Maredoratican News Depository

by **Prekonate** » Sat Nov 19, 2016 8:05 pm

PREKOVI ARMY SEIZES KEY REBEL TOWN, BRINGING END OF CONFLICT INTO SIGHT

Ortaca - The Prekovi Army declared Chrastava secure today, marking the latest in a series of Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MAXH) strongholds to fall to security forces.

Prekonate's military has been engaged in heavy fighting in eastern Prekonate since September. Mongol resistance, led by the MAXH, has so far been successful in keeping the Army out of the populated northern part of the Red River Valley, but recent Prekovi victories have cast doubt on the Mongols' ability to keep fighting.

The Maredoratic League warned that Mongolic civilians were being targeted more frequently now that the Prekovis were advancing again. International observers believe that at least two thousand Mongols and have died so far in the fighting, amid claims of ethnic cleansing. The Prekovi government has denied those charges, saying that it is taking steps to avoid civilian casualties.

The Prekovi government issued a statement that operations in the east were almost at an end, and that order would be restored to the Mongolic regions soon.

But local politicians remain skeptical. Jaroslav Hašek, head of the Liberal Party, said that the war was being intentionally prolonged to distract from social and economic unrest, particularly over the institution of compulsory marriage. In Prekonate, girls must accept a marriage proposal if they are unemployed, and with with youth unemployment at record highs, girls are increasingly being compelled to marry against their will. Protests over compulsory marriage tapered off as media focus shifted to the war, but have not completely gone away.

Languages: French | English | Arabic
© 2016 La Resistance

by **Mont Jumieges** » Thu Nov 24, 2016 10:32 am

VIEUXBOIS DEFEATS BÜHL: REACHES OUT TO THE REST OF THE WORLD

As the smoke clears from the heated presidential campaign, Théogène Vieuxbois stands triumphant with an impressive, though unsurprising 66.41% of the popular vote. Vieuxbois’ controversial contender, Rudolf Bühl, who caused a stir by calling him an “ape” and a “Viking,” has congratulated him and will take up the position as Secretary of the Leiselheim Corpity. Throughout his campaign, Vieuxbois has delivered a clear message of hope that the UDSC can successfully transition into a fairer society for all its citizens. Below is the speech he presented live on television following the announcement of his victory.

“Thank you, thank you… [APPLAUSE] What an honour… [APPLAUSE] Truly, what an honour. I am tremendously appreciative of all the support I have received, the length and breadth of this nation. I could never have imagined such loyalty… the degree of such loyalty… and all of the blessings bestowed upon me during this very hard-fought presidential campaign. I wish to congratulate my primary opponent, Mr. Rudolf Bühl for his great sportsmanship and service to our country. It must be said… and was indeed said throughout the course of the past few months… Mr. Bühl and I disagree considerably on a number of key issues. But, let it be known, we agree on so much more… so much more. I wish him every form of success in his future political endeavours, I sincerely do. I would also like to thank my family, friends and the staff of my campaign team, their fortitude will forever delight me and make me proud.

Now, the verdict has been delivered. You have determined I will become the first president of this country… It is now time to pull up our socks and get down to business. I made a promise to always work in the UDSC’s best interests… I told you time and time again, ‘national interest ahead of self-interest.’ I intend firmly to uphold that very promise... [APPLAUSE] But smooth transition takes cooperation and contribution from each and every one of you. It is of my belief that every citizen has his or her own individual role to play in making this country a better one, a stronger one. We can only become better and stronger with unity, and unity takes love, patience and togetherness. Hate must never divide us, love will forever unite us. I am prepared to dedicate my entire mental and physical capabilities to this office… the office of the president… I want so very much to see our country prosper and to see this transition pass as swimmingly as possible. I want nothing more… [APPLAUSE] Therefore, I extend my warmest cordial regards to all other nations of this world that share our vision of togetherness and lasting peace and prosperity. To those who support us, we ought to return that gesture of support. However, to those who oppose us, our reaction shall be equally decisive…

Of course… [INTERRUPTED BY LOUD APPLAUSE] Thank you, this is so gratifying… Now, of course, I have spoken before about why exactly a revolution was necessary… Perhaps, to many, my views against militarisation are hypocritical and nonsensical… But, the reality is, the people of this country… those of you gathered here today… or those of you watching or listening, wherever you may be… you needed a revolution to take place. To unfasten the restrictive shackles of an oppressive regime, revolution was needed. I could no longer bear to see so many innocents die at the hands of those only caught up in greed and self-interest. A stand was necessary. Let no one tell you otherwise. [APPLAUSE] All of those house burnings… all of those cases of institutionalised racism… and acts of rape committed by law enforcers towards civilian women… and indeed men… all those in Isiba… all those blameless Jews murdered during the Lone Wolf Rebellion and later incidents… the Low-Styrian Germanics evicted from their homes and forcibly transferred elsewhere in the name of corporate interest… All of these unspeakable acts were brushed aside as unimportant. The very fact Republicanism and Communism were banned. The very fact equal rights for minorities were not discussed. The very fact military expenditure was skyrocketing… All of these unspeakable acts had to be stopped. It was our mission and our calling! [APPLAUSE]

Let this be the last time we fixate ourselves on the pain of the past on such a historic day, a day that marks a new beginning for us all. We are now going to prioritise issues that matter to our society, that matter to a smooth transition… The policies placed in my manifesto are going to be effected with my presidency and I have every bit of confidence in them. I am now in talks with other members of the provisional cabinet on a reshuffle and restructure of certain government departments. I have the greatest of faith that my comrades will cooperate to the best of their high abilities, they too, like me, like you, want to see the UDSC work… which it most certainly will. We will not experience meltdowns, we will not become a failed state or a basketcase in any shape or form. We will be a united, robust unit that will attract investment and arouse envy across the continent and greater world. Work begins now… Thank you, and long life to the Fatherland! [APPLAUSE]”

by **Traxa** » Tue Dec 06, 2016 3:56 am

Top Stories
Alpenfestung snap military exercises underway

Thomas Rosenstock, Minister of defense announced that the Styrian army will, effectively immediately, begin conducting military exercises called Alpine Fortress 2016 consisting of units from the eastern and central military districts which run along the Schaumburg border. The ministry said the drills will last until the end of the month and will include some 135,000 troops of the 9th and 12th field armies as well as elements of the 10th mountain army as well as units from the supporting air fleets for each district.

Alpine Fortress 2016 is planned to last till the end of the month and, as stated by the ministry are being conducted to ensure command continuity and ensure proper integration of units which have been added to both army group central and south commands following redeployment of forces as part of agreements reached with both Borgosesia and Jumieges to draw down troop levels along the respective borders.

The exercises will encompass a wide array of scenarios including opposed river crossings, airdrops behind enemy lines, air superiority and tactical air support missions by frontal aviation fighter units, establishing a ground-based air defense missile umbrella over friendly forces, maneuvers by mechanized and armored formations, urban combat operations, and conducting counter insurgency operations. The exercises are also intended to showcase new military hardware such as the new domestically produced 4.5 and 5th generation fighters the Wanderfalke and Zyklon, as well as the Barwolf main battle tank and Kampfer infantry fighting vehicle.

The ministry downplayed concerns that some may call the unannounced exercises as warmongering or threatening and insisted the exercises were merely to ensure cohesion and fighting efficiency among Styrian army formations and called conjecture that the exercises have larger political implications as "dangerous and irresponsible rhetoric"

by **Pollona** » Mon Dec 12, 2016 11:47 am

Military Preps Silgadin Exercises
Joint Military, Diplomatic Delegation to visit Schaumburg

12.12.16

Andlau -

Pollonan forces stationed in Silgadin have begun planning their annual winter exercises with Silgadinese troops in the northwest of the country near the Michelbach River. Ample snow cover and poor visibility on the slopes were described as "ample training ground" for defensive maneuvers and alpine assault operations. The military maneuvers will contain detachments of light infantry, parachute, and motorized mountain brigades, as well as two wings from the Western Military District. The exercises are expected to begin in the last week of December and last until mid-January.

The Andlau Treaty, re-ratified in early 2016, contained additional provisions calling for exercises in the winter and summer instead of previous "seasonal" maneuvers required every 4 months. The leases on two airbases in Silgadin, both in the central region, were renewed for a period of 15 years.

Breaking: Air Balloon crash hurts
dozens, cause up in the air

Deputies pass Merchant Marine Act
despite backbench opposition

International Sidebar Conference
reaches compromises on studies

In a surprise move, the Military Directorate announced elements of the 65th Mountain and 225th Parachute Brigades would accompany a Pollonan Delegation to Schaumburg. The delegation, including the Alisnan High Comissioner and the Ambassador in Züri, is to take part in an summit on cross border smuggling and mountain rescue procedures. The previously unremarkable meeting is now to become a month long conference. In a Foreign Ministry press release, the department made the following announcement:

"Military collaboration is essential for our cross-border efforts with Schaumburg. We welcome the inclusion of border security personnel who will share their expertise on a variety of subjects. The Foreign Ministry applauds the Military Directorate's security precautions, and has informed the Schaumburger government that these elements will maintain a low profile as possible."

Neither the Foreign Ministry nor the Defense Ministry were available for further comment. When asked if this was in response to other troop movements within the Alpine region, a Defense Ministry spokesman remarked: "The government is continuing its negotiations to ensure lasting peace in Alisna, these efforts do not reflect on the continued training of our men in uniform."

This story is also available in: Češka | Němec | English

Printable Version |

Email to a Friend
( © 2015 ) All rights reserved by Polňá Televizní Systém.

Subscribe to Latest Headlines |

Bookmark This Page

by **Borgosesia** » Thu Jan 05, 2017 5:58 pm

Globo e torcia

IT | EN

Infantry mobilized across the country in drills focused on testing combat readiness in the event of terrorist
activity or foreign invasion (Photo: Ricardo Dinozzo)

Government announces regional military exercises
1.5.2017 19:00

Borgosesian military units across the country are taking part in winter training drills to test preparedness of defense and public safety measures in the event of enemy attack, whether at the hands of terrorists or a foreign state.

Starting this morning and lasting until 13 January, nearly 100 thousand service members from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Republican Guard in Borgosesia proper and Saint Andrew and Saint John will mobilize in response to a variety of simulated threats. Throughout the course of the operation, Borgosesian military personnel will seize temporary control of public safety duties from local law enforcement across Borgosesia's major cities, including Seso and Valsesia. Focus will be placed on simulating response to mock terrorist attacks in populated areas and border incursions by smugglers, terrorists and state actors. Several hundred civilians have been employed by the Ministry for Defense to play the role of victims and terrorist combatants, while some Borgosesian Army units will play the role of "enemy invaders."

"It is important that all elements of the Armed Forces be involved in this sort of training, whether it's in a direct role or in a support-providing role," said Minister for Defense Adriano Cavallo. "Warfare is not waged as it was 30 years ago, or even a decade ago, so we must respond accordingly."

Over the course of the training, elements of the 1st Armored Division and the 2nd Motorized Infantry Division will simulate an invasion from the imaginary country "Dervania," the role of which will be played by other units of those divisions. The simulated invasion from "Dervania" will take place in the north of the country near the border with Silgadin and Styria. The Central Intelligence Group has also reportedly been tasked with practicing intelligence gathering and counter-terrorism exercises amid the simulated 'war zone.'

Meanwhile, the Central Regional Command will simulate a direct attack on Seso by both a foreign power and a terrorist group. The military will work with local law enforcement and emergency responders to quickly contain the simulated threats and practice new tactics. Over the course of the training, military units will move to secure key downtown locations in Seso and Valsesia, including the Chamber of the People, Central Ministry House and the Palace of the Grand Marshal.

According to Defense Minister Cavallo, commanders will operate under the assumption that enemy commanders would target specific targets in the event of an invasion.

"We know what would happen should Dervania ever decide to strike, " Defense Minister Cavallo said. "That would include destruction of information and logistical infrastructure, so we're posing that challenge to commanders and units."

The idea is that, after training, responses can be measured, and appropriate gaps and failures can be addressed.

The training also marks the first military action of newly formed units in St Andrew and St John. The 1st Territorial Guards Brigade will receive training from the Third Fleet Coast Guard in littoral combat and patrol.

In anticipation of traffic slow downs caused by military activities, First Secretary Donato Rizzotti has requested that businesses grant "leniency" to employees "who may be late to work in the coming week."

