Stockholm (KTN) — On Friday, Conservative leader Stella Kaufman announced that a coalition agreement was reached with the Centrist Democratic Party and The New Right, allowing the New Conservative Coalition to become the governing bloc of Parliament. In doing so, Kaufman will become the second Chancellor of the Valkyrian Republic. In the aftermath of the July general election, it became apparent that Centrist Democratic leader Bradley Murphy was going to be the kingmaker—the person to determine who would serve as chancellor in the next term. After weeks of negotiation, Murphy announced that he will give Kaufman his party's support. Upon taking office, Kaufman will become the youngest chancellor in Valkyrian history at the age of 38 years, 1 month, and 9 days, breaking Margaret Harrison's record by one year and six months.

The 2019 New Conservative Coalition agreement, which was negotiated between the leaders of the Conservative Party, The New Right, and the Centrist Democratic Party, outlines the agenda of the coalition up to 2022, when the next election is supposed to occur. In the security-oriented agreement, the parties agreed to several major policy issues, which includes forming Kaufman's promised combined security agency within the Department of Home Affairs; fulfilling The New Right leader Nicole Chancellor's promise of a referendum on Valkyria's membership in the World Forum and giving her party control over internal security and trade; and giving the Centrist Democratic Party control over foreign policy, labour, and health policy. The agreement supersedes the 2017 Alliance of Social Democrats agreement, which featured a pro-World Forum stance and supported an expansion of public-sector services.

In the incoming cabinet, five secretaries will be members of the Conservative Party, five from The New Right, and three from the Centrist Democratic Party. Because the Equal Representation Act 2016 mandates near-gender equality in the Cabinet, seven secretaries will be men and six will be women.

Proposed logo of SIEGE

With the New Conservative Coalition succeeding the Alliance of Social Democrats as the government in 2019, Kaufman seeks to pass the Expansion of Security Powers Act 2019 (ESPA 2019), which would form the Strategic Intervention, Emergency Guard, and Enforcement (SIEGE) Component, an agency that would be tasked with handling the most important intelligence, military, and police operations of the state. In the event that SIEGE is formed, it will assume control over the Valkyrian Special Services, the special operations centres of the Intelligence Directorate-General (IDG), and the National Tactical Intervention Force (NTIF) within the National Police. Unless ESPA is amended, the current proposal would create a director position for the new agency and a SIEGE Oversight Council (SOC) consisting of the Foreign Secretary, the Home Secretary, and the Defence Secretary.

In the coalition agreement, the government is set to take a much more aggressive position against states that are considered "malicious against the Valkyrian Republic". Instead of relying on the World Forum for the authorisation of use of military force, the Coalition will exercise "national sovereignty and self-determination" when it comes to taking military action abroad. A provision in the security policy section of the coalition agreement states, "Any state that takes actions that are harmful to the security of the Valkyrian Republic will be swiftly handled by the Home Office, the Department of Foreign Affairs, and the Valkyrian Defence Forces." This security policy is a significant departure from the policy of the Alliance, which relied on multilateralism and authorisation from the World Forum.

In what was the most contentious issue between the member parties of the Coalition, the three parties agreed that the next government will be able to negotiate free trade agreements with other countries as long as they are "fair trade agreements" that do not harm Valkyrian workers. As part of the coalition agreement, the responsibility of negotiating trade agreements will be taken away from the Foreign Secretary and will be given to a Trade Secretary. Furthermore, The New Right will have the final say as to whether a trade agreement is passed by Parliament. The coalition agreement also highlights the possibility of placing sanctions and tariffs on countries that "engage in unfair trade practices" until such time that these states reform their labour and trade policies to make competition fairer between them and Valkyria.

The new government will look to pass legislation limiting immigration. The immigration section of the coalition agreement was entitled, "Valkyria is for Valkyrians". Several proposals in the section include the deportation of 165,000 refugees who currently live in Valkyria, the establishment of a zero-refugee policy, the expansion of existing migrant detention centres, the reinstatement of immigration quotas, and the termination of family-sponsored immigration. Several of the justifications that the Coalition gives for this new immigration policy are overpopulation, inter-ethnic conflict, and the limitation of the job pool for native Valkyrians. A provision of the section says, "Migrants who do not positively contribute to the development of the Valkyrian Republic do not belong in our country and should be deported to their respective native countries."

