Shenzhen Family Values [Earth II]

[Freistaat-Ostafrika]

(OOC: This is basically a restart and expansion of The Foothold in Europe and Other Shenanigans [Earth II], as various events have rendered parts of that thread invalid. This is also the continuation of various plots leading on from All Lions Drown in Oil [Earth II] and Two Dragons Unfurl Their Coils [Earth II]).


Just over five months after the signing ceremony which brought it into official existence, the Afro-Asian Unity and Cooperation Organisation (more popularly referred to as the 'Shenzhen Pact' as the treaty was signed in the city of Shenzhen) was proving to be of considerable benefit to the eleven full members. Increased investment was flowing from the wealthier members into the less wealthy members, with a reciprocal stream of resources flowing the other way. Unsurprisingly the source of most of the investment was the Nanfang Republic, the East Asian behemoth which was the undisputed major power of the organisation as it not only had the largest population but also the largest economy; the Republic's economic strength was such that the Nanfang yuan had become the world's most prominent reserve currency. The Republic's armed forces had been invited to station Rapid Reaction Forces in the territory of three of their allies and joint training programs were being finalised across the Pact, drawing upon the discipline and equipment of the largest and most formidable military within the organisation. Nanfang corporations found their counterparts in other Pact members to be even more eager to enter into partnerships, and infrastructure projects were starting to pop up across the organisation's African members as the Nanfang construction and telecoms sectors hunted down new opportunities. There was even a renewed wave of interest in Nanfang culture among the upper and middle class citizens of the Pact members in Africa, who were embarking in greater numbers on vacations to the likes of Nanjing, Guangzhou, and Oumún (OOC: Macau). Nanfang television channels were rolling out new foreign language or subtitled versions of their content for the Shenzhen Pact membership while several of the Republic's music stars were planning tours of the organisation's member states due to increased interest. It was a good time to be a citizen of the Nanfang Republic. Other powers within the Pact were also making the most of the opportunities presented by their membership. The rather laissez-faire banks of Singapura Raya were seeing an upsurge in account openings by wealthy Africans, the United Arab Emirates were securing food security deals with their more agricultural allies, and Freistaat Ostafrika's corporatocracy was finding new inroads into the economies of their African neighbours while enjoying their unofficial status as the Pact's 'second power'.

However, this increased interconnectivity was also proving to be a blessing for the organised crime groups within the Pact's membership. The Thrashing Dragons syndicate of Singapura Raya had utilised their contacts and influence to bring together prominent groups to form their own association, internally referred to as the 'Celestial Alliance'. In addition to the Dragons, the Alliance also involved the Howling Devil-Tigers of the southern Nanfang Republic, the Makinde Clan of the Republic of Nigeria, the Ngola Group of the Republic of Ndongo, Príncipe Florêncio of the Grande Império do Zaire and his agents, and perhaps most worringly the Ostafrikan Department of State Security. State Security Direktor Wilhelm Treich had chosen 'constructive engagement' as a simpler way to try to limit the impact of increased organised crime in Ostafrika as the Department could help their newfound allies in exploiting other opportunities; the Department could also ask their new friends to carry out assassinations on their behalf in return for intelligence or simple payment. Príncipe Florêncio had arranged for the Thrashing Dragons to easily and quietly purchase the Complexo da Praia spa resort in the southern Zairian city of Elisabete do Sul (OOC: Lubumbashi), a location which now saw use as a luxurious vacation spot for members of the Alliance, as well as a favourable location for the association's conferences.

The international community remained largely unaware of that particular undercurrent within the Shenzhen Pact however. Instead they were presented with a burgeoning economic juggernaut and increased cooperation across continents, and perhaps unsurprisingly there were some non-member nations where a pro-Shenzhen lobby was beginning to take shape amidst the usual day-to-day political entertainments.



30 April 2020 - 07:00hrs [UTC+1]
Wielopolski Palace
Kraków, Republic of Zapadoslavia

Nestled between the Realm of Cotland and the Empire of Britannia in Central Europe, the Republic of Zapadoslavia was a relatively small nation compared to its neighbours. With a population of some fifty-four-point-four million people, Zapadoslavia was a unitary parliamentary republic with a largely ceremonial President and a Prime Minister who was the genuine political power in the nation. The name 'Zapadoslavia' roughly translated to 'Land of the West Slavs', and it was a rather apt name as the vast majority of the population was comprised of West Slavic peoples: Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Sorbs, Kashubians, Moravians, and Silesians. Zapadoslavia was also a relatively wealthy country with a GDP per capita of just over $33,000. The highly diverse economy featured a prominent services sector as well as healthy industrial and agricultural sectors. Significant industries included motor vehicles, electronics, ship building, pharmaceuticals, foods and beverages, machine building, and armaments, among others.

