Fortress Senäts

Fortress Senäts was a strategy employed by the RUMP during the 46th Cosa, which sought to reinforce the party's status in opposition through its control of half the seats of the Senate; it was never made public, but surfaced in the leaked content of the Asmourescu Papers concerning the investigations in the ESB Affair.

The term was coined by then-Mençei Senator Sir Mick Preston and comprised him and other three conservative monarchist Senators, Sir Trotxâ Betiñéir, Bradley Holmes and Pôl d'Aurìbuérg. Notable among the consequences of the strategy was Istefan Perþonest's decision to resign as Finance Minister due to the Senate blocking a coinage bill; he himself had been a minister in RUMP cabinets. During Fortress Senäts's existence and with votes from the bloc's members, the Senate blocked Eiric Börnatfiglheu's attempt to rejoin Talossa after the ESB Affair, the most recent occurrence of the Senate blocking an immigration application.

After it surfaced, and it appeared that the opposition was deliberately using the Senate as a tool of obstruction, in the eyes of its detractors like, Fortress Senäts was often criticised by the government and cited as an example of underhanded RUMP tactics even several years later. When pressed on the matter almost three years later, Sir Cresti Siervicül on the other hand contended that "the RUMP's senators presented [their] only hope of blocking some legislation that we strongly opposed on the merits", and that the Senate had ultimately passed several important government bills anyway.

Ultimately, the waning influence of the RUMP meant the end of Fortress Senäts, as three of its four members were unseated at the first occasion. The strategy was rendered inoperative by the September 2014 General Election, with Senators Betiñéir and Preston being both unseated by coalition challengers, and the First Da Schir Cabinet gaining majorities in both Houses of the Ziu. Senator Holmes was unseated at the next elections as well. The last member of the 46th Cosa's RUMP caucus in the Senate, d'Aurìbuérg, renounced his citizenship in early 2016, roughly in the same period as Preston's own citizenship lapsing due to inactivity.