1967 Urcean political crisis

The 1967 Urcean political crisis was a major breakdown in the systems of the government of Urcea that began in February 1967 and lasted until May 1967. During that period, the Concilium Daoni did not meet, the longest such period in the modern history of the Daoni. The crisis, which introduced questions about the Urcean constitution into the public sphere, was ultimately resolved with a complex arrangement of Royal appointments as well as confidence and supply agreements.

Background

Main article: Urlazio Synod

In the 1955 Urcean elections, the Commonwealth Union won a major victory, continuing a string of victories going back several decades. John Donnula was elected both Procuator and Chancellor and Temporary President of the Concilium Daoni.

In 1956, the Catholic Church began backroom negotiations with the Caphirian government about the possibility of mending or lessening the Great Schism of 1615. These talks occurred against the backdrop of the Occidental Cold War on one hand and a new global era of diplomacy backed by the League of Nations on the other. These negotiations culminated with an agreement to hold a synod of Catholic and Caphiric Church bishops in Urlazio in March 1956. The government of Urcea, then controlled by the Commonwealth Union, secretly collaborated with the Caphirian government to scuttle the talks, successfully cancelling the synod in late winter. As Procurator, John Donnula played a major role in undermining the talks. The sabotage of Church affairs was not known to King Patrick IV, who discovered it privately in 1965. In his deathbed last will and testament published at his death on 1 February 1967, the King revealed the duplicity to the public.

Initial response

Patrick IV died at 4:52 PM on 1 February 1967, and his will and testament began to circulate in the late evening hours that day. It became clear to many journalists and a limited portion of the public that the Donnula government had acted duplicitously. Not only was the furtherance of the Catholic Church both a core of Urcean culture and one of the state's self-described raison d'etres, but the religious differences between Urcea and Caphiria was one of the most common publicly stated reasons for the Occidental Cold War and animosity between the two states.

Donnula's government acted quickly to attempt to suppress the document. Though not stated in writing, many of the government's top communications officials began to tell journalists that the document was forged, and to refrain from reporting on it or printing it until the true will and testament could be produced. This convinced some journalists, especially the popular Levantine Times Union, to hold on publishing the story on the morning of 2 February. In the meantime, Donnula summoned both Censors to midnight talks at the Julian Palace. Donnula attempted to convince both Censors to exercise their authority to prohibit publication of the document. One Censor agreed, but the other said he would do so only if asked to do so by the new King, Caelian II. Donnula assured the second Censor he had already spoken to the King about this, and the Censor agreed to limit publication for 2 February but wanted to personally hear from the King. Later, it was determined that Donnula had likely committed a crime in the process of his meeting with the Censors, not only inducing them to falsely censor a document but also in misrepresenting the King's position.

The new King, meanwhile, was only vaguely aware of a circulating will, having been in Harren until about 2 PM that day. Caelian was still in transit to the Palace when he became King Caelian II just before 5 PM, and he arrived about an hour after his brother's death. The new King spent most of the evening meeting with various Concilium Purpaidá ministers, but notably not Donnula, accepting their condolences and making vague plans for his coronation. It is unclear when Caelian II first saw the last will and testament, but the original document - signed under his brother's hand and imprinted with the privy seal - was shown to him at some point in the late evening of 1 February. After a long day of travel, the King went to sleep just after midnight.

Efforts to suppress the document were only partly successful. Minor publications published news of it on the morning of 2 February, and though their reach was limited, it nonetheless caused a major sensation in Urceopolis. Minor court officials, who had seen the document themselves, were seen in discussions with the National Pact minority leader of the Concilium Daoni, Felix Finnean. The new King, in his first full day as Apostolic King of Urcea, awoke to significant controversy in the Palace. He summoned Procurator Donnula to a private audience - ostensibly a normal King-Procurator meeting - at 10 AM that day. According to Palace insiders, Donnula was largely evasive with the new monarch, avoiding questions about the Urlazio Synod directly and successfully focusing on issues related to the coronation planning. Only later in the day did the coverup effort become known - an audience between the two Censors and their new monarch made it plain that not only did Caelian II not authorize Donnula to request the will be censored, but the Procurator had deliberately hid the growing controversy to the King. The reportedly enraged new King demanded the Censors retract any attempted censorship. With Censorial restrictions removed and no evidence forthcoming that the will was actually a forgery, most outlets - including the Levantine Times Union - printed the news in special afternoon or evening editions.

