LADY NINEL LEADS "MERIT DRIVEN" CONCLAVE ADDITIONS Lady Ninel Naoumov was today named as the nations first Foreign Minister as a raft of new appointments to the Conclave were made public. The 54 year old is the former Sheriff of Gaia and was for several years the editor in chief of the Lodjain International Journal, a prominent scholarly magazine reviewing international politics. She is perhaps the highest profile appointee in a new Conclave which has been described by Queen Klara as being "merit driven" with each position filled by someone with a "deep background in their field with a combination of book smarts and real world experience. The aim is to ensure that rather than just being a body drawn from those of prominent families who have for generations often been permitted to amass power based on a surname the Conclave will become a functioning and effective tool for managing the Queendom." In total the Queen made 11 new appointees meaning the Conclave now has a grand total of 15 members and is now at its full compliment of members in its new form.
New Look Conclave (new appointees in red)
Lord of The Conclave:- Lord Besarian Ivanov
Minister of Defence:-
Prince Lennox of Ui Cenneslaig Minister of Home Affairs:- Duke Maxim Schnoor
Minister of Social Affairs:-
Professor Borislav AndreevMinister of Education:-
Vissarion NovikovMinister of Finance:- Dragan Knežević
Minister of Housing:- Lord Yuily Shvets
Minister of Foreign Affairs:-
Lady Ninel NaoumovMinister of Justice:-
Vlad Fedorov Minister of Environmental Affairs:-
Isay Yakovlev Junior Minister of Finance:-
Lidochka Andreev Junior Minister of Defence:-
Radimir Konstantinov Junior Minister of Foreign Affairs:-
Anatoli Bogomolov Junior Minister of Social Affairs:-
Professor Borislav AndreevJunior Minister of Education:-
Borys Volkov The new conclave also features two women, a new record with the former Social Affairs Minister Anna Utkin being the only other woman to have ever served on the Conclave. Lady Anna Utkin was also the first person born as a Plebleian to serve on the Conclave however both Borys Volkov and Lidochka Andreev, who serve as Junior Ministers, are Plebleians and are appointed in line with the Queen's commitment to have Junior Ministers appointed from a list drawn up and presented to the Council of the Plebs. The identities of those on the lists for Junior Minister have not been seen by the media.
Various members of the Conclave have spoken today about their appointment.
Vissarion Novikov - (Minister of Education) Novikov is a 48 year old who has spent the last ten years as a tutor at the University of Iskor where he oversaw teacher training. He had prior to that worked as a Maths teacher at the Coastal Academy for Boys. He has written several books on increasing engagement in education by plebleians. Making his first appearence in his new post the Minister stated, "It has always been the case that the Patricans have been the head of the nation and the plebs the muscle. We now live in a world where the intelligent application of muscle is needed more than ever. We have an education system that slants itself on the concept that Plebs do not need to be educated beyond the age of 16 while Patricians are educated until the age of 21 with many wasting places at University just to be able to say they've been. It needs to become to norm that your mind and not your birth rite gains you a place in education. That now needs to be made possible and I am proud the Queen has entrusted me with this job to make this happen."
Vlad Fedorov (Minister of Justice) - At the age of 70 Fedorov is the oldest person on the Conclave. Fedorov was the judge responsible for carrying out a review of the circumstances around the assassination of Queen Viktoriya and has overseen some high profile cases over his 20 years in the High Court. His brother is the Baron of Nilag a small town in the North West of the mainland. Speaking as he arrived at the Ministery building the new Minister said. "It has become clear we face a turning point in Lodjain judicary. We have had corruption and nepotism on a scale unseen across Mundus. If the practice is to be eradicated then it needs to begin at the top and I fully expect to take a broom to those unable to comply with what I believe to be normal bevahiour for judges and law enforcement."
Isay Yakovlev (Minister of Environmental Affairs) - Yakovlev is a seasoned operator in Environmental Affairs. Until last year he was the owner and chief executive of Yakovlev Green Consulting, a company based on Alucard Minor, that offers advice to businesses on how to cut their carbon footprint and save money. He sold the business for around $47million in November 2019 and has since spent his time cruising the Alucard on his sail powered yacht making a documentary on the region. He was also part of the Lodjain delegation that negotiated the Treaty of Wellow and helped fund the project to clear plastic from the Alcuard. Yakovlev spoke to the media from Gaia dockside where a ship returning from recovering plastic from the Alucard Garbage Patch Clean Up was unloading. "Lodja has not been a leading light in Mundus for a while now. The one place we have is in our protection of the environment. It is my hope that we can carve out a niche in green policy and green technology. I fully intend to turn the lessons we've acquired from the Alucard clean up to the waterways and lakes of Lodja."
Lidochka Andreev (Junior Finance Minister) is a 30 year old graduate of the Gaia Centre of Economic Studies and comes from the Andreev family who are a wealthy Plebleian family who made their money through metalworks. Lidochka became the first of the family to gain entry to University and won a scholarship to the prestigious institute where she graduated 2nd in her class of 82 in International Economics and Business. Since graduating she has spent the last 7 years working as an investment advisor for the Plebleian Business Alliance, a non-government think tank which aims to advise and support the growth of the Plebleian economy. She will be working alongside Dragan Knežević who was one of the few Conclave members to emerge unscathed by the recent scandals. Speaking at her arrival at the Isle of the Goddess she explained. "I think old fashioned ideals have seen Lodja fail to tap into it's potential. While Mr.Knežević has done a lot to shore up the nations economic dealings he has done so from the insights of a rich businessman and I think I can help him see a bigger picture now. I can't wait to get to work with him."
Many of the other junior ministers hail from the outlying islands of Lodja and have yet to arrive in the capital. It is expected that the elections for the People's Council will be held on the last day of October 2020. The Council is made up of 150 Patricians and 200 Plebs and all seats will be contested.