Riots in Caille as Controversial “United Response Act” Passed
Luminaire, Essence – Riots broke out in Caille today, as protests against controversial new government legislation were held across the Federation. An estimated ten million protestors crowded into Caille, many travelling from the Federation's outer districts to take part in demonstrations against the newly passed “United Response Act”.
The United Response Act, passed into law by a narrow margin at today's full session of the Federal Senate, includes provisions that will increase federal oversight of traditionally district-administered services. This will grant central federal authorities the ability to exercise lower-level control over a wide range of sectors such as industry, taxation, transportation, and even education.
The bill's proponents in a coalition centered on the Progressive Union party had claimed these changes were necessary for an effective and coordinated war effort. Detractors, such as Senator Suvio Bellaron of the Federalist-Liberals disagree, characterizing the act as an unconstitutional bolstering of federal power at the expense of district independence. The highly-divisive legislation split parties such as the Labor-Populists and Federalist-Liberals, giving the powerful Progressive Union bloc sufficient votes to pass the bill against the President Aguard’s opponents in the New Sociocrats.
President Celes Aguard, regarded as the architect and driving force of the legislation, addressed its critics in an address before the Senate in Villore saying:
“Diversity and tolerance are the values on which our Federation is founded. The United Response Act does not undermine those values, it empowers them. We live in an age of emergent threats and unknown possibilities. The Caldari Shipcaster is one such threat, and it must not go unanswered. I say that we respond with our greatest strength, our cooperation with one another. Together we will not just unlock this technology for ourselves, but we will ensure that whatever frontier we face next it will be the Gallente who cross it first. This act gives us the tools we need to stand as one, united in our response and our purpose, ready to face whatever the future might bring!”
Political Opposition in Gallente Senate and Streets
Caille, Gallente Prime – While supporters of the President celebrate her call for unity, critics dismissed it as manipulation. At a rally held in Caille’s Liberty Square, Senator Thibauld Tailler of the Labor-Populists, one of the bill’s most outspoken opponents, responded:
“The corrupt elites that have hijacked our democracy think they can turn our own patriotism against us. They use it to justify their interference in the lives of the real Gallente. The people who live far from the shining towers of this once great city and the marbled halls of Villore. The people who have sweat and bled to build the Federation only to be told they don’t know how to defend it. Well, I fought the Caldari menace in orbit of the same star that shines down on us now, and I have fought its influence in those marbled halls, and I say now to President Aguard you will not turn up late to the battlefield and tell us how to fight!”
Following the senator’s speech the city’s law enforcement tried to contain protestors they claimed had become unruly. Some protestors turned to rioting, venting their anger by vandalizing a number of businesses founded by Caldari and other foreign interests. President Aguard called on rioters to disperse, saying, “While I applaud those who exercise their democratic right to protest, the Federation will not tolerate acts of violence on its streets.” Senator Tailler countered, “If the President spent less time telling the people how to behave and more time listening to them they wouldn’t have to take matters into their own hands”.
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