The Zapadoslavian capital was the old city of Kraków, centrally positioned within the nation and brimming with history as it had served as capital for several regional powers throughout history. Kraków possessed a reputation as a major academic and cultural centre, and was also known as the 'city of churches' due to over one hundred and twenty places of worship existing within its boundaries. It now also served as the location of the residences for the Zapadoslavian President and Prime Minister, as well as the location of the unicameral Parliament. The single house of Parliament was the Chamber of Deputies, comprised of five hundred and thirty-two Deputies; the Prime Minister and his government had to be Deputies in order to hold office. The Chamber of Deputies approved domestic legislation, constitutional laws, and the annual budget. Its consent was required to ratify international treaties, and it was responsible for approving military operations. It also elected individuals to certain positions in the executive and judiciary as specified by law. The current government was comprised of a coalition between the larger Christian Democratic Party and the smaller Freedom Party, resulting in an administration which was socially conservative but more centre-left in regard to economics, favouring a social market economy. There had been a definite sense of the Christian Democratic Party having to 'hold their nose' in order to assemble the coalition with the Freedom Party, which also favoured a social market economy but was far more conservative on cultural, social, and moral issues. The coalition had been in power since May 2018 but were now facing a revitalised opposition after the Social Democrats elected a new leader. Prime Minister Igor Panek had found Kryštof Zahradnik to be a formidable opponent; eloquent, intelligent, and twelve years younger than the fifty-one year old Prime Minister, Zahradnik had identified the Freedom Party as the weak link in the coalition and consistently condemned the Christian Democratic Party for 'climbing into bed with extremism'. The young centre-left politician and his supporters had managed to unearth inflammatory social media posts from Freedom Party Deputies regarding ethnic Roma and other minorities within Zapadoslavia but Prime Minister Panek had done his best to avoid dealing with the matter, claiming that it was up to Freedom Party leader Łukasz Walski to discipline his own party. This approach may have worked more successfully if it were not for Walski serving as a Deputy Prime Minister as well as Minister of Science and Higher Education.

On this particular Thursday morning, all hell had broken loose. The morning television and radio programmes were leading with the story that Walski had been secretly recorded at a Freedom Party meeting, making various ethnic and antisemitic slurs. While it would be damaging enough if it had happened two or three years ago, the recording was of a meeting held in February, a mere couple of months earlier. The media were openly discussing the situation with rabbis and representatives of Zapadoslavia's ethnic minorities, and the clear consensus from all of the invited guests was that Walski had to go. Prime Minister Panek was pacing his office in the Prime Ministerial residence of Wielopolski Palace, a 16th century Renaissance-style building which was rumoured to be haunted by a 'White Lady', although Panek had never seen any such apparition. His wife Aleksanda angrily snatched editions of the daily newspapers from an aide as they were brought in, as Aleksanda had always been something of a force behind the scenes in the administration.

"He has to go. I mean...ugh, look at these headlines. 'Walski in Slur Scandal'. 'Deputy Prime Minister wants to deport minorities'. You can't dismiss this by suggesting that he discipline himself."

Panek shook his head. "If I get rid of him then the Freedom Party will pull out of the coalition. You know what happens then? Zahradnik calls for a vote of no-confidence. If the vote is passed then we have to have an election. We barely managed to scrape through the last one, with Zahradnik leading the Social Democrats we could easily lose a fresh election."

"There's every chance that a vote of no-confidence won't pass. I highly doubt that the Freedom Party would support anything proposed by him."

"They could support it just to spite me for acting against Walski. Maybe, just maybe, I can get Walski to apologise. Then we can keep the coalition together and there'll be plenty of time before the next election for things to blow over. Plenty of time for us to dig up some dirt on Zahradnik."

The ringing of the telephone atop Panek's desk caused them both to jump slightly before Aleksanda answered it, immediately adopting a sombre expression as he extended the receiver towards her husband. "It's Sergiusz."

Panek swore under his breath as he took the receiver in order to speak to Sergiusz Kruczek, the chairman of the Christian Democratic Party. "Sergiusz, good morning. Yes, yes I have seen it. I'm not completely...oh, yes. I understand. Yes, I agree completely. I-"

He offered the receiver back to Aleksanda as Kruczek hung up on him. "Emergency meeting of the Committee at ten o'clock." He let out a loud sigh and rubbed the bridge of his nose at the thought of meeting with the party's elder statesmen under these circumstances, as they would inevitably tell him how to respond to this situation instead of asking him what he intended to do. A familiar voice then emanted from the television and Panek turned, groaning as he saw that his bespectacled younger rival had already managed to get the drop on him.

