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I wonder how the 2008 crash happening on Cameron’s watch will affect the Conservative government. Presumably full steam ahead with an even harsher course of austerity, but if Labour can get it’s actually together they could presumably pick up the “sensible stewards of capital” mantle. No doubt after Skinner they’ve gone with someone like David Miliband, so seems a distinct possibility.
Still incredibly uncanny seeing all these events played out in a Vicky AAR. I remember pretty much everything reported in this update, and it’s strange seeing them refracted through the lens of your alternate world.
Still incredibly uncanny seeing all these events played out in a Vicky AAR. I remember pretty much everything reported in this update, and it’s strange seeing them refracted through the lens of your alternate world.
Breaking News: The events of your formative years. Slight discolorations expected.
Most unfathomable
@SibCDC
How are you making these mockup newspapers anyway? I could see myself doing something like this once I get back into making AARs.
How are you making these mockup newspapers anyway? I could see myself doing something like this once I get back into making AARs.
I remember playing the base game of Victoria 2 for the first time and thinking what a strange visual choice it was to have Prussia be yellow instead of a colour which is literally named after it. I did however like Belgium's brown colour, but the current yellow is also quite good for my little home country.yellow prussia boycott
I think there is still one big surprise coming, and it will be coming out of the US, sort of...Breaking News: The events of your formative years. Slight discolorations expected.
Most unfathomable
I write them in Microsoft Word, using a table without outside borders. I then save that as a PDF and convert the PDF into a PNG using an online converter. For these newspapers it's quite simple, but you could do something more complex like adding an image of a real newspaper header to your Word document. In the end it all depends on what kind of newspaper look you're looking for.
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2010 Election Candidates
2010 Prussian Political Parties
Presidential Debate:
For the first time in Prussian history, the position of President was up for a direct election. Three candidates announced their bid for the position of Head of State. Obviously, sitting President Ferdinand von Bismarck sought re-election. He was challenged by former Chancellor Ludwig Walenstadt, who enjoyed the support of his own former party, the SDP, and of the SAP, who were eager to oust the current conservative president. The third candidate was a newcomer to politics; Olivia Vogelstein. Vogelstein was a prominent lawyer from Silesia who ran on the promise of protecting civic freedoms. According to her, the War on Terror had subverted the Prussian security system and had introduced a system which was not dissimilar from the old Volkspartei-era. In addition, Vogelstein sought to root out corruption that had been running through the highest ranks of the Landtag. The three candidates faced off against each other in a debate on national television.
[Jens Riewa]:
“Good evening and welcome to the very first presidential debate on Prussian national television. In tonight’s debate, President von Bismarck, former Chancellor Walenstadt and newcomer Olivia Vogelstein will answer your questions! Each candidate will get the same amount of time to speak. We politely ask that this time is respected. Without further ado, let’s get started. Our first question comes from Friedrich Buchenbach from Posen and goes as following: ‘My wife and I both work in a factory in the food sector. Since the crisis, both our wages have been steadily declining, despite the fact that we work in a vital sector and have been working overtime to make ends meet. What will you do as President to ensure that food arrives on our table?’ First up to answer is former Chancellor Walenstadt. The word is yours.”
[Ludwig Walenstadt]:
“Thank you, Jens. Now, let me start by pointing out that the powers of the President under the current Constitution are still fairly limited and mostly pertain to the military and foreign policy. This does not mean that the President would be unable to do anything about your situation, Mr. Buchenbach. As President, I would make sure that foreign policy is dominated by one simple principle. And that principle is that every action should take in mind the welfare of the people. Deals to outsource labour will not occur on my watch, nor will harmful trade wars be fought simply to outcompete with our neighbours. Instead I will seek to strengthen the position of the Prussian worker on the international labour market.”
[Jens Riewa]:
“Mr. Walenstadt, I believe your time is up. President von Bismarck, the word is yours.”
[President Ferdinand von Bismarck]:
“I confer with the former Chancellor when he rightly pointed out that the powers of the President in this matter are limited. Yet as President, I will still ensure that the government does everything in its power to make sure our citizens have food on their table. The last few years have been hard on all of us and we all have to contribute if we want to make Prussia prosper again. Mr. Buchenbach, I understand that you have already made sacrifices, and so have many other in this country. This is what it means to be Prussian. We are ready to put the greater good above ourselves. If I get re-elected, I will make sure those sacrifices are not in vain. I will work tirelessly to promote our goods abroad, so that you, the worker, may profit from international trade as well. But I will also make sure that your wages and your livelihoods are protected from foreign threats such as unfair competition.”
[Jens Riewa]:
“Unfortunately, your time is up Mr. President. Mrs. Vogelstein, the floor is yours, we are listening.”
