Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 358 A new era
In February 1892, the Spanish cabinet election attracted the attention of a large number of Spaniards.

This prime minister election should be the most tense one since Carlo became the King of Spain. There are many prime minister candidates who are highly supported, and it is no longer the previous situation where one person dominated the election.

The Conservative Party's candidate is Industry Minister Jovillar Soler, the Progressive Party's candidate is former Deputy Prime Minister Ewald Bartel, and the Liberal Party's candidate is People's Livelihood Minister Alton Alves. Candidates from these three major parties all have a certain chance of being elected prime minister.

Defense Secretary Evan Bradley is also a highly favored candidate, but people with a military background have no party affiliation, so even if he becomes prime minister, he is destined to be non-partisan.

Although Spaniards are very concerned about the cabinet election, their support or not cannot affect the final selection of prime minister.

Spain adopts an indirect electoral system, where the people of each state government elect state legislators, who then elect members of the national House of Representatives, and then all members of the House of Representatives elect a cabinet.

The advantage of doing this is that those who have the right to be elected are almost all capable members of parliament, and those who are incompetent have already been screened out in the first two steps.

The downside is that the people no longer have any say over the final steps, but considering that the elections of state legislators are fair and open, the Spanish people actually still have a certain influence.

Because it is only an election for the House of Commons, even if the cabinet election attracts the attention of the people across the country, such an election will not last too long.

On February 1892, 2, 11 members of the House of Commons gathered in the Parliament Building to launch a three-day prime ministerial election and decide the final prime minister of the next cabinet government.

Speaking of the current House of Commons, since the administrative division reform in Spain began, the House of Commons has been more or less affected.

Although the Conservative Party is the largest party in Spain, its share of seats in the lower house has declined. More than a decade ago, the Conservative Party could still occupy more than 49% of the seats in the lower house.

In recent years, the Conservative Party's seat share has dropped to around 44.3%, with only 132 seats.

Although the Conservatives have influential cabinet ministers such as Minister Jovillar Soler in addition to Prime Minister Canovas, they can no longer fully control the House of Commons.

The Progressive Party has been in decline since Prime Minister Primo retired from politics, but after all, a lean camel is bigger than a horse, and it is still the second largest party in Spain.

The Progressive Party has 82 seats in the lower house, accounting for 27.5% of the total. The leader of the Progressive Party is former Deputy Prime Minister Ewald Battelle. Although he withdrew from the Spanish cabinet after failing to run for the prime minister in 1887, he was a senior official who served as finance minister and deputy prime minister for three consecutive terms. Ewald Battelle's political influence still exists. Some Spaniards who miss Prime Minister Primo also support Ewald's candidacy for the Spanish prime minister.

The Liberal Party remains the third largest party in Spain, but the gap between it and the Workers' Party has become very small.

The Liberal Party has 29 seats in the House of Representatives and the Workers' Party has 25 seats in the House of Representatives. They are the only two political parties with a certain influence in Spain besides the Conservative Party and the Progressive Party.

The establishment of the Workers' Party also almost blocked the expansion of other small political parties. The ideas of the Conservative Party, the Progressive Party, the Liberal Party and the Workers' Party almost encompass all the lines that can be legally established in Spain.

The only party left is the Republican Party, a republican party opposed to the monarchy, which has no corresponding party. However, such a party is definitely illegal in monarchical Spain.

It is also for this reason that after the establishment of the Workers' Party, there has been a tendency for Spain to have four major parties.

The development prospects of the remaining small parties are becoming increasingly worse, and they can only choose to merge into other large parties or announce their dissolution on the spot.

Independents occupy 22 seats in the House of Commons, while other small parties occupy only 8 seats in total, which is enough to show how difficult it is for these small parties to develop.

For Carlo, perhaps the fewer political parties there are in Spain, the more stable the country will be.

Carlo's original plan was for the three major parties to take turns in power. After Carlo personally founded the Workers' Party, the idea became that the four major parties would take turns in power.

There will definitely be a party that will be unable to form a cabinet for a long time, but the opposition party can also play a role in supervising the cabinet government, and they are also a strong guarantee for the stability of the situation in Spain.

Whether it is a three-party system or a four-party system, stability is definitely greater than a two-party system.

If there are only two parties competing in elections, there will definitely be some people who oppose just for the sake of opposing. But if there are multiple parties competing, such a phenomenon can be eliminated.

On the first day of the cabinet election, Carlo attended a meeting of the House of Commons and emphasized the importance of fairness, justice and openness before the election.

