Chapter 199: Rebuilding Parliament, Institutional Reform

Don't look at the fact that the nobles and officials who participated in the rebellion added up to only nearly 100 people; the actual number of people affected far exceeded this number, reaching more than a thousand.

If you count the armed forces eliminated in the rebellion, the number of people who participated in the rebellion is actually even more. And after these people are tried, they will all be sent to the South Morocco colony and the Congo territory in Africa for colonial development work.

They will become members of Spain's ordinary plantations together with the local Moroccans and Congolese. In order to ensure that these people will not unite again to make trouble, these thousands of people will be scattered to various places in South Morocco and the Congo, and strictly guarded.

Some parts of South Morocco are desolate deserts, and the Congo territory is also the African hinterland that is rarely visited outside the colonial stronghold.

In such a place, even if they successfully escape Spain's supervision, they will very likely die in the wild.

This is not a joke. Well-equipped and numerous colonial expedition teams have life crises if they are not careful, let alone the criminals who may have luckily escaped from plantations and other places of supervision.

Unless they can find enough food, weapons, and medicine, fleeing on the African continent is a torture worse than death.

Gao Da did not pay too much attention to the fate of these traitorous nobles and officials, but was considering whether to reorganize the Spanish parliament.

Although Gao Da dissolved the parliament on the grounds that the parliament performed poorly and the election of the acting Prime Minister violated the constitution, the Spanish parliament has developed to the present and possesses sufficient influence.

Unless those political parties can be further dissolved, the parliament will eventually have to be reorganized.

Gao Da does not intend to establish an autocratic and dictatorial government; reasonable use of the parliament is also very beneficial.

But the current power of the Spanish parliament is too huge; it must be restricted to a certain extent, and the Spanish parliament must be reorganized, the constitution must be modified, in order to form a more reasonable Spanish Kingdom government.

On November 17, 1875, Gao Da convened a meeting of the Spanish Senate and announced the decision to merge the Royal Parliament and the Senate to establish the Royal Senate.

The newly established Royal Senate instantly became a huge institution with hundreds of senators, and it also became the only existing parliamentary institution in Spain.

Immediately after, Gao Da convened a meeting of the Royal Senate to conduct a public vote to discuss whether to restore the House of Representatives and re-elect members of parliament.

The final voting result of the Senate was to agree to restore the House of Representatives, which also put the reorganization of the Spanish parliament on the agenda.

On November 19, 1875, Gao Da announced the reorganization of the Spanish House of Representatives and that members of the Spanish House of Representatives would be re-elected between December and January.

Different from the previous House of Representatives, the reorganized House of Representatives will have a full 298 seats, which will be allocated to Spain's major regions and colonies in proportion.

Taking Spain's capital Ma Deli as an example, Ma Deli currently has a population of over 500,000 and will obtain 8 seats in the House of Representatives.

These eight seats in the House of Representatives will be publicly elected in the Ma Deli Parliament, and members of the Ma Deli Parliament have the right to nominate other candidates or sign up for the election.

The eight people with the highest number of votes will obtain the seats of the House of Representatives, with a term of three years. Any accident during this period that makes it impossible to serve as a member of parliament will be filled by re-election by the vacant regional parliament.

With the increase in the seats of the House of Representatives and all being elected by the parliaments of major regions and colonies, it can avoid the possibility of a certain political party controlling the seats of the House of Representatives on a large scale.

A political party that can still occupy the majority of the seats in the House of Representatives under such rules can also prove to a certain extent that it is deeply supported and trusted by the public.

Along with the seats of the House of Representatives, Spain's laws regarding political parties and the laws regarding the election of the cabinet government were also modified.

First is regarding Spain's political parties.

If you want to establish a legal political party in Spain, you must report it to the Royal Senate for review and voting, and obtain at least 50% of the passing votes before it can be regarded as a legal political party.

Conversely, it is an illegal political party, not allowed to engage in all political activities, and members of illegal political parties are not allowed to participate in activities such as the election of members of parliament.

Most of the current senators in the Spanish Royal Senate are nobles, and the nobles listen to Gao Da's orders. This also means that Gao Da can determine the legality of any political party in Spain at present.

This ensures to a great extent that Spain will not give birth to large political parties like the Republican Party, interfering with Spain's parliamentary elections and government elections.

As long as Gao Da is unwilling, any political party established in the future will be regarded as illegal. Illegal political parties cannot get any support from the government, nor can they participate in any political activities, and the chance of expansion is quite slim.

