Narikaton and Darnussia

[Arizal1]

A new conservatism organizes
December 3902

Yesterday, the Demokrat Konservativen Partei (DKP) has been found. Its leader, Watlher Alberts, announced that the great preoccupations of his party are the rapidly diluting moral values of his fellow citizens and the enduring tensions between the country's two founding people.

"We must trust the people! Giving to the local governments a greater say is a must in a country as diverse as ours. Trying to impose liberal ideals to the masss divides us. We seek to restore our old traditions and most of all our proven values where we can do it while pushing for more power from the regions.

We love our country more than anything else, but we see that even its name incites its people to feel alien in it. We would like to find a new name for our great union. We didn't find it yet, but one day we hope all the parts of this collection of provinces will be under one flag and one country."

The leader didn't uttered a word about his economic position, but some inquiry with the members of the party learned to us that the Party has will most likely support a mild indirect implication of the State while advocating for a place for the private sector and a "reasonnable" amount of regulation.

[MichaelReilly]

New General Secretary decries 'stagnation' of the Communist Party
- Anton Levsedov is elected by the Politburo to the post of General Secretary of the Communist Party
- New leader is seen as a 'fresh face' by observers, replacing the ageing Hauptman
- Shirer and von Mackenheimer among those replaced in major shakeup of the Central Commitee

THE NEWLY elected General Secretary of the Communist Party Anton Levsedov has astonishingly attacked the record of his predecessors in a speech to the Central Committee. Standing before those who had just chosen him to be their new leader, he attacked the 'stagnation' in the party, and accused the previous leadership of cronyism, conservatism as well as indifference to the people. The Communist Party, he argued, had become a party of career politicians; an institutionalised organisation.

The former farm labourer and trade-union organiser from Alkavon, 47, has been called different by observers and described as a 'fresh face'. In a party dominated by ethnically Kozer members of the urban working-class, a relatively young ethnically Jewish leader with a rural background could turn out to be a shock for the ageing yet cosy establishment of the party. The central committee has already seen a shakeup as astoundingly, Levsedov has removed highly established and respected members Robert Shirer, 74, and Paul von Mackenheimer, 79. With Hauptman himself replaced at age 78, this purge may be seen has moving towards a younger, more liberal and open party.

[Arizal1]

Despite Numerous Disagreements, the Coalition Holds
April 3906

Made in 3905 on proposition of the Demokrat Konservativen Partei (DKP), the coalition uniting three of the four parties represented in in Narikaton and Darnussia Reichstag is continuing despite the numerous disagreement it faces : on the homosexual status, on the opportunity of an independant national bank, on the animals rights, and so on. The Conservatives (DKP), the Nationalists and the Liberals (Individual Liberty Party) routinely vote against each other without the affairs of the government being endangered by those disagreements. The third party leader and creator of the coalition, Watlher Alberts, explains this unlikely cooperation by "a common attachment to our old values of democracy" and by the fact no budget has yet been presented by the coalition, which functions under the same credits than the late Black-Yellow coalition.

Nobody seems to have been willing to take advantage of the situation by selling his support for some reforms or some minister and even the communists didn't try any manoeuver endangering the agreement, which should hold at least until the end of 3908, when the Zentrum will most likely elect its first mps in a Reichstag which will then have no less than five highly different political parties represented in a little more than 400 seats.

[OneTime]

Left Guilds Commit to Darnusssian Revolution
November 12, 3913





ZDR supporters after the unification was announced

Doressa, Kozaria- The leading left-oriented guilds in Darnussia and Narikaton have organized behind peasant farmer turned president of the Guild of the Socialist Phalanx of Darnussia Ludger Geier, who has called for a proletarian upheaval and full scale revolution in Darnussia and Narikaton with the aim to establish a state directly led by the proletariat, dismissing the traditional communist dictatorship of the proletariat as an archaic form of Capitalist dictatorship disguised as socialism. During the unification meeting organized by Geier, the biggest socialist and communist guilds, known as the big four (Guild of the Socialist Phalanx of Darnussia, Guild of Organized Peasants, Guild of Narikatonian Laborers and the United Guild of Teachers) voted to unite into one representative guild advocating for Geier's idea of a natural proletarian state to replace the current robber baron system.The union is collectively known as the Zunft fur eine Darnussen Revoluzionen or Guild for a Darnussian Revolution. Speaking at the unification session, Geier called the current robber baron system as an atrocious excuse for democracy, with our homeland being sold to the highest bidder by the internationalist robber barons in office. We must ensure that our homeland survives the decade, and our only option is to free the proletarian masses and end this plutocratic atrocity being committed upon us, and that may require more than ballots, brothers and sisters, Geier said. The Guild has already presented the first phases of its revolutionary economic, helthcare and foreign policy plans before the Reichstag, with little hope that the robber barons in office will approve them.