The news was a major shock to the Urcean political environment. Besides questions of his conduct related to the Urlazio Synod, many journalists began to question the Procurator's decisionmaking with respect to covering up the will. Discussion in the newspaper that night, and on the morning of 3 February, questioned not only the ethics but the legality of the Procurator's actions, as suppressing the last will and testament of a King could be conceived as a criminally treasonous act. On the morning of 3 February, Donnula attempted to have another audience with King Caelian II, attempting to convince the monarch to make a public show of confidence in the King, but the King refused to see him. As 3 February was a Friday, the Concilium Daoni was not in session, but over that weekend nearly every newspaper in the country was now covering the Synod controversy as well as the coverup. Before the end of the weekend, several leading members of the National Pact and even leaders of the Julian Party publicly stated that they thought Donnula should resign. As the Daoni met on the morning of Tuesday, 7 February, a motion of no confidence in Donnula's leadership as Chancellor was made, but the meeting was adjourned "on an emergency basis" until the next day, when the measure would be taken up.

Donnula's attempted resignation and call for elections

Following the emergency adjournment of the Concilium Daoni in early afternoon of 7 February, the Commonwealth Union immediately held a closed-door party conference at the Julian Palace. From the tenor of the discussion, it became evident that Donnula would almost certainly lose the confidence of the Daoni but would retain about two-thirds of his own party, enabling him to remain as party leader for the time being. On Wednesday, 8 February, the Daoni met again and passed its no-confidence motion, forcing Donnula out of office as Chancellor and Temporary President. However, as Procurator, Donnula remained as presiding officer of the body, taking advantage of the office's little used nominal role within the Daoni. Donnula attempted several parliamentary procedures in order to restore his role as Chancellor, including a motion to waive the rules and allow the majority party in the Daoni to elect a Chancellor on majority of the majority terms. This measure was not only of dubious legality but also alienated some of Donnula's own support within the body. The measure was defeated and, in its place, normal voting for a new Chancellor took place. As Donnula could not secure a majority of the delegates and the minority parties held limited position within the body, the Daoni met for over eight hours and took thirty two roll call votes to elect a Chancellor before deciding to adjourn. The Daoni formally adjourned without a Chancellor for the first time in its modern history.

With the government descending into disorder and rapidly losing support among his own party, Donnula announced to the party on the morning of 9 February that he would agree to not stand as Chancellor, saying that he would back his floor leader, Cassio Loughlin, for the role, while he would remain on as Procurator. Loughlin was personally unpopular in the party even before the will controversy began and was viewed largely as a puppet of Donnula. Thorpe Aedansson, a moderate party member, announced he would challenge Loughlin, and the party could not reach a 250-member consensus. In his authority as Procurator, Donnula canceled that day's session and put the rest of the legislative calendar on hold pending the call of the chair.

By 10 February, public opinion had dramatically turned against Donnula. A poll conducted from 8-10 February indicated a majority of the public thought Donnula should resign, and this was before news about his coverup misconduct became widespread. At the insistence of the Censors, the Ministry of Justice informed Donnula on the morning of 10 February that a special counsel had been appointed to investigate his actions, both in the preceding weeks as well as in 1956. The Minister for the Church resigned on the same day, stating that his Ministry's mission and purpose could not be served by the present government. At a closed door party conference that day, Donnula announced his intention to resign as soon as a new Chancellor could be chosen, after which time Donnula would ask the King to appoint that man as Procurator. The party took eight secret ballots and could not arrive on a consensus candidate. As the closed door debates intensified, eighty members of the party signed a document saying they would not support any current government ministers, anyone who had been a government minister in 1956, and no man chosen or endorsed by Donnula to serve as Chancellor. Without a man in place, Donnula nonetheless announced his intention to resign as Procurator to the media once a new party leader was chosen.