[Olivia Vogelstein]:
“Thank you, Mr. Riewa. Mr. Buchenbach’s problems are typical for the average working class Prussian. Thousands of people are suffering from the economic policies of our government, while some members of the Landtag make millions from shady business deals or positions in advisory boards of companies. Even the SAP is not free of this sin. As President I will see to it as my duty that these kind of practices will end. I will use everything in my power to expose the corruption that is running rampant through our system, so that it may be rooted out by the proper authorities. Only by ensuring the health of our political class, can we ensure the health of our working classes. And only then will this country be a country where all Prussian could say ‘I am proud to be Prussian’.”
[Jens Riewa]:
“Thank you for your answer, Mrs. Vogelstein. Now on to the next question. This one comes from Heinrich Müller from Danzig. And he wants to know what your opinion is one EU membership. Mr. President, let’s hear your answer first.”
[President Ferdinand von Bismarck]:
“The European Union over the last few years has proven both a strong and a weak political and economical bloc. On the one hand, countries who have joined the EU have seen an immense economic growth. Being part of a unified free trade zone has definitely proven its worth for these countries. On the other hand, there is the fact that the Byzantine Debt Crisis dragged almost all of Europe down with it. As a result, countries like Germany have given massive loans to their unstable southern neighbours. Joining the EU comes with a lot of benefits, but also with a cost. As President I rely on the goodwill of the government and so I will not push for EU membership if that is not what the next government wants. But if the next government decides that EU membership is the path that Prussia will take, then I as President will make sure that will happen in the most efficient way possible.”
[Jens Riewa]:
“Thank you Mr. President. Mrs. Vogelstein, what is your view on EU membership?”
[Olivia Vogelstein]:
“Whatever people may claim on both sides on the political spectrum, Prussia is a European country and belongs within the continental system of peace established by the EU. Not everyone may agree to the extent to which the EU has expanded both geographically and politically in the last few decades, but it has proven to be a power for lasting peace in Europe. Unlike Russia, the EU has extended its hands to cooperate with countries for trade, foreign policy, infrastructure etc. The EU’s programs are so successful that they are even able to put people into space, and that since 1975! Prussia could only benefit from EU membership. If our politicians weren’t blindsided by nationalistic rhetoric, maybe we could’ve put a Prussian in space already, who knows.”
[Jens Riewa]:
“Thank you for your contribution, Mrs. Vogelstein. Mr. Walenstadt, what would your position regarding the EU be if you became President?”
[Ludwig Walenstadt]:
“Well Jens, European integration is inevitable if Prussia wants to stay on top. We are now surrounded on all sides by members of the European Union. For now, Prussia is in a favourable spot due to our good relations with Germany, but what would happen once that changes? Prussian goods would be affected more and more by EU tariffs. Prussian workers would have a harder time competing with EU workers on the European labour market. Prussian foreign policy would be marginalized because we aren’t relevant without a huge political bloc to back us. In my opinion, the EU has a lot of things to offer to us. Being part of the trade bloc that is the EU will not only benefit our industry, but also our farmers. Within the context of the EU, products like milk and grain enjoy a large extent of protection against foreign competition, primarily from the United States. Prussia on its own is way too vulnerable to external pressure to keep such protective measures in place. EU membership will allow the Prussian economy to flourish and thus as President I will do everything in my power to see to it that Prussia follows the path of European integration.”
[Jens Riewa]:
“Thank you, Mr. Walenstadt. Now for our last question we turn to Ahmed al-Hamid, an Algerian refugee who currently resides in Königsberg. His question goes as following: ‘As President, what would your take on the War on Terror be?’ Former Chancellor Walenstadt, you are up first.”
[Ludwig Walenstadt]:
“The War on Terror as it is currently being handled in Prussia is a terrible mistake. These past few years, a substantial amount of Prussian soldiers have lost their lives in missions abroad. While I understand that a soldier’s duty is protecting the homeland from foreign threats, I do not believe interfering in the politics of another country under the guise of a UN Peacekeeping Mission falls under that category. What you have done, Mr. President, is simply an abuse of your power to make yourself popular with the American President and his allies. Under my presidency, I will not allow such things to happen again. The only way to deal with international terrorism is by taking away the reasons why such terrorism occurs in the first place. We must set up humanitarian missions instead of sending soldiers to their deaths. If terrorists seek to overthrow dictatorships, we must see to it that those countries can transform into democracies without the use of violence. A War on Terror will do nothing but further antagonize the people of the Arab world against the West. And that will only drive them towards either Russia or Iran.”
[Jens Riewa]:
“Unfortunately your time is up. Mr. President, what is your response to Mr. Walenstadt?”