Keine Demokratie ohne eine Arbeiterrevolution!

[Arizal1]

Albor Alberts threatened

Watlher Alberts, the Gemeinwesen's Albor since 3909, is likely to not be elected on the next general elections which are to be in 3921. His party is now the third in the country, and only the official support of the ARVP allowed him to keep the power.

The DKP was always a party advocating for some extreme solutions to social problems, but its public support for broadcasted executions made some among his partisans wonder where their party is going. There is now in the party a movement in the making of people wishing to moderate the party discourse, which is increasigly seen as disconnected from broad parts of the society. The executives of the party appears divised on which course to take, wanting to resist to the urges to abandon too much of what has formed it and to prevent its demise into a radical right party which nobody would listen to anymore.

Some recent changes in the composition of the executives of the local branches of the party points toward a softening of the party's positions, but those changes could take some time to be heard by the heads of the democratic party. It remains to be seen what reorientation the party will - or will not - operate and if it will be able to keep being in the government. The communists refusal to be in any government surely gives it a good chance.

[Arizal1]

The Right Firmly in Power in the Gemeinwesen

The last elections finally saw the two parties of the right, the DKP and the National Party, be able to gain together a majority in the Reichstag. While the DKP is the party which counts the most mps, the people decided to finally oust Walther Alberts from the Albor position.

Surprinsingly, though, it is not a leftist nor a centrist which inherited the power. The Individual Liberty Party indeed fell short of the second place in the first round, which gave way to Matthew von Zartem, the National Party's candidate. The left was desperate enough to support him over Alberts.

Jan Brunsiek, the Kanzler, announced that he will seek to share the power with the National Party. Since the Zentrum is no longer necessary in order for him to keep the power, while he said he appreciated the collaboration, he parted with his old coalition partner. The Kanzler reminded the electors that the DKP strives for the privacy of the citizens and for the traditional values.

[BlueGold10]

ENDKP DELIVERS SWEEP IN MAY ELECTIONS

It is not often that the political ground shifts before our very eyes. It is not often that a nation changes direction entirely. But this May, May 4001, we saw an earthquake in Merenbürg. The Einheitlich N&D Konservativ Partei, in only their second election, has taken a majority in the Rijksdag and put their leader, Daan Johannes, in the office of the Kanselier.

The ENDKP came into being in 3995, a party founded as an outlet for the unrepresented conservative movement in the Commonwealth. The party won 71 seats in the Rijksdag in the 3997 elections, but were unable to prevent Social Democrat initiatives or push their own policy due to the electoral imbalance. This was not for lack of trying. The ENDKP has proposed a number of initiatives intent on moving national policy to the right in the arenas of environmental regulation, abortion law, religious freedom, euthanasia law, and labor rights. These proposals were squashed by the vast Social Democrat majority, but in the process they brought the ENDKP to the national stage, which paid off this May in extravagant fashion. Their latest bill was written to give the intelligence services a wider range of action and to institute a draft in the event of national catastrophe. With the new ENDKP majority arriving in the middle of its debate phase, it looks like this proposal will be the first ENDKP initiative to become law.

This election marks a dramatic shift in the Merenbürg landscape. For decades, the Commonwealth has had an effective one-party system, with opposition parties either too small to be effective or downright nonexistent. This election has firmly established a new era in Commonwealth politics, an era of two powerful competing parties. The Rijksdag is split 105-95 in favor of the ENDKP and the first act on the agenda of the ENDKP is the removal of the Liberale Sociaal Democraten cabinet under the legendary Darnussian Rijksminister Tim van Openen. It is to be replaced with an ENDKP cabinet under Johannes' lieutenant Jan Ebeling.

This is more groundbreaking than most realize. Tim van Openen has been a fixture in Merenbürg ever since his election in the LSD Revolution of December 3970, when he was appointed as head of government under Direkteur Robert Holthuijsen. He served as such until 3976 when he was elected Direkteur in his own right. Van Openen oversaw the transition of the Head of State from Direkteur to Kanselier and remained Kanselier until 3992, when he again became Rijksminister under Social Democrat Kanselier Renate Lienitz. For 30 years, van Openen has been a power broker in the capital. The fact that he is being brushed aside by the ENDKP indicates that this truly is the passing of the torch, the changing of eras.

