Narikaton and Darnussia

[mrcricketer]

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1952&p=193450#p193450

[GreekIdiot]

Beiteynu
Medinat Dpt. seeks extended ties with Bannerhafen to stabilise Yeudish trade - May 5444

[Mbites]

Road to 5450: Another VVP Chancellor

Bannerhafen, November, VVP Headquarters: Moderately good mood and mostly smiling faces greeted the observer, like the last two elections, the VVP maintained its large relative majority and the party officials were already getting a hot ear on their phones talking to their VAP counterparts. After a rather short round of negotiations the two parties which already partnered up for the decade decided to give it another shot even though the biggest winner of the election was the oppositional Progressive Technocratic Party, gaining 14 seats overcoming the VAP and gaining some ground on the conservatives. So it was decided that the VVP once again maintains its government-leading positions with its new chairman and Staatskanzler Wilhelm Paul Zweihänder (shortened to W.P.Z.). Our new chancellor is from a public point of view a rather blank slate, the 34 year old has an academic background as a professor for history at the University of Merenbürg and is an untypical character for the VVP: young and not from a managerial or ex-nobility background. Experts put him into the authoritarian democratic wing of the conservative party which has been rather silent during both Kanzlei and Feldbach more pragmatic administrations. Other important changes in cabinet personell include the appointment of former center-left, now VVP politician Sebastian Siebenstein as minister of defence as well as the incubent of the foreign ministry, Ulrich auf Pappen, kin of the infamous auf Pappen Chancellor in the 45th century.

New names, old policy?
While the last months of the Ferdinand Kanzlei Coalition saw peaceful growth and no major news after its final hurrahs seen in the reconciliation and parntership with Malivia as well as the re-establishment of friendly relations with Selucia, the new W.P.Z. cabinet and its Auf Pappen Foreign ministry already continue the trend of increasing dual-republican relevancy on the international stage, this time by re-affirming the bond with an old friend, the Kundrati Union. The two artanian nations signed a treaty of friendship in 4854 and since then have maintained friendly relations, even if the channel went a little silent over the last decades, there have been no known quarrels between them (or any major cooperative projects). Minister Auf Pappen and his ministry apparently seek to change that fact. He and his Kundrati counterpart Benedikt Havel planned a state-visit, with the minister of the dual-republic flying over to Kundrati together with his entourage of corporate representatives, even including the CEO of Thaller Cola, Peter Thaller, since there have been rumors going around that Kundrati President Stemberg extensively enjoys the soft-drink. According to the list provided by the secretary to the foreign ministry the points of talking include: the building of a thaller-cola plant to provide the thirsty Kundrati markets, the purchase of ships from Kundrati-shipyards in the context of dual-republican naval modernization and re-militarization and of course the symbolic handshake event to re-affirm the historic partnership. Political pundits expected some sort of activity between the Union and the Dual-republic, many are surprised that it took this long. A potential explanation theorizes that both parties wanted to wait and clear the air around the positions on the Migrant's Pass crisis.

Meatballs and.... hummus
According to very speculative rumors, the actual governments of Beiteynu and Narikaton & Darnussia opened channels to negotiate the official positions towards each other. While no one expects a hostile attitude, the relation remains complicated. The two trade-republics are tied together by their respective economies but from a diplomatic standpoint both were ever-watchful not to become too close. This apparently is changing with the so-called "Divorce" of Beiteynu and Lourenne. Since dual-republican shipping took off and replaced Yeudi services in certain scenarios, its in the best interest of Beiteynu to bind their direct competitor to them, which for their standards, is a way too obvious scheme. They might already see Narikaton & Darnussia as part of their sphere with them joining JAMS and fulfilling the obligations which that entails, in any case, this development will change the whole stage.