The legal political parties currently announced by the Spanish Royal Senate are only three, namely the Progressive Party, the Liberal Party, and the Conservative Party.

These three parties are also Spain's original top three parties, and there is a large gap with other parties, so naturally, they cannot be declared illegal by Gao Da for no reason.

Regarding the election of the Spanish cabinet government, under the circumstances of the expansion of the seats of the House of Representatives, the conditions for the election have also ushered in certain modifications.

Although the theoretical cabinet government is formed by the Prime Minister or the ruling party, currently there are a few positions in the Spanish cabinet government that are not appointed by the Prime Minister, but appointed by the King as Gao Da and elected by the Royal Senate.

The cabinet positions directly appointed by Gao Da are the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Royal Affairs.

The official name of Spain's Deputy Prime Minister position is Minister of State, meaning the cabinet minister who assists the Prime Minister in handling state affairs. The Deputy Prime Minister will exert the role of the Prime Minister when the Prime Minister cannot handle government affairs, so it is still quite critical.

And the Minister of Royal Affairs, as the name suggests, is the cabinet minister who helps the government handle affairs connected with the royal family. Because it requires sufficient understanding of royal family affairs, this position is also directly appointed by Gao Da.

Besides this, the Minister of Colonial Affairs and the Minister of Justice are elected by the Senate, and the Prime Minister and the ruling party have no power to replace and nominate.

The Minister of Defense, as one of the most important positions in the cabinet, was also listed separately by Gao Da. Of course, the Minister of Defense is not directly appointed by Gao Da, nor is it elected by the Senate, but is appointed by voting within the Spanish Defense Committee.

The personnel who make up the Spanish Defense Committee are: the King of Spain, the then Prime Minister of Spain, the then Commander-in-Chief of the Spanish Army, the then Commander-in-Chief of the Spanish Navy, the then Chief of General Staff of the Spanish Defense Ministry General Staff, the then Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Guard, and the then Minister of Defense, a total of seven people.

The Spanish Defense Committee composed of these seven people votes to elect the new Minister of Defense of Spain at every change of the cabinet government, avoiding the situation where the Minister of Defense may be completely controlled by the Prime Minister.

For Gao Da, such a regulation is clearly beneficial to himself. As the Grand Marshal of the Spanish Navy and Army, it is quite normal for the King of Spain to be a member of the Defense Committee.

And most of the remaining members of the Defense Committee are also high-level military personnel, especially the then Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Guard, who completely listens to Gao Da's orders.

This also means that Gao Da only needs to win over one person among the Marshals of the Navy and Army, the Minister of Defense, and the Chief of General Staff, and it will be difficult to lose in the voting for the candidate for Minister of Defense. As long as you win over two of them, Gao Da can possess the appointment power of the candidate for Minister of Defense.

Although he cannot directly decide the candidate for Minister of Defense, the power of the Spanish Prime Minister is still very large.

Nine departments—finance, industry, agriculture, people's livelihood, transportation, public security, medical, education, and foreign affairs—are still controlled by the Prime Minister, plus the Prime Minister, there are ten cabinet seats.

And the Minister of State, Minister of Justice, Minister of Royal Affairs, Minister of Colonial Affairs, and Minister of Defense, several positions not controlled by the Prime Minister, add up to actually only five seats.

But as long as the most important military is mastered in his own hands, no matter how the candidate for Spanish Prime Minister changes next, Gao Da does not need to worry about such a crisis happening again.

Of course, it is impossible for Spain to give birth to a ruler like Prime Minister Primo next. Prime Minister Primo's monopolization of power is relatively special because he not only controlled the government but also controlled Spain's army.

It is precisely because of this that Gao Da took the Minister of Defense out of the Prime Minister's appointment separately and handed it to the Defense Committee to elect.

Among the six seats of the Defense Committee, Gao Da himself has one seat, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Guard is another seat.

Among the remaining four positions of the Navy and Army Commander-in-Chief, Minister of Defense, and Chief of General Staff, as long as any two are won over, Gao Da can control the candidate for Spain's Minister of Defense.

Controlling the candidate for Minister of Defense also means being able to exert his influence on the army unscrupulously. Coupled with the cooperation of the Royal Guard, Gao Da, who controls the army, will completely control the whole of Spain and let Spain move in the direction he points.

Although the Spanish parliament will be reorganized, Gao Da does not intend to re-elect Spain's cabinet government.

Continuing to operate with the current cabinet government is the most suitable choice; after all, Gao Da has a relatively high right to speak in the current Spanish cabinet government, and blind changes are not beautiful.