Senior insiders in the ENDKP have indicated that, once his cabinet is in place, Johannes intends to move forward with his military affairs legislation. Other priorities include a massive expansion in the Commonwealth's global diplomatic engagement, the strengthening of the Navy, and second tries at the reforms championed by the ENDKP before the fateful day in May 4001.

[BlueGold10]

Kanselier Johannes To Accept Beiteynese Refugees

The international community has for the most part stood by as a program of unprecedented ethnic suppression saw it's birth across the Migrant's Pass in the Yeudish State of Beiteynu. The one-party government under President Gal Grunbaum has engaged in a campaign to ensure the continued dominance of the Yeudish demographic in Beiteynu, and the Yishelem Tribute of Beiteynu has documented a stunning campaign of aggression against the non-Yeudish. The Beiteynese have engaged in the construction of a wall around their whole landward border to prevent "illegal immigration." They have also been documented razing minority settlements from the air. 67,000 minorities have been detained without trial, and there are rumors of torture, execution, and special internment camps in the Beiteynese countryside. Such terms may well be called genocide.

The recently reelected Kanselier Johannes, flanked by Minister Landsteiner and Minister Krieger, announced in a speech to the Rijksdag that the Commonwealth was in negotiations with the Yeudish Republic to take in refugees from Beiteynu. As part of the announcement, the Kanselier denounced the "heavy-handed, racist, and nigh-barbaric" stance taken by President Grunbaum's government. He continued to state that, as a diverse nation of all religious creeds, it is the Commonwealth's duty to use it's tremendous surplus and national means to protect those who the Yeudish government would destroy. He proposed a plan to impose government-compensated service quotas for the nation's transportation conglomerates for the purpose of refugee transportation, as well as a plan to funnel some of the Commonwealth's 161 billion DAR surplus towards building temporary housing in Kozaria for the refugees. A final tenet of the Kanselier's proposal would allow the refugees to use the Commonwealth's diplomatic apparatus to acquire visas and citizenship in any country of their choice.

The proposal already has the requisite number of votes to pass, with the whole ENDKP pledging support to their leader. Based on this observation, it would appear that the Commonwealth is leading the charge on humanitarian efforts in the war-ravaged continent of Majatra.

[BlueGold10]

GOVERNMENT RESTRUCTURED

With the passage of the groundbreaking Macht Zentralisationgesetz, the position of Rijksminister, most recently occupied by Jan Ebeling, has been abolished. The offices and powers of the Head of Government have, as of July 4005, devolved on the Head of State, the Kanselier. Needless to say, this is another upheaval of convention by a party which seems to derive joy from upending the status quo.

The Rijksminister Emeritus, Jan Ebeling, gave the announcement in the well of the Rijkstag after the passage of the amendment, surprising those who expected Kanselier Johannes to make the statement. Ebeling reiterated the ENDKP party line on the topic, emphasizing the disparity in government which reigned during the divided government under Kanselier Lienitz and Rijksminister van Openen. "It is folly for the voice and the mind of the Commonwealth to be separate," Ebeling proclaimed in his speech to massive ovations from the ENDKP side of the chamber. "If the Kanselier speaks for the Commonwealth, and the Rijksminister decides for the Commonwealth, it is foolishness to drive a wedge between the roles in tradition's name alone. Those who guide this nation must be in agreement; separate offices serve only to breed discord. Therefore, I resign the office of Rijksminister, pursuant to the abolishment of that office and the investiture of it's powers in our elected Kanselier." Kanselier Johannes, on the stage beside him, proceeded to take a new oath of office which invested him with the powers of the Kanselier and the Rijksminister alike.

The reaction to the event has generally been perceived as positive in the Commonwealth community, though the support has by no means been unanimous. Reactions have ranged. For the most part, the people seem satisfied. A demographic of radical devolutionists have taken to the networks and Internet to decry the "rise of totalitarianism" in Narikaton and Darnussia. One the other end, some of the more radical ENDKP supporters have started a campaign for the return of the Empire of old and the crowning of Emperor Daan I. The Office of the Kanselier has issued no statement on the topic.

Rijksminister Ebeling, in the meantime, has not vacated his position for retirement, far from it. He has instead taken a position as the chairman of the ENDKP, a position with a considerable degree of flexibility than his recent post. Sources within the party say that he is, for now, Johannes's favored successor if it comes to that.

