The Finance Minister, Fabian Meyer, has defected to the newly launched ‘Rally for Democracy’ party, set up by former United Nationalist Democrat leader Tymur Rubin, which had initially been led by former Centrist Assemblyman and government minister Yevginy Kalandarshivilli.
Announced as the new party’s lead candidate for the November elections, Meyer joined a launch campaign event in Phyillistina, Béspura, earlier this morning – in a key focus region for the campaign. The unveiling of Meyer was expected, following the party promoting that they would be joined by a ‘special guest’, as well as weeks of mounting speculation that the minister had been approached to lead the party’s election campaign. “It was obvious that Meyer would make the move – he was trapped as Finance Minister, with the Prime Minister openly saying that he was only in the post for party unity. Once others split from Serbin’s leadership, it was only a matter of time until Meyer joined them as they reform the former Centrist movement in this new vehicle” said PTV commentator Dmitry Nikolaevsky this lunchtime.
Whilst the move won’t necessarily have come as a shock for the Prime Minister, the announcement does have some senior figures in Serbin’s newly rebranded ‘National’ party worried. A current junior minister anonymously said earlier today that “the party has a major problem – a splintered Assembly will make it even more unlikely that we will be able to form a stable government, with the potential for the Union Party and Rally to cobble together a working arrangement. We need to make it clear to Meyer and other former ministers joining that we hear and want to respect their views – a National and Rally government could be a way forward out of this political deadlock.” But others remain more sceptical, fearing that the move is more likely to push the Prime Minister towards some sort of deal with the former Nationalist Party under Drakan Slivinski which has reformed as the ‘Patriots’ ahead of the election – which will take place on November 26. Another source said “the Prime Minister is not sure at all what options he will have left after the poll to stay in office. Another election was a roll of the dice, but without a deal, there was no other option. It is likely he will not commit to anything until the end of the election and he’ll be able to see where the dust settles.”
Rally is focusing on ‘rooting out corruption’ as its core tenant of the campaign, targeting former Serbin voters who it says “feel let down” by a lack of delivery by the Prime Minister and the former Coalition after many years of government. “The majority of their backers and supporters are now just former Coalition figures, with some of the UND’s former base baked in too. They’ve repelled the Unionist figures who backed the campaign initially when it was a democratic integrity movement by transforming into a fully fledged political party, but the leadership seems less concerned about their inability to appeal beyond the centre – their plan is to try and usurp their former party as the main anti-Unionist bloc to some extent. Whether they will be able to come close is unknown – everything points to them becoming a third force rather than challenging the two major parties” commented Nikolaevsky.
Regardless of the scale of success for Rally in November, it does however seem that Polasciana is clearly entering a period of a more multi-polar political environment. Ahead of the election, the government remains in post in Karasciena in a caretaker capacity, although it has yet to comment formally on whether the Prime Minister intends to replace the vacancy left by Meyer as Finance Minister before the election.
