Matteus Gunnlauggson discusses the issues with supporerts at the RGSA campaign rally in Stórkostlegurborg.
THROUGHOUT ATLANTICA - In accordance with Atlantican electoral law, the Atlantican electoral campaign for the Althing and the Allsherjargoði of the People kicked off today, with, as is custom, kicked off with massive joint rallies by the political parties affiliated to the ruling Red-Green-Socialist Alliance, the opposition Moderate Alliance, and the crossbench Minority Alliance, respectively; the few political parties not affiliated to either the RGSA, the Moderates, or the Minorities also holding their, albeit quite small, rallies.
The RGSA rally, as expected, featured speeches by all leaders of the member parties in the RGSA, most notably Allsherjargoði of the Althing and Socialist-Farmer-Labour Leader Matteus Gunnlauggson, Allsherjargoði of the Lawspeakers and Communist Leader Bjarni Árnason, and Allsherjargoði of the People and Socialist Left Leader Brynheiður Bjarnfreðursdóttir; the rally largely focused on mutual calls for socialism, as expected (with the various political parties not directly calling for their parties' particular variants of socialism as is expected in later rallies, or, in the case of the Social Democratic Party, no socialism at all), and reminders of the progress the RGSA has made since they were elected in 2013, including a considerable reduction in unemployment following the 2009-2012 economic recession, the establishment of a thirty-hour workweek, reinstating closed shop for the public sector, the institution of a national minimum wage, and more recently the Emergency Economic Stimulus Act, which temporarily diverted what would normally be oil revenues distributed to the sovereign wealth fund to an economic stimulus to prevent the economic recession that has come across all of Esquarium, in what for now seems to be a successful move. The RGSA rally also pledged to, if re-elected, formally introduce a temporary massive stimulus via a massive increase in the basic income, and infrastructure/public works spending. Rally speeches also hinted at the possibility of reintroducing the Unemployment Reduction and Economic Democracy Act, which was in place in between 1968 and 1989.
The Moderate Alliance rally also featured speeches by all leaders of the members parties in the RGSA. As expected, the rally focused on mutual calls for economic liberalization, stating that repealing many regulations and temporarily suspending the wealth and payroll taxes, and temporarily cutting the top income tax rate to 50% would significantly aid in helping Atlantica's economy; although Atlantica has luckily managed to avoid economic recession so far, economic growth has moderately slowed since September, this generally being viewed as a result of the economic recession at the moment. The Minority Alliance, on the other hand, was far less political than both of the other rallies, due to the big-tent nature of their member parties, the Vjaarlandic People's Party and the Mburi Assembly, both of whom single-issue parties dedicated to the interests of the respective ethnic groups they represent.
As expected, at both of the rallies of the two major coalitions both the Red-Green-Socialists and the Moderates formally announced their nominees for election for the Allsherjargoði of the People; this is generally due to agreements among the member parties of the RGSA and the Moderates, in which the third-largest political party in both of the coalitions formally has its leader become the Allsherjargoði of the People, where the RGSA and the Moderates formally present united fronts in elections for Allsherjargoði of the People. Based off current polling, the RGSA nominated incumbent Allsherjargoði of the People and Socialist Left Leader Brynheiður Bjarnfreðursdóttir (as the Socialist Leftists are currently polling as the third-largest RGSA-affiliated political party), whilst the Moderates nominated Blue Party Leader and the Allsherjargoði of the People from 2010-2013 Einar Einarsson. Both the Minority Alliance and their affiliated political parties chose not to nominate candidates; they have not historically nominated candidates in the past, either. Most unaffiliated parties, all of whom quite small, have chosen to nominate candidates for Allsherjargoði of the People, however.
Current polling shows both the RGSA coalition and Bjarnfreðursdóttir on track to be re-elected.