November 14, 4500
Record Growth in Legionary Faith Movement Following Supreme Leader Chizânescu's "Monkey Speech"Above: Some supporters of the National Legion's human-chimpanzee hybridization program have begun publicly displaying this so-called "New Monkuzaki" flag.CNEKK -- The Legionary Faith, a new religious movement which began in Kizenia in the 4470s, gained over 1.8 million new adherents following Supreme Legionary Leader and former Prime Minister Ion Mihai Chizânescu's so-called "Monkey Speech". This bring's the total number of Faithful Legionaries to over 9.2 million, a record high.
Although Chizânescu lost the 4500 presidential election to Samira Avdeeva by almost 7 million votes, the National Legion nevertheless gained ten seats in the United Chamber of Deputies, while Liberté et Egalité (LeE) lost the same. Chizânescu hailed the record show of support for the Kizenian National Legion and the significant increase in public interest in membership in the Legionary Faith movement as signs that his call for human-chimpanzee hybridization is being taken more seriously than many "smug Libertarians, Egalitarians, and Corrupt Confederates" had initially anticipated.
"Balmoxis willing, we, Faithful Legionaries of the Kizenian National Legion, will blend man and chimpanzee, and thereby save the Kizenian nation" Chizânescu proclaimed in his concession speech at the Cathedral of the National Legion in Cetatea Albă, a statement which was met with enthusiastic applause from the thousands of Faithful Legionaries in attendance. "If the neo-colonialist New Endralonians and Kuzaks will not either repatriate themselves to their homelands so that we can decolonize our glorious nation, the least they can do is blend themselves with the Simian race, so that the Kizenian people might more easily develop an ethno-national consciousness, seeing these foreign invaders for the alien creatures they are!" the Supreme Legionary added.
The "Monkey Speech" was believed to have shocked even many long time adherents of the Legionary Faith movement, but analysts now believe that, with the movement's unprecedented growth, Faithful Legionaries are doubling down and embracing the bizarre transhumanist ideology which the upper echelons of the Faithful Legionary hierarchy have begun to enthusiastically proclaim. While critics of the Legion expected the far-right party to perform disastrously in the last elections following the widely ridiculed "Monkey Speech", many are now arguing that the Legionary Faith's religious worldview needs to be seriously reckoned with. "We need to stop taking the National Legion's fascistic ideology as a joke," said Iulian Endraleanu, speaking on behalf of Kizenians United Against Racism. "Their influence has been steadily growing for years. The Legionaries are using memes like the 'New Monkuzaki flag' to attract young people to their cause. It's a real threat to democratic values and norms," Endraleanu added.
In Legionary Faith Schools throughout the Confederacy, where administrators regularly require students to memorize and recite long-winded prayers addressed to Chizânescu, who in recent years has begun to demand that all Faithful Legionaries address him as "National Father", a new 45-minute long prayer entitled "Hail the Humanzee, Hail our National Father" has begun to be recited at the start of each school day.