"Well I think it's absolutely disgusting that a Deputy Prime Minister would speak in this manner, regardless of whether it's in private or in public. Prime Minister Panek has turned a blind eye to the behaviour and rhetoric of his coalition partners time and time again, and this is the result we end up with." Kryštof Zahradnik shrugged as he continued. "The Prime Minister will undoubtedly try to sweep this under the carpet like everything else. I'm going to be meeting with the other opposition party leaders to discuss the situation but I would just like to ask a question of the voters of Zapadoslavia. Is this the sort of government we actually want? Our Prime Minister believes that extremist views in government are acceptable as long as those espousing the views are keeping him in power."

The Prime Minister turned back to his wife and gestured at the screen with exasperation. "How do the media always get him on so quickly?"

[Freistaat-Ostafrika]

1 May 2020 - 08:00hrs [UTC+1]
ZST News Broadcast
Republic of Zapadoslavia

"Good morning, this is ZST News and I'm Katya Dunin. Our top story this morning is the developing turmoil surrounding Prime Minister Panek and his government. Following yesterday's revelations regarding the offensive language used by Deputy Prime Minister Łukasz Walski during a Freedom Party meeting, Mister Panek made the announcement yesterday afternoon that Mister Walski's position had become untenable and that he was therefore being removed from his position as both Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and Higher Education. Mister Walski responded by condemning Mister Panek for 'bowing to snowflake pressure' and announced that the Freedom Party would be withdrawing from the ruling coalition with immediate effect. This means that the Christian Democratic Party no longer has a majority in the Chamber of Deputies and Prime Minister Panek is now the leader of a minority government. For more on the latest developments, let's go to our Political Editor, Daniel Stolarz, who is outside Wielopolski Palace. Daniel?"

The broadcast feed changed from the young brunette newsreader in the studio to the middle-aged and slightly balding correspondent, who offered a warm smile before beginning to respond.

"Yes Katya, this is certainly not the start to the month that any Prime Minister would be hoping for, let alone one in the position that Mister Panek has found himself in of late. Mister Walski and his Freedom Party Deputies have been the centre of controversy for months and months, and in the end Mister Panek really had no choice but to sack Mister Walski. Yet according to my sources, Mister Panek had to be ordered to do so by the Central Committee of the CDP as he wanted to try to tough it out in the hopes that it would blow over. In the end though, the old guard who administer the CDP decided that enough was enough. The coalition with the Freedom Party got them into power but the CDP has started to suffer from a perception that they are soft on extremism, so apparently the Central Committee wanted to send a message that the CDP will no longer tolerate such language from their coalition partners. Unsurprisingly Mister Walski came out swinging, accusing Mister Panek of being too soft and pandering to, as he describes them, 'snowflakes and lazy millennials'. So now the Freedom Party have withdrawn from the coalition and the Prime Minister is having to appoint replacements for those Freedom Party members who received ministerial posts as part of the coalition deal."

"So Daniel, what do we think will happen next?"

"Well we now have a government which no longer commands a majority in the Chamber of Deputies, and the Social Democrat leader Kryštof Zahradnik has pounced on that like a lion on a wounded gazelle. He emerged last night with a scathing attack upon the Prime Minister, squarely placing the blame for all this on Mister Panek's 'obsession with power and burying his head in the sand'. Now that Mister Panek is on the ropes, Mister Zahradnik has an opportunity. If he garners the support of the other parties in the Chamber of Deputies then he could call and win a vote of no-confidence, at which point President Eduard Nagyová would offer him the opportunity to form a new government. However, it is unlikely that Mister Zahradnik could corral all of the other parties into a new coalition as it would be the political equivalent of herding cats, so we would then head into a general election in an attempt to solve the entire situation. If a vote of no-confidence were to fail or not be called then Mister Panek would remain in power although he would be rather lacking in power, as he would be reliant on opposition parties to either vote for his legislative plans or abstain in sufficient numbers to allow his legislation through. Just in case anyone out there is wondering if the CDP could find a new partner to form a coalition, remember that they had to partner with the Freedom Party because none of the others were willing to help out. I find it highly unlikely that any of the other parties would now change their minds and support a government which is teetering on the edge.

"Basically Mister Panek has to hope for three things in order to survive. The first is that the Freedom Party refuse to back a vote of no-confidence. The second is that Mister Zahradnik fails to get the other opposition parties to back such a vote. The third, and perhaps the wild card in all this, is that the left wing of the CDP stay loyal to the party line. Several Deputies on the left of the CDP were less than impressed about going into coalition with the Freedom Party, and there are murmurs about one or two possible defections in the wake of this whole mess. The only thing we can be certain about is that we can't be certain about anything."

The feed returned to Katya Dunin, who nodded appreciatively. "Thank you to our Political Editor, Daniel Stolarz. Now with a brief overview of the current arithmetic in the Chamber of Deputies, here is our Fact Check correspondent Anton Hlinka. Anton?"

The cameras in the studio switched to the smartly-coiffed broadcaster who gestured to the large screen behