Democratic Convergence Party (1953)

Democratic Convergence Party Demokrati Konvergens Partiet
Chair Convener of the Democratic Convergence Party	Dennis Lystad
Deputy Chair of the Democratic Convergence Party	Bendik Nystuen
Founded	11 September 1953 (1953-09-11)
Split from	Social Democratic Party
Headquarters	7 Sinosza Street, Maledonia
Membership (2021)	1,019
Ideology	Social conservatism Right-wing populism Monarchism Romerism (denied)
Political position	Far-right
Colours	Bright Pink
Slogan	"For a sane Entropan" (2022)
National Council	0 / 615
Uryho Regional Council	0 / 92
Leinta Regional Council	0 / 156
Rockrsea Regional Council	0 / 144
Provincial Councils	7 / 3,180
Police and Crime Commissioners	0 / 39
Website
dkp.org.en

The Democratic Convergence Party (Šebukel: Demokrati Konvergens Partiet) is a monarchist, right-wing populist, and socially conservative minor political party in Entropan. It is the primary successor to the Democratic Convergence Party, an absolute monarchist party which consistently held opposition following the Entropanian Civil War.

The DKP's platform primarily centres around familialism, with a unique socially conservative opposition to abortion and LGBT rights forming the majority of the party's advocacy. The party also advocates for the re-establishment of the Entropanian monarchy, with a new Parliament directly appointed by the monarch; an entirely unique stance within Entropanian politics shared by no other political party with elected representation.

History

The original logo used by the DKP.

On 7 October 1953, the Assembly of the Social Democratic Party voted by a slim majority in favour of an amendment to the party's constitution, with the text in Part 3.a.iv changed from "The SDP is to recognise relationships between man and woman only, and to decry all others as perversions of the natural order" to "The SDP recognises all relationships, but holds affirmed that marital status can only be between man and woman, as intended by nature". Arnt Ihle, the then-leader of the far-right Heritage Group faction within the SDP, published a statement condemning this change, and announcing the Heritage Group's split from the SDP as a whole.

The new party formed took the name of the Democratic Convergence Party that existed between 1615 and 1806, with Arnt Ihle stating it to be the "legitimate successor" to the DKP. The party was officially registered on 11 September 1953, with 2,178 members of the SDP (primarily members of the Heritage Group) defecting to join it.

The party's first conference was held on 19 December, attended by more than 500 people, wherein Ihle laid out the party's platform, including a dedication to re-establishing the Entropanian monarchy, which came as a surprise to the press present at the event, earning the party national coverage, after which its self-reported membership numbers increased more than twofold to 4,671.

In the 1956 general election, the party fielded 291 candidates across the 615 constituencies covered by the National Assembly, receiving less than 0.7% of the national vote, and keeping their deposits in only 41 constituencies. The party's membership dwindled after the election, despite the defection of Social Democratic MP Frode Gyldenlove, with the party's membership decreasing by over 1,000. In the 1960 general election, the party fielded 170 candidates across Entropan, and kept its deposit in only 4.

Following the 1960 general election, the Executive Board of the DKP removed Arnt Ihle from his position as leader, with Bálint Mezei replacing him. The new leadership focused primarily on local elections, where it was believed they could win. In the 1962 local elections, they fielded 504 candidates across Entropan, keeping their deposit in 181 of these elections, and returning one councillor; Jakab Sándor, in the Pestbuda Council.

Right to Life March

A photo taken shortly after the march's conclusion.

On 21 March 1971, the Social Liberal government of the time proposed the Abortion (Legalisation and Regulation) Bill, to legalise abortion under provision by the National Health Service. The Democratic Convergence Party opposed this, and held several small protests outside the National Assembly building, before announcing the Right to Life March, to be held on 30 April. The DKP published leaflets throughout Maledonia prior to the march, calling the Bill "state-sanctioned murder" and encouraging all "sane people uncomfortable with this murder" to join the march.

The march drew in over 5,000 participants, but when the protestors began to clash with police - going off-route and shouting abuse - the march escalated, with one person in the crowd stabbing two police officers before being detained, and other acts of violence, resulting in 6 deaths, and 43 injuries. The DKP took the decision to defend the violence, with a statement later saying the violence that occurred was, in their view, the "natural consequences of proposing to legalise murder". This response got considerable media backlash, resulting in hundreds of DKP members defecting to the Social Democratic Party, and resulted in the DKP losing both of its councillors at the 1972 local elections, and the then-leader of the party, Bálint Mezei, resigning, replaced by Benjámin Bodnár.

