Chapter 247: Cabinet Election (Happy New Year!)

After the report meeting of the second five-year plan ended, the relevant information mentioned by various government departments immediately became the most discussed news in Spain.

Most Spaniards were proud of it, and they were quite excited about the progress the country had made over the past five years and more confident in the country's future.

Gao Da, as the King who proposed making Spain great again at the time, was therefore enthusiastically loved by the public.

If many Spaniards did not believe that Gao Da could lead Spain to greatness before, then at this time, most Spaniards believed that making Spain great again was not a simple slogan, but a reality that would soon be realized.

The public had confidence in the country's future development and was naturally more willing to pay their own efforts for the country's future.

After this meeting ended, the streets and alleys of various cities in Spain were full of titles such as "Make Spain Great Again!", and some smart factory owners also set up such titles and banners in factories to encourage workers to pay efforts for the country's future.

For those factory owners who were not too outrageous, the Spanish government generally adopted an attitude of turning a blind eye. After all, Spain's population was limited, which also meant that Spain's number of workers was limited.

To effectively increase Spain's industrial output, for the time being, it was still necessary to suffer the Spanish workers.

Of course, Gao Da also had a sense of proportion. As early as the beginning of last year, under Gao Da's suggestion, the Spanish Workers' Party was quickly established and absorbed many workers in a short time.

The main purpose of the Workers' Party was to protect the interests of Spanish workers and replace the working class to fight against capitalists.

Such a party that could utilize the political power of the working class was naturally established by Gao Da to guide the working class.

The Spanish Workers' Party on the surface had no connection with the royal family and Gao Da, but the party leader and some main members of the Workers' Party were sent by Gao Da.

The main task of these people was to reasonably use the political power of workers and at the same time deepen the contradiction between capitalists and workers.

Of course, the capitalists here refer to private capitalists, not state-owned capital.

The income and welfare benefits of employees of state-owned enterprises and royal enterprises in Spain were relatively good, which also ensured that workers would not point their spears at enterprises established by the state and the royal family, and would only hate those private enterprises that exploited workers' interests, that is, enterprises established by capitalists.

That is, the parliamentary elections in major regions had already ended, otherwise the Workers' Party could also obtain some seats, thereby obtaining the qualification to enter the parliament.

Even if there was only one parliamentary seat, the political power of the party was far greater than those parties without parliamentary seats. After all, only by entering the Spanish parliament could one have the qualification to be nominated as a cabinet member. If one could not even enter the parliament, this party would have no sense of existence in Spain.

Currently, judging from the proportion of seats occupied by various parties in the Lower House, most members of the next cabinet government would still be selected from the three major parties in Spain.

But unlike the last cabinet election, the Conservative Party had become the first major party in Spain, and the living space of the Progressive Party and the Liberal Party had been squeezed out.

If it weren't for Gao Da's intentional protection of the Progressive Party and the Liberal Party, perhaps the Liberal Party would soon withdraw from the historical stage. Advocating freedom rights and civil rights in a monarchy is simply singing against the Spanish government.

If it weren't for those radical republican democratic elements having been cleaned up long ago, Gao Da would absolutely not allow the Liberal Party to continue to exist in Spain.

After the Workers' Party obtained parliamentary seats, Gao Da would stop protecting the Liberal Party.

By then, the Liberal Party would only have two choices: either be squeezed out of the parliament by other parties, or completely abandon the thoughts of liberal democracy and change into a moderate reformist faction inclined to be conservative like the Progressive Party.

The Spanish government in 1879 was absolutely quite busy. The report meeting of the second five-year development plan had just ended for less than a month, and it ushered in a new round of elections for the Spanish cabinet government.

The good news was that the performance of various departments in Spain in the second five-year development plan was quite good, and the ministers of various departments also brushed their presence in the parliament.

Of course, these cabinet ministers also knew where the key to their re-election lay. The current Conservative Party had become the first major party in Spain, and as the party leader of the Conservative Party, Deputy Prime Minister Canovas also had great hope of becoming the Prime Minister of the next cabinet government in Spain.

This also meant that the key to whether most cabinet members could be re-elected depended on Canovas's attitude. As long as Canovas became Prime Minister, whether everyone could be re-elected was just a matter of Canovas's words.

