of the seats.

Congress says goodbye to Djirtsdew, Gwom and Henry Ackerman, who have decided not to run again for Congress.
At the same time, we welcome several newcomers and returning CM's from DemNL: Mark Decius, Spir Tus, Loolie Drea, and Arcanic Mindje.

These are DemNL's CM's of this month:
- Mark Decius
- Willem The Conqueror
- Spir Tus
- Loolie Drea
- Legendardisch
- Arcanic Mindje
- Janty F

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Iron and Wine is still the second largest party, but compared to last elections lost one seat, currently, they occupy 25.86% of Congress.
We bode farewell to MaartenW, and thank him for his service.

These are I&W's CM's of this month:
- Tim Veltkamp
- odan
- blackpatje
- Jacen.Solo
- Dirk.Benedict

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The party of revolutions and liberties still stands strong on the third place, but like I&W have lost one seat, currently, ReL occupies 17.24% of Congress.

For ReL we say goodbye to their following revolutionaries, rickyrb and | Sebastiaan |, but at the same time, we welcome europecrisseswar.

These are ReL's CM's of this month:
- NoTie112
- ElGorro (formerly Bo Kito)
- europecrisseswar

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This election cycle, Verenigd Nederland gained a massive win by taking gaining one seat compared to last time, as of now they claim 13.79% of Congress.

From VN, we say farewell to Trannsvaal, but welcome back Weekstrom, and DaanHQ!

These are VN's CM's of this month:
- eRepTrader
- DaanHQ
- Weekstrom

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Even the Geuzen from Geuzen Partij Nederland gained one extra seat, and are by far the smallest party of the eNetherlands, claiming only 8.62% of Congress.

We say goodbye to Alex the best123, and wave hello to Nimh and Zeeuwsmeisje.

These are GPN's CM's of this month:

- Nimh
- Zeeuwsmeisje

Before the elections, I have been elected as the new Chairman of Congress. I would like to take this moment to share with you my vision on how we want to bring back Congress participation to a 100%, but also, how I see the role of CoC.

100% Participation
Something that has hurt us over the last couple of years is the fact that only a fraction of the elected CM's participated in debates and votings on the forums, and while the activity report states a 73.1% participation on the forums, it's a skewed number, when you compare it to the number of people actually elected. True, the participation of in-game votes isn't high either, but you have to realize that it goes hand in hand with where the debate takes place - and how many people participated in that debate.

I believe it is possible for us to reach 100% participation, but for that reason, we have to change our habits. For one reason or the other, people detest the forums religiously, this is within their rights. Lately, the cry of change has been echoed, and it's impossible to ignore that cry. Before I candidate myself, I was thinking: How can we change our participation to 100%? I have looked at every form of in-game communication, as that's the wish of many: To keep stuff in-game.

I made a list of things that I found important: Is it easy to manage, can it be easily moderated, can you have uninterrupted long discussions, will it increase participation and how visible is this to CM's.

I considered every option fairly, from in-game news articles to the national feed to the PM's, and my conclusion was that PM's are the best option available.

I realize that this makes Congress appear more invisible, even though that was already the case when you consider the fact that most CoC's refused to inform the public, or that some people simply couldn't visit the forums at all, that's why I promise to publish a weekly report, with summaries of any debate that took place, be it on the forum or if it was done by PM, you will know what has been discussed, furthermore, I will translate any PM debate to the forum, so that you can read it more in depth. Furthermore, if there is a big important debate, you can bet on it that I will post a summary about it the same day so that you can have your input. Besides the debate summaries, I will share with you how each CM voted, and at the end of the month, you can see the overall statistics of how Congress as a whole performed.

I know that this isn't perfect. If the game developers made a platform tailored for debates in this game then by a heartbeat I would switch congress to that platform, alas, it doesn't exist, and thus this is the best compromise I could come up with.

How I envision the CoC position
Many CoC's interpret the position in their own way, and it's only fair if I share mine with you here. Personally, I like the Australian model a lot, and that's something I want to emulate.

A CoC should moderate the debate, lead it in good waters and prevent it from being mud throwing competition, the CoC is also the representative of Congress to the public in the fomr of informing the public. Add to that the impartiality, a CoC, no matter their party colors, should stand above party politics as much as that's possible, this will also mean that I will be voting mostly neutral on most subjects, but where needed break the tie. Of course there's no procedure on how I should vote, but I believe that this is how the CoC should behave.

I hope this gave you some insight into my vision.

Week in Review
Welcome to the section of this article that gives you an insight into Congress. Though to call it a week in review is somewhat misleading, as we have only started active tracking since the election of the new Congress, and since those elections, not a whole lot has happened yet. So I will share as much as I can.

Lawbook Reform
Forum Debate

Probably the biggest reform in eNetherlands history is going to be the lawbook reform. A whole lot has been said about it. And today, Janty F, who's a member of the Lawbook Reform Comité shared the latest draft, which you can read all about here

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Rules on the (deputy) Chairman of Congress
Forum Debate

CM ElGorro is determined to change the election date of CoC to the day after a new Congress is elected, The proposal has been up for vote with the past congress but has always hit a snag by not reaching the quorum. ElGorro hopes that this Congress is able to vote the law in action, but Janty F has stated that this proposal is already in the proposed lawbook reform

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Thanks for reading this quite long article, I hope all my spelling errors hasn't made you boil from anger yet. I am looking forward to an active Congress term.