Katelynn Williams in June 2018

Stockholm (KTN) — Ahead of 1 August, the Valkyrian monarchy and government officials are preparing for the reconstitution of the state into a republic. After it was announced that Referendum 1–2018 passed, which strips the royal family of their titles and brings about a republic, the two Queens—Katelynn Williams and Melissa Harrison—issued a joint statement, calling on media outlets to stop referring to them as queens and instead use their first and last names. On 5 June, the Citizens' Assembly voted to name Williams as Acting President of the Valkyrian Republic until one is elected in July 2019. Since then, Williams has used the title "Acting President designate of the Valkyrian Republic" instead of "Queen of Valkyria". Melissa Harrison, who is the daughter of Chancellor Margaret Harrison, announced that she will seek to be elected into Parliament and represent the people her mother served while she was a member of the Qvaitican House of Representatives and Valkyrian Parliament.

With her daughter seeking her old seat, Chancellor Margaret Harrison announced that she would seek election into Parliament through the Labor Party list. If it were not for Referendum 1–2018, Harrison could have served as Chancellor until 2022 at the latest, but by bringing the chancellery back to Parliament, the officeholder will serve a three-year term at the most rather than what would have been a potential six-year term. Opposition Leader Nicole Chancellor has not yet announced whether she will seek election as President or Chancellor, but Centrist Democratic Party leader Victor Cutter, who once served as President of Qvait, announced that he will run for President of the Valkyrian Republic.

Even though Cutter was once President of Qvait, the office that he will run for in 2019 will have extremely limited powers. The President of Qvait was the head of state and government, but the President of the Valkyrian Republic is just the head of state. However, the President will have the power to nominate people to the Courts of the Valkyrian Republic and cast the tie-breaking vote on legislation in the Citizens' Assembly. While this President will not have the power to sign or veto bills into law, the tie-breaking vote in the Citizens' Assembly can be the de facto signature or veto of legislation. When it comes to judicial nominations, the President has the de jure power to fill the Courts, but his or her nominations must be approved by the Chancellor's party or coalition, giving the latter the de facto power to fill the Courts. Legal scholar Yvette Lynch tells the KTN, "There is give and take between the President and the Chancellor when it comes to the Courts and the passage of legislation."

On Friday, the Parliament ratified the new constitution despite opposition from classical liberals on portions of the document and national conservatives on the document in its entirety. While the ratification was successful, the Parliament added stipulations that made the implementation of the new constitution transitional rather than abrupt. For now, there will be an Acting President who was voted upon by the Citizens' Assembly, a Chancellor operating independently from Parliament, and a 99-member Citizens' Assembly. However, the first President will be elected alongside a Parliament that regained control of the chancellery and a Citizens' Assembly that has 100 members by 1 August 2019. It will be on that date that the new constitution will be fully operative.

Margaret Harrison in July 2018

When the new constitution enters into effect on 1 August 2018, it will do so with a clearly-defined bill of rights known as the Basic Rights Code. The current constitution featured a bill of rights, but it was not listed out all at once. In the new constitution, a section was dedicated to naming the rights of the people of the state. The Basic Rights Code retains the freedoms that were granted by previous constitutions, but the Alliance of Social Democrats made additions to the bill of rights, which led to opposition from classical liberals. The additions made grant new freedoms such as the rights to collectively bargain, food, housing, internet, and water. Conservative MP Eric Lockhart told the KTN, "The ASD will bankrupt businesses in Valkyria with these unattainable freedoms. I would love to live in a world like this, but it is unrealistic."

Lockhart also pointed at what he called opportunism, "How opportune is it for [the ASD] to make these revisions when the purpose of changing our constitution was to become a republic?" The Conservative MP said that a referendum on the new constitution should be held on Referendum Day 2019, despite the fact that Referendum 1–2018 placed a ten-year moratorium on referendums that affect the structure of the Valkyrian government. In response to Lockhart's remarks, Labor MP Angelica Sherman told the KTN that the Parliament had the "legal authority" to ratify the new constitution and justified the other additions by saying, "The people voted for these changes in 2016, 2017, and 2018." However, Opposition Leader Nicole Chancellor alleged that the Alliance of Social Democrats have "nefarious motives".

The 28-year-old political leader said in a Central Valkyrian News interview that the Alliance of Social Democrats are "testing the limits of their power, from constitutional revisionism to suspicious legislation". Chancellor cited the recent legalisation of coca production as evidence of Harrison's alleged authoritarianism, "At no point during any of [Harrison's] campaigns did she talk about legalising coca production. This legislation came out of nowhere and was rushed through Parliament by the ruling coalition. The same could be said about these unannounced and uncalled for revisions to the constitution that were ratified today." While it is true that Harrison never spoke about coca during her political campaigns, Vice Chancellor Taeler Shaw and the Populists of the Left presented it as a political issue in the 2017 election campaign.

With eleven months to go before the general election, the various political parties in Parliament are already preparing for what one MP has described as "all-out war". An aide to one Green MP told the KTN that the party's relationship with the Alliance of Social Democrats is "already on thin ice" and one Conservative MP said that a three-way alliance between The New Right, the Conservative Party, and the Centrist Democratic Party is "being looked at as a potential counterweight" to the Alliance of Social Democrats. A Harris Group poll conducted between 24–26 July showed the Alliance of Social Democrats having 53 per cent of the vote, The New Right at 25 per cent, and the United Conservative Alliance at 20 per cent. The remaining two per cent went to the Islamist Front and the Communist Party. Compared to the current National Assembly, the poll shows an increase in support for the current government and a decline among the United Conservative Alliance, with little change for other parties.