Christian Democratic and Conservative Party

Christian Democratic and Conservative Party Konservatez an Demokratez Christenpaart Conservatieve en Christendemocratische Partij
Leader	Gyneld Welelmsen
President	Jofrig Hurksjrangler
Founded	September 20, 1983 (1983-09-20)
Split from	Christian Democratic and Conservative Party of North Vyvland
Headquarters	1 Nebvlutdok, Innerwand, Vlud Payl-Klosders-Aas, 15 Hogsdadsgas, Lorence
Youth wing	Conservatives of Tommorrow
Membership (2013)	81,000
Ideology	Conservatism Monarchism Christian democracy Liberal conservatism
Esquarian Parliament group	Esquarian Democratic Union
Colours	Orange
Political position	Centre-right
Election symbol	K
Parliament	125 / 568
Esquarian Parliament	6 / 23
Provincial Diets	465 / 2,078
Provincial Chancellors	6 / 15
Website
http://www.kdc.vy

The Christian Democratic and Conservative Party (KDC, Vyvlander: Konservatez an Demokratez Christenpaart, also often simply known as the Conservative Party (Konservatezpaart)) is a Vyvlander conservative party led by Prime Minister Gyneld Welelmsen, and the largest in the current (11th) Parliament. The party is the senior party in Welelmsen's governing coalition along with the Liberal Party and Capitalist-Libertarian Party, and holds five ministries on the National Commission, Vyvland's cabinet. The Conservative Party is considered to be a centre-right party, and is variously branded as socially conservative, christian democratic and progressive conservative. The party has gained the support of many monarchists after Vyvlander reunification, and has restoration of the Monarchy of Vyvland as one of its policies.

History

Gyneld Welelmsen, KDC leader

Political affiliation in Vyvland had been tied to the influence of the churches for most of the nineteenth century. All three main Christian sects had traditional parties to which they were aligned; Lutherans to the Royal Christian Party, Lutheran Catholics to the Catholic People's Party and Methodists to the Radical Party. However, from the 1880s onwards, these distinctions became less pronounced, primarily due to the rise of the Social Democratic Party and the formal disestablishment of the Radical Party from Methodism. Thus the two remaining major Christian parties were left competing for votes in their respective demographic. To combat this, the Royal Christian Party and Catholic People's Party formed an alliance in 1896 with the support of various other Christian and more secular conservative parties, forming the Conservative Christian Alliance.

The current Conservative Party has its origins in the Christian Democratic and Conservative Party of North Vyvland, which reformed upon reunification in 1983 into the Vyvland-wide Christian Democratic and Conservative Party, and a smaller faction forming the Monarchist Party. This helped the remainder party to gain votes from the many socially conservative yet anti-monarchy Southern voters. Since then, they have consistently been one of the three largest parties, and have been in government four times since then, in 1989-93, 1994-96 and 1998-2005 (two terms). KDC leader Rikard Fegaad's two terms as Prime Minister from 1998 to 2005 were seen as something of a golden age for the modern party; in the 1998 general election, the party won 207 seats, the most ever won by one party in reunified Vyvlander history. Fegaad also succeeded in implementing many economic and political reforms which were popular with the party. In 2004, the party dropped the Christian Democratic from its name as it appears on ballots during a period known as the Konservativezyd (Conservative shake-up), which also involved radical restructuring of the party and its framework of organisation. Its longer name still remains as the official party name and many in the party are in favour of reverting to the longer form. The party still retain the traditionally christian democratic colour orange as their official party colour.

A reasonable portion of opinion polling for the 2013 election suggested that KDC would become the largest party in Parliament, building on strong performance in opposition. This occurred, although their increase was far less than generally expected, with the party only gaining two seats, although becoming the largest party due to falls in support for the Liberals and Socialists. Former candidate in the 2010 presidential election Kurt Blymont thus became Prime Minister. In the Esquarian Parliament election in the run-up to the national election, KDC gained six seats with 24% of the vote, the most of any party. However, revelations of money being given to the party by the Nevan International Intelligence Service due to the party's support for monarchy transpired through WikiLeaks leaked cables just days before the 2013 election. Leader Kurt Blymont denied any knowledge of the donations, saying that such acts were "morally...not right", although the donations decreased the Conservatives' support in the polls.

Blymont announced his resignation due to ill health in July 2013, paving the way for a leadership election, which was won by Gyneld Welelmsen. She replaced Blymont as party leader on 31st August and as Prime Minister four days later.

Policy

The KDC 2013 election manifesto contains various clauses, including the scrapping of the tax on private healthcare, removing the top 56% rate of income tax on incomes over µ300,000 and a benefits cap of µ20,000. They are also in favour of reinstalling the historic Monarchy of Vyvland as a ceremonial monarchy, and retaining the Vlud Laws in order to incentivise trade in the financial centre of Vlud.

Elections

Election	Seats	+/–	Government
2013	125 / 568	2	in government
2009	123 / 568	6	in opposition
2005	129 / 580	54	in opposition
2002	183 / 580	24	in government
1998	207 / 580	76	in government
1996	131 / 580	1	in opposition
1994	130 / 580	25	in government
1993	105 / 580	36	in opposition
1989	141 / 580	20	in government
1986	121 / 580		in opposition