OTHER NEWS
Prime Minister Maria Ciavarella to announce resignation. Read more >>
Colony of nearly-extinct birds found living in Seso apartment. Read more >>
Should Borgosesia invade Galkayo to stop terrorists? Some say yes. Read more >>

by **Anderin** » Sat Jan 07, 2017 9:04 pm

The Republican
An Poblachtach

An 14ú Geimhreadh 2016
14th December

Tipperay Border Sanctions intensify; Embargo, no-fly zone to follow

Baile Dúin, Anderin - The Commonwealth government continues to accuse the Tipperay Union of genocide in what Tipperay has called its 'security operations' against insurrection, primarily targeted at villages and communities associating with or harboring alleged cells of the Celtic resistance movement in Tipperay. While the Commonwealth Defense Forces have operated military exercises along the tense border in southern Brigantia for the past year, the levels of intensity have risen sharply and noticeably since the 'anti-insurrection operations' and the Ó Neill family incident called the nation to action earlier in the year. The level of sanctions increased today after Uachtarán Mac Siúirtáin convened the State Department of Foreign Affairs to announce and institute a formal embargo in full force on the Anglo-fascist state to the south. In the statement issued by the Uachtarán's office, she indicated the government's measures to enforce a no-fly zone in southern Brigantia and along territorial waters in the region to be put in force by the Republican Air Force and Commonwealth Navy and did not rule out restricting maritime travel through the Mouth of the Maredoratic for the duration of the crisis. The move was largely applauded in the Dáil and the Advisory Senate, though some questioned the effectiveness of measures which will mostly affect the common citizens of Tipperay and whether it will truly pressure an already zealous or determined leadership in Point Waverly or the Anglan establishment who already benefit from the exploitation of the lower classes in Tipperay.

The naval embargo is expected to proceed with the Coventic Fleet of the Commonwealth Navy operating a patrol just outside of Tipperay's Economic Exclusion Zone in the Coventic Ocean while the Maredoratic Fleet maintains a similar blockade of embargoed goods outside the EEZ on the Maredoratic Sea coast. The naval embargo, however, will not affect humanitarian supplies though the Ministry of Defense expressed doubts as to the management of medical supplies by the Ecclesiast Bloc government within Tipperay. The no-fly zone is similarly applied to aircraft with military registers or possible military origin after repeated incidents of Tipperay's newer advanced Soudek Su-27s crossed the border to probe the airspace of the Celtic Commonwealth to assess response and scramble times, the Ministry of Defense stated, noting several repeated "close-call" incidents. The emergency meeting of the governing Republican-Labor cabinet was attended at the Uachtarán's request by opposition leaders from the United Syndicates of Anderin-Brigantia, the Free Democrats and the Communist Party, along with non-partisan experts for a "united front" during a vital time for the Commonwealth, though notably excluded the Celtic People's Party of Iain MacDomnall. The latter of which likely originated from controversial statements by MacDomhnall criticizing the government for refusing to name these attacks as 'Radical Christianity' or acknowledging the threat of "radical Christians" to the existence of the Celtic nation. McDomhnall was previously skeptical of refugees crossing in from Tipperay, sometimes hunted by their own government, claiming that many of the Christian refugees could be 'crusaderists' sent by the Tipperay government or fake Celts. "You have a country of Radical Christians which regularly chops the heads off people or burns people alive, and you have to look at the Bible and wonder, these ideas come from somewhere. Are there really that many real Christians who are moderate or share our values? Maybe there are, just saying. Do we want to let people like that in? Some, I'm sure, are good people, but you tell me." mused MacDomnall in a statement roundly condemned. More moderate criticism in the Dáil came from the Communist-United Syndicates coalition, which protested the slow response time in seeking justice for the murder of the Ó Neills and the anti-insurrection operations. For its part, the government in Baile Dúin is reportedly feeling itself vindicated. "For long we have known, as neighbors and compatriots, that the situation in Tipperay was a humanitarian disaster yet our previous measures in supporting those most affected by the Tipperay Union government's campaign of fear and cultural cleansing was largely condemned, particularly by an efficient Tipperayn lobby in many of the world's capitals. Lena Oakley's government presented a narrative of the Commonwealth supporting what they termed dangerous terrorists. It is now becoming more and more apparent that the facade behind that lie is unraveling and we will do everything in our power to continue helping our brothers and sisters in Tipperay as well as all others aggrieved." stated Uachtarán Mac Siúirtáin during a press conference on the steps of the offices of State.

Certain questions remain for the government, as any closing of the Mouth of the Maredoratic to foreign military traffic is sure to incur issues with a planned Taihei naval fleet route through the straits as part of their circumnavigatory tour, the State Department for Foreign Affairs is expected to contact their counterparts regarding the matter.

by **Traxa** » Tue Jan 10, 2017 5:03 pm

Top Stories
New Stragetic partnership in Alqosia

The Styrian Foreign Ministry announced that ongoing talks with the Republic of Soufia have been concluded successfully. The deal is largely similar to the deal previously reached with Galkayo, however there are some key differences. While the Styrian government has authorized the sale of military equipment to the Republic of Soufia in exchange for access to numerous natural resource markets, the Styrian military will not be stationing any forces in Soufia.

The foreign ministry has since moved to establish talks between both the Republic of Soufia and Galkayo to establish a linked, modern railway network between the two countries although no such agreement has been reached and there are still numerous concerns over rebel activity in Galkayo, despite recent military successes against them by both Styrian and Galkyan forces conducting offensive operations.

Snap Military Drills continue, with operation Von Hutier

On the heels of the Alpenfestung snap military drills, the defense ministry announced today that another exercise, operation Von Hutier would commence immediately, this time consisting of units from the southern, western, and capital military districts. Similar to Alpenfestung the drills will last till the end of the month with the stated goal of ensuring continuity and maintaining the highest degree of readiness for all Styrian combat forces. Some units involved in Alpenfestung are set to continue their drills possibly into the next month, namely those involved in air superiority, and ground attack missions.

Von Hutier will encompass many of the same scenarios carried out during the Alpenfestung drills last month, with the addition of amphibious operations, both in an offensive and defensive role, as well as training in the simulated handling, transportation and deployment of various chemical or biological weapons. As well as training in the proper decontamination procedures and medical treatment procedures after the use of such weapons. The drills are also expected to be a continued test and provide real field condition evaluations on several pieces of new military hardware that have come out in the past year and a half, as well as provide additional training for several new formations.

The ministry confirms that announcement of the drills was communicated to the appropriate Morivaine authorities prior to any troop movements.

Unrest in Tipperay continues

Reports of ethnic cleansing, genocide, and now nuclear weapons continue to come out of the expanding Tipperay conflict. All reports remain officially unconfirmed by the government, but that did not stop the foreign ministry from issuing a statement of support to the Commonwealth of Anderin-Brigantia and dispatching a special envoy to the country to expedite any requests the Brigantine government may have.

Some have criticized the Brigantine decision to blockade Tipperay but the Styrian government has been supportive of the measure, claiming Brigantine has the right to take whatever steps necessary to defend itself from the open hostility shown by the government of Tipperay. The government was also critical of several countries, who only garnered interest in the events unfolding in the region when the possibility of another nuclear power arose, there was/is no urgency to stop the genocide or conduct any humanitarian effort, even now those efforts are secondary.

Chancellor Adler stated "This is further proof why my decision last year to leave the Maredoratic league was a good thing. The slow to react morass of an organization has done nothing to alleviate the suffering it is supposed to prevent. Nations being able to act independently and expeditiously are what the world needs. "

by **Sondstead** » Sun Jan 15, 2017 12:28 am

Government weighing Karaman timeline, expected to favour partial 2017 withdrawal
Sjole̊r proposes all combat troops home by year end; Government plan could keep reduced force through 2019

14 January 2017

Asteriopol — The government is currently examining timetables for withdrawing Sondsteadish troops from their mission in Karaman, now in its fourth year, Foreign Minister Märjä Älekssünr-Meärt stated in a press release issued today. However, with the government said to be considering extending the mission's mandate, its plan could set up an election year clash with the opposition.

Under the current mandate, a withdrawal must begin by March 2018 to allow all Sondsteadish forces to exit Karaman by 31 July 2018, the date the current three-year reauthorization ends. But Älekssünr-Meärt has previously suggested the government would be open to another reauthorization which could keep some troops in Karaman until the end of 2019, while the SAP leadership has ramped up pressure for an expedited withdrawal; in her first speech of the new year, Antonia Sjole̊r stated her goal was to "bring the troops home by Christmas". Further political complications depend on the results of Karaman's first general election since the adoption of a constitutional compromise last year, scheduled to be held on 16 April 2017.

Public opinion, which had remained largely supportive of the deployment, is a political obstacle as well, following the resolution of the dispute between the National Republic of Karaman and the moderate Islamist opposition and the end of the large-scale insurgency. In a December IPOC/TMP poll, 46% of respondents opposed a continued Sondsteadish presence compared to 43% in support, while 62% opposed sending more troops to Karaman if requested by Morieux or other Sondsteadish partners to just 29% in support.

"The Lindkwist government is still committed (to Karaman)," said Mihäel Cederkwist, a Karaman analyst at the Sondsteadish Maredoratic Institute, a well respected foreign policy think tank. "The general sense is that the country could destabilize again and that an expedited withdrawal of the (Maredoratic) League mission would be a mistake. But the issue now is the politics."

How the Sondsteadish mission has evolved over time

Sondstead initially approved a contribution to the Maredoratic Stabilisation Mission in Karaman (MASTAMIK) in August 2013, authorizing the deployment of up to 1,000 troops and aid workers for two years, with an initial deployment of 400 soldiers and 200 civilians. From September 2014, the force swelled after the Federal Diet authorized an increase to up to 2,500 personnel and the deployment of a full cavalry battalion, with the Sondsteadish contingent peaking at 2,000 military and civilian personnel in Spring 2015, and in February 2015, the deployment was reauthorized for three more years.

With the withdrawal in Spring 2016 of the cavalry battalion from Silvan, the Sondsteadish Peace Force Karaman (SFRIMKA) currently stands at 1,050 personnel, including 900 combat troops based in Corum and Silvan. Some 4,000 Sondsteadish soldiers have served in Karaman in the three and a half years since operations started. 26 have lost their lives, most in the first year and a half of the war, and 168 have been wounded.

Comment or read more at www.srrsondsteadworld.org

by **New Valcluse** » Sun Jan 15, 2017 4:04 am

A Barracuda class submarine surfaces in rough weather.

Navy to Tender Submarine Replacement

Valence: The Ministry of Defence has announced that it is issuing tenders on replacing Valcluse's five Barracuda class submarines. The government has said that it has been in talks with a number of potential bidders, including Morieux and Prekonate.
"We are still in the process of assessing our future capabilities with regards to our future submarine needs," Defence minister Vincent Bouchard said. "We are open to considering options from traditional contract clients and non-traditional contract clients."

Bouchard said that the replacement for the Barracuda class was an absolute necessity as Valcluse's submarines were "outdated and outclassed".
"We have the oldest submarine fleet in Wilassia," he said. "We need to ensure that we at least have technological parity with other submarine fleets in our area of concern." He said that the current fleet was coming to the end of their service lives and ruled out the possibility of another Life Extension Program (LEP).
"There is only so much you can get out of one hull before it becomes impossible to improve it any further," Bouchard said. "We need new submarines so we aren't left behind."

A final decision on who will supply the new submarine fleet will not be made until next year, with the government looking to secure final specifications as well as a budget for the new submarines. Potential replacements include the A-class submarines offered for export by Morieux, six of which are operated by Rochehaut, the Monark/Kapr class submarines developed by Sondstead and Prekonate, and the Das Krone submarines in use in Styria.

The Barracuda class submarines have been plagued with technical problems and breakdowns in recent years. In July 2015, the Morue suffered an engine failure whilst sailing from its home port of Saint Maurice, Aunis to the naval base at Tontoua in the Beausoleil Islands and had to sail to Orléanais for repairs. A similar incident happened in November 2015 when the Espadon suffered an engine fire whilst moored in Portnouveau, Charolais, causing extensive damage to the engine compartment. The fire prompted the Navy to halt all submarine operations until safety checks were completed. Crews often complained of unreliable electrical systems.

Despite the need for replacements, the acquisition of new submarines has consistently been postponed by successive administrations. Six were originally ordered in 1975 by the Massé administration but the order was reduced to four as the government concluded it would not need any extra submarines. The four were built between 1977 and 1979 and were accepted into service in March 1980. The first Life Extension Program (LEP) was completed between September and December 1992, with the plan for replacement with newer submarines between 2003-2005. However, the plans to build the Agenais class submarines fell through in 1998. Replacement was slated for 2003 by the Duchesne administration but was cancelled due to the considerable cost of replacement submarines. The administration of Mélanie Lemoine between 2003 and 2007 decided on a second LEP which would extend the service life of the submarines by another eight years. Plans to replace them after the second LEP were not considered, as successive Radical Party administrations placed more emphasis on the acquisition of new frigates, corvettes and patrol craft, with the submarines slated for replacement in 2010. However, the government never got around to officially issuing tenders as political infighting and indecision about replacements meant no official tenders were issued. Criticisms were leveled at the government for neglecting the submarine fleet, although there has been considerable opposition to replacements by many left-wing parties, who feel that the Navy does not require submarine replacements.