[BlueGold10]

DAAN JOHANNES: EMPIRE REBORN
An op-ed by the Pacifists of Narikaton and Darnussia

Daan Johannes must think himself invincible. In a little over ten years, he has rebuilt the Commonwealth in his image. With a minimal legislative record over the past 5 years, his party still retained a supermajority in the Rijkstag and he himself was reelected to the office of Kanselier a second time. Furthermore, as of last month, his opposition, the Social Democrats of Darnussia, dissolved, leaving their remaining delegates uncoordinated and easy prey for their ENDKP challengers come next election. Narikaton and Darnussia have come full circle - from one single-party monopoly to another.


Kanselier Johannes addresses a Rijkstag committee on the expansion of military spending

With newfound governmental impunity in his pocket, Kanselier Johannes appears to have decided on a new course for Narikaton and Darnussia. A far more militaristic course. The budget passed by the ENDKP in 4005 contained annual defense expenditure increases to the tune of 80 billion rupan. This investment, upheld over the past 4 years, is starting to see fruit. The submarine subgroup of the naval branch of Commonwealth Military Development, the military’s R&D shop, has announced significant advances in their chief operation, Project X-Sub 4005. This project aims to design a new class of Commonwealth attack submarines, tentatively named the Red Stad-class. If the data released by CMD is at all valid, the nascent Red Stad and its successors will be some of the quietest and most lethal submarines in Terran waters to date.
The Commonwealth has come slowly to submarine technology. Though our aircraft carriers and surface elements are a point of high national pride and praise, our undersea force is disproportionately undersized and, for that matter, obsolete. The submarines filling the pens at Migrant Islands are primarily diesel powered, with obsolete sonar and a signature that makes them far too easily detectable. In short, they have slipped well behind the curve. The submariners are of excellent quality, as are the munitions, thanks to the proud Nariki naval tradition, but the tools of their trade, historic though they are, just aren’t cutting it. Rumbles from the Ministry of Defense, however, indicate that such things may be changing. Minister Hoffman, the ambitious Defense Minister of the Commonwealth, and his admirals have discussed their intention to pursue an aggressive expansion of the Commonwealth’s sub-surface capabilities. The Chief Admiral himself, Admiral Laurenz Neuhäusser, has said that “in the age of tracking missiles, satellites, and long-range bombers, an asset capable of hiding beneath the waves is indispensable. In fact, what with a surface armada’s vulnerability to tracking and multi-spectrum attacks, a submarine is quite possibly a better investment than even an aircraft carrier.” When a former carrier group commander like Neuhäusser talks like this, it means something.

Perhaps more chilling, however, is the new base which has sprung up nigh-overnight on Empress Antoinette’s Isle. It’s the fourth biggest of the Migrant Islands, the small archipelago midway between the Nariki islands and Darnussia. The Migrant Islands are host to the Migrant Islands Naval Base, a massive naval base and training ground which occupies the whole archipelago. Even the town, Lusitan, is mostly military housing. The whole archipelago is a military province, especially after the funding increase. There, the navy rules the day. However, the flattop fiefdom has shrunk, seeing as Empress Antionette’s Isle has been repurposed for another military initiative: cyber warfare.

We have not been able to access satellite photographs of the site, and air and naval traffic do not travel lightly around the Migrant Islands as a matter of course. What we did find was an eyewitness account from a source who shall remain undescribed. “Massive arrays of telecommunications dishes have sprouted up like a forest,” they said. “The buildings are full of desks and computers and the biggest servers you can imagine, enough to handle all the data flow of the Commonwealth and then some. What’s scarier, though is the minds. The new arrivals are hackers in uniform, and they’re good. The government’s investments in science and technology education? All for this. The advertisements for Cyber Division? Every recruit will come here. The Cyber Division isn’t just for defense anymore. This place wasn’t made to harden our systems or develop safer protocols. This place is built for attack, and everything on the ‘Net is within their reach.”

The base is registered as the headquarters of the Commonwealth Armed Forces Signals Command, Cyber Division. The Signals Command is responsible for the communications of the armed forces, the Cyber Division for the defense of the nation’s cyber network. They’ve had this mission for decades, and by most accounts they have done well, cooperating with law enforcement to secure the Commonwealth’s infrastructure and protect against commercial and strategic hacks. It seems, however, that the militant ENDKP plan on turning that power to offense: their personal attack dog on the web. Watch your computers, Terra.