The current Spanish cabinet positions are as follows:

Grand Duke Serrano serves as Spain's Chief Minister and concurrently Minister of Defense; nominally, he is the person with the highest status and greatest power in the Spanish government at present.

Count Canovas serves as Minister of State and concurrently Minister of Industry; like Grand Duke Serrano, he is a high-ranking official who holds two cabinet seats.

Unlike Grand Duke Serrano, Grand Duke Serrano is nominally the Prime Minister, but actually mainly responsible for the affairs of the Ministry of Defense.

And although Canovas is only the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry, he has actually begun to bear the economic development of the whole of Spain.

After all, Gao Da also said before that Grand Duke Serrano has enough status and influence, but is not very good at economic development.

The Minister of Justice and the Minister of Colonial Affairs do not have corresponding candidates yet; the newly merged Royal Senate has not started the election regarding these two cabinet seats.

Gao Da intends to let Menotti serve as the Minister of Royal Affairs. It can be seen from exploring Africa that Menotti is loyal and has certain abilities, and Gao Da does not mind reusing him.

The Minister of Finance is still served by Ewald Bartel. Ewald is Prime Minister Primo's confidant and is indeed very capable in managing finance.

Since the cabinet has not been elected, there is naturally no need to replace a capable Minister of Finance.

The Minister of Agriculture is served by Hoviliarsoler. As a member of the Conservative Party, Hoviliarsoler has obtained Gao Da's preliminary trust and has also been reused to a certain extent.

The Minister of People's Livelihood is served by Carle Daniels. Carle is also a member of the Progressive Party, but unlike Ruiz who is quite radical, Carle is clearly inclined to be conservative.

He did not have great achievements in the process of serving as Minister of People's Livelihood, but he did not have any mistakes either; his political achievements can only be considered mediocre.

The Minister of Transportation was originally served by Ruiz. But Ruiz, who was elected as acting Prime Minister by the parliament, performed extremely poorly in the workers' protest, and Gao Da dissolved the parliament and also banned the Spanish cabinet at that time.

Ruiz, who only served as acting Prime Minister for one day, gloriously lost his job and was arrested by the Spanish army for endangering national security.

Gao Da does not have much good feelings for such a radical reformer. If this guy were allowed to take power, I am afraid that Spain would become a republic before long.

But the lessons of history are enough. Spain did indeed become a republic during this period, but after the republic, it did not mean that the struggle within Spain ended; instead, because of the struggle between various political parties and forces, the republic that lasted for several years collapsed.

Looking at Spain's history of this republic from God's perspective, the opening was quite hasty, and the ending was also quite terrible.

Radical reformers like Ruiz did not see the situation in Spain clearly. The current Spain does not need a republic; instead, it can maintain the unity and stability of the country only as a monarchy.

The seat of Minister of Transportation is currently vacant, but Gao Da intends to promote the Deputy Minister of the Transportation Department, Icarus Montoya.

Icarus's performance in the Transportation Department is quite good, and can even be considered excellent. If Icarus had not blocked some of Ruiz's more radical decisions, perhaps the results of the Transportation Department this year would have been even more discounted.

Letting such a guy who has both ability and is familiar with the Transportation Department take over the department can effectively reduce the work stagnation brought about by the rotation of department heads for Spain's Transportation Department.

The Minister of Public Security is served by Garcia Herrera. Garcia is a rare non-party person in the Spanish cabinet government, but he is also a member of the Spanish nobles, and theoretically, he is also more inclined to the Conservative Party.

Gao Da is very unfamiliar with the name of the Minister of Health, which may also be related to Spain's relatively poor medical environment.

After all, the medical level in this era is indeed very poor. Gao Da mainly focuses on the research of medicine and biology in terms of medical aspects, and does not pay much attention to the medical department.

The current Minister of Health is Javier Jacobson, a person with relatively high prestige in biology and medicine.

The Minister of Education continues to be served by Gerald Wilson. Gerald Wilson's achievements in Spain's literacy education are still quite good, and Gao Da also intends to reuse him further.

Anyway, Spain's cabinet ministers have no term limits; as long as the ability is sufficient, having a term of decades in a cabinet position is not an exaggerated thing.

Finally, there is the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The Minister of Foreign Affairs is also a member of the nobles and also possesses the title of Hou Jue. Gao Da is not unfamiliar with the Hou Jue of Everton, because the Hou Jue of Everton is not only the first Spanish noble to express goodwill to Gao Da, but also one of the first Spanish nobles to join the Royal Parliament.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 200 =====