Orange Party

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Orange Party – Alslandic Peoples' Party

Oranjepartij – Aalslânsk Folkspartij
Oranžerakond – Aalsi Rahvapartei
AbbreviationORP/OE
PresidentElsert Wassenaar
Deputy PresidentSvenis Krancis
Chairman of the BoardNiilo Olesk
Governing Board
Parliamentary leaderAjolt Fennema
Founded16 July 2021; 2 years ago (2021-07-16)
HeadquartersYndyk
NewspaperThe Haze
Youth wingKOIT
Membership (2022)Increase 9,827
IdeologyAnti-immigration
Right-wing populism
Political positionRight-wing to far-right
Colours  Orange
Folkssenaat
31 / 201
Federal Council
5 / 96
Community Parliaments
29 / 608
Euclean Parliament
2 / 23
Website
www.oranjepartij.as

The Orange Party – Alslandic Peoples' Party (Dellish: Oranjepartij – Aalslânsk Folkspartij, ORP – AFP, Martish: Oranžerakond – Aalsi Rahvapartei, ORE – ARP) is an Alslandic right-wing populist political party.

The party was founded in 2021 by Elsert Wassenaar as a merger between the National Rally and United Democratic Union parties to create a unified right-wing bloc in the Folkssenaat. After an initial leadership contest between Wassenaar and Alof Oosterbaan, Oosterbaan left the party along with some of the party's local representatives and created Team Oosterbaan. The party is a member of the 44th Government of Alsland after it tripled the amount of Senators representing the party in the Senate. The party has been described as right-wing but disputes being labelled as a right-wing populist. It is against immigration and calls for the swift removal of illegal immigrants as well as keeping refugees in safer third countries within the confines of international law and Euclean law. The party advocates for a liberal economic policy and for the shrinking of the state as well as tax cuts for the middle and working classes to boost spending.

The party's current President is Elsert Wassenaar. The party sits the furthest right of any elected political party in Alsland. The Orange Party holds 2 out of Alsland's 23 seats in the Euclean Parliament through defections and 31 in the Folkssenaat. Since the party's breakthrough in the 2022 election, its support has consistently risen amongst the electorate as a result of the political effects of the Alslandic government-debt crisis discrediting the bloc parties and other mainstream movements. The party's stance during the crisis shifted considerably further towards the right although still maintained high public support.

History

Ideology

The Orange Party's current party programme claims the party represents the interests of "the regular voter" over the interests of any specific division or group. The party aims to preserve Alsland's independence from foreign interests and promotes a restrictive immigration policy particularly against immigrants from outside the Euclean Community. It is against Alslandic membership in the ECDTO and favours a balanced approach towards Alsland's relationship with the ECDTO and MAO as well as reforming Alsland's close relationship with Valduvia to be "friendly but respective of differences". The party also opposes foreign interventions inside CN Peacekeeping missions. The party also wants to cut Alsland's foreign aid budget significantly and reinvest money into domestic services like healthcare and law and order.

The party takes a hard-line stance on immigration, security, law and order and foreign policy which are among its "core pillars" which are non-negotiable to the party. The party opposes racism and Functionalism, it also opposes identity politics and has labelled cancel culture and mass immigration as the two biggest threats to Alsland's identity and stability.

The party has described Alsland's immigration policy as "the greatest failure of a generation" and says that efforts at integration must be advanced to stop the establishment of ghettoes. The party attracted criticism ahead of the 2022 Alslandic legislative election after one of its candidate's, Yannick Sehlmann, claimed the Súdlikthús neighbourhood in Yndyk was "full of crime, poverty and drugs" and implied that illegal immigration was the cause of this. Sehlmann also said Súdlikthús was "full of illiterates and thiefs" and said the party would look into deporting residents of Súdlikthús who were in the country illegally. The party supports deporting refugees from Tsabara to "safe first countries" at the earliest possible opportunity and it also supports creating a common-EC border force to halt refugees crossing the Aurean Straits which the party refers to as the "Aurean Crisis". The party's proposals on immigration have largely been side-lined by other political parties as well as the media although their views on immigration played a key role in the formation of the 44th Government of Alsland. In the party's policy platform for 2023 it says it wants to integrate immigrants who "are clearly a positive for the economy and their communities" quickly and allow high-skilled immigrants to enter the country and begin the immigration process whilst separating out low-skilled immigrants who should not be allowed into the country. The party points to the refugee crisis during the Weranian Genocide in Valduvia as a model for integrating large quantities of refugees into society and providing for a safe return to their home country as soon as realistically possible.

