[Inside Government] An Interview with Chief of State Prim






Inside Government
An Interview with Chief of State Prim

Interview conducted by Pichtonia







As Europeia is about to elect its chief of state, the Europeian Broadcasting Corporation was honoured to sit down with outgoing Chief of State Prim for an interview. Prim has been an advocate of integration and reform throughout his time in Europeia and is not just known as our regional communist bear, but as an all-around friendly fellow, reflective statesman and innovative thinker. He has seen every branch of government from the inside and looks back at a rich two-year history in our region. Please join me for a reflection of his time in our region and particularly the office of chief of state.

The interview was conducted on October 24.


How long have you been a member of Europeia?

Since January 3rd, 2018. Almost 2 years.

Do you remember what originally drew you to Europeia?

Yes. I got telegrams from many regions, but Europeia advertised a strong political simulation and weekend games.

Would you say Europeia was a different place when you joined?

Hmmm, lack of active people to take over ministries, administrative bans, and non competitive elections, seems about the same. ?

I arrived just before President Rach's second term, where she ran unopposed with Malashaan and received heat for not releasing her platform for about 5 days after standing. Around the same time XIV/Ninja Kittens and Sam111 were banned, and I took over MinCulture after Rach's resignation when Gleg became Mal's VP, mainly due to a lack of staff in MinCult at the time. The more things change, the more they stay the same. :p

It's interesting you mention your term as minister of culture - I had the impression it was an office you enjoyed a lot.

Oh, absolutely. I've always low key wanted to serve there again, but have been busy with other aspects of Euro or serving in another cabinet/council position at the time.

It was some heftier work though, I didn't have a deputy of weekend games at the time, so I had to run then all myself.

Was your ascension to minister when you felt "integrated" in Europeia? Or when did that happen? How would you define integration for yourself?

Honestly, I started feeling part of Europeia when I joined the discord server and played some weekend games with people. Being willing to jump into conversations was when I felt integrated, personally. So I've always tried to get newcomers into the discord to get that personal feel of the region.


And I think it's fair to say that you've had a large role in this as minister of interior, an office you held twice. You also became senator for the first time. As such, you made headwaves repeatedly by calling for reforms. What convinced you of the necessity of reform?

Honestly, it was because I became minister of culture so quickly and because of the non competitive election of Rach and then her resignation.And then that summer was pretty brutal in terms of activity. And shortly after the summer was when the reforms discussion started.


You didn't exclusively make friends with your various call for reforms.

Sure, there are some people who didn't like the ideas, but that's part of the political process. We had polls frequently and the ultimate exec split package had a non-binding referendum right before Sopo signed it.

As driving force of the executive split, you were finally awarded with the Order of Senatia in February of this year. It has been a few months now, four first minister terms and three chief of state terms. How would you evaluate the effect of the executive split thus far? Does Europeia maybe even need further reform?

So, I don't believe that Europeia needs structural reform at this point. I think the Executive Split has definitely helped in bringing newer people or less (FA) experienced people into the first minister role than would otherwise have been able to under a presidential system. However, we still do have some issues with non-competitive elections, but I think that would probably need some softer shifts, some psychological or institutional shifts. That's one of the main reasons why we opened the Leadership Development and Support Network, to help bring more people into elections and official positions who might otherwise not have put themselves out there. We're also planning to work on some ministry guides/transition documents to help people realize that these positions are manageable with the right resources and delegation.

While I thought that Europeia needed a legislative overhaul at the beginning of the reforms, I think the City Council replacement for the Citizens' Assembly is probably a solid direction to take that has minimal impact on current practice.

After a longer time on the domestic side, you would eventually become councilor of World Assembly affairs. How did this turn to foreign affairs come to be?

