The liberal vote cannot afford another vanity campaign

There is no denying that Sunday’s results are progress. The most CRF seats since 2002, and a strong female leader at the party’s helm is driving passion and excitement back into the party we all love.

In Decelska, however, disgraced former leader Boj Volansky ran as an independent against the party he led for twenty-two years, polled 20.3 percent, and handed Ari Stov his strongest district in the country on a platter. The votes that might have elected another reformist senator, pressed the government on YakaSys, or lost them their majority entirely, were spent instead on a campaign financed in part by SeverMin and billionaire Enej Palmstruch.

Vesna Horvatin deserves better than to have her first national campaign judged by the greed of the older generation. Horvatin swept Kakerovecska, took the second seat in Sinj for the first time since 1992, and boosted Illes Mehic, the 28-year-old cryptographer and new Senator from Decelska, to success. Her social and technocratic liberalism is the most serious reform programme we have offered since the 1990s, and should not be smeared with the poisonous legacy of Boj Volansky and his donors.

Our strong but fragile caucus of five cannot reopen our protectionist markets to Nastavak, repeal the Faith Restriction Clause, or fight against the Digital Vigilance Act, not while the Assembly is captured by state-enforced impotence. We need progress and forward-looking campaigning, not elderly career politicians stuck in a mud of their own making.

It may seem that Volansky took care of himself for us by wiping himself out - but I would not be too sure. Palmstruch has bottomless pockets and SeverMin have a strongly vested interest in keeping the Blue Dawn government in place. The next election will not wait for us to clean our hands of corruption and pollution, we must get ourselves together.