Defence Minister Bouchard said that the government was in negotiation with several companies for disposal of the submarines, although one of them would be transferred to the National Maritime Museum for permanent display.

by **Oseato** » Tue Jan 17, 2017 11:58 am

Politique Étrangère

REPORT

Morieux Announces Withdraw from Maredoratic Assistance Mission in Alanko
Ministry of War announces that the 7th Alpine Brigade will be recalled from Alanko within the next three months.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of War, alongside a counterpart from the Foreign Ministry, announced that Morieux has officially notified the Maredoratic League Council that it will be recalling its contingent from the Maredoratic Assistance Mission in Alanko. Preparations are being made to turn the area over to other Maredoratic Peacekeepers, with the spokesperson intimating that a contingent of Orian troops could be airlifted by Morieux to take their place.

The Foreign Minsitry spokesperson took to the podium and stated categorically that this withdraw had nothing to do with Varnian pressure from Morieux to recognize its claims and stance on Alanko. It is unclear why the Committee for Public Safety decided that now was the time to announce the withdraw. Recent agreements have finally been reached with Styria and Pollona to announce regional military exercises in Alisna and there remains no clear threat to the peace that is currently enjoyed in the region.

The spokespersons also noted that Morivaine troops may also be facing an internal deadline for withdraw from the formerly embattled National Republic of Karaman within the next few years. It is unlikely that such a move would be a complete withdraw, as Morivaine obligations to protect foreign trade in Karaman still remain an issue. It is thought that some of the heavier units will be withdrawn in the next year, as part of a concerted redeployment of forces and reevaluation of Morieux's security goals and concerns over the coming year.

This has been roundly condemned by the Committee for the Security of Liberal Maredoratica as a betrayal of Morieux's obligation to defend liberal and vulnerable states in order to promote an "enlightened and humanitarian world order." The National Convention has already heard several hours of testimony from various Members of the Convention in support of continuing to station large numbers of troops in Karaman and Alanko as a means to "check illiberal aggression around the world."

by **Soufia** » Sun Feb 05, 2017 9:33 pm

President Mohammed El Fassi during a television interview in January 2017.

President El Fassi Proposes New Leftist Alliance in Maredoratica

Médéa: President Mohammed El Fassi has announced a proposition to formally align Maredoratica's leftist states in an attempt to combat increasing neoliberalism and neocolonialism in Maredoratica.

The proposal would call for a diplomatic, economic and military alliance with cooperation between member states at the highest levels. The member states would cooperate on a number of issues, including expanding leftist ideologies and providing financial support to left-wing political parties and social movements.

President El Fassi said that with the dissolution of the Jesselton Pact, Maredoratica lost its last bastion against neoimperialism and neoliberalism.
"The death of the Jesselton Pact was a true blow to the peoples of the world," he said. "Today will mark the day when those peoples will rejoice, when the peoples of the world will regain their voice and reject the new world order that has been imposed upon them."

President El Fassi said that the proposed agreement would "greatly benefit Soufia" with Styria announcing a new strategic partnership with Soufia in January. He said that expanding strategic partnerships to include Jumieges and Questers would further serve to benefit the Soufian people as these two nations are among Maredoratica's largest economies. Militarily, Soufia would also benefit from a strategic partnership expansion in the face of recent Alisnan aggression in the global south as well as a new wave of modernization plans by the government, with recent announcements by the Ministry of National Defence regarding the replacement of Soufia's ageing fleet of Prekovi-made infantry fighting vehicles and the expansion of the Naval Infantry.

Soufia in recent years has been expanding its influence in Alqosia in order to shore up strategic interests in the continent, especially in the face of increasing competition from Litorea. However, the announcement of the Global Trade and Finance Protocol (GTFP) by the Maredoratic Trade Organisation (MTO) has prompted the government to look elsewhere for export markets and foreign investment opportunities, as many of Soufia's Alqosian trading partners are Maredoratic League members. The stragetic partnership between Soufia and Styria was considered the first step in ensuring that continued economic development. Soufia has also begun to reach back out to other non-League states in an attempt to shore up other trade interests and diversify trading partners. It has also expanded investments in oil production to increase government revenue and export partners.

President El Fassi said that the diplomatic alliance would secure Soufia's position as one of the most influential states in Alqosia as well as a leading voice within the developing world.
"With the support of our Alisnan comrades, we can continue the fight against neoimperialism and neoliberalism and the imposition of a regime of exploitation and brutality among our fellow Alqosian brothers. We will continue to be the leading light in our quest for total Alqosian indepndence."

by **Van Luxemburg** » Sun Feb 12, 2017 9:23 am

Fassbinder: “League changes are necessary”
Proposes motion for extensive change to League workings

LUXEMBOURG - Minister of Foreign Affairs Mathias Fassbinder has made unusually harsh statements on the future of the Maredoratic League during a speech at the General Assembly yesterday, calling for a profound reform of the institution. At the same time, he tabled a motion for a restructuring that would allow less involved nations to join the organization more freely.

“Almost a century ago, this institution was founded to become an international platform for diplomacy, peace and co-operation. We should take a step back in preparation for the centenary and see if we actually achieved what we wanted with the League.”

Fassbinder was quick to mention the many conflicts in the last years, specifically mentioning Karaman as a conflict where the League was effectively brushed aside by non-member states, even taking criticism from these states as if it was a hostile alliance of liberal states to them. He then proceeded to call the GTFO as much as a PR failure as was the Hervenbosch resolution.

“When our predecessors founded this organization they intended this to be a place to discuss our differences and come to constructive solutions. Right now we seem to be on our way to exclusion and division within the region. Change must come, if we want to celebrate our centenary with confidence and look ahead to a future together.”

Fassbinder proceeded to outline his thoughts about a new League organization for the remainder of his speech, stating that he envisioned a “more inclusive” League that would motivate all nations in Maredoratica to join.

“I fully appreciate the views of some non-members that we have been too restrictive and binding in the past. Even though some of us have a desire to strive towards greater unity within the region by introducing transnational measures that further commerce, for example, others strongly favour a form of national integrity that inhibits them from joining the League and participating more in regional discussions. This ought to change.”

The Minister then proposed a plan that would see the League introducing what could be called an “Outer League”, featuring a council that would consist of all Maredoratic nation states, giving them a platform to discuss measures of interregional security, propose resolutions and potential sanctions. This all without the specific assembly politics that have marked the “Inner” League so far, answering concerns of current non-members that the League is attempting to influence their internal politics by introducing binding legislation. Fassbinder eventually tabled a motion that proposed the restructuring of the League Council to take the role of the Outer League, featuring seats for all nations of Maredoratica without the requirement to implement binding legislation, but instead with the possibility to vote for resolutions and implement sanctions or authorize League military action. A vote for this motion is due next week, as other representatives have had the possibility to discuss the motion.

The call for a League reform also seems to answer particular demands from domestic politics for Fassbinder, who has been under pressure to improve relations with non-League nations and further trade agreements, as well as the growing dissatisfaction amongst the population against the Leagues’ actions, which has cost the Grand Duchy billions in defense spending in order to participate in numerous failed League missions abroad.
Professor Hans-Joachim Siedlungsforster of the Katholische Universität für Wirtschaftsstudien in Zinzendorf has named the move “unexpected”.

“Fassbinder and the Lurani government have always been very much in support of the League during public appearances, despite growing dissatisfaction among their own voters. However, to address this issue so publicly seems to be a complete 180-degree turn from the previous policy, and could actually result in quite some support across League nations. Valcluse hosted a referendum last year that only barely prevented the government from departing from the League. The Morivaine parliament has also voiced its concerns over the cost of League missions abroad and the pressure on their military to provide the necessary support. In addition, an Outer League could actually sit well with non-members such as Prekonate and Questers, who have always been very much opposed to the idea of binding legislation from a supranational body being implemented on their state, especially if that came from something that was perceived as being made up of “hostile” states.”

Opposition member Sophie Beyer (SDP) applauded Fassbinder’s move, praising his honesty. “It is good to see that the cabinet now finally admits that the League has not developed into what we originally envisioned many years ago, and that we should strive towards change.”

The motion seemed well-received by international representatives, with an unusual 2-minute applause after the speech of FM Fassbinder. Discussions are due to take place in the coming week, with Fassbinder also having announced the intention to invite numerous representatives of non-member states in order to debate the proposal.

by **Oseato** » Fri Feb 17, 2017 5:47 pm

Politique Étrangère

REPORT

Hotel Bombing in Ortaca kills 34
Karamanite Christian group Arma claims responsibility

Explosions rocked the historic Ishtar Hotel in downtown Ortaca Friday early Friday evening. Emergency personnel in control of the scene reported that they had 21 confirmed fatalities and several dozen more wounded being evacuated from the building. Witness reported that they believed the primary explosion had come from the parking deck beneath the hotel, and that secondary blasts had occurred on the street outside the building. The bombing marks the seventh such bombing in 2017, most of the rest also taking place in and around Ortaca in western Karaman.

The hotel was housing the local headquarters for observers from the Maredoratic League stabilization mission in Karaman, as well as the headquarters for the National List political party that has dominated the National Republic of Karaman since its inception several years ago. Among the dead are reported to be the local military governor of the Western Karaman Region, Kâzım Çakmak. Çakmak had been scheduled to announce his resignation from the military in order to run for gubernatorial elections this coming summer.

The Arma, a Christian paramilitary organization that's stated goal is the creation of a separate Christian state in Western Karaman, claimed responsibility for the bombing. A statement issued by the group stated that it "wholeheartedly rejected" the authority of the National Republic Government in Corum, before claiming that it will continue to strike against "those groups and organizations that seek the marginalization and eradication of all non-Muslim groups in Karaman." The Committee for Public Safety in Ortaca has declared a continuing dusk to dawn curfew in the city, and has pledged to bring the Arma to justice. A statement from the Morivaine delegation in Ortaca stated that it "wished to tackle the underlying issues causing violence" in the region, before condemning the bombing categorically. A Morivaine spokesperson further reiterated that it would not be involving itself in the investigation into the bombing, despite numerous casualties amongst the Maredoratic League civilian staff working in Karaman, stating that the investigation was "an internal matter for the Karamish government."

by **New Valcluse** » Sat Feb 18, 2017 1:52 am

Workers clear debris after a series of explosions rocked the Ishtar Hotel in Ortaca, Karaman.

Karaman Hotel Bombing Kills 34

Ortaca: A series of explosions has rocked Ortaca earlier today after the historic Ishtar Hotel was bombed, killing at least 34 people. Among those killed were two members of the Valclusian Maredoratic League contingent based in the city.

Earlier today the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confimed that Lieutenant Matthieu Arceneaux, 35, and Noémie Bélanger, 29, were the two Valclusians killed in the bombing. Another Valclusian citizen, Marc Lefrançois, 37, was injured in the attack.

The attack is the latest in a wave of sectarian violence sweeping across western Karaman, with six other bombing occurring since the start of the year. Today's bombing was the seventh such attack.

Karamish paramilitary group Arma has already claimed responsibility for the attack. Arma is a Christian paramilitary group that rejects the authority of the National Republic Government based in the Karamish capital, Corum. The group, which splintered off other Christian paramilitaries after the foreign intervention in Karaman in 2013, has arisen over the last two years following the short-lived Karaman War between Questers and Prekonate in 2015. According to the group's manifesto, Arma seeks to create a separate Christian state in western Karaman. The group has mostly targeted Muslims in the area, who have retaliated with bombings and attacks against Christian civilians.

Lieutenant Arceneaux was part of the Valclusian military's contingent that was stationed in Ortaca. According to the Ministry of Defence, Arcenaux served as a liasion officer within the personnel based in Ortaca, providing assistance and communications between other Maredoratic League contingents, the Karamish National Government and Morivaine troops stationed in Karaman. He had also been engaged in a number of personnel training tasks in Ortaca with local military and police. Arcenaux had begun his second deployment in Karaman in June 2016, having been initially deployed in June 2015.

Noémie Bélanger and Marc Lefrançois both worked for the Maredoratic Organisation for Human Rights, Refugees and Development (MORRHD) in Karaman. Bélanger largely worked as a refugee coordination officer, registering and securing safe travel for various Karamish refugees to member and non-member states of the Maredoratic League. She also volunteered with distributing humanitarian aid during in areas affected by the 2015 Karaman War. She had been working in Karaman since the conflict since the foreign intervention in 2013. Lefrançois worked as a field agent investigating claims of human rights violations and was sent to Karaman immediately after the 2015 war. Recently he had been involved in investigating various bombing attacks that have occurred since January. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that they were unsure of the condition Lefrançois was in but were organizing a medical evacuation flight from Karaman.

President Michel Dubois condemned the bombing during an earlier press conference. He also said that he would make contact with other League members present in Karaman as well as Karamish authorities to offer assistance to the Karamish government in the wake of the violence. He also said that the League should be seriously concerned about the increase in violence.
"We need to be as vigilant as always about the situation in Karaman," he said. "As such I hope that the League members who are present there will be able to earnestly invest in their military presence in Karaman and bring about a peaceful future for the Karamish people and Maredoratica."

by **Pollona** » Thu Feb 23, 2017 10:28 pm

Markets Rally on Q4 Data, Referendum
Business confidence rises after latest economic reports

Stocks in Brno closed higher on Friday, marking four straight weeks of gains

24.2.17

Brno -

Pollonan stocks soared to close at a new record high, with the PITA index up 1.3% today thanks to new economic data released by the government. Financial markets rallied on reports that Pollonan GDP growth was revised upwards by 500 basis points to 3.4%, the fastest quarterly growth rate since 2012. Investors speculated for several weeks that higher industrial output, retail sales, and consumer spending from the end of 2016 would continue the "mini-bounce of 2016," which saw higher than expected Q2 and Q3 figures.

