Chapter 311: Battle of Wisdom and Courage in Parliament
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The attendant Quincy was sweating on his forehead. Of course, he knew that Hobert was not threatening him, but the councilors and representatives from all walks of life in the conference room.
"Please wait a moment." Quincy entered the conference room and reported to the councilors inside.
The chief person in charge of formulating the relevant legal clauses was Count Wolfe, a member of the Upper House, along with two members of the Lower House, five law professors, and eight representatives from all walks of life.
According to the constitution, the person in charge, Count Wolfe, was only responsible for coordinating relevant resources, urging the legislative process, and supervising the legislative process, and had no power to participate in the formulation of specific legal clauses.
After a law is formulated, the House of Representatives and the Upper House jointly vote to decide whether the bill is passed and takes effect.
Throughout the entire process, the royal family, the government, and the military have no right to interfere.
Count Wolfe had just sat down when he heard the attendant's report and still smiled gently: "Lawyer Hobert is quite different."
"Your Excellency, this is not in accordance with the rules!" said Gusta, the president of the Backlund Chamber of Commerce.
He was one of the eight "representatives from all walks of life."
Other representatives also stated that specific regulations should not be made public during the formulation of laws and regulations.
Wolfe waited for everyone to finish speaking before saying: "Have you not noticed? Hobert is very good at using the power of public opinion."
Barth, a member of the Lower House and a major banker, said: "It's just a few reporters. I'll meet with the presidents of the 'Backlund Daily' and the 'Loen Citizen's Newspaper' later. They won't dare to write nonsense."
Barth also invested in two newspapers at the same time, and had a great influence in the press.
"You don't understand Hobert's intention at all," Count Wolfe said: "Hobert is protesting the way we are formulating the 'Labor Law'."
In fact, a rough draft of the bill had already been formed before this, and inviting Hobert at this time was indeed just to go through the motions.
What Hobert was protesting was precisely this way of asking him to go through the motions.
Gusta said: "Your Excellency, I think this is the parliament, not the court. We can no longer indulge such pests to harm the order of Backlund!"
The social representatives echoed one after another.
Wolf still smiled and said to Quincy: "Okay, then insist on only letting Hobert in."
However, there was already a hint of playfulness in his smile. As a good friend of Earl Hall, he had occasionally heard Hall mention Hobert. Count Wolfe knew Hobert better than anyone else.
Even if he had not confronted Hobert head-on like Gusta, Count Wolfe's experience allowed him to have a deeper understanding of Hobert than Gusta.
Sure enough, two minutes later, Quincy came in again, wiping sweat: "Dear councilors, gentlemen, Lawyer Hobert said that he has met Archbishop Anthony and Archbishop Horamick.
"If reporters are not allowed in, he is prepared to invite the two archbishops to participate in the meeting to ensure the rights and interests of the believers of the Church of the Evernight Goddess and the Church of Steam and Machinery!"
Gusta said again: "This is not in accordance with the rules!"
But compared to the previous "This is not in accordance with the rules," it was obviously less imposing.
In this world where divine power and political power coexist, the influence of religious figures is very great. At least Archbishop Anthony's influence is greater than that of a councilor.
Although they have no right to interfere in the formulation of laws, they can organize believers to protest against new bills. In that case, the status and influence of all of you present who participated in the formulation of laws will be greatly affected, and even someone may be pushed to the forefront as a scapegoat to quell public anger.
Of course, more importantly, everyone present more or less needs the protection of one of the three churches of the Loen Kingdom, or to provide them with honorary guarantees, expand their network, etc., so everyone is unwilling to be in opposition to the archbishops.
The room was silent for two or three seconds, and everyone looked at the three councilors.
"Let them all in," Barth sneered: "Then show Hobert the bill we have discussed. If he glances at it, even if he just opens the cover, we will accuse him and those reporters of leaking unpublished legal documents. I remember this is a confidential document, enough to keep them in prison for a few years."
Count Wolfe did not expect that the seemingly boring work of formulating the "Labor Law" would be so interesting.
He had this mentality of watching the show because his interests were not directly in conflict with the content of the bill.
As a visionary aristocrat, he also made investments, but only in stocks, and did not participate in specific management.
Also, because he was born into an aristocratic family, the rich and the workers were almost the same in his eyes, so he was not very concerned about the interests of the rich like Gusta, nor was he very concerned about the interests of the workers.
For him, his only purpose was to expand his influence and improve his position in the political arena.
After Quincy received clear orders, he went out again and invited Hobert and others in.
Jessica, who followed in, felt that she had learned a trick. She also knew that Lawyer Hobert had asked her to come today to broaden her horizons, so after entering the door, she honestly found a corner to sit down and prepared to continue learning how Hobert dealt with these so-called upper-class figures.
Several reporters were a little flattered. They had only come today with a try-it-and-see attitude, but they did not expect that they could actually enter the parliament building and enter the conference room where laws were made.
Even if they could only listen in the corner, it would be enough for them to brag about for half their lives when they went back.
After Hobert entered the door, he greeted everyone politely, as if he was not the one who had been blocking the door just now.
In particular, one of the law professors was Hobert's former university teacher. The two exchanged compliments, which eased the atmosphere for a while.
After Hobert sat down, Count Wolfe even asked him: "Coffee or black tea?"
Everyone was stunned. This seemed to be Wolfe's subtle way of expressing his appreciation for Hobert, and also warning everyone not to go too far.
Quincy, who had no political savvy, thought that this was his dereliction of duty, and that he had actually troubled the Count to ask Hobert what he wanted to drink, so he was a little apprehensive when he served the tea.
After the meeting officially started, Barth winked at Gusta. Since Wolf had expressed his opinion, they couldn't go too far, but they still had to put Hobert in his place.
Gusta nodded slightly and threw a document to Hobert: "This is the outline of the bill we drafted. You can take a look at it first, or you can show it to your reporter friends."
Hobert didn't even touch it: "Sorry, I don't think this outline is appropriate."
Gusta said: "How do you know it's not appropriate if you don't look at it?"
"According to normal procedures, the 'social representatives' participating in the formulation of laws and regulations should include people from all levels that the law may involve," Hobert said: "However, it seems that there are only businessmen among the eight people present, but no other subject: workers.
"So I think this legal outline is not appropriate and does not comply with relevant regulations.
"That's why I invited reporter friends to supervise. This is a question of the legal formulation process, not a question of specific clauses, so it doesn't count as leaking secrets."
Count Wolfe changed his sitting position to hide his smile.
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