November 4304Brauer lashes out at "vast right-wing conspiracy"Ester Brauer, the Communist Party's Minister of Agriculture, who played a leading role in negotiating the Communist-TGP (Traditional Justice Party) coalition has given a hard-hitting television interview, describing "a vast right-wing conspiracy trying to bring down our government of the left". She went on:
Edmund Treitschke was a decent and honourable man, genuinely working to achieve what he believed was best for the people of Dorvik. As we now know, he was
suffering from a mental health issue which led to him making irrational outbursts on certain occasions, but the comments he made during these outbursts did not represent either his real personal views or the views of the TGP.
It is grossly hypocritical for the likes of Käthe Grunebaum to bring up the remarks he made during those outbursts now, now that they are no longer in the Cabinet. If they had believed Edmund Treitschke seriously meant those comments, then they would have raised their objections at the time he made them. They chose not to do that at the time, simply because they knew the comments were not serious. However, they choose to go public about it all now, simply because they see an opportunity to exploit the former President's mental health condition in order to win political capital.
This is disgraceful and hypocritical behaviour, and neither I, nor my colleagues in the Communist Party and the TGP will stand it. Grunebaum can play all the games she wants to play. We all know her agenda here is to try to hijack a personal tragedy in order to prematurely dissolve the Staatsrat and try to get herself elected President.
Let me assure you all, the Communist Party, the TGP and our new Acting President, Arnold Sweindracht, will continue to do our duty and work together to provide Dorvik with stable and effective leadership for the remainder of the parliamentary term.
Communist leader Anton Weinreich, who is now the Internal Affairs Minister, tried to strike a more emollient note, saying:
I do not blame or criticise the people who are upset about the current political situation. I understand why people are concerned, and as it happens, I have spoken to former President Edmund Treitschke and he understands the concerns too. What we are asking people to understand is that the fact the former President had some very difficult, very sad personal problems does not mean the current Communist-TGP coalition is unviable. This is a viable coalition, able to command a majority in the Staatsrat, and we are committed to providing the country with a good government. The loss of the President, although unfortunate, does not mean we have to hold an immediate early election, which at this moment would be unnecessary and destabilising. That is not how the Dorvish constitution works.
Brauer admits bananas don't cause Peyronie's DiseaseUnder pressure from scientists, doctors and dietary experts, Food and Agriculture Minister Ester Brauer has finally withdrawn her
claim that eating bananas can lead to
Peyronie's Disease in men.
Farmers have also challenged her over whether she is suitable for the position she holds, because she is a vegetarian. A spokesperson for the National Farmers Union said:
Without wanting to get party political or anti-communist or anything, we feel it is reasonable to point out that somebody who is a self-declared vegetarian and has publicly said she opposes eating meat both on ethical and health grounds, as Brauer has done, is not in the best position to promote Dorvish agricultural produce - and that is meant to be one of the key roles of the Food and Agriculture Ministry.
Pfeiffer tells kids not to sing the national anthem at school assemblyEducation Minister Friedrich Pfeiffer visited a school in Haldor today, and had an opportunity to speak to pupils at their school assembly. During his speech, he told them:
I don't mind if you don't sing the national anthem, even though we have a silly law in this country which says schoolchildren are meant to sing it every day. As Education Minister, I'm telling you that if you don't want to sing, or you just want to mime, that's absolutely fine as far as I'm concerned. It is a grave injustice that anybody is forced to sing the national anthem, because it is a symbol of the values of the unfair bourgeois capitalist society we live in.
The school's headmaster later commented:
I have no strong view one way or the other over whether children are required to sing the national anthem at school assembly, but I do feel that given we have a law saying we have to do this, it is not helpful for the Education Minister to tell kids not to join in. It's undermining school discipline and the spirit of the school.
An editorial in a popular newspaper accused Pfeiffer of "having a sulk because the Staatsrat didn't agree to
change the national anthem to Hulstro-Mikuni".
Weinreich "not fit to be Internal Affairs Minister", says former Haldor City Police ChiefUlrich Lehmann, the retired former Chief Police Constable of Haldor City Police Force, has accused Anton Weinreich of being "a disgrace to the police force and not a fit person to be Internal Affairs Minister".
He was referring to the Minister's famously wild youth. Weinreich has a colourful background, having spent 4 years in prison for his role in a failed bank robbery orchestrated by a radical communist group he belonged to called the Revolutionary Workers Front. He was the youngest member of the gang to be jailed, aged just 16 at the time. In his early 20s, he was jailed for 3 months after getting into an ugly fight with a fellow Metzist who argued a different interpretation to him of Karlstein Metz's Labour Theory of Value. In his early 30s, he was sent to jail for another 3 month sentence for his persistent role in organising the takeover of unoccupied private properties by homeless squatters in Trelin, where there was a serious housing shortage at the time.
Weinreich responded to Lehmann's comments by saying:
I do understand and respect his concerns, but as I have said before, I have repented for my past, and I have moved on, and I do believe in having a society which gives people a second chance, as I have been given. I feel my personal experience, including experience of the criminal justice and prison systems, has given me a certain added insight into some of the issues facing the Internal Affairs Ministry. I am very humbled and honoured to be at the head of this ministry, working with a very wide range of highly dedicated and brilliant professionals.