Economic analysts are increasingly convinced that Pollona is on the path towards real economic recovery. "After several years of disappointing growth, this may be the sign that economic headwinds are fading," a report from JM&C concluded. "Deleveraged banks and firms are again in a position to make longer term investments." The report cited a 450 Billion Kč in decline in corporate debt since 2014. Stocks overall soared by over 4% since last month, lead by financial firms and shipping companies.

Opinion: Investors more optimistic
with post-Referendum outcome

FC Liberec wins national title
after upset 3-2 win vs Cheb

Uproar as 10 doctors accused of
cheating on licensing exams

The timing of the press release coincided with a fresh jobs report indicating net employment increased by 175,000 in Q1, including a net increase in manufacturing employment. Government policy since the post-2012 slump has concentrated on boosting a sluggish industrial sector, working in conjunction with business leaders and unions to boost productivity. The Pollonan Labor Congress released a statement today welcoming higher employment figures, expressing hopes for future cooperation with government and industry.

Consumer confidence, as measured by Pollbox, rose to +12 in January, marking a wider perception of public confidence in the economic outlook of consumers. The last time the CCI index was at +12 was nearly 5 years ago.

Despite fears of a "Neverendum effect", the economic uncertainty predicted due to the Odveta referendum, indicators have largely flat-lined. The current Odveta referendum swings have made little impact on economic productivity, prompting the Ministry of Finance to claim "no appreciable loss of business confidence" due to the current campaign. Current projections predict a comfortable "Yes" win nationally, but a more complicated state picture. A majority of votes and states are required for ratification.

This story is also available in: Češka | Němec | English

Printable Version |

Email to a Friend
( © 2015 ) All rights reserved by Polňá Televizní Systém.

Subscribe to Latest Headlines |

Bookmark This Page

by **Sondstead** » Thu Mar 02, 2017 11:29 pm

Lindkwist, Veskimägi reach agreement on Makeish referendum
Landmark memorandum provides for Makeish vote on independence from Sondstead

2 March 2017

_{Lindkwist speaks at Windstrand Palace after signing a memo-
-randum laying out a 2018 vote on Makeish independence.}

Windstrand — In a landmark summit at Windstrand Palace today, Prime Minister Kristinä Lindkwist and Makeish First Minister Riina Veskimägi signed a memorandum promising to hold a binding referendum in Makeland next year, asking voters if they favor secession from the federal union.

Under the memorandum, a referendum will be held sometime in April or later next year, with the exact date to be set in legislation to be made by the National Assembly of Makeland, leading to independence no sooner than eighteen months after the referendum date in the event of a yes vote. To be valid independence must be supported by an absolute majority of registered voters.

The agreement comes after over a year of sometimes acrimonious political wrangling over the referendum question, both in Asteriopol and in Makeland, in the wake of nationalist parties gaining a majority in the state parliament for the first time in history in 2015's general election. The clamor has put the moderate Veskimägi, a one-time opponent of an independence referendum, awkwardly between her own nationalist base and pro-unionist sentiment from many others in Makeland as well as in the Federal Diet.

"This is a decision reached after intense and careful deliberation on the best path forward for the Makeish people," Lindkwist told reporters in a post-signing press conference. "Makeland will have a unique opportunity to decide its future. My belief is that future is as a member of our union, which is so much the better for having Makeland as one of its constituents. And Makeland is so much the better for being so. I wish to emphasize this".

In contrast to Lindkwist's full-throated support for unionism, Veskimägi has thus far pointedly refrained from endorsing either a yes or no vote on independence, prompting some to accuse her of dodging the issue; Makeish state Conservative leader Rain Olesk commented in an interview last week on with AUF's Sünderin mit Cris Granholm that "the Makeish people deserve to know if their premier even supports her own referendum".

In a brief statement to the press before leaving for her flight to Kifmay, Veskimägi did not go further than saying "I'm exceedingly proud to have secured with the Prime Minister a commitment to Makeland's right of self determination. Over the coming months we are going to work out a comprehensive plan to present to voters on how independence would work".

Legislation must now be approved by the Makeish National Assembly and, under Article 21, the Federal Diet for the referendum to take place. Both Lindkwist and Veskimägi committed to begin work on such legislation next week, with no major challenges expected in passing the bills, given the nationalist majority in Makeland and the fact that both the government and Socialist Labour leadership in the Federal Diet have stated they will support it. However, there were suggestions on Wednesday that some Conservative MAs could rebel and vote against a referendum bill.

by **Pollona** » Sun Mar 19, 2017 6:38 pm

A League of their own

Van Luxembourg sets forth proposals for
a more inclusive, 'Outer' Maredoratic League
Radical restructure could bring new members, but challenges await

From the Print Edition | Alisna
Mar 19^th 2017

Prime Minister Pospíšil was fond of saying, "What is worse than 'my country right or wrong'? 'The Maredoratic League, right or wrong'!" Dissatisfaction with the ML is nothing new to international politics. Since the League's founding, the ML was bedeviled by one crucial, missing element: universality. No resolution, mandate, or League treaty has the endorsement of all Maredoratica, making the League's actions feeble and constrained. However, fresh proposals could drastically enlarge the League, and produce a new international settlement.

The League's headquarters sit in Van Luxemburg, a site chosen in respect of country's neutrality. As a de facto leader of the ML, Luxemburger opinion often sets the tempo of League policy. Van Luxemburg's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mathias Fassbinder, offered an honest, if not harsh, critique of the League's influence. Arguing for a comprehensive discussion on League reform, Fassbinder pointed to recent international crises which highlighted the ML's failures.

Greater international cooperation, the minister argued, would have mitigated or even eliminated these threats. But how can intransigent nationalism be reconciled with internationalism?

Most non-League member states, like Varnia, jealously guard their sovereignty. From time to time they may be willing to ratify treaties or even work multi-laterally. But joining the Maredoratic League, an international bureaucracy with binding agreements derived by majority votes, is a non-starter. Some nations are comfortable drafting agreements on trade or human rights, but a nation like Prekonate may wish to abstain from ML Agencies. Previously, a nation either accepted all the League's institutions, or stayed out.

The "Outer League": a happy medium

Minister Fassbinder's revolutionary proposal calls for the creation of a two-tier League. Current members of the "Inner League" would continue sending delegates to the General Assembly, participating in League Agencies, and siting on the Council. However, a new "Outer League" member could now choose to sit only on the League Council: the body responsible for peacekeeping and inter-regional matters. Such an "Outer Member" of the League would not be a part of the ML General Assembly or its agencies. As an example, Questers could exercise an independent voice on global diplomacy, without subscribing to the rules of the Maredoratic Organization for Culture, Education and Science (MOCES).

For some members this may be a worthwhile trade. Assembly elections are free, democratic affairs, potential annoyances for those like Questers or Prekonate. Assembly's agencies often have minds of their own: one only has to look at the ML's Human Rights institutions, which wrought havoc on Pollonan-League relations for decades. League idealism is often cited as a major stumbling block. Therefore, an "Outer League" centered on the League Council, a body practicing more "realpolitik," offers non-members a chance to work alongside liberal democracies, without necessarily agreeing with their goals or hampering national sovereignty.

For current members, a little sacrifice in uniformity could yield a more constructive dialogue with current non-Members. A crisis in Karaman could be resolved with the full input of the international community. A constructive front against piracy, or nuclear proliferation, could have the backing of a genuinely multilateral front. It is even suggested that TAPNA enforcement could become a pillar of the Council's new duties. These prospects alone earned the "Outer League" proposal a full endorsement from the Laszlo Administration.

Patient Pondering

However the wheels move slow. Fassbinder set an ambitious timetable in last month's speech, requesting his "Outer League" proposal be be voted on in a week. Despite the support of countries like Pollona, the Council quickly shunted the "Fassbinder Resolution" off for further review. The "Committee on the Organizational Restructuring and Alignment of the League" (CORAL), is responsible for examining the implications of the "Outer League" proposal. CORAL's slow work is, in fact, not due to Fassbinder's sweeping call for an "Inner" and "Outer" League. Rather, fresh debate centers on the new League Council's function.

Fassbinder's proposed the League Council contain "seats for all nations of Maredoratica, without the requirement to implement binding legislation." Instead, countries would be able "to vote for resolutions and implement sanctions or authorize League military action." The vague phrasing has CORAL members questioning if resolutions "implementing sanctions or authorizing League action" should, or would, be binding. On the one hand, non-binding sanctions/resolutions could draw more support: if majority voting was preserved it would be the less-contentious option.

This has not come without criticism. An op-ed for Politique Étrangère fiercely criticized the interpretation: "If this method were to be adopted, the ML would be rendered supremely impotent, without teeth." The editorial went on to suggest the League change its name to 'The International Suggestion Council'. Some international commentators have called for a qualified veto if enough members object. Still, others suggest some actions would be binding and others non-binding on Council participants. At present, there does not seem to be a uniform consensus. CORAL has a lot more work to do.

Despite these reforms, some nations may still frustrate or bewilder the Maredoratic League. Varnia may just as well submit every League resolution to a national referendum, opting to abstain till her people express their voice. The ICC would have little if no power over the worst tyrannies. This proposal is no guarantee new members will even accept the ML: Questers may join and then withdraw as she did in the 1990s. With a large influx of new members, multilateral efforts may prove more difficult than ever. After all national self-interest will still exist, just as it always has.

Despite these challenges, League reform is long overdue. It is a necessary step for the organization to become a genuinely global institution.

by **Pollona** » Sat Apr 08, 2017 10:56 am

WILL GERMANS TAX YOUR HOUSE PRICES?
MINISTER EXPLODES REFERENDUM DEBATE BY TARGETING AT RISK HOMEOWNERS

Minister Málek (CD) warns of "property value apocalypse" across the country if Odveta "Yes" vote
Interior Ministry reports millions face higher property taxes, arrears on mortgages
Government silent on "hidden tax" claims

By Dane Putov
Published: 9:45 8 April 2017

As passions rise on both sides of the Odveta Repeal Referendum, is there another bombshell waiting in the wings? Now, could your vote this August directly affect your house price? Representative Málek (Civic-Democrat), Undersecretary of Housing, thinks so, sharing critical news that any Pollonan should read before going into the polling booth.

Gossip, intrigue, and sensation closely intertwine with Referendum 2017, making DV the leading name in news. Readers will remember us breaking the story on Counselor Yitri, who, after calling Yes Campaigners "crypto-communist muts," discovered he himself was 1/5th German thanks to our private investigators (*). We gave live coverage of celebrity pop-singer De$$$hova's "Topless for the Powerless" Concert in front thousands to support Odveta repeal. Who could forget January's Apple Protest, when farmers dumped rotten fruit outside Parliament? Or the German-mob looting the town of Udansk? Would readers easily forget the Church's appeal to "vote with a clean conscience"?

We at DV have gauged the nation's minute-by-minute reaction for 7 months through our state-of-the-art, strictly unbiased samples of DV subscribers. Every twist and turn we delivered straight to the front page. Now, Homepocalypse 2017, is the most shocking news yet in the referendum sensation.

Readers may find it easy to gloss over unexciting facts and figures. "Productivity would increase by X percent, GDP to rise by Y percent, Incomes to soar by Z percent" if Odveta repeal wins. For all those important details, DV is here for you. Yet, home ownership is directly part of our lives, whether at present or in our dreams. For many, Minister Málek claims, that dream will turn to nightmare. In a blistering speech to the "Better off No Campaign" last Thursday, Málek ripped into his own government:

"Members of the Cabinet, their staff, Coalition backbenchers, and frankly the entire political establishment are leading ordinary Pollonans over the precipice. They either don't know, or do not care that this referendum will cause the largest tax increase in history."

The minister explained that abolishing the restrictive mobility laws on the German population would unleash an "apocalypse" on the property market. With repeal, German Pollonans would, along with other basic human rights, have the freedom to move wherever they so choose without a cumbersome pre-approved process. For the benefit of our readers we have attached the 150 pages of formal guidelines in a separate link to this article, along with our 1 page summary for your benefit.

"It will mean hundreds of thousands of families flooding our inner cities, causing overcrowding in our picaresque city centers," Málek claimed. "Yes there are worries about roving street gangs and thugs terrorizing our picaresque streets. . . but it is more than culture, it's economics. Our department's claims home prices could double in every major city and town in the country. That is the price, in real terms, of a foolish Yes vote."

By simple arithmetic, homeowners property taxes would double if the Minister's predictions came true. By internal estimates, 1 of every 10 dollars would instantly vanish out of your pocket, sent to grubby state and local busybodies via land and property taxes. All the more excuse, the story goes, for government to go on a wild spending spree, all thanks to voters concerned with basic moral decency. Our loyal readers and subscribers know DV would be the first to smell a rat.