Leadership of Benjámin Bodnár (1972-1978)

Benjámin Bodnár, at the time of his ascension to Chair Convener of the party, was a moderate: someone from the faction of the party opposed to the radical instincts of much of the right-wing of the party - including a more permissive stance towards homosexuality and less of an emphasis on violent action, but who still agreed with the DKP's fundamental principles. Under his leadership, he moderated the overall platform of the DKP - removing outward references to the specific structure of the monarchist project of the DKP and favouring more electorally palatable.

Under Bodnár's leadership, the DKP began to replace its previous outwardly anti-democratic stance with a populist one, which resulted in an improved electoral performance for the party, with its number of councillors increasing to 8 in the 1974 local elections, and its total vote share increasing to 0.61% in the 1976 general election. The party primarily focused on appealing towards older homeowners - those who would traditionally vote for the Social Democratic Party or for the Conservative Party - focusing on the SDP and Conservatives' "weak" opposition to the legalisation of abortion, and their perceived weakness in "not challenging the political takeover of education and schools", referring to the implementation of restrictive LGBT education in schools the year prior.

However, in the 1978 local elections, the DKP faired relatively poorly, thanks to a string of scandals from the two years prior, and Bodnár was replaced by radical Áigesárri Nelson.

Leadership of Áigesárri Nelson (1978-1981)

After being confirmed by the Executive Board of the DKP, Áigesárri Nelson introduced a more radical platform, described by A Sentinel columnist Sándor Gáspár as "borderline fascist". He shifted the party further towards right-wing populism, and made its platform more openly far-right, through complete opposition to homosexuality (the manifesto read "sodomy is a curse upon man, and should be excised with total force"), and a call for the reinstatement of the death penalty, for abortion.

While Nelson's leadership brought about an increase in the party's total membership, going from 924 to 1,113 in his first year as leader. However, the party internally never managed to use this extra membership for grassroots activities, and the new platform alienated voters, so the 1980 general election saw the party's worst result in its history, with 0.03% of the total vote for its 109 fielded candidates.

In 1981, Nelson was removed by the Executive Board of the DPK, and replaced by the moderate Lejo Ommot.

Save Our Souls

On 8 July 1984, an advisory briefing from the ruling Social Liberal Party suggested that within the next legislative cycle, a full legalisation of same-sex marriage would be legislated through the National Assembly. The DKP leader, Lejo Ommot, published an open letter to then-Prime Minister Nemes Holsen, urging him to "stop this program of corrupting civilisation and all its tenets we hold dearly". Holsen, unexpectedly, responded to the letter, saying in an interview with representatives from the National Student Union;

Just earlier this week, I received a letter, from the leader of a party that I haven't seen in the spotlight since dark hours in 1971. It urges me, in strong terminology that I can't bear repeating here, to reconsider, to consider that Entropan is a nation founded on religious values, conservative values. I cannot see any reason to believe that. The project of the Entropanian nation is an experiment in democracy, bound by a common progressivism. Liberalism is our foundational value as a nation.

Ommot was highly critical of this response, specifically quoting "Liberalism is our foundational value as a nation" several times during rallies and in pamphlets. This feud was reported on widely in the media, allowing the DKP to have the momentum to start a protest organisation, Save Our Souls (SOS), a religious anti-LGBT organisation, which continues to operate to this day.

The DKP was heavily involved in SOS' protests throughout 1984 and 1985, funding the group's activities and distributing pamphlets throughout major cities to encourage a wide attendance to its protests and marches. The SOS organised several marches and protests primarily throughout Maledonia, including a controversial sit-in protest in July 1985, delaying the National Assembly's vote on the Marriage Equality Act through fifteen protestors supergluing themselves to obstruct every entrance to the building, forcing police to use acetone to remove them, and delaying the vote by two days. The unusual nature of the protest earned national headlines, but controversy soon came as it transpired that some of the protestors had used the superglue improperly, resulting in several amputations having to be performed after the protest had ended. The SOS did not apologise for this, and Ommot actively defended it when it was brought up in interviews, causing significant controversy, and causing membership of the DKP to decline, with Ommot himself being replaced by the Executive Board with Kent Alme in 1987.