As early as last year, cabinet ministers had strengthened their connection with Deputy Prime Minister Canovas. They were not fools and naturally knew the reason why Canovas was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister.

Under the premise that Prime Minister Serrano was already old, the probability of Canovas succeeding to the position of Prime Minister was not 100%, at least 90%.

Cabinet ministers did not have enough qualifications to compete with Canovas for the position of Prime Minister. If they wanted to continue to stay in the Spanish cabinet, they could only stay in their positions by gaining Canovas's trust.

Of course, Gao Da's attitude could not be ignored. Even Canovas was supported by Gao Da, and cabinet ministers naturally attached great importance to Gao Da's attitude as King.

In order to be re-elected, many cabinet ministers expressed their absolute loyalty to Gao Da, which also made Gao Da's power increase invisibly.

Unlike the period of Prime Minister Primo's rule when Gao Da had no management power over the government, Gao Da possessed great power in the current Spanish government, which also made Gao Da's actions much more convenient.

Relying on the power in his hands, Gao Da promulgated many policies, and these policies also made certain aspects of Spain change greatly.

One of them was the policy regarding public health in Spain.

Although Europe in this era was the most developed region in the world, the health conditions inherited from the Middle Ages made European cities not so civilized.

Urinating and defecating everywhere and littering were everywhere in European cities. "Fragrant cars and beautiful wine, smelly London" described not only the smog of London but also the terrible health conditions of London and the stench of feces and garbage everywhere.

This was actually not exaggerated. Even in later generations, there were still phenomena of urinating and defecating everywhere in some European cities.

If you were unlucky, you might not step on dog feces when you go out, but there was a greater probability of stepping on human feces.

Gao Da lived in Ma Deli, although he did not want Ma Deli to become a city full of feces and garbage. As early as when Gao Da first came to Spain, he suggested that Prime Minister Primo strengthen the health control of Ma Deli.

In the ten years since Gao Da became the King of Spain, Spain had built many public toilets in important cities like Ma Deli, effectively reducing the behavior of urinating and defecating in public places.

To strengthen the supervision of uncivilized behavior, the Ma Deli municipal government formulated relevant punishment policies. People who urinated and defecated everywhere in the streets and alleys of Ma Deli would face fines of varying amounts at the lightest, and imprisonment for several months or even several years at the highest.

Since the promulgation of such policies, the streets of Ma Deli had indeed become much cleaner. Gao Da also planned to promote such health management policies to other cities in Spain, striving to make all cities in Spain become health cities without feces and garbage.

After health environment became an important part of the mayor's assessment, the Mayor of Ma Deli attached great importance to the health environment of the streets and alleys of Ma Deli.

Gao Da believed that as long as the assessment of the relevant health environment was also added to the performance assessment of mayors of various cities, these mayors would certainly try every means to reduce the situation of urinating and defecating everywhere.

Of course, urinating and defecating everywhere should not only be prohibited; places for people with the need to go to the toilet, that is, public toilets, should be provided.

If they only knew how to prohibit without knowing how to build more public toilets, this would only arouse the anger of the public.

Gao Da did not want the governments of these cities to implement a one-size-fits-all policy, ignoring the wishes of the public just for their own political achievements.

After a month, the giant conference room of the Spanish Parliament was reopened. Members of the Lower House had to elect a new Prime Minister of Spain during the meeting, and members of the Upper House also had to elect a new Minister of Justice and Minister of Colonial Affairs in Spain.

Of course, the Military Committee also had to elect a new Minister of National Defense, and Gao Da also had to consider the candidates for the Minister of Royal Affairs and the Deputy Prime Minister of Spain.

Only after these candidates were all determined could the new cabinet government of Spain be considered to have been formed.

Five years had passed since the last election of the cabinet government, and the Spanish Lower House had also experienced two elections in these five years.

The current Conservative Party had successfully become the first major party in Spain, possessing a full 146 seats, occupying 49% of the seats of members of the Lower House, crushing the Progressive Party and the Liberal Party with its own strength.

The Progressive Party retreated to the second major party, with only 87 seats in the Lower House, occupying 29.1% of the total seats.

The Liberal Party still retained the name of the third major party in Spain, but the seats of the Liberal Party were constantly declining. Currently, the Liberal Party only retained 27 seats in the Lower House, occupying only 9% of the total seats in the Lower House.