But Minister Málek did not stop there, giving even more harrowing predictions about the destruction of Pollona's beautiful countryside, "Those in our historic market towns and villages across the country may think they are safe, but in reality they will be the first to be destroyed." The Minister pointed to the disproportion of Pollonan Germans living in smaller communities (partially a consequence of migration in the Red Spring). Once these families moved away, their dwellings would fall vacant. As a result, it would "flood the market with enormously cheap housing. Rents and land-values would crash, thousands of rural families would find themselves stuck with overpriced mortgages."

Under the assumptions used in the report: coordinated, instantaneous mass migration, would damage towns and villages. By the same simple arithmetic, communities classified as towns or villages would see rents and properties decline by 3-12% overnight. New homeowners, as many as 300k, would go underwater instantly: with their mortgages worth more than the house they painstakingly bought.

This dystopian future, the No Campaign predicts, is "one where millennia-old villages turn into pavement . . . by greedy developers exploiting struggling families. Historic residential centers will be knocked down for new shopping malls, car parks, or skyscraping apartments." In a blistering condemnation Málek excoriated the Coalition for letting such an "economic weapon of mass destruction go unrecognized."

The radical Pollona for Pollonans society has taken the report and called it a "German and Popish plot to decimate the wealth of our country. The government is in the hands of an globalist multi-national conspiracy of closet papists and Germans to extract revenge on powerless Pollonans." Is such a conspiracy plausible for DV readers, perhaps not.

Government ministers in the meantime have issued no formal reply to the Minister's claims. The Coalition suspended collective responsibility for the referendum campaign, the Yes Campaign replied that "Minister Málek is a second-rate official giving second-rate statistics in a real fight over right and wrong". Ben Lovotny (Liberal Union), Secretary of State for Pensions, called the statistics "pseudo-science at best". DV editors, in the interest of our readers, remain intrigued.

"The findings are rather surprising," one paid economics spokesman said to DV. "Who would have thought the referendum would spark questions on so many economic issues. . . now housing? Even if the Minister is broadly wrong we cannot ignore this new dimension of the debate. If the government is, in fact, trying to find a way to stealthily increase taxes this is perhaps the most ingenious mechanism ever created."

So, will Odveta cause a massive flood of migration? Is the Germans' plan of revenge after decades of abuse a secret tax on your house? Will every village be paved over with a new big box store? Is the President aware of all of this, what does he know? And most importantly, how will this sway the vote come this September?

Only time will tell, but DV will be the first it happens, so you can always stay one step closer to the truth.

(*) DV does not endorse nor condone the use of illegal or unethical means to write or validate its publications. All actions therein are undertaken for the best of intentions for our readers.

by **New Valcluse** » Mon May 08, 2017 10:19 pm

Firefighters help evacuate people from flooded homes in Montreuil

State of Emergency Declared in Durance

Montreuil: The provincial government has declared a state of emergency in Durance after flooding hit low lying areas of Montreuil and affected other cities along the river. At least 5,000 people have been evacuated in Montreuil alone, with Governor François Chauveau requesting federal assistance.

The announcement comes after days of torrential rain across much of the midwest and west of Valcluse caused flooding and landslides elsewhere. The rain has combined with the annual spring melt to cause rivers levels to increase higher than usual, with the Durance river increasing to levels not seen in over two decades.

The floods have already affected several towns and cities upstream. In neighboring Beaujolais, the provincial capital Grandeterre had seen reasonably minor flooding with around 250 people evacuated from areas immediately next to the river. Several towns further downstream in Beaujolais and Durance also had evacuated, with the town of Saint-Nicolas-sur-Durance seeing 350 people evacuated after a stockbank gave way, flooding the western part of town.

Provincial authorities in Montrueil and elsewhere in Durance have been evacuating people throughout the day and are expected to begin more evacuations further downstream. Governor Chauveau said that the main priority for the provincial Civil Defence Agency was to ensure that people were being taken to safety.
"We will be making sure that people in areas likely to be affected by flooding, in particular low lying areas close to the river, are being evacuated in a timely manner," he said. "We are working with prefectural and municipal authorities to determine where at risk areas are and are issuing evacuation orders as necessary." He said that people who lived close to rivers and streams, as well as the Durance river should evacuate if they felt unsure or unsafe.

Prime Minister Céline Martingy said that the government had mobilized around 1,200 troops in Durance to assist the provincial government with evacuating residents in affected areas. She said that the Army and Air Force would provide personnel and aircraft to rescue those in areas cut off by floodwaters within Durance, with the offer of federal assistance extended to provinces who request it.
"We've approved the mobilization of military personnel within Durance to assist in the evacuation efforts," she said. "They will also be establishing evacuation shelters and bringing in food and clean water to areas isolated by the floods as well as evacuating people who are in these areas."

Flooding and landslides have also affected western Valcluse, with two people believed to have died after a landslide swept through a house in eastern Aunis. Another four people are missing across western Valcluse. Most of the damage has been limited to landslides and minor surface flooding, with Aunis, Agenais, Barrois, Bourbonnais and Orléanais all reporting minor flooding and landslides. Authorities in these areas have begun the cleanup as the weather is expected to improve throughout the remainder of the week.

Provincial authorities in Valentinois have been put on high alert as the Durance is expected to peak in the capital on Friday, with preparations for evacuations and flood protection already beginning. Governor Camille Lacoursière has said that people should prepare to evacuate during the course of Thursday and Friday as river levels increase. She said that those affected should start making preparations now.
"If you are in affected areas or live close to the river, you should start making preparations to leave now," she said. "Emergency shelters and evacuation centres will be established if you cannot organise temporary accommodation with family or friends."

The weather system that has brought the heavy rain is expected to weaken and move to the northeast during the week and will like north of Lieuvin by Sunday.

by **Taihei Tengoku** » Mon May 22, 2017 9:15 pm

FINAL COURT RECOMMENDS NO NEW JUDGES IN CASE OF 'YES" VOTE, PROTESTS IN COMMANDERIES

NARA, 19 MAY 2017--The Final Court voted today on the recommendations of the Districting Committee, approving the committee's plan of redistributing the existing 207 seats of the Court rather than adding new seats. If the referendum passes, the party-list seats of the Court elected by the commanderies would be reallocated to the expanded Nara and the new Tosa metropolis to equalize the population represented per seat. The adjustment is expected to be minor enough to be covered in a special "adjustment tranche" in the winter of 2018, halfway between the regular 2017 and 2020 summer elections. A third of the seats in all tranches will be re-elected to fit the new composition of the Court with the adjusted metropoleis. The Kazashimo Group of five seats representing the Taihei Sirenes will remain intact.

The Districting Committee cited the precedent set when Tenma received metropolitan status in 1988 (when no new seats were added) and the nature of the Court as a "Sanhedrin of Sanhedrins," theoretically comprised of three "Greater" or "Triple Sanhedrins" of sixty-nine judges. In order to avoid a deadlocked court the Final Court would have to expand by two Greater Sanhedrins as opposed to one, i.e. by 138 seats rather than 69. The Committee believes that the adjustment tranche will retain the principle of "one man, one vote" by the current judge-electorate ratio of 1 to slightly over 250,000 by simply reallocating certain party-list seats which are already de facto Tosa representatives. Furthermore, the Committee argues, allocating 138 extra seats would be a lengthy process and would result in certain metropolitan districts representing no more than several square kilometers in the 545-member court, delaying the actual implementation of a metropolitan Tosa for years, perhaps even over a decade.

The announcement drew condemnation from Mazebito groups and the left. Yamato Communist Party president Mo Dakuto and Ishikari Liberation Front chairman Jan Tanimoto appeared in a joint press conference denouncing the Districting Committee's plan as "gerrymandering" and "naked violation of democracy." Tanimoto decried the plan as "racist," contributing to the "parliamentary genocide of the Ishikari peoples" in favor of "Yamato dens and demographic replacement." Numerous spontaneous rallies occurred in border commanderies and major protests are scheduled in Nara and Hoten as the Court adjourns for summer recess at the end of June.

"The Tosa Plan is yet another example of the corrupt liberalism at the heart of the Rikken Aikokusha," stated the YCP in an official statement regarding the conference. "In order to sustain the privileged cancers of the bourgeois 'new cities' the liberal hegemony resorts to stealing seats in the legislature as they steal the products of the people's labor. The Yamato Communist Party will resist the vampire oligarchy of the so-called 'Patriot Society' with all means possible." The YCP improved its performance in the 2015 tranche elections after the global financial crisis, and are expected to make some gains in 2017 owing to the perception of Taihei 'surrender' in the GTFP and the communist Questarian victory in Karaman. If Tosa forms its own metropolis, however, it would bring single-member metropolitan seats into the majority for the first time. As the YCP's influence relies on the party lists where they do not need to "win" any single district, the creation of even more RA-friendly plurality districts could secure the "permanent majority" of the Rikken Aikokusha for the forseeable future.

Political scientists are ambivalent on the issue. "Ever since Tenma received metropolitan privileges it had always been a matter of time until Tosa, an even larger city, would ask for the same thing," says Dr. Jaroslav Kiraly, an expert on Pearl Sea affairs at the University of Brno. "Once it was shown that the Court would expand metropolitan influences on the basis of economics, rather than history, the large cities remaining in the commanderies lost any reason to preserve the current system. Instead of having to influence laws and budgets at the national level to suit their needs it would be easier to form their own statelet that could write its own laws and raise its own revenue." Dr. Kiraly considers the Tosa Plan "the only logical outcome" given the Tenma precedent but fears it would provoke a "race to the door" by remaining commandery cities like Yachiyo, Ominato, and Chitose. This would, as he describes, "end the party list as a viable entity in Taihei politics," and turn the commanderies into "barely-peopled and barely represented colonies of a metropolitan archipelago."

by **Borgosesia** » Mon Jun 05, 2017 6:01 pm

INVOCATION OF ARTICLE II OF THE NIORO ACCORD
5 JUNE 2017
FOR PUBLIC RELEASE

BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE COLLECTED ADVOCATES AND THE COMMONS:

WHEREAS, there exists an ongoing insurgency perpetrated by the militant group known as the so-called "New Free State Army," which advocates for the violent overthrow of the democratically elected government of the Republic of Galkayo, and

WHEREAS, the so-called "New Free State Army" is responsible for the deaths of one-hundred and fifty-one (151) civilians and one-hundred and twenty-five (125) service members of the Republic of Galkayo Armed Forces, and

WHEREAS, hostilities between the Republic of Galkayo and the so-called "New Free State Army" have gone on for the past 676 days at the composition of this statement, and

WHEREAS, the presence of armed enemy combatants in southern Galkayo threatens the peace of regional stability in Alqosia, and

WHEREAS, the intelligence services of the Republic of Galkayo have discovered substantive material evidence linking the government of the Borgosesian State, and

WHEREAS, the government of the Borgosesian State has made steps to expand its military presence in Alqosia through the construction of additional bases and the clandestine deployment of fighters to support and train the so-called New Free State Army, now, therefore

BE IT RESOLVED, that the government of the Republic of Galkayo invoke Article II of the Nioro Accord, which states: "In the event the security, sovereignty, territorial integrity (Article I Section 1), or self determination (Article I Section 3) of any signatory state is threatened, any signatory may call for consultation between all signatory states. Each signatory state will have one representative and one vote in consultationm," recognizing the territorial threat imposed by the so-called New Free State Army and their backers within the Borgosesian State, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the government of the Republic of Galkayo seeks from Nioro Accord members assistance in rebuking the Borgosesian State in force of diplomacy or, should avenues of peace fail, force of arms.

Signed:

President of the Republic of Galkayo
Abu Bakr Jameel Agli

High Advocate of the Senate
Lesedi Uzoma

Peer of the Commons
Ndidi Fermi

by **Sondstead** » Sun Jun 11, 2017 11:05 pm

Opinion – 10 June 2017 issue

The Ambition of Antonia Sjole̊r

By JEAN-LOUIS PETERSON

With just weeks to go before the two and a half-month long "hot phase" of campaigning in Sondstead's October federal elections kicks off, Kristinä Lindkwist, an outsize figure in world affairs for her country's modest size and once poised to defy political gravity in her bid for a third term as Prime Minister, is feeling pressure. Despite a series of missteps last year, the leader of the opposition Socialist Labour Party, Antonia Sjole̊r, has narrowed the gap between her party and Lindkwist's to a dead heat.

There are parallels one can draw between Sjole̊r and Lindkwist. Both women – for the first time, both leading candidates for Prime Minister are female, and they will be joined by a third in firebrand nationalist Kiä Arndssunr of the idiosyncratic Citizen's List, which is entering an electoral alliance with the far-right People's Party – are on the young side. Both promise voters a fresh start, divorced both from the incumbent government but also the legacy of their party's last time in power – for both of them an unpopular one-term government. Intriguingly and again coincidentally, both are markedly religious in a country with an indifferent view toward faith.