The party has proposed limiting freedom of movement in the Zilverzee Area to Euclean Community nationals and has called the lack of this policy "a major security issue that should be rectified". After Theresia Hochberg was appointed to the Euclean Commission as the Commissioner for Continental Security she vowed to look into ways at improving security within the Euclean Community but warned against 'rocking the boat too much at the moment'. A poll conducted during the 2022 Alslandic legislative election found that a plurality of immigrant voters had supported the party at the election, narrowly beating ASAY and Liveable Alsland respectively. The poll found a plurality of North Euclean respondents backed the party compared to 9% for ASAY and 18% for Liveable Alsland, the differences for other groups was much less significant.

The party has proposed a total ban on asylum seekers arriving in Alsland. In a 2022 report the party stated that "migrants [sic] who come to Alsland illegally must not be able to claim asylum in any circumstance and must be returned to either their nation of origin or the first country they arrived at." When questioned about whether the party's policy on refugees could force people back into unsafe situations, Elsert Wassenaar said: "it is hardly our fault that when they come here they do it illegally, we really do want to help legal refugees but at the moment if they come here illegally which the vast majority do, they need to go back home or to their first port of entry and apply through legal means. Which we must also restrict to the most needing and able people."

The party's initial manifesto supported recognising same-sex marriage in Alsland which had been legal since 2009 and claimed the rights of same-sex couples were under threat from refugees and immigrants from countries with conservative views on same-sex marriage, particularly Rahelian, Bahian as well as southern and western Euclean nations. Vice-President of the Party Kasper de Haan is the most senior member of the party from the LGBT community and drafted many of the party's initial policies on same-sex marriage. It has described itself as the party that is most willing to defend the rights of the LGBT community from regressive social values imported by foreigners. The party wants to enact a ban on teaching minors about sexuality before puberty which it has classed as sexualising minors who are not old enough to understand these issues. In 2022 the party's manifesto was updated to include a proposed ban on minors receiving gender affirming care as well as preventing anyone with a diagnosed mental illness or those on medication from accessing gender affirming care as the party says their judgement may be clouded. Members of the party have taken part in pride parades every year since its founding and the party has had a presence alongside other major parties at the annual Yndyk pride events every year. In 2022 members of the party's youth wing were accused of making homophobic and racist comments, in response 2 members of the youth wing were expelled but allowed to re-join several weeks following the incident.

The party is opposed to feminism in the modern sense as it believes that gender equality has already been reached and the current movement seeks to disadvantage men and impose a "reverse-patriarchy". The party has vowed to abolish what it sees as an unfair burden on male civil servants as it views the civil service as being biased towards hiring women over men with the same qualifications. The party's support amongst female voters was the lowest out of any major party at the 2022 election.

  • Finance

Ideological factions

External observers have commented that the party is heavily divided between two opposing factions: the moderate national-conservative Democratic Alternative of Elsert Wassenaar and Kasper de Haan, as well as the more extreme and populist New Right of the party's youth leader Mati Ruutli, although it is formally led by Farduw Vos. Initially the party was dominated by the Democratic Alternative but overtime the New Right has challenged its position. The New Right was originally an informal grouping in the party's youth wing founded by Ruutli although overtime grew to encompass much of the party's youth membership. According to Hjoed, the division between the New Right and Democratic Alternative has resulted in some politically contradicting policies being adopted by the party. The division has also led to tensions between the youth wing and the main party, the latter of which has at times accused the youth wing − KOIT − under Ruutli of destabilising the party for his own gain and for obstructionism in investigations against members.

Electoral results

Folkssenaat

Euclean Parliament

Community Parliaments

Leadership

Elsert Wassenaar, current party president and Minister of Social Affairs

Electorate