[Mbites]

Foreign Minister of Dual-Republic comments on "Divorce"

In the tight and busy office spaces of the foreign ministry and halls connecting never-ending bullpens, we managed to catch the minister himself Ulrich auf Pappen, we asked him to comment on the infamous dissolution of the hardest soft power alliance to ever see the light of Terra, the Beiteynu-Lourenne situation. Herr auf Pappen smirked mischievously, seemingly a little buzzed and answered: "Well.. well.. it was only a question of time until the meddler and the idealist part ways again. And I am telling you, since there is no reason for this counterbalance alliance to exist, they will drift further apart. I am confident that this is going to be the pragmatist, opportunist and thal- cough- meritocratic half of the millenium. Gott erhalte die Doppelrepublik!"

[Mbites]

The Midway Channel Project

August 5445, Bannerhafen-Manapo, Presshall of the Foreign Ministry of Narikaton & Darnussia:

It is noon, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Trade announced a joint press-conference together with until now unknown foreign counterparts.
Speculations from before only threw a "very expensive but world changing" project around the room and wild numbers the government would apparently sink into the project.
Nobody expected what the announcement was until they saw the actors come onto the stage together, the Ministers Tatsuno Ninsei and Kudou Taki from Midway together with Ulrich auf Pappen (VVP) and Albert Schipkate (VVP).
In a strange mixture of a heavy tone and excitement in his voice auf Pappen gave a quick nod to his Midway-counterpart and announced the construction of the Midway Channel. Behind the Quartett of ministers, a digital presentation sprung up
showing the exact location of the to-be-constructed channel, followed by a broad overview of the project. The Construction is going to happen in three stages. The first stage will consist of an extensive planning phase with enginneers and other relevant specialists meeting to provide the best possible solution for the channel. Unsurprisingly the second stage is going to be the construction phase which will cost up to 20 billion DAR, with the cost being almost exclusively carried by the dual-republic. During the third and final stage of the project, there will be security and sustainability measurements as well as tests to ensure that everything is working as intended. As a final step in the project the governments of Midway and Narikaton and Darnussia are going to establish the "Midway Channel Administration Board" in which the two are going to coordinate any issues that might come up. Further interesting details include that the dividends of channel usage are going to be divided slightly in favor of the dual-republic with 60% going to it and the rest going to the partners in Midway. In exchange for this deal, the government of Midway has reserved itself the right to veto certain decisions. Political experts were shocked by these announcements as they have expected Narikaton and Darnussia to steer towards partners in Dovani but not to this degree, the construction of the Midway channel would directly connect a large number of nations to the sea trade of the world. The W.P.Z. government has confirmed that it is actively trying to open channels toward the nations impacted by the channel construction.

[Mbites]

Staatspräsident Melichar to meet President Gundić

The historically connected nations of Deltaria and Narikaton & Darnussia have announced a state-visit of Staatspräsident Sebastian Melichar to Deltaria. He is going to fly over together with Foreign Minister Ulrich Auf Pappen and Trade Minister Albert Schipkate. While the two have not maintained close relations in the past centuries, a former dynastic history and close cooperations still weigh on the spirit of the two people's. According to polls, Darnussians and Nariks still see deltarians as "brethren-people." In an attempt to capitalize on this attitude the Auf Pappen's ministry reached out and was met by an open ear by President Gundic and his Union. On the official agenda published by the press-secretary of the presidential chancellory stood only a symbolic handshake event. Experts speculate that there is probably more going on behind the scenes, especially with the deltarian military-industrial complex rejuvenating via a temporary increase in defensive spending and the dual-republic slowly starting to re-militarize.

[GreekIdiot]

Beiteynu
Kirlawa and N&D to join the Yeudish Neset; Kirlawa joins JAMS - June 5446

[Mbites]

Construction Phase of Midway Channel begins
After extensive planning, the announcement of the beginning of the second stage of the midway channel excites business and foreign affair partners around the dual-republican trade network.
According to the officials responsible for the PR work for the project, the channel is set to be ready 5456, so ten years from now. "There might be hindrances we cannot account for right now, we're all eager to connect nations such as Ostland and New-Verham to global trade via sea but beg everyone to be patient."