The Coalition decided to name Centrist Democratic leader Bradley Murphy as the Foreign Secretary because of his role as the kingmaker of the next government. As such, Murphy will be the chief representative of Valkyria to the world. However, his power as Foreign Secretary is limited by the coalition agreement because of The New Right's grip on trade and immigration policies. The coalition agreement states that Valkyria will hold a referendum in 2020 on membership in the World Forum and expressed the hope to build coalitions with other states sympathetic to the new government of Valkyria. The Coalition will attempt to promote their ideology, similar to the Brighter Horizon initiative when Harrison was Chancellor. In the coalition agreement, the Coalition stated that they will "spread peace, freedom, and democracy in a way that the previous government couldn't".

Other than foreign policy, the Centrist Democratic Party will be responsible for health and labour policies, which they say "will remain largely unchanged from existing policy". As evidenced by consistent in-house polling, the health and labour policies of the Harrison government were the most popular policies with strong majorities approving of the Alliance's handling of them. The coalition agreement explicitly stated that the Coalition will not seek to privatise any part of the National Health Service or implement labour reforms. On this front, it appears that the Alliance has been victorious in their expansion of NHS and the wide-reaching labour reforms they passed in the last three years. The Centrist Democratic Party will take control of these departments from the Alliance, but they will only continue the work of their predecessors.

Labor acting leader Avianna Aldridge will become the Leader of the Opposition

Margaret Harrison, who had served as the first Chancellor of Valkyria since August 2016, announced that she was going to retire from politics, marking the end of her three-decade political career that began when she first joined Young Labor in high school. Labor acting leader Avianna Aldridge, who has worked with Harrison since her election as President of Qvait in 2016, said that Harrison's departure from politics is the "end of an era" and vowed to continue Harrison's agenda while in opposition, "This movement—a movement for peace, freedom, and democracy—is bigger than any one person and we will fight to make sure that Chancellor Harrison's legacy lives on. The Labor Party owes her a great debt that can never be repaid." Populist Left leader Taeler Shaw, a longtime friend of Harrison, also expressed her sorrow that Harrison is retiring from politics, "Chancellor Harrison and I have been friends since university and her leadership will be greatly missed. Valkyria will never be the same without her at the forefront."

With the Coalition submitting their agreement to President Kate Murphy, the president announced that the new government will begin on Monday, 12 August. This development is not likely to be viewed by the president in a positive light, who had been a staunch supporter of Harrison. During her announcement, Murphy praised Harrison's leadership as chancellor, "When we look back on this era, people will remember Margaret Harrison as one of the greatest leaders this country has ever had. She was a hero of peace, freedom, and democracy to many of us. It was an honour to serve alongside her as an MP and I will never forget these years—the greatest years of our time. May the gods be ever so benevolent to her, the last President of Qvait and the first Chancellor of Valkyria."

Before a crowd of current and former campaign and Executive Valkyria employees in Darwin, Harrison thanked them "for standing beside her through thick and thin". While she restated that she was retiring from politics, Harrison said that social democracy will not retire with her:

Moving forward, the Alliance of Social Democrats will consist of three parties: the Labor Party, the Populists of the Left, and the Socialist Party. The Greens and the Liberal Party left the Alliance over disagreements on Harrison's leadership. Because the Labor Party is the largest party of the opposition, its leader Aldridge, will become the Leader of the Opposition. The incoming opposition leader has stated that she "will try to hold the Coalition accountable and responsible for the authoritarian agenda that it seeks to impose on Valkyria". On the Coalition's immigration policy, Aldridge said that the language and positions set forth were "horrifying and racist" against refugees and other migrants, "If the next government passes legislation that looks anything like the proposals mentioned in their coalition agreement, I promise that there will be litigation against them."