[President Ferdinand von Bismarck]:
“Your claims are outrageous, Mr. Walenstadt. Prussia’s contributions to the two UN Peacekeeping Missions in Africa were a vital part of the international War on Terror. Under no circumstance did I use it to strengthen my own position or to make myself popular abroad. The international community is coming together once again to end the threat that is syndicalism. Prussia has seen its fair share of violence from syndicalist terrorists and as President I have done everything within my power to prevent a further escalation of terrorism inside and outside our borders. In the future I plan on continuing our cooperation with the UN and with other powers to further counter the spread of international syndicalist terrorism. As Commander in Chief I will promise to keep our soldiers from further harm by further modernizing our tactics and our equipment, so that our armies may adapt fully to the tactics used by guerrilla fighters.”
[Jens Riewa]:
“Thank you for your contribution, Mr. President. I’ll repeat the question for you, Mrs. Vogelstein. What is your view on the War on Terror and what will you do about it should you become President?”
[Olivia Vogelstein]:
“The War on Terror has been a disaster for this government. Not only did they send our soldiers on a reckless mission abroad, but they are slowly subverting our democracy in the process. There were no checks and balances when President von Bismarck sent those men to Africa, so what will prevent him from doing so in the future? The loss of human lives and the infringement on our rights prove to me that the War on Terror is just a way for the old habits of the Volkspartei regime to return to Prussian politics. In the process, corruption is allowed to flourish as long as it remains undetected. As President I will prevent that lives are needlessly lost in foreign battlefields and I will ensure that our freedoms will not be further infringed upon.”
[Jens Riewa]:
“Thank you Mrs. Vogelstein. I believe this concludes this very first presidential debate in Prussian history. We thank our candidates and our viewership and we hope to see you in the next debate.”
Voting is open until Friday May 8th 2PM CEST
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It appears the starting shot has been fired. May the best party (read: not the syndicalists) win!
I hope the Junkers can keep Prussia safe and prosperous. Prehaps they could inspire Germans to found a sister party to the Junkers, if the Junkers do well In Prussia.
It appears the starting shot has been fired. May the best party (read: not the syndicalists) win!
With 26 votes so far it is certainly looking interesting!
2010 Election results and the 1st Tusk Cabinet
2010 Election Results and the 1st Tusk Cabinet
Election news coverageHello and welcome to this special news edition, completely dedicated to the results of the 2010 elections. My name is Jens Riewa and I will be your host for tonight. Just mere weeks ago, we aired the first ever presidential debate on our TV station and now we will have our first democratically elected President. But before we announce which candidate came on top, let’s first have a look at the results for the Landtag. With all of the votes counted, it is clear that a major shift has occurred in Prussian politics. Not since our first election has a party ever been able to obtain more than 130 seats, but this time the Christian Democrats have done just that. With an incredible 36,4% of the electorate, they have overtaken the JP and SAP to become the largest party in Prussia. While the SAP remained stagnant, it appears the JP and the SDP have lost a lot of voters to the CD.P. With almost 20% of the electorate changing their vote in comparison to last elections, this is a truly significant shift in the Landtag. Once again, the GfP was unable to reach the 5% threshold and thus unable to win any seats.
If we have a look at the possible coalitions these results give us, it becomes clear that the CD.P will be the leading party in the next government. To obtain a majority they require 44 seats, which gives them two realistic possibilities. Either they continue their partnership with the Junkerpartei, which would give them a comfortable 219 seats to rely on, or they form a coalition with the SDP and LPP which puts them at 176, leaving them with a vulnerable close majority. With the CD.P now in a strong position, it is highly likely they will push their agenda during coalition talks, instead of being the JP’s lapdog.
Let’s now have a look at the results of the Presidential elections. Three candidates entered the arena to in the bid for presidency; President Ferdinand von Bismarck, former Chancellor Ludwig Walenstadt and independent runner Olivia Vogelstein. In our voting system, which uses instant runoff voting, a candidate requires a simple majority of the votes to win. If that is not obtained in a first round, then the candidate with the least amount votes drops out of the race and the second choices of his or her voters will obtain their votes. That continues until one candidate has a simple majority. In the case of these elections, no second round was needed, as sitting President Ferdinand von Bismarck won with 61% of the votes. Former Chancellor Walenstadt was able to obtain 29%, while newcomer Olivia Vogelstein came third with 9,7%. With this clear mandate, President von Bismarck will begin his second term as President of Prussia.
We thank our viewers for tuning into our evening show. This has been Jens Riewa reporting on the election results live from Königsberg.