Decline (1987-2016)

Kent Alme came to lead the party in June 1987, promising a "syncretic" platform which kept the radical policies of Áigesárri Nelson, but which posed as a moderating force. Under his leadership, the party's membership increased slightly, until November 1987, where Alme was taken to court over allegations of sexually abusing several female members of the party during his time as the Chief Financier of the DKP, with the victims then being threatened into silence by other members of the party. On 8 January 1987, due to the recovery of internal party memos apparently joking about the abuses that took place, Alme was sentenced to 20 years in prison, with several other members of the Executive Board being taken to court, but not convicted.

In January 1988, the Executive Board replaced Alme with Oddmund Austad.

Once leader, Oddmund Austad set about "cleaning up" the party in the aftermath of the sexual abuse scandal. He expelled every party member named in evidence in the trial, regardless of conviction, with a broader re-branding of the party, including a change of logo. Regardless, the party's membership continued to decline, from 2,193 members at the beginning of Alme's term to 694 by July 1988. In the 1988 general election, the party didn't manage to retain its deposit in a single constituency, getting less than 0.01% of the national vote.

This electoral disfortune continued, with a reduced media presence for the party, and budgetary restraints meaning that the party could not afford campaign materials, leading to a worse loss at the 1990 local elections, losing all but one of their councillors.

In 2001, Oddmund Austad was replaced by the Executive Board with the radical Eirik Kolden, under whom the party's membership declined starkly, with many defections from the party due to Kolden's "brash, abusive, and authoritarian" style of leadership. He consolidated his hold over the party, expelling many moderates from the party. In 2013, the DKP came under fire for a leaked internal party document, which outlined for party recruits that "membership should be rejected for sodomites and foreigners", violating the Equality Act 1989's protections from discriminiation. In response, Kolden apologised, and in January 2014, was removed and replaced by the Executive Board with Geir Skog.

With the party's membership declining again, from 241 in January 2013 to 194 in January 2014, Geir Skog set out a plan for "rejuvenating" interest in the party, including a new syncretic platform similar to that advocated for by Kent Alme. However, in June 2014, Skog died of a brain hemorrhage, and was replaced by the Executive Board with Jo Ulven.

Resurgence (2016-present)

After becoming leader of the DKP, Jo Ulven, a known political commentator and host of the Tribalism podcast, set out a program similar to Geir Skog's for rejuvenating interest in the party. Under her leadership, the DKP increased its membership threefold, with Ulven's modernising philosophy and focus on "the family and the pitfalls of modern democracy" leading to a resurge in grassroots efforts for the party. The party performed well in the 2018 local elections, with a record 9 councillors being elected. However, Ulven resigned in November 2018, citing personal health problems.

The Executive Board of the DKP appointed Dániel Rácz as Ulven's successor. Rácz continued the momentum of Ulven's tenure, with the party's membership increasing to 984, its highest since 1988. In the 2021 National Council election, the DKP got 0.5% of the vote. In June 2022, the DKP led several protests throughout Maledonia against the Gender Recognition Reform Act 2022. In December 2022, Rácz resigned, and Bendik Nystuen was appointed by the Executive Board as party leader.

In January 2023, as part of the ETTERPRO Leaks, it came to light that the DKP was constantly surveilled from 1954 to 1983 by the Ministry of Telecommunications (DoT), as a "potential Romerist-affiliate organisation", with DoT agents infiltrating the group.

Organisation and structure

Since its establishment in 1953, the DKP has been headed by its Executive Board, a body of eight to nineteen party members. With strict control over local and regional organisations, the Executive Board determines party policy, controls the party's structures and finances, oversees admissions and expulsions, and determine the tactics of the party. Before 2005, a third of the Executive Board was elected directly by members, but the reforms of Eirik Kolden abolished these elections. This has resulted in the elite of the party having the overwhelming majority of power, with the membership itself exerting very little control over policy or the actions of party leaders.

There are three broadly recognised factions in the party. The Radicals are a group of authoritarian conservatives who place an emphasis on religious fundamentalism and what current informal faction head Sondre Vangen has described as a "no-nonsense, no-prisoners" approach to conservatism. During the leadership of Eirik Kolden, the Radicals became the dominant faction in the party, due to suppression of opposing voices. The Syncretist faction agrees with Radical beliefs, but believes that these beliefs should not be loudly pronounced, rather opting for a right-wing populist stance; it differentiates itself from the Radicals also on the subject of homosexuality, which the Radicals want to outlaw, and the Syncretists do not. Current party leader Bendik Nystuen is an example of a Syncretist. The Moderate faction believes in a less radical form of social conservatism, including acceptance of "LGB" rights, but primary opposition to abortion and transgender rights.