But the differences are stark. Lindkwist is cut from the same mold as has long been preferred by Sondsteadish voters in their leaders; calm, dry, and rational. Sjole̊r is an impassioned and engaging speaker and an energetic campaigner. In comparison to Lindkwist's flagging technocratic and internationalist center-right agenda, Sjole̊r is more inward looking and populist, identified with her party's left wing. But this populism itself is starkly apart from the dark rhetoric of the likes of Arndssunr and People's Party leader Älex Karlman, or that is spread by Prekovi troll accounts in certain corners of the right wing – and left wing – blogosphere and media. And her optimistic message is moving the needle with voters who not so long ago were leaning towards the stability offered by Lindkwist's government in an increasingly unstable world.

"There is a difference between Radicalism and Ambition"

Sjole̊r's key task – a tightrope for a politician who has staked her ground on the authenticity of her working class background and left-wing politics – still awaits, although the party has been encouraged by state election wins last year and in 2015. To recover from two consecutive general election losses that left her party historically weak, she needs to win back moderate, middle-class voters.

I spoke with Sjole̊r at her offices in Käldrweder – the cold industrial city 800 kilometers north of Windstrand where she spent most of her youth and now represents in the assembly. Housed in a downtown high-rise and more spacious and state-of-the-art than I first expected – Sjole̊r's team moved into the new space last autumn as their campaign apparatus began to spool up – the office has become the main nerve center for the SAP campaign, which normally would be run out of the party's Asteriopol headquarters or out of Windstrand. Sjole̊r herself drove the decision, viewing it as a physical manifestation of her goal of running a different sort of campaign; despite fourteen years in the diet, twelve of those in the party frontbench including three as leader, confidants say she has maintained something of an outside mentality.

Sitting down with the leader in a lounge area with the decided feel of a hipster loft, she quickly engaged with me on that key question. "I don't consider myself radical. There is a difference between radicalism and ambition, and between radical politics and left wing politics. Is it radical to say that for four, five decades we built in this country a very successful social model which served us quite well, and that we have not been served well by the past three decades of efforts to dismantle it without effective replacement? The old model needs to be retooled, but not discarded."

Putting semantics aside, the party manifesto, driven in large part by Sjole̊r's ideas, deserves attention. It is indeed hard to call much of it radical; it makes all the requisite, if not undeserved, barbs against the Conservative-led coalition's management of the safety net and the economy, proposes a tax hike in the top brackets, promises a mostly symbolic, but crowd-pleasing in the abstract, cut of the base VAT rate from 21% to 20% – albeit with bigger cuts for reduced rate items and a dramatic temporary VAT exemption for electric cars, provided a buyer simultaneously trades in a diesel- or petrol-fueled car – and pledges not to open interstate rail to private franchises. These proposals are hardly surprising, given Sjole̊r's entrance into politics inspired by opposition to the cuts she saw making her work harder as a social services caseworker in the neoliberal 1990s.

There are, however, flashes of something different, both policies which, certainly, many observers would call radical and policies which deviate from a caricatured traditional leftism. The manifesto expresses little interest in industrial nationalization; it prefers to focus on cooperativism, with shades of distributivism, an economic philosophy anchored in Catholic social teaching and Pollonan Christian democracy. It muses on ways to achieve an equitable and cooperative sharing economy, such as a framework to enforce and strengthen collective bargaining for rideshare app drivers and workers in similar fields, and on the concept of predistribution – the admittedly fluffish idea that, while the traditional redistributive social safety net aims to ameliorate inequities, it would be more productive for the state to focus on eliminating the conditions which lead to gross inequity in the first place. One such proposal is a pledge to create a federal Housing Ministry, linked to the bold claim that, through a "Housing First" plan, the government could eliminate homelessness by 2025 while saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of krone̊n. There's an increasingly in vogue tax on industrial robots and plans for a commission to study universal basic income and support state governments in running pilot UBI programs.

"One of the most Dedicated People I have seen in Politics"

The influence of Christian social teaching on parts of the manifesto is certainly no coincidence. Sjole̊r is a devout member of the Church of Sondstead, and her alma mater, University College of Rujrholt, was established in 1867 as a private, church-affiliated school with a mission of raising the status of the poor. Sjole̊r herself was the recipient of a scholarship to attend Rujrholt, and mentioned to me she had even briefly considered entering the priesthood. When she speaks about social justice, either on the campaign or face to face, you get a sense of the real moral and spiritual imperative she feels about public service and her politics.

Her working class, somewhat religious politics have at times divided the party left, however; in her first leadership run in 2011, an equivocal answer on gay marriage – an issue mostly out of federal hands anyway given family law in Sondstead has always been a state matter – turned off social progressives. Sjole̊r lost on the second ballot by nearly six points, and her more centrist leadership rival, Karl D'Ambrosio went on to lead the party to further losses in the 2013 election on top of an already disastrous loss in 2009. In her winning campaign in 2014, she voiced support for LGBT issues, the year after Mideldal was the last state to legalize gay marriage. This time, however, in the midst of early days of the financial crisis, economic arguments carried the day and Sjole̊r took a majority on the first ballot.

One of Sjole̊r's influencers in terms of economic policy has also pulled her program towards an unabashedly left of center, Christian socialist direction. An acquaintance of hers since 2008, when she was already being mentioned as a future force in the party, Kazimír Moritz is an iconoclastic professor with a background in Catholic teachings – he comes from an old Moravian Catholic family in Windstrand and splits his time between Äldrve, where he teaches, and Pollona – and anthropological economics. In addition to Sjole̊r and other SAP figures, he has consulted with both the Civic Democrat and Republican Labour parties in Pollona, although in my phone call with him he called himself "too Christian for the socialists and too socialist for the Christians". He is proudly offbeat, hanging a framed cutout from the Morivaine satirical newspaper Le Oignon Déchaîné with the headline "Success of Bouquets alimentaire Disproves Theory of Rational Self-Interest in Markets" – Bouquets alimentaire is a Morivaine business specializing in arrangements of fruit resembling flower bouquets – in his office, where it is prominently visible in his free-wheeling video blogs covering his thoughts on politics, economics, anthropology, history, "proper" bratwurst, and his appreciation for the films of director Felix Gagné.

Moritz's background – he started his academic career in anthropology, studying rural and village life and economics in medieval central Alisna – is in substantivism; broadly, an understanding of economics as inseparable from the rest of society's functions, intimately intertwined with cultural, religious, and familial institutions. Substantivism is influential in economic anthropology, with substantivists arguing that formalist economics – the understanding of economics as centrally based in, well, the theory of rational self-interest in markets – is applicable in large part only to the industrial market economies that developed in western countries during the 19th and 20th centuries.

"All neoclassical economics, so all mainstream economics, are formalist economics," Moritz explains. "Substantivist economics are largely limited to economic anthropology, where it's more useful for understanding how economic activity worked in societies before the transformation of the world into an industrial capitalist economy". Substantivism, along with the ideas – prominent in Catholic social teaching and the related economic philosophy of distributivism – of cooperativism, solidarity, and subsidiarity, have also driven Moritz's work on socioeconomics in the modern context, in particular his skepticism of free market capitalism.

"In terms of an economic theory applicable to a modern, postindustrial society, my substantivist position would be that the failure of 19th and 20th century mainstream economics is that it thinks too much of economics and industry as something that can be analyzed apart from sociology and ecology. The free market struggles to solve social alienation due to economic change, or the tragedy of the commons. The core of my thinking is that in setting economic policy, you need to be mindful of social and environmental value, of good stewardship of the Earth, what I would call substantivistic value, in addition to economic or formalistic value."

"This is why I don't get invited to a lot of the best cocktail parties in Brno," he quips. He has plenty of praise for Sjole̊r's platform and campaign. While he is critical of her limited embrace of basic income – he is skeptical it's the answer to the socioeconomic alienation he sees as the central issue facing the developed world and has a general skepticism of such large federal-level programs as the best answer to social issues – he says she intuitively understands the issues. "She is honestly one of the most dedicated people I have seen in politics to dealing with big problems."

"The Second Part is running a Truly National Campaign"

Sjole̊r's inner circle includes a number of other figures from outside the longstanding party establishment world – to some consternation on the part of said establishment, but to the credit of both camps, an effort to bring Sjole̊r's staff into the larger party infrastructure for the campaign has made progress. Among them are her longtime chief of staff Le̊n Pälmen, who volunteered on her 1996 state assembly campaign as a university freshman and became her first paid staffer in 2003 when she was elected to parliament, communications director Elsíe Rasmussunr, who joined her staff in 2010 as she contemplated a leadership bid, Sixden Je̊nssunr, the Minister-President of Chamrland who has trialled some of Sjole̊r's ideas such as Housing First at the state level, and in parliament Rikjard Abramssunr, Karima Mohammed, Tim Walde̊n, Risten Hwitrfell, and Lesedi Nasha, all of whom earned spots on her shadow cabinet.

In the parliamentary party, Mohammed and Walde̊n have been two of her closest allies. Mohammed, the daughter of Soufian immigrant parents who fought her way out of a dysfunctional home – her father abusive to both her and her mother, who came to the country illegally as a child bride – was a cochair of her 2011 leadership campaign and ran for the leadership herself in 2014 as a confessional candidate, urging before the election that her supporters back Sjole̊r in the ultimately preempted second round, while Walde̊n, a physicist by trade before entering politics, managed Sjole̊r's successful second leadership bid. Hwitrfell – like Sjole̊r a resident of the Northwestern Lands state – and Nasha were both freshman MAs in the 2013 election who garnered Sjole̊r's attention, while Abramssunr, a gravelly voiced former shipyard welder and union rep with more centrist instincts, is her most prominent link to the SAP establishment.

Sjole̊r's outsider instincts have extended to the direction of the SAP campaign already in her focus on shaking up candidate recruitment. The typical SAP parliamentary candidate has long been a professional political or union official, with a few public servants – Sjole̊r herself was a social worker before pursuing a political career. This year, the party's strategy has been less conventional; while they've continued to heavily recruit from union ranks, a must-do for a left of center campaign, markedly fewer candidates have been state and local elected officials or so-called kitlinkändidäden – "kitten candidates", a pejorative for party-groomed MA hopefuls not long out of a political science program, usually via a job as a parliamentary staffer. Sjole̊r's other shake-up of the process was her early ambition of running 347 candidates – as some seats are floating adjustment seats, 347 is the number of MAs elected across all 174 geographic constituencies for Sondstead's 351-seat lower house.

Party strategists balked at the suggestion, fretting that it showed Sjole̊r was naive about a national campaign. In Sondstead's dual-member proportional based system, it would mean running two candidates even in, for example, staunchly Conservative districts in the exurban West Riding region of Windstrand State, where the SAP would be lucky to pick up one MA. Worse, running two candidates in tough seats can be counterproductive if fortunes unexpectedly turn; in such seats a party would still struggle to rack up enough votes to win a seat in the proportional count, but a single strong candidate – without the challenging party splitting its vote – can sometimes pull off an upset.

Sjole̊r admits that she made an oversight in that case, but it was part of a more well-reasoned broad strategy. "As a party we are trying to build up from a smaller base than we have had in about a century," she tells me in discussing her blueprint for the elections. "The first part of that is a reinvention of the party itself. It's asking 'Why do we deserve your votes? What is our reason for being?'. That's the draft manifesto, which we will finalize at the convention, in August. The second part is running a truly national campaign, because we need about a large gain, about thirty seats, to form a workable coalition that can accomplish an ambitious national program that will really make a difference for people."

Her push to broaden the net has resulted in a formidable slate of candidates – while several of the district conventions, which choose parliamentary candidates and delegates to the national SAP convention in Rive, have yet to be held, the party will likely run a slate of close to 250 candidates, diverse both demographically and in term of background. The recruits include several scientists, among them the director of climatological research at the Sondsteadish Federal Space Board, Elias Joranssunr, activists such as coder and Lödi Hanssunr Foundation computer literacy promoter Cosette Ärendssünr – who hopes to win the second seat in Lindkwist's DuKaBurh district and would be the first openly transgender officeholder in the country – and indigenous and environmental activist Sadaku Torres in the Sirenes, AUF broadcaster and comedian Jöhän Jordan, and a number of soldiers, many of them Karaman veterans now critical of the intervention, most notably Royal Life Guards Major Dänniel Hordman.

"The Party Position had to be Calibrated to what is Credible"

Defense and foreign policy has been the SAP's blind spot throughout Sjole̊r's tenure as leader. Even as public dissatisfaction with Lindkwist's domestic policy has mounted, voters still trusted her on foreign policy; with an erratic Questarian government as a neighbor, deepening ties with Galla and Morieux and investments in defense were reassuring. At the same time though, Lindkwist was able to work constructively with Jesselton in a number of areas. Even the Karaman intervention was popular at the beginning, with the public mainly agreeing with the mission but later souring on the duration and, after four years, the rather lackluster results. The Conservatives have an advantage, and a leftist SAP candidate with dovish impulses naturally faces tough questions. Sjole̊r's win in the leadership race almost immediately prompted the right wing tabloid Folkspost to publish the headline "Jesselton's new woman in Sondstead".

