National Party of Wizlandia

National Party
Abbreviation	NAT
Leader	James Ward (Leader of the Opposition)
Deputy Leader	Harold Stevens (Senate Minority Leader)
Founded	1898
Newspaper	The National Post
Think tank	National Institute
Youth wing	Young Conservatives
Ideology	Majority  • Conservatism  • Economic Liberalism  • Social Conservatism Factions  • Liberal Conservatism  • Christian Democracy  • National Conservatism  • Agrarianism
Political position	Centre-Right
European affiliation	European Conservatives and Reformists (Observing Member)
International affiliation	International Democrat Union
Colors	Dark Green
Slogan	"Building a stronger Wizlandia together."
House of Commons	204 / 800
Senate	30 / 120
State Legislatures	1,156 / 4,826
Political parties

The National Party, abbreviated NAT and formerly the Independence Party, is one of the three major contemporary political parties of Wizlandia, along with its main political rivals the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party, and is the oldest party in Wizlandia. Prior to the Second World War, the Independence Party dominated the political landscape of Wizlandia, and advocated for Wizlandian independence from British and Dutch imperialism. After the fall of the Communist Dictatorship in 1958, the Independence Party rebranded as the National Party of Wizlandia. The party is currently the junior partner in coalition with the Liberals.

The National Party's ideology is Conservatism, which incorporates both economic liberal, social conservative, and agrarian policies. The party sits on the centre-right of the political spectrum, with both the Liberal and the Social Democratic Party to its left, though other scholars argue such left-right dichotomy is misleading as the Liberal Party tends to be more pro-market than the Nationals.

On economic policy issues, the National Party's supports the current school voucher system in addition to the small-medium welfare state. However, they advocate implementing agricultural subsidies and low-level tariffs towards foreign agriculture, redirecting some education spending to healthcare, pensions, rural infrastructure, policing, domestic security and counter-terrorism. Culturally conservative, the National Party favours drug criminalisation, a tough-on-crime stance, a pornography ban, a fetal-heartbeat law, increased restrictions on immigration, with some also supporting a rollback on LGBT adoption and marriage rights, though this is both a contentious issue in the party and a red line for both the Liberals and the Social Democrats in any coalition agreement.

Nationals tend to be hawkish on foreign policy, they advocate for a neoconservative foreign policy, an increase in military spending in order to aggressively promote Wizlandian foreign interests, and maintaining Wizlandia's status as a nuclear weapons state. Though the party supports continued membership in the World Assembly, the Liberal Democratic Union, the South-Asian Union, the Trans-Asian Free Trade Agreement, and the International Defence League, it stresses Wizlandia's right to act unilaterally should it be in its interests. The Nationals maintain that resolutions passed by the World Assembly are not legally binding in Wizlandia, and oppose giving up fiscal or other domestic policymaking powers to supranational institutions.

Political Positions

Constitution

The Constitution of Wizlandia was enacted in 2013 by a Liberal-National coalition government, and the National Party are in favour of maintaining the current constitution, although factions of the party have also advocated amendments that would make it easier for the federal government to enact immigration restrictions, and amendments that would give greater freedom to the States on social policy, such as whether to recognise gay marriage, polygamic marriage, in addition to freedom to enact harsher criminal sentences. The National Party oppose amendments that would lower the threshold of passing a bill from a three-fifths supermajority of both houses to a simple majority, and they oppose amendments that would weaken the Constitutional provisions restraining federal power.

Economics

The National Party lean towards the right on economic issues, and is broadly in favour of free trade, low taxes, a small to medium sized welfare state, and oppose increased regulations and the creation of a minimum wage. Despite being mostly in favour of free trade, the National Party support agricultural subsidies and low tariffs on foreign agriculture, and they advocate redirecting education and anti-poverty spending towards healthcare and retirement protection. On taxation, the National Party support eliminating the Land-Value Tax, which they have criticised as harmful towards the agricultural sector, in addition to reducing the Value-Added Tax, and replacing the lost revenue with an increase in the income tax and the creation of a 10% corporate tax.

Environment

Most Nationals acknowledge the existence of anthropogenic climate change, but the party has no common climate change policy. Some factions of the National Party support the current carbon tax, while other factions prefer reducing the carbon tax and instead enacting green subsidies. The National Party support nuclear and hydroelectric power, and oppose a ban on fracking, which they describe as both an important job creator and intermediary step in transitioning towards green energy.

Immigration

The National Party oppose the current open-borders policy, and wish to establish a points-based immigration system and decrease immigration into Wizlandia. Moderates, such as the New Conservatives, wish to limit immigration to two million immigrants a year, while more conservative factions would reduce that to 500,000 yearly migrants.