During the early part of the reforms (Sep - Nov 2018), I took at step back from most ministries and focused solely on the Senate. After the reforms stalled in early December, I honestly didn't know if I would stand for the next Senate term, so I decided to get involved in some ministries that I hadn't focused on before. WAA was the one that stood out to me and Aex was looking for people to join who would remain active in the ministry. I joined in either late Dec 2018 or early Jan 2019, and quickly started writing many IFVs and getting involved in WALL, etc. When Aexnidaral took over for Pierce in Kuramia's second term, he recommended me as his CoWAA successor. Around that time, Kuramia also appointed me to the EAAC and I got a taste for the FA side of things as well.

And you quickly became a front runner for chief of state yourself. Were you enthusiastic about your run?

My run came more out of concern for the region than enthusiasm, which was why my platform encouraged others to run as well, along with my speeches during office. I had already been doing some preliminary staffing hunt from the previous first minister election, which I intended to stand for before Pichto, who was better prepared and had more ideas for than I did, decided to stand. So, I started a staffing search for CoS and during that it developed into a full CoS run after some possible candidates advised me they didn't plan to run.

The term started with some setbacks for you. Your council saw one resignation, one removal, and then the whole World Assembly affairs trouble. Could you describe what the burden of being leader in such a situation feels like? Did you ever think about quitting?

It was rough, the whole staffing situation was a mess from the beginning. I had initially planned for someone else in FA, who had to pull out before I was elected, and Sopo was able to fill in at the last minute though with time concerns already stated. These time concerns grew over the next few weeks, which led Sopo to resign. After the first week of the term, UPC basically disappeared both as DCoS and CoWAA, leading to more staffing search. These issues were slightly compounded when my next choice for CoWAA had been chosen to succeed as minister of communications during the quickly upcoming FM election, which threw a wrench in the works. I still think Maowi would have done an amazing job, though I'm glad she was able to capitalize on MinComm as well, she's done a great job there. Overall, when the staffing situation started falling apart midway through the term, it definitely felt more difficult to keep a good grasp on things. And it doesn't feel great while trying to fill a Council with people who are all looking for their replacements. Now, I'm not saying these Councilors didn't do a great job, they absolutely did as best they could, but when we're all looking for the next successor, it can still feel like the staffing situation is tenuous. Not just for the current term, but for the future terms as well.

I don't think I ever considered resigning due to the staffing problems, but it definitely put a damper on my desire to continue as CoS into future terms. And as it stands, I'll state this officially now: I do not intend to stand for another term as chief of state. I loved the FA aspects of the job, keeping in touch with everyone during situations and responding quickly. It was the internal staffing and activity aspects that I found exhausting, funnily enough.

I think it's fair to say that things have turned around and that you got to enjoy a few of these FA moments. What have been your favourite moments of this term?

I really enjoyed running the N-Day Event, that was a highlight. And as dire as the situation seemed at times, I really enjoyed collaborating with many regions on the TEP-Fedele Coup. It was a very exciting few days and brought a lot of regions together. And it all happened on my birthday. ?

What about your favourite moments in Europeia overall?

Ah, I've really enjoyed both of the 9-seat Senates (April 2018 and Sept 2019), they have both sparked some great interest in our process. Professionally, I've really enjoyed working in several cabinets of experienced and amazing people, under Presidents HEM and Sopo, as well as Chief of State Kuramia. I also really enjoyed working with Drecq during the Constitutional Reform, he was a very knowledgeable and engaging person to discuss things with while shaping and writing the drafts.

What would you like to do next in Europeia, since you're not running for chief of state again?

At the moment, I plan to take a small break from ministry work. Though I'm planning to stay involved in the City Council for its founding document stage. I suspect I may run for Senate in December, and probably get back into ministries again around that time as well. I have been enjoying my time in ERN and am hoping to move up into Naval Command and running some of my own Ops. I have also been planning to apply as an Ambassador as soon as my CoS term is done, to help fill out our roster there.

Oof, my small break is looking less "break"-ish than I thought. :p

Do you have any advice for your successor?