After the weekend of 11-13 February, Donnula brought the party back together on 14 February, but it was once again unable to choose a new leader. Donnula spent the remainder of the day attempting to convince National Pact leader Felix Finnean to support a Loughlin-led national unity government, potentially with Donnula remaining on as caretaker Procurator or appointing a non-partisan person. Finnean refused on the basis that he did not trust Donnula to step aside, and thought that backing Loughlin would make the National Pact look complicit. With no other options, Donnula asked King Caelian on the 14th to call for new elections. The King refused on the basis that membership in the Daoni was based on a fixed term, and that the King had no ability to prorogue the term of an elected official. Regardless, Donnula announced his intention to ask the King for new elections in a press conference in order to gather public support. Instead, the palace immediately disclosed the earlier conversation. The next morning, Donnula asked the leaders of each party if the 500 members of the Daoni would all resign at once, triggering a 500-seat special election. Over half of the Union opposed doing so.

Government collapses and Daoni shutters

On the 15th, the Archjustice of the Ministry of Justice informed Donnula that charges were "almost certainly" going to be filed against him by the special prosecutor once their investigation completed in early March. On 16 February, Donnula summoned his party members for one last time, and bucked his major supporters by endorsing Thorpe Aedansson. Donnula indicated in later interviews he did so in order to try and ensure the government would continue to function, though many believe he hoped Aedansson might ask the King to pardon him. Regardless, Aedansson and his supporters' hard stance against existing ministers and 1956 ministers won them little support in the party; Aedansson now took a plurality of Union delegates, though Loughlin and others commanded large minorities. Donnula convened a special session of the Daoni that night, hoping that a unity government behind Aedansson might form. No majority could be formed, and the body was adjourned for the night. It would be the last time the Daoni met in three months.

Out of options and facing likely legal trouble, Donnula arrived at the Julian Palace on the morning of the 16th. In a private audience with the King, he asked if he might be pardoned in exchange for his immediate resignation. King Caelian II reluctantly agreed because he thought Donnula's removal might end the crisis but also because he thought a trial of a sitting Procurator would be harmful to the state. In a brief televised address, Donnula announced his resignation effective at noon on 16 February. Critically, his resignation was not only as Procurator, but as member of the Concilium Daoni, reducing his party's seat share by 1. The King followed with his own address, reassuring the nation that the Urcean system of governance would overcome this crisis. In addition to announcing the indefinite postponement of his coronation, Caelian II explained in brief terms how the nation would now be governed. The Concilium Purpaidá would continue to make the day-to-day administrative decisions necessary to run the country. However, it would now exercise the executive power of the Procurator collegially, with the body being temporarily chaired by Cassio Loughlin. As man with the largest plurality support in the Daoni, the King would appoint Loughlin as "special envoy of the King to the Privy Council" which would enable him to chair the body as an ex officio member. Although unspoken, it was understood to the ministers that consequential foreign policy decisions would be made now by the Apostolic King in consultation with the State Minister. The King would also now retain the ability to make recess appointments for functionally any public office that required Daoni approval; while he imposed this condition largely as an inducement for the Daoni to choose a leader, he would instead be called upon to make dozens of appointments during the crisis.

Loughlin hoped that a short period as de facto head of government might strengthen his standing within the party. After two relatively stable weeks as temporary chairperson, Loughlin reconvened the Commonwealth Union's Daoni delegation on Thursday, 2 March. The party once again could not reach an agreement on a 250-seat basis, and many delegates boycotted the meeting on the basis that Loughlin was not officially party leader and could not summon the party's delegation.