Platform

Monarchism

The Democratic Convergence Party is the largest monarchist party in Entropan. According to its 2021 manifesto, it pledges to "re-establish the Entropanian monarchy of the Mezei family, and ensure a new bicameral legislature swears loyalty to it". The DKP wants to overrule the 2020 Constitution, and abolish the National Council, to be replaced with a bicameral Parliament, consistent of the Assembly of Nobility - a chamber directly appointed by the Monarch - and the Assembly of the Common - a chamber elected by the population.

Social issues

The DKP has said its "central goal" is to fill the void left behind by the current parties and their abandoning of "Entropanian customs and culture, led astray by Chartist and Republican sentiment". According to the current party leader, Dennis Lystad, they intend to be the party to "confront the Maledonian consensus, providing a genuine alternative to the monochromatic virtue-signalling that currently passes for debate".

It aims to be a "pro-family, pro-marriage, pro-life, pro-freedom of speech, anti-identity politics" party, that "values the complementary contributions of men and women, opposes radical gender ideology in all its forms, and recommends schools focus on education instead of social engineering and political ideology". The DKP's 2021 manifesto included a commitment for a full ban on transgender healthcare and a removal of gender recognition different to gender assigned at birth, which has caused many commentators, including Anne Onstad, to view the party as far-right.

The DKP opposes hate crime legislation, viewing it as "leading to increasing censorship and self-censorship". It opposes anti-discrimination legislation, saying that it has "led to many injustices and serves to enforce a political philosophy by threat of legal consequences". It opposes abortion, viewing it as "state-sanctioned murder", and opposes the "vaguely-defined" domestic abuse laws introduced by the Progressive Socialist Party in 2022.

The party has a long-standing opposition to same-sex marriage, viewing marriage as between a man and a woman only, and opposes bans on conversion therapy, viewing them as "ideologically driven and an attack on individual freedom".

Family

The DKP identifies as a "familialist" party, believing in the promotion of "parent's rights", opposing the Rights of the Child Act, as well as the Child Protective Services and the granting of medical confidentiality to under-16s. The party would seek to police children ages 13 to 15 having sexual relations, pledging to "make the age of consent 16, without exceptions". The DKP is against "vaguely defined" domestic abuse laws, and believes that people should be treated equally in domestic abuse law regardless of whether they are male or female; a claim that has been disputed, since the law already provides for equality in the crime of domestic abuse.

Leaders

• Arnt Ihle (1953-1960)
• Bálint Mezei (1960-1972)
• Benjámin Bodnár (1972-1978)
• Áigesárri Nelson (1978-1981)
• Lejo Ommot (1981-1987)
• Kent Alme (1987-1988)
• Oddmund Austad (1988-2001)
• Eirik Kolden (2001-2014)
• Geir Skog (January-June 2014)
• Jo Ulven (June 2014-2016)
• Victor Aasland (2016-2018)
• Jo Ulven (2018-2019)
• Dániel Rácz (2019-2022)
• Bendik Nystuen (2022-present)

Controversies

In June 1964, the Democratic Convergence Party's headquarters was reported to have a poster where a picture of Emil Klepp, a prominent LGBT rights activist and Social Liberal MP, was captioned with "Barne overgripek for a Šocia Libera Partiet" ("Child molesters for the Social Liberal Party"), an unfounded accusation. Bálint Mezei, the leader of the DPK at the time, defended this poster, saying that "I'm not saying anything, just asking why [Klepp] is so obsessed with making children follow her ideology". Klepp then sued Mezei for defamation of character, to which she won ƒ130,000 (₵100,000), an amount which Mezei paid for through party funds, inadvertently breaking electoral law due to his non-disclosure of the reasons for the payments, leading to Klepp pressing charges against him, causing him to receive a fine of ƒ230,000 (₵176,923), which he had to pay for through his own income.