Keep trying to get people engaged and interacting with our foreign policy. I think people are interested in it when it's presented, but keeping too much hidden behind EAAC or in government channels (not that very much is) just keeps our region more isolationist. We need people to get excited about foreign policy, WA policy, and our navy -- (y)

I've tried to make announcements for significant events in NS during the term and keep people involved, especially with this TEP situation, as short as it was.

Thank you, Prim. It was wonderful to talk to you for this interview, and if you have any last comment, this is your chance.

Yeah, not a problem, thanks. :)

Disclaimer: These responses have been edited to conform with the EBC Style Guide.
 
Thank you Pichtonia, and Prim for this interview! I've always felt like FA roles, and the CoS role would be quite an overwhelming job that takes an insane amount of knowledge on other NS regions, and on World Assembly Affairs (which is still certainly true to an extent...). Stepping outside of Europeia, whether as an ambassador, or to gain information to develop foreign policy, or for any other reason, once seemed daunting to me - but reading this makes me realise it's a natural progression into that knowledge and experience that is not to be feared. I certainly appreciate the work you've done Prim, it's definitely inspired me to go out of my comfort zone and explore more of what Europeia has to offer. For that I thank you.
 
Awesome work. Prim, thank you for your words of wisdom :)
 
Thank you Pichtonia, and Prim for this interview! I've always felt like FA roles, and the CoS role would be quite an overwhelming job that takes an insane amount of knowledge on other NS regions, and on World Assembly Affairs (which is still certainly true to an extent...). Stepping outside of Europeia, whether as an ambassador, or to gain information to develop foreign policy, or for any other reason, once seemed daunting to me - but reading this makes me realise it's a natural progression into that knowledge and experience that is not to be feared. I certainly appreciate the work you've done Prim, it's definitely inspired me to go out of my comfort zone and explore more of what Europeia has to offer. For that I thank you.

I don't think vast knowledge of wider NS is critical to the CoS position. Understanding our own ideology, Independence, and its wider role in NS is important -- along with the broad strokes of which regions align with whom. But really, I think the key aspects of effective FA leadership are a firm resolve and quick, decisive response when needed. (The "when needed" part also takes some understanding because we don't need to be drawn into every needless argument on the NS Forums, for sure, but there are important situations where our voice is needed.)

During this term, we had important situations where:

1. A foreign region (Enadia) attempted to take control of one of our in-house treaties (the Arnhelm Declaration of Recruitment Standards). We had to make quick resolution to re-assert control over the treaty and its upkeep.
2. An ally (LKE) had several malicious citizens internally who engaged in forum destruction and set up a competitor region, trying to poach citizens away from them. We stood firm behind our ally and against forum destruction, which resulted in some regions cutting ties with the breakaway region, a positive outcome in support of our ally.
3. A foreign newspaper organization copied one of our Comms dispatches word-for-word and mis-attributed the credit, not citing the EBC or providing links to the original dispatch or our website (as was present in the original dispatch). We responded in defense of our regional copyright and asserted that permission must be requested before using our original works.
4. An ally (TEP) had a rogue delegate attempting to maintain power and flout a democratic election result for their successor. We worked with many regions, even some we normally do not work with (see ideology reasons above), to support our ally and re-gain sovereign control over their delegacy. This quick condemnation of the coup attempt resulted in widespread support for the sovereign government of TEP and bolstered Europeia's reputation as a region that sticks with its allies.

Now, none of these necessarily required detailed knowledge of the actors involved, but they do require the ability to work with players in NS who you've likely never met to either achieve mutually beneficial ends with allies or assert our position strongly in contentious situations.

If you would like to read more about our ideology of independence, here is the Independent Manifesto. It can help provide background for where Europeia stakes its role in the wider NS framework.

If anyone is interested in running for Chief of State in the future, I would recommend joining the Council of Foreign Affairs or the Council of World Assembly Affairs to learn more about our foreign policy and gain effective leadership skills. We have plenty of positions available for deputies training for FA leadership. If you feel you might be ready to run for office this upcoming term, let me know, I'd be glad to help you get your campaign moving! :)
 
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