Parliament passes Weapon-Trading Liberalization and Nuclear Development Act
There have been a bunch of military-focused bills hitting the parliament floor, most of them fit into the modernizations plans of the government such as the complete relaxation of bureaucratic challenges in arms-ex and imports but there also has been one bill which raised eyebrows, the nuclear development act, which passed with unanimous support from the opposition. It allows the storage, research and production of Nuclear Weapons, when asked Defence Minister Sebastian Siebenstein answered calmly "We understand how this looks, but this is a legalistic issue, we can ensure everyone reading this in the paper that there are no intentions from us to do any of the now -technically- allowed activities. This is purely for scientific purposes."

Other News:
Dual-Republic to ratify Yeudish-Neset treaties in now officialized diplomatic channels with Beiteynu.

Politischer Beobachter
Politischer Beobachter (Political Observer is a domestic-focused political magazine authored by Maximilian Herrforst, a political analyst with the University of Oderveldhafen)
VVP and the hidden chaos

With the last election perpetuating the cycle of a relative majority ever so close to the absolute majority, the VVP sits at a crossroads between pragmatism and the vision they have for Narikaton & Darnussia. While the pragmatists under Kanzlei and now Wilhelm Paul Zweihänder had a good run with their partners from the center-left VAP, there has been a growing discontent in the authoritarian and former monarchist camps. To understand the power dynamics inside this dominant political force we have to first look at the interest groups making it up. The largest group is the bourgeious conservative core base block from which most of the local and state-level politicians hail from. They are pragmatists through and through, they form the power behind the last two chairmen of the party, while the most important issue for this faction is mainly economics they let themselves be influenced by the more ideologically steered power blocs like the second biggest force, the authoritarians, they seek to control the nation with an iron fist because according to them "the people can't be trusted with their own luck." of course there are multiple types and colours of these politicians, they do agree on hosian conservative values and a high degree of statism e.g. the militarization of police forces. The last and actually most powerful group is the corporate connection, they do not appear on the surface but they hold most of the power inside the party, they unite most of the big pocket donors behind them from both old and new money, important CEO's such as those from Passschiffe AG, Minenhandwerks GmbH and Thaller Industries can be seen among them. They have been holding the party together for the past decades due to them being placated with foreign policy concessions and tax gifts. Recently there were going rumors around about troubles inside the corporate bloc, some of them appeared to have developed principles and ideals, which are in fact the most dangerous influence for the continued dominance and survival of the VVP. The current Sebastian Melichar presidency and the Zweihänder Chancellory duo might still look like everything is in order but trouble is brewing and this dual-republic life is based on its political right-wing playing along.

[GreekIdiot]

Beiteynu
Chocofalafel hits the streets of Himmelshtern - August 5446

[Mbites]

Early Elections bring VVP majority

The March 5447 early elections provoked by the sudden dissolution of the center-left VAP, the junior partner in government, saw the senior partner in the coalition, the VVP rise to little over 50% of the votes achieving an absolute majority and securing another presidency. While it did grant the VVP moderately more power, it actually shrunk the total government majority of Chancellor Wilhelm Paul Zweihänder. Speculations for the reasons of the sudden dissolution of the VAP vary, most think that its left voter base has had enough of its pragmatism and the enshrinement of VVP government dominance the VAP was responsible for. Now, Zweihänder governs alone but with little chances of finding 2/3 majorities for signing treaties or changing constitutional affairs. According to the author of the Political Observer, this is going to radicalze the conservative party in the long run due to the limited power they hold and no partner to placate anymore. Comments of VVP politicians and officials alreadys show signs of increased anti-oppositional and democratic sentiment. The next party conference is set to be in 5450, the results of which will certainly change the political situation the dual-republic finds itself in.