Outside the three major parties, several small-scale parties also possessed cabinet seats, but the number did not exceed double digits. The number of cabinet seats possessed by these parties combined was about the same as the Liberal Party, and the total proportion was only 8.4%, that is, 25 seats.

In addition to these parties, there were 13 seats in the Lower House belonging to non-partisan individuals. The decline of non-partisan individuals was expected; after all, parties had greater advantages in elections.

Parties could obtain political contributions donated by the public, while individuals could not obtain political cash. Parties could gather the joint efforts of many people, while individuals could only rely on their own efforts.

In the political arena of any country, the political power of parties was far greater than that of individuals. Many non-partisan individuals before either joined one of the three major parties or established their own parties, and few people continued to maintain a non-partisan status.

From the proportion of seats occupied by the three major parties in the Lower House, it could also be seen that the Conservative Party occupied a huge advantage.

The proportion of the Conservative Party itself was already close to half, and it only needed to obtain about 30 more seats to get the position of Prime Minister of the Spanish cabinet.

Any other party could not compete with the Conservative Party. After all, to obtain the position of Prime Minister of the Spanish cabinet, one had to obtain more than 60% of the votes.

The Conservative Party would not vote for its political enemies, which also meant that these parties, except for choosing to cooperate with the Conservative Party, had no other way to join the Spanish cabinet.

The cabinet election was a relatively major political activity in Spain, and Gao Da, as the King of Spain, naturally participated in it.

The good news was that the meetings of the Upper House and the Lower House were held in the Parliament Building, which also allowed Gao Da to participate in the elections of the Upper House and the Lower House at the same time.

The Lower House was electing the Prime Minister of the Spanish cabinet, while the Upper House was electing the Minister of Colonial Affairs and the Minister of Justice of Spain.

Although not as good as the Prime Minister, these two cabinet minister positions were still relatively important. The Minister of Colonial Affairs assisted Gao Da in managing colonial affairs, and his status was higher than that of the governors of various colonies.

And the Minister of Justice was the highest leader of the Spanish judiciary, and like the Minister of Royal Affairs, he was not subject to the control of the Spanish cabinet government.

The Minister of Justice only needed to be responsible to the Upper House and the King, and the purpose was also to ensure the loyalty and reliability of the Minister of Justice.

Compared with the election of the Lower House, the election of the Upper House was also quite lively. Both of these houses had hundreds of members of parliament, and the scene of every election was quite lively.

It's just that compared to the Lower House, the Upper House was an institution completely controlled by Gao Da, and Gao Da could even control the election results of the two cabinet ministers.

The parliamentary election lasted for a whole day, and finally successfully elected the Prime Minister of Spain and several important cabinet ministers.

Unsurprisingly, the former Deputy Prime Minister Canovas successfully took the position of Prime Minister, and because the votes exceeded 60%, he obtained the power to form a cabinet alone.

This also meant that the candidates for the ministers of the nine departments of the Spanish cabinet government would be at the thought of Prime Minister Canovas. As long as he was willing, any member of the Lower House had the hope of becoming a cabinet minister with a very high status.

The election of the Upper House ended earlier than the election of the Lower House, and the Minister of Colonial Affairs and the Minister of Justice also had candidates early.

Serving as the Minister of Colonial Affairs was the former Governor of Cuba, William, who was relatively familiar with the affairs of several Spanish colonies and belonged to a member of the Spanish nobility, and his loyalty was still quite reliable.

Serving as the Minister of Justice was Manuel Diaz Santos. Gao Da was also relatively familiar with this name, and unsurprisingly, he was also a member of the nobility.

It's just that Manuel was not a member of the old nobility, but a member of the new nobility. Manuel was still relatively familiar with legal work, and he was a lawyer before stepping into the political arena.

The identity of the nobility coupled with the reason for once being a lawyer made Manuel successfully become the Minister of Justice of Spain. Gao Da did not attach too much importance to the ability of the Minister of Justice; after all, Spain's judiciary did not rely solely on the Minister of Justice, but also had the efforts of a series of institutions and personnel.

The position of Minister of Justice attached more importance to loyalty; after all, this was completely independent of the cabinet government and could play a supervisory role on Spanish officials and members of parliament, and could also play a supervisory role on the public.

(End of chapter)