In January 1967, LGBT rights activist Turid Boen was murdered by a member of the DKP, Erlend Ottum, who had actively volunteered for the group in the 1964 general election. While the DKP officially denounced this murder as "barbaric, bringing us to the same level as them", internally the murderer has allegedly been celebrated as a hero, with an informal Ottum Day being held every 16 January.

The party has never officially condemned the Right to Life riots, which the party instigated, with this continuously being a source of controversy. The riots have been brought up by several MNCs during a National Council debate about the ETTERPRO leaks, with Green MNC Arnold Borja saying "perhaps it was fully warranted to surveil [the DKP], seeing their active calls for violence during the tragedy of the Right for Life riots. They are a dangerous party, and I fully understand why [the Ministry of Telecommunications] did what they did".

In July 1986, Lejo Ommot compared abortion services in Entropan to the White Terror in the Creeperian Civil War, saying in an interview that "you have this white terror, this sanitised clinic-white terror, this genocide of the unborn taking place in our country, in our hospitals". This generated significant controversy, but Ommot, nor the DKP, has officially condemned the comparison; in fact, they have repeated it, in election material since.

In January 2002, DKP leader Eirik Kolden appeared to call for instituting the death penalty for homosexuality in a public rally, where he said that "We have to do something about the curse of sodomy inflicting our nation. Maybe the Sconians have it right"; Sconia's penalty for homosexuality at the time was death.

In February 2021, the party submitted a complaint concerning a school celebration in Veli. The festival celebrated LGBT arts (including drag, theatre, poetry, dance, and music) at Lunde High School, but the DKP claimed that the acts promoted a "philosophy of gender fluidity that is confusing and dangerous to young people". After their complaint was dismissed by the Veli Council, with a spokesperson stating that they "strongly refute the suggestion that celebrating diversity is in any manner confusing or dangerous to young people", dozens of party members gathered to directly protest the event, threatening those attending, including parents, children, and performers. Green MNC Egil Hee strongly decried these protests, saying on Bitter that "The DKP is a barbaric party that wants to bring Entropan to the dark ages, and which has been repeatedly rejected by voters. But this is low. Even for them."

Sexual abuse scandals

The party has been embroiled in several sexual abuse scandals since its formation. Former member of the Executive Board Kine Lassen has talked at length about the culture of the DKP in the 1950s and 1960s, alleging serious violations of discrimination law and a consistent "suffocating" atmosphere for female members of the party. Sexual harassment was rife throughout the party, with Arvid Alstad, a member of the Executive Board at the time, being known for his sexual harassment, with some members of the party nicknaming him "perve Arve".

During the 1970s, member of the Executive Board and later Chief Financier Kent Alme sexually abused several female members of the party, being helped by other members of the Executive Board to threaten the women with violent retaliation if they spoke out about the abuses. Internal party memos referenced these abuses, with the Executive Board widely knowing about what had happened. Alme was arrested in January 1987 alongside several other members of the Executive Board.

Electoral history

National Assembly

National Assembly of Entropan

Election	Leader	Votes		Seats		Position	Government
		No.	Share	No.	±
1956	Arnt Ihle	146,364	0.7	0 / 615		10th	Not in parliament
1960		25,187	0.12	0 / 615		13th	Not in parliament
1964	Bálint Mezei	12,608	0.06	0 / 615		15th	Not in parliament
1968		19,605	0.09	0 / 615		13th	Not in parliament
1972		8,759	0.04	0 / 615		16th	Not in parliament
1976	Benjámin Bodnár	134,071	0.61	0 / 615		8th	Not in parliament
1980	Áigesárri Nelson	6,609	0.03	0 / 615		17th	Not in parliament
1984	Lejo Ommot	11,335	0.05	0 / 615		15th	Not in parliament
1988	Oddmund Austad	907	0.0	0 / 615		113th	Not in parliament
1992		4,572	0.02	0 / 615		31st	Not in parliament
1996		4,580	0.02	0 / 615		26th	Not in parliament
2000		18,407	0.08	0 / 615		12th	Not in parliament
2004	Eirik Kolden	2,301	0.01	0 / 615		25th	Not in parliament
2008		2,400	0.02	0 / 615		23rd	Not in parliament
2012		4,882	0.02	0 / 615		24th	Not in parliament
2016	Jo Ulven	14,844	0.06	0 / 615		15th	Not in parliament
2020	Dániel Rácz	12,450	0.02	0 / 615		13th	Not in parliament