Sjole̊r has clearly struggled to find credibility on foreign affairs. She campaigned on ending national service and cutting defense personnel and expenditures, popular with much of the SAP base and not unreasonable seeming at a time when Questers had returned to civilian government. The January 2015 crisis in Karaman however set relations with Questers back to square one and left the SAP scrambling. Sjole̊r's appointment of Abramssunr as both deputy and leader and shadow foreign minister reassured the less dovish voices in the party, but she was awkwardly caught between sticking to her own principles – still popular with her core base but otherwise politically untenable – and somehow moving to a position that could reassure the country to the degree that voters could trust her with the weighty responsibility of making decisions on national defense.

By the time the draft manifesto was published, the SAP, bowing to political pressure and defense realities, had adopted a much softer position on defense cuts. The manifesto has dropped calls to cut thousands of troops or several billion Kr in spending, dropped any plan to abolish national service, and dropped a proposal to resell the Navy's newly acquired helicopter carrier. It endorses an order for two next-generation submarines, which the Lindkwist government recently placed. More modest cutbacks are all that remains; there's a commission to evaluate consolidating and closing military facilities and promises to defer any decision on a new fighter jet program and cancel a sixth NECM frigate. In the meantime, the defense issue had been a weight around Sjole̊r's campaign, and the about face has itself opened the party to criticism. Sjole̊r though has become more confident and comfortable talking about defense issues.

"In all honesty, I was a bit naïve about defense policy going into the leadership," she admits when I ask her about the change in position. She mentions the example of one of her personal political heroes, Niklas Äldjeärd – who served as SAP Prime Minister from 1931 to 1945. "The socialist position after the war, and the socialist ideal ever since, has been that neutrality was a precursor to disarmament, in Sondstead and globally. Äldjeärd was strongly for that when he was in the government with Bage̊r, but the lesson of the next decades, the crises in central Alisna and the Questarian war with Varnia, was that neutrality needs a credible defense. I would love nothing more than to be the Prime Minister who could preside over disarmament, but I do not believe I will be."

"With the manifesto, the party position had to be calibrated to what is credible," she concedes. Sjole̊r is less circumspect when I ask her about her policy on Karaman – the SAP manifesto calls for a total exit from Karaman by the end of the present authorization of military force in July 2018. "The Maredoratic League had a moral imperative to act given how destructive the sectarian violence was at the time, and we had some successes in term of our involvement in MASTAMIK, including establishing a very good working relationship with the local population. But eventually there is a point where we've done all we can. The recent spate of sectarian violence from groups in the Christian community is hideous and gut-wrenching, but there is a functioning, multi-ethnic and multi-religious government in Karaman, and eventually the Karamish people need to solve their sectarian chasm themselves to move forward."

"It's Early Still. We've got Momentum!"

A few days after I spoke with Sjole̊r, a friend emailed me a web address; a new MHI poll and seat projection had came out. The results didn't show a much different picture than other polls had in the past few weeks; the SAP on track to be the largest party with 132 seats, but the centre-left parties trailing the coalition 160 to 155. The balance of power held by the 23 MAs of the right-populist alliance and 8 Erakond Magimaa MAs. I placed a call to Sjole̊r's campaign office and asked a junior staffer if anyone would be willing to be interviewed about the state of the race. Fifteen minutes later I was called back by the chipper and utterly unflappable Elsíe Rasmussunr.

"It's early still. We've got momentum!". She certainly expected me to hear her as giving spin, and quickly continued. "I'm being straight with you. There's a lot of time left for the polls to move. And we're seeing something exciting happening as we get the message out. It's resonating with people, we're seeing young people especially, who are disillusioned with politics as usual. I don't want to tempt fate by saying this, but if we bring them out to vote I think we'll do just fine."

It's easy to dismiss the line coming out of the SAP campaign as spin or cliché, but it is clear Rasmussunr at least is a wholehearted believer. And there are signs that Sjole̊r and her team may be activating youth political passion in a surprising way. The same MHI poll – which showed the SAP taking 36% of the total vote – had the SAP at 43% among 21 to 30 year olds and at an at an impressive 48% among 18 to 21 year olds, which is even more impressive when you consider that in 2013 voters under 30 were only slightly more likely than the electorate as a whole to vote SAP. On the internet, particularly younger skewing sites like the photo-sharing social network Graphly – where Sjole̊r's recently created account has quickly gathered more than 50,000 followers – political conversation is becoming a hot topic, driven by enthusiastic young supporters of Sjole̊r's leftist message. Maybe they'll do just fine indeed.

Jean-Louis Peterson is a senior contributor to Politique étrangère Magazine, a contributor to Tet Mörgen Post and Nordic International Report, and a contributor and former senior correspondant for RTM. He lives in Saint-Lô and Windstrand.

by **Pollona** » Thu Jun 15, 2017 9:59 pm

The "Right" Question

As Odveta Referendum draws near, voters
consider what kind of country Pollona should be
Answers on Odveta exposes deep divisions within Pollonan society

From the Print Edition | Alisna
June 5^th 2017

With two months to go until the national vote on August 19th, Pollonans have a stark choice: retain the Odveta laws, or abolish them in effect through constitutional amendment. Political rhetoric far exceeded the dry, technical nature of the process. In last Tuesday's 'Yes' rally in Moravia, MP Judith Koss, claimed the referendum is "the most important event in [our] Republic's history." Here Ms. Koss shares common ground with Jonáš Mašek - a prominent member of the "No" campaign - who made similar comments on television.

Though gradually relaxed in its 80 year history, Odveta avoided defeat by the courts and foreign powers. Pollona's German community still languishes under bureaucratic restrictions, separation, and oppression. It's now up to Pollonans to decide whether they will defeat Odveta themselves. But in a year's worth of campaigning, Pollonans are bitterly divided. Yes on legal technicalities and civil rights, but also Germans impact on jobs, crime, public services, foreign affairs, and the political class. Odveta is increasingly about more than constitutional procedure.

The latest Ekonom survey suggests a narrow lead for 'Yes'. But underneath the surface it shows this is no ordinary election. For Pollonans the referendum is a question of identity.

"We are responsible for defending the open society"

The challenge for the Yes Campaign is to reassure the public that repealing Odveta is harmless. Many veteran Liberals - at the forefront of the campaign - remember the party's cataclysmic attempt to abolish Odveta under President Toluka in 1985. Prophecies of a race war stoked public fear, enough to damage the Liberal Unionists for decades. The Yes camp argue this time is very different. Far from traumatizing the country, their campaign focused on the positive effects of integration - particularly in terms of better economic conditions once sanctions are lifted. Privately however, the Yes Campaign admits having a 'secret weapon': young voters.

Commentators remark on the new "age divide". Those over age 65+ lean 'No', but voters aged 18-29 support 'Yes' by an overwhelming margin: as high as 70%. The 'Yes' camp has prioritized the recruitment of young volunteers - now as much as 30% of its total staff - giving them prominent roles in the campaign targeting other youth voters. This "snowballing strategy" however, hinges on channeling increased youth engagement into voter turnout.

Some, like Cecílie Balová - 24 - view the referendum as an opportunity for young Pollonans to express electoral strength. Cecílie first got interested in the campaign last September - through a friend's blog. Now, she co-chairs Open Outreach - a social media campaign targeted at young people - for 'Yes', based out of Liberec. Like many students her age Cecílie spent a year studying abroad, and boasts backpacking through a dozen Maredoratic countries. She is fond of Morivaine cuisine, obtained her diving license in Rochehaut, and has a life-sized cutout of Sondsteadish pop star Melodie Mathssunr in her flat. Cecílie is fond of calling herself part of Pollona's 'Global Generation': those born in the 80s and 90s. Thanks to Pollona's globalization, its youth are more interconnected to Maredoratic culture, media, and politics than any previous generation.

Fresh out of Orlice University - Double Majoring in Music and Communications - Cecílie sees the Odveta referendum as a sign of Pollona's new 'open' culture. "Its all about connecting with diverse people. We know what equality and toleration mean in other countries," she explained. "Now young people are ask: 'why can't we have that here?'". In addition more young people can name ethnic German friends or associates. Cecílie helped put together an ad campaign titled "Across Fences": a series of interviews with Czech and German neighbors calling together for Odveta repeal. The "Across Fences" videos went viral - and within a week were the most shared media on Pollona's social networks.

"Well its simply why they went viral: Odveta is deeply unfair, racist, and appallingly hypocritical," Cecílie continued. "Pollona's youth have the opportunity to stand up and say so. Tell our parents and grandparents they were wrong. We are responsible for defending the open society, and repealing Odveta is our greatest test yet."

_{The results of the Ekonom Referendum Survey, indicating a 52-44 split.}

_{Polling indicated a number of additional factors:
64% found the tone of the campaign was found "more negative than positive"
37% believed that "foreign governments were trying to influence the election"
58% believed the president was "right" to advocate for having a referendum
62% believed Odveta was "damaging foreign relations" with other countries
88% did not want a snap election if the referendum was won/lost}

"My members want to put our own people first"

Out in other parts of the country - away from the cities and prosperous port towns - the situation is quite different. Cries of brutality are ignored in towns like Zábrodí. Located in the heart of Andelská, Zábrodí is a small blip, one unnoticed by the white collar revolution. Most residents only graduate secondary school, university is a distant (and expensive) prospect. Median income is 15% below the national average, and unemployment far higher. According to Hubert Cech - leader of the local Union of Metalurgy Workers (UMW) - Zábrodí "is a town which has never really recovered from industrial decline."

"Job losses always hit Zábrodí extremely hard," Hubert commented while on walkabout. "But we are a highly supportive community." In the worst depths of the 2010 recession, a local paper mill employing 600 people shut its doors. Many of its workers took up part-time work, others are still unemployed. 3 former employees committed suicide. "The deaths really rattled the town, but when all the managers were cutting jobs or pay everywhere, there's very little you can do. A neighbor may take you in for a while, but your unemployment is permanent." Pointing to the closed mill, he said: "Here, jobs don't come back."

To Hubert and his union, towns like Zábrodí struggle because workers are ignored by bankers and CEOs living in metropolitan bubbles. Hardly any wonder why Republican-Labour dominates politics out here. As for the Odveta referendum, the Zábrodí UMW pays little attention to civil rights arguments. The main worry is about 'the flood' of unskilled labour which would devastate the town. "It's not racist to say the managers - given the opportunity - would rather employ cheap German labour than a Czech worker," Hubert explained. "This vote is a backdoor giveaway to the rich, who will increase unemployment and squeeze the wages of ordinary people."

Hubert takes solace in the fact his members, and indeed most unions, oppose the referendum. To them it's a distraction from the nation's 'real economic issues'. This working class solidarity partially explains why union membership is a key identifier of a 'No' vote.

"Instead, my members want to put our own people first by building a fairer, just system which thinks of more than profits. Increased manufacturing investment, stronger workplace protections, more social benefits, new taxes on relocation and automation. We should be building socialism within one country first. After that, then we can invite others to share in it. . . but until then the job cuts will continue."

"No one wants to trade with bigots"

Peter Joubert is a bit of an odd character, indeed born out of Pollonan and Morivaine chaos from another era. At the height of the First Intifada, his father John Joubert had immigrated - or rather escaped - from his home in Setif. In his travels on the continent John met a young Pavlína Nitschman. Her home was destroyed in the Red Spring some 8 years prior. The Jouberts married in 1943, and Peter was born a year later. At 73 years old - after accomplishments as a solicitor, published writer, and Undersecretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) - Peter proudly wears his Moravian, Pollonan, and - uniquely - Jewish heritage.

His pro-bono work for German Pollonans - at a time when the legal system was far harsher - earned him honorary membership in 'Le Guarde des Droits Humains'. Ironically, his association with similar NGOs brought him into the MoFA: first - at least to Peter - as a token figure, but finally as a real negotiator between NGOs and the government. Joubert was praised for work in reconciling several NGOs in the 1980s through legal reform proposals. "In retirement I wanted to fight for the basic human dignity of minorities, that aspect has been lacking across Maredoratica the past century," he claims. "I love my country, but I've found we do not live remotely close to our high idealism. Of course my lectures and writings feature practical and moral arguments. Practical is very simple: having been in Foreign Affairs and raised in a jumbled household, Odveta doesn't sell abroad. In the real democracies of the world, it is a simple fact that no one wants to trade with bigots."

But Peter Joubert's greatest source of advocacy against Odveta is - he claims - from the Pollonan Jewish community. "I'd say to them: 'The abolition of religious persecution came about because people stood with us. Should we not repay our debt, and lend a hand to those suffering ethnic intolerance?'" Indeed, Jewish voters are almost unanimously anti-Odveta according to the polls. "For the rest of my life I will fight against this as I always have," Peter declared. "No one deserves that horrible injustice, if we will not stand against it others may be next."