Factions

New Conservatives

New Conservatives are the liberal conservative and conservative-liberal faction of the National Party. The faction is the largest in the National Party, and was formed in the 1980s in the backdrop of an increasingly liberal population. The New Conservatives abandoned the more hardline social conservative positions of the National Party, and instead hewed for a socially centrist vision that combined certain liberal values, such as support for gay marriage and open immigration, with more conservative attitudes towards drugs, crime, and promoting marriage and child rearing as a civic virtue. The New Conservatives are the most economically liberal faction of the National Party, supporting a smaller welfare state, deregulation and free trade.

The New Conservatives are the most internationalist faction of the National Party. The factions supports a neoconservative foreign policy focused on spreading liberal democracy abroad, and to this end they support a significant increase in military spending, which includes additional funding for the army, navy, air force, nuclear modernisation, and research and development. New Conservatives support Wizlandia's membership in the Liberal Democratic Union, the South-Asian Union, the Trans-Asian Free Trade Agreement, and the World Assembly, but wish to withdraw from the International Defence League over its restrictions against foreign intervention. New Conservatives oppose recognising World Assembly resolutions as legally binding to Wizlandia, and stress Wizlandia's right to engage in unilateral action when they see the actions of supranational organisations to not be in line with Wizlandian interests.

Christian Democrats

The second largest faction of the National Party, the Christian Democrats were formed in the 1960s by various Catholic politicians from Luqur and Laxburg, and gained in strength during the 1970s immigration wave. Nicknamed Red Nationals by their more right-wing detractors, the Christian Democrats support a more interventionist and economically redistributive state in keeping with Catholic Social Doctrine, in particular an mild expansion in Child Tax Credits, healthcare spending, and pensions, and is also very environmentalist. However, the faction is very socially conservative, and desire to rollback recognition of same-sex marriage, same-sex adoption rights, criminalise abortion, criminalise euthanasia, defund stem cell research, increase funding for law enforcement, and enact harsher laws on drug-related crime. Christian Democrats desire to decrease economic immigration, but are supportive of refugee resettlement into Wizlandia, emphasising the need to balance decreasing immigration with compassion for the persecuted.

The Christian Democrats are moderately pro-globalisation, they support balancing principles of free trade with a just agreement of minimum labour and environmental standards, and the faction opposes military interventions except when in the presence of an extreme humanitarian crisis such as large-scale genocide. The Christian Democrats supports Wizlandia's membership in the Liberal Democratic Union, the South-Asian Union, the Trans-Asian Free Trade Agreement, the International Defence League, and the World Assembly, though they oppose recognising World Assembly resolutions as legally binding to Wizlandia.

National Conservatives

The most right-wing faction of the National Party, the National Conservatives formed in the 1960s from the remnants of the right-nationalist parties, and gained support during the 1970s as the mainstream voice against increased immigration. In the late 1980s, a split from the more extreme right members of the National Conservatives resulted in the formation of the right to far-right People's Front.

The National Conservatives are primarily concerned with maintaining social tradition and national sovereignty, with members being free to espouse a variety of capitalist economic views. Policy-wise, the faction desires to significantly decrease both economic and refugee immigration into Wizlandia, arguing that Wizlandia's policy of open immigration results in a far too rapid change in the nations social fabric, and is causing a race to the bottom in wages for the Wizlandian working class. In addition, they desire to rollback recognition of same-sex marriage, same-sex adoption rights, criminalise abortion, defund stem cell research, increase funding for law enforcement, and enact harsher laws on drug-related crime.

National Conservatives are critical of globalisation and free trade, and desire Wizlandia to become more self-sufficient. To this end, they support withdrawing from the South-Asian Union, the Trans-Asian Free Trade Agreement, and the World Assembly, though they desire to remain in the Liberal Democratic Union and the International Defence League. Despite being very critical of military interventions abroad, National Conservatives support maintaining a strong military to deter hostile nations from invading or otherwise acting against Wizlandia's national interests.

Agrarian Nationals

Founded as the Farmers Party in 1907, the faction joined the National Party in 1962 in order to represent the interests of farmers and rural voters. Agrarian Nationals support devolution of power in order to allow rural communities to self-govern, and are thus strongly opposed to most federal initiatives and laws, especially those they view as tailored towards urbanites. Moreover, the Agrarian Nationals support increased gun and hunting rights, the creation of farm subsidies, enacting agricultural tariffs, and expanding rural infrastructure, such as additional funding for rural roads, rural broadband, and the creation of a national postal service.