Coalition talks
Coalition talks began very quickly after the results were made public. Josef Tusk of the CD.P was appointed as formateur by President von Bismarck and begin the coalition talks by inviting Korwin-Mikke. Korwin-Mikke was eager to continue the coalition between the CD.P and JP, but his head was still occupied with the scenario where the JP was the biggest partner. The disillusion came quick as Tusk presented his demands. According to Tusk, he was given a clear demand by the people to start the process of German reunification. Tusk presented Korwin-Mikke with a choice; a JP-CD.P coalition would either work towards a hard version of German unification, where Prussia would fully be integrated into Germany, or the coalition would work towards a softer version where Prussia would first join the EU. Tusk made it clear that if the JP decided to bail out, there were enough other partners who would be willing to go for the hard version. Tusk knew perfectly well that the Junkers would rather join the EU and still have say over a lot of things, than being integrated in Germany and losing all say over a lot of things. Korwin-Mikke reluctantly opened up towards the idea of European integration, but he demanded some guarantees. One of them was that if Prussia were to start the procedure to become an EU member state, the final decision would be made by a referendum. Tusk was confident enough that such a referendum would pass, if the pro-EU side would form a unilateral front. Another condition was that Prussia would not enter the eurozone within the next five to ten years, so that the government might still adjust monetary policy in response to the economic crisis. Discussions quickly passed on to the continuing War on Terror. Korwin-Mikke was clear by saying that the threat of syndicalist terrorism remained. Tusk agreed to some degree with Korwin-Mikke, but disagreed with the way Prussia was dealing with it. While Prussia was already sharing information with organizations such as Interpol and Europol, and measures had been taken to assure data cohesion between national and international databases, Tusk felt that Prussia would benefit more from more direct cooperation with NATO. Being absent from NATO’s most recent summit was certainly a missed opportunity for the previous government to arrange some international deals that would severely limit the capability of terrorists to act across borders in Europe. Should any NATO summit occur during the next government’s tenure, Tusk wanted Prussia to attend. Korwin-Mikke could agree to the idea of just attending to see which deals were available, but fully joining NATO was out of the question. And so in the end the CD.P and the JP agreed on the following policy outlines:
- The process to become an EU-member state will be initiated and ratified by referendum
- The War on Terror will continue and Prussia will increase cooperation with NATO
- Prussia will undergo austerity measures to deal with the economic crisis
The SDP and SAP join forces and form the Popular Front
Under the leadership of Patrick Schwarzenegger, the Social Democrats of the SDP have failed time and time again to reinvigorate the party. As a result, Presidential candidate and former Chancellor Ludwig Walenstadt has urged Schwarzenegger to discuss a possible merger with the SAP. Under the name of the Popular Front, the SAP and SDP would not run in the same districts in order to prevent competing for the same seats. Schwarzenegger, Walenstadt and Schwartzmann met to discuss the proposal and to outline the strategy that both of the parties would adopt as opposition in the Landtag. Without formally merging, the SAP and SDP agreed on a more pro-EU stance to try and drive a wedge between the Europhilic CD.P and the Europhobic JP. Unbeknownst to the syndicalists and social democrats at the time, the CD.P and JP had in fact agreed on beginning the process of European integration. In addition, the SDP and SAP would also jointly organize their workers’ unions should the need for a general strike arise. The goal in the end would be to establish the Popular Front as the voice of the people against any government policy that would make it harder for the people at the bottom.
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A popular front seems a necessary call when such a dreadful government has come to power. At least the nationalists are no longer in the majority...
"No matter. At this point in time, what few voters that make up the constituency upon which the SDP drew upon will herald this "front" with muted approval, seeing as they have the resisted assimilating into their logic-defyingly more powerful radical sister for a decade and a half. Even if an exodus to other parties is not observed (which I do not expect, seeing the closest compatriots to the right are the free-market liberal LPP), this will certainly create a massive rift within the social democratic cause, one that could serve to further weaken them..."
-Op-Ed in the right-leaning Prussian newspaper, the Allenstein Eagle
Though choice for the Junkers, the may split if the anti EU side of the party does not want to comprimise with the CDP.
But I am sure most of the Junkers are pragmatic enough to stay united and influence Prussia with thier ideals, instead of loosing it all to a extreme position few prussians supports.
But I am sure most of the Junkers are pragmatic enough to stay united and influence Prussia with thier ideals, instead of loosing it all to a extreme position few prussians supports.
If pragmatism is going to be seen as a continued capitulation on core issue's, a split is imminent.
I did not expect the SDP to do so poorly.
Yeah, this might be one of the darker timelines.The thought of Palin being a heartbeat from the Presidency...
They can always sabotage the EU from the inside
Yes, I will give this a proper ending once my other projects are finished
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As a heads up, I am currently working on the last update for this iAAR, which will be the usual "Domestic Policy", "Foreign Policy" etc. format, but instead of posting them one by one, I will post them as one last chapter.