Carlo did not show up in the following two days of elections, which led to various arguments and debates among the 298 MPs about the process of electing a cabinet.

Finally, after three days, Spain's Prime Minister finally had a clear candidate.

Independent Evan Bradley was successfully elected as the Prime Minister of the Spanish Cabinet Government. This is also the first Prime Minister with a non-partisan background since Carlo became the King of Spain.

Of course, everyone is also well aware of Prime Minister Evan Bradley's background. Rather than being a non-partisan, he is more of a pure loyalist to the king.

Because Evan Bradley was born into a military family, he had no interest in any party and understood that he only needed to be loyal to the king to get what he wanted.

Speaking of which, Evan Bradley's successful election as prime minister also depended on the support of other parties.

Because the Conservative Party's seats further declined, the Conservative Party was unable to form a cabinet on its own. This made the cabinet government election this term quite fierce, and the prime minister candidate had no clear advantage in the first two days.

Because the Progressive Party and the Liberal Party had little advantage, after they failed to obtain the position of prime minister, the two parties turned to support the independent Minister Evan Bradley.

Everyone knows that Carlo is behind Minister Evan Bradley. Supporting Evan Bradley is equivalent to supporting Carlo. This is definitely a sure-win deal.

The support of the Progressive Party and the Liberal Party made Evan Bradley the most advantageous candidate for prime minister. Minister Jovillar Soler saw that the situation was hopeless and had no choice but to accept the result and support Evan Bradley to become the new prime minister of Spain.

Although there is competition among several political parties in Spain, they are not mortal enemies.

Since Evan Bradley has already gained the advantage, there is naturally no need for Jovillar Soler to fight for the only remaining chance.

His concession also won Carlo's favor. On the second day after Evan Bradley was elected as the new Prime Minister, Carlo appointed Minister Jovillar Soler as the Minister of State, or Deputy Prime Minister, of the new Spanish Cabinet.

The election of Prime Minister Evan Bradley was the result of a compromise among the various parties, which also resulted in a rather complex composition of this cabinet government.

Unlike the Conservative Party's dominance during the Prime Minister Canovas period, the list of cabinet government members submitted by Evan Bradley to the House of Commons included several candidates from the Progressive Party, the Liberal Party, and even the Workers' Party.

Of course, there are many familiar names in this cabinet government.

After Evan Bradley became the Prime Minister, the position of Defense Minister he held became vacant. After the election by the Spanish Defense Council, Jyoti finally took on this extremely important position of Defense Minister.

Jyoti was Garibaldi's second son. After following Carlo to Spain, he served as the commander of the Guards Division, the commander-in-chief of the Guards, and the commander-in-chief of the Congo Garrison. Spain's colonial annexation plan was successfully implemented through wars against African natives, the most important of which were wars with the Sokoto Caliphate and the natives of West Africa, and these wars were basically led by Jyoti.

When he was the commander of the Guards Division, Jyoti was only a major general. When the position of commander-in-chief of the Guards was established, he was promoted to lieutenant general by Carlo.

Because of his great military achievements in Africa, Jyoti was not only promoted to the rank of general, but also rewarded with the title of earl.

Such a generous reward means that Jyoti will definitely be promoted to the position of Secretary of Defense, and Carlo also needs to continue to have a capable and loyal Secretary of Defense after Prime Minister Evan Bradley.

After Evan Bradley became prime minister, he would definitely cut ties with the military. Carlo would not allow the new prime minister to have great power in the military. The new defense minister must be someone Carlo thought was his own, and a capable general.

At present, only Jyoti meets the requirements, which is why it is said that he will definitely be promoted to the position of Defense Minister.

The Chancellor of Finance is Denis Bader, an old man from the Canovas Prime Minister period, who, like Deputy Prime Minister Jovillar Soler, is from the Conservative Party, which can be considered as a consolation to the members of the largest party.

The candidate for Minister of Industry is a familiar name, Angelo Arcajo, who made considerable achievements as the mayor of Barcelona's industrial zone and later became the mayor of Barcelona.

Carlo doesn't mind cultivating talents who are loyal to him.

The position of Minister of Industry was reserved specifically for Baron Angelo Arcajo. Carlo hoped that his industrial abilities could be utilized on the biggest stage and contribute to Spain's industrial development.

The Minister of Agriculture is still the same person who has been in office since the previous cabinet government, Harrison, the former Governor-General of the West African colonies.

This man, who was also a member of the Conservative Party and an old Spanish aristocrat, had gained Carlo's trust.