"Yet again the politicians don't listen"

The Episcopal parish of Dobruška is in trouble. This community of just under 50,000 was one of the unfortunate victims of looting during the Udansk Riots in March - after the killing of some 3 Pollonan Germans during a police raid. The Děčín Diocese sent relief aid, but refused to reconsider the church's 'soft-neutrality' on the referendum. Evangelical Protestants attacked the Episcopal Church for "wishy washy moralism," attracting worshipers to their church services instead. Evangelicals, or Non-Episcopal Protestants (NEP), firefly criticized Odveta repeal as 'God's wrath on a sinful political establishment.' They consider themselves a bastion against a 'fifth column' of Catholics. The Sévérac Catholic Church - based in Morieux - has many German adherents in Pollona. The Sévérac Catholic Church lead protests against Pollona in the past. NEP communities fear a 'Papist coup'.

To some like Miluše Kratochvíl, the move from the Episcopal Church - to a Calvinist one - was obvious. "The church abandoned us. They and everyone else are talking down our country again and again." she claimed, with a crowd of like minded people nodding their heads. "You know these pop stars and flashy business people and the like, they don't care about what we think. We get talked down to. Yet no one talks about these Germans looting peoples homes and blowing things up. They don't listen, yet again the politicians don't listen. And we're supposed to be better off after this?" To them, the church has forgotten its members. "I went to the Sunday services at the Calvanist parish up the road, and you know what? Someone actually prayed for our community, my neighbors, the country."

Yet others like Anděla Zeto stand by the Episcopal diocese. "I think they are right. I think Christ would want us to always do good towards other people. We don't love these people [the Germans] enough." Many people like her mourn the poisoned atmosphere in the city. "I have never in all my life seen so much . . . bitterness in our little community. We have always been there for each other. I mean my own neighbor - she - two of her old friends - and now her own son won't speak to her anymore. I cannot imagine what. . . if that was me and . . . oh god." It took some time for Anděla to regain her composure before bursting out: "Why can't we all just get along? We're all one country right? Can we act like it? Why are we having this vote, I want it all to stop!"

It is hard to overlook the social cost of the referendum.

"It would be the most radical presidency in our history"

"It is impossible to remain politically ambivalent about an issue like this," explained Dr. Valerie Ludlová - Professor of Political Science and History at Polebrad University - "nevertheless, it is my duty to present the arguments and context of the referendum as fairly as I can." Professor Ludlová chaired the research group which conducted the Ekonom Referendum Survey, and is a frequent commentator on political history. According to her, the referendum is a symptom of underlying shifts in values beginning in the mid 1980s.

"In 1985 public opinion divided 70-30 opposing Odveta repeal. Now, a generation has passed without memories of the civil war in the 30s or the disturbances of the 60s. Coupled with that, opposition among the older demographic has softened markedly." However, success is not guaranteed. "We've concluded - for a sizable section of the population - Odveta's erosion is linked to Pollonan decline. For them, repeal is frightening: economically, politically, or socially." According to Professor Ludlová, this referendum will have significant consequences: "Odveta touches everything in the country. If Odveta goes away that opens up a whole host of new questions. For starters, the German Problem has been the poison chalice our nation's political leaders."

The implications will be very specific for Mr. Laszlo's presidency. "Up to now history will judge President Laszlo as a committed internationalist, and - while frustrated on domestic policy - a man who achieved modest governmental reforms: digital transparency, whistle-blower protections, penal law reform, etc. If the vote fails he limps on, mocked as another Robert Toluka: a popular reformer who crashed and burned on the same issue. But if the referendum succeeded, his authority is unshakable. With party pledges on a host of social justice policies for the German population, there's no doubt this would be the most radical presidency in our history."

Until such time, Dr. Ludlová is content with professional pundits opining on the 'minutia' of politics. Yet like Ms. Koss or Mr. Mašek, the professor agrees the referendum is the most important issue the republic has ever faced. "In fact," Ludlová mused, "I would say Odveta is the Republic's only political event. All the aftermath - and here I mean the past 8 decades - is merely a reaction. Now will we accommodate Odveta to the 21st century, or turn the page?"

Put differently, last Tuesday Ms. Koss asked her audience "What kind of country do we want to live in?" Unsurprisingly Pollona gives no clear answer. So the world is forced to wait until August 20th, when the dust finally settles.

by **Borgosesia** » Thu Jun 22, 2017 4:24 pm

Over 400 officials arrested in anti-corruption raid
Members of Borgosesia United, including ministers of PM Del Pizzo, linked to far-right extremists in Galkayo by special investigators | Vertucci: Parliament dissolved amidst "constitutional crisis" | Evidence suggests orchestrated collusion to 'upset balance of power in Galkayo' | Arrest warrants issued for PM Del Pizzo, ex-PM Ciavarella
22 June 2017 | 11:30 EAMT

Hundreds of officers of the Polizia nazionale participated in raids across the country to arrest politicians
and officials allegedly linked to a scheme to fund and support far-right terrorists in Alqosia.

The largest police manuever in Borgosesian history is underway to apprehend politicians police say colluded to materially and financially fund far-right extremists within Borgosesia and abroad, according to National Police.

Arrest warrants for over 400 politicians, government officials, military commanders, and law enforcement officers, were issued this morning by the Supreme Court. Suspects include Prime Minister Nicea Del Pizzo and ex-Prime Minister Maria Ciavarella, along with Consiglieri Tito Mancusi and Verecondo Mazzoni. Ms Ciavarella was taken into custody this morning before the larger operation took place. Mr Del Pizzo, Mr Mancusi and Mr Mazzoni were also taken into custody this morning without incident.

Grand Marshal Regolo Vertucci has dissolved parliament, and the remaining members of the Supreme Defense Council are acting as national stewards during what Mr Vertucci described as an "unprecedented constitutional crisis."

The arrests followed revelations presented to the Supreme Court, the results of a several-month long investigation into the Borgosesian government, over claims that the Borgosesian government conspired and colluded with far-right extremists to overthrow the democratically elected government of the Republic of Galkayo.

The National Police launched their investigation into alleged Borgosesian involvement as early as July of 2015. Court records indicate that the National Police found discovered substantive links between the government of Maria Ciavarella and representatives of the so-called "New Free State Army," which claims to be the successor of the Galkayan Free State, a puppet government set up in north-east Galkayo following the defeat of Borgosesia during the Borgo-Galkayan War.

"There was a concerted effort in the Borgosesian government, primarily in the Borgosesia United party, to upset the peace in Galkayo to further the economic and political goals of the government," Director Paola Tartaglia said in a press conference this morning. "Through our investigation, we have discovered this effort took place across two governments at almost every level of government, from local municipal officials to our nation's highest offices."

Aldobrando Cupo, Chairperson of the Chamber of the People, is the highest-ranking member of Borgosesia United not implicated in the scheme. He called "calm and patience" as law enforcement worked "to figure out what's going on."

Court documents made public say that investigators with the National Police allege that the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Defense under both Mr Del Pizzo and Ms Ciavarella conspired to send ex-members of the Republican Guard ousted from the organization after fascism was outlawed in 2014 to Galkayo to serve in the so-called New Free State Army. Court documents also suggest that the Ministry of Justice attempted to exert its force on the National Police, the Republican Guard, and the Border Police to facilitate the illegal transferal of arms to Alqosia.

Documents allege that newly-established military facilities on Saint Andrew and Saint John have been used to train ex-Republican Guardsmen and native far-right Galkayan extremists to wage war against the democratically elected government.

The scheme was allegedly formulated by Ms Ciavarella shortly after she took power in 2014 on a platform of government transparency and openness. The investigation revealed she was forced out by the central committee of Borgosesia United due to controversy surrounding Galkayan accusations, and she was replaced by Mr Del Pizzo, who was allegedly tasked by party leaders to cover up the affair.

The findings of the National Police investigation directly contradict the findings of an independent commission set up by the Chamber of the People in November of 2016 which found that Galkayan allegations of Borgosesian involvement, first levied last October, were based on "misinterpretations through gross negligence" on the part of the Galkayan government. The National Police allege that members of the commission orchestrated the result. All of the members who sat on the commission were arrested part of the raid.

Following the announcement of the allegations, protestors across major cities in Borgosesia took to the streets to express disdain at the findings. Additional police and military personnel have been deployed to keep order, but there are already mounting and conflicting demands on social media and in protests. A growing camp is calling for the immediate resignation and investigation of Grand Marshal Vertucci and the Supreme Defense Council, including First Secretary Donato Rizzotti, neither of which were charged with any crime. Others are calling for the Supreme Defense Council and the military to take greater emergency control to perform a sweep of the country to root out any further corruption.

"The political situation in Borgosesia is very tense at this time," said Urdino Lepera, professor of Borgosesian History and New Media at the University of Valsesia. "These arrests, revelations, and allegations will really be a stress test for Borgosesia's fledgling democracy."

"I fear what might happen should conflicting political voices overpower what has thus far been a clean, well-executed, and professional criminal investigation," he added.

It is unclear what will happen next. It is the first time since the drafting of the new constitution in 2014 that emergency powers would be invoked by the Supreme Defense Council, which is now two members short and likely under scrutiny by the National Police. It is also unclear at this time whether Grand Marshal Vertucci is implicated in this scandal.

by **Borgosesia** » Thu Jun 29, 2017 6:09 pm

Finance police raid DuoCredito after evidence of corruption emerges
Another Supreme Defense Consigliere is implicated in corruption and scheme to fund foreign terrorists | DuoCredito Chairman 'missing and wanted for questioning' | Allegations severely hurt Borgosesian market at home and abroad
29 June 2017 | 11:30 EAMT

DuoCredito is the largest financial institution in Borgosesia. It was partly controlled by the government until the 2014 political reforms.

The largest corruption scandal in Borgosesian history, now being called 'Galkayogate' by foreign media, has widened to include investigations of Borgosesia's top financial instution, DuoCredito, a global banking and financial services company with branches across most of Alisna and Alqosia, including Galkayo.

Charges against DuoCredito Chairman Paolo Maggiacomo, son of Consigliere Pardo Maggiacomo, and 10 other top executives with the bank were filed after key documents were secured in raids last week that linked Paolo Maggiacomo and the bank's leadership with suspicious loans made to Borgosesian nationals in Silgadin and Galkayo. The loans, four in total, were allegedly organized and approved directly by members of the DuoCredito corporate leadership in 2014, 2015, and 2016, and were not reported to national financial regulators.

DuoCredito Chairman Paolo Maggiacomo has not yet been located by law enforcement officials, who raided the DuoCredito headquarters in Valsesia earlier this afternoon, seizing thousands of documents and electronic equipment, although it was apparent to investigators that attempts had been made to destroy evidence prior to raids by law enforcement officials.

"There was evidence of shredded hard drives, shredded documents, and other destroyed items that could be considered evidence," said Inspector Henrietta Wojewoda of the Financial Crimes Unit of the Border Police. "Charges of obstructing justice may be filed against those responsible for destroying evidence related to the case."

The whereabouts of Paolo Maggiacomo are presently unknown, and law enforcement are making every attempt to locate him.

The Ministry of Justice, which has now established a Special Anti-Corruption Taskforce, has indicated it is also investigating whether or not Consligiere Pardo Maggiacomo, a sitting member of the Supreme Defense Council who led DuoCredito between 1990 and 2014, has any information on the illegal loans, although the Ministry of Justice has clarified that no charges have been filed against Mr Maggiacomo at this time.

Economic and political uncertainty

The revelation that DuoCredito allegedly played some role in the destabilization of affairs in Alqosia is troubling to financial experts and investors the world over. DuoCredito was partly-owned by the government until 2014, and as such many government bonds were issued through the financial institution. The bank also managed several international investments into and out of Borgosesia.

"DuoCredito is one of the largest financial institutions in Alisna, and certainly one of the largest in southern Alisna," said Giocomo Pizzeria, a leading economist for MoneyZone.biz. "Revelations of mishandling of funds should be alarming to investors into Borgosesian business ventures. It's likely this wasn't an isolated incident, and it would be worthwhile to investigate possible corruption linked to DuoCredito in other countries."

Along with economic instability, the political situation in Borgosesia is fluctuating. Confidence in the Supreme Defense Council's emergency management of the country is at an all time low now with two in police custody and one under police investigation. The United Borgosesia party is on the verge of splitting between its factions, and several political groups across the country have gained the limelight calling for political reform, ranging from modest changes to how the country's political system operates, to adopting a new constitution, and to abolishing the Borgosesian State entirely and re-establishing the Kingdom of Borgosesia, although some political groups have garnered more attention than others on social media and public forums.

The situation has not yet turned violent. Grand Marshal Regolo Vertucci's decision to deploy troops to assist the Ministry of Justice indicates his willingness to let the civilian government handle the investigation, but multiple groups are simultaneously calling for him to resign or to take complete control to bring a swift process of justice to possible corrupt officials.

Grand Marshal Vertucci has yet to call for elections, which could possibly bring the country to the point of a constitutional crisis should more memebers of the Supreme Defense Council, or Grand Marshal Vertucci himself, should be implicated in any corruption charges.

Maredoratican News Depository

Who is online