The candidate for the Minister of People's Livelihood is a new name, Elie Verrick, from the Liberal Party. The current Liberal Party has made significant changes in its demands compared to the Prime Minister Primo's period.

The current Liberal Party is more like a radical Progressive Party, who want greater reforms from the government while tacitly ignoring reforms in democracy and the political system.

As long as they supported the Spanish monarchy, Carlo accepted their more radical reformist ideas.

The Secretary of State for Transport is Elias Kent. He and the Secretary of State for Education, Alan Carleton, are both from the Progressive Party. They have inherited Prime Minister Primo's ideas and continue to pursue limited reforms.

Health Minister Valentino Hernandez is from the Conservative Party. During his last term, he made significant changes to the medical environment in Spain, and his abilities are worthy of recognition.

Carrel is still the foreign minister. Carrel once had the hope of becoming the Spanish cabinet prime minister, but this so-called hope is obviously much smaller than the two most popular candidates, Evan Bradley and Jovillar Soler.

Although he could not go further, serving as the third foreign minister was obviously good news for Karel.

The Foreign Minister position is a familiar one for him, and he can continue to seek greater progress in this position. Even if he cannot make further progress, serving as the Foreign Minister for three consecutive terms is a huge achievement for Karel.

After he leaves politics in the future, he will still be able to obtain a title based on such achievements and become a member of the Spanish nobility.

In addition to the more conventional departmental ministers, the Spanish cabinet ministers included Colonial Affairs Minister Menotti, Royal Affairs Minister William, Speaker of the House of Commons Ewald Battle, Justice Minister Benito Guerrero and Spanish Archbishop Steed.

The two ministers of affairs are worth mentioning. Menotti was the Minister of Royal Affairs before him, and William was the Minister of Colonial Affairs before him. They actually switched positions, mainly to exercise their abilities in different directions.

After failing to win the bid for prime minister, Progressive Party leader Ewald Bartel immediately turned his attention to becoming Speaker of the House of Commons.

To a certain extent, the status of the Speaker of the House of Commons is higher than that of the Prime Minister.

After all, the cabinet government needs to be responsible to the House of Commons, and when it comes to the impeachment of cabinet members, the Speaker of the House of Commons is required to preside over the relevant meetings.

It’s just that most of the time, the Prime Minister’s status and dignity are far higher than that of the Speaker of the House of Commons.

After all, the Speaker of the House of Commons is merely an elected chairperson of the meeting and cannot change the voting results of Parliament on his own.

This also means that unless the King is dissatisfied with the Prime Minister, the Speaker of the House of Commons has no way to target the Prime Minister.

After all, Ewald Bartel was a politician of the same era as Prime Minister Canovas, and he was unwilling to become a subordinate of Prime Minister Evan Bradley, so he could only pursue a more independent cabinet position such as Speaker of the House of Commons.

The Speaker of the House of Commons has the right to attend cabinet meetings and is not responsible to the Prime Minister. In terms of status, the Speaker of the House of Commons is on par with the Prime Minister, which is the most suitable position for Ewald Bartel besides the Prime Minister.

Although the election of the prime minister took only three days, it took nearly a month to form the entire cabinet.

Except for the Secretary of Defense, the ministers of each department were appointed by the Prime Minister himself. Because Prime Minister Evan Bradley submitted the list the next day, the candidates for these department ministers were quickly determined.

However, it took more than half a month to finalize the selection of other special cabinet members.

For example, in the election for the Speaker of the House of Commons, even though Ewald Bartel was quite influential, it took him more than a week to stand out from the members of the House of Commons and become the "controller" of one of the two houses.

When Carlo got the complete list of cabinet members, the director of the Royal Security Intelligence Agency, Kader, also submitted the specific information of these cabinet members to Carlo.

Carlo was generally satisfied with these cabinet members.

Most of them are familiar faces, and judging from the information of some less familiar faces, they do have certain abilities.

The people who elect and appoint them are not stupid, and it is impossible for them to really elect an incompetent cabinet minister.

Just as Evan Bradley recommended ministers for various departments, careful selection should be made among the various political parties to ensure that those recommended are capable.

On the one hand, these people will work under me in the future. Only when they are capable can I relax a little.

On the other hand, the ability of cabinet members is also related to the reputation of the cabinet. Cabinet members who are incompetent or have bad conduct will only damage the reputation of the Spanish cabinet and reduce the public's trust in the government.

On March 1892, 3, after all the cabinet members excitedly swore allegiance to Carlo, the Spanish cabinet was officially formed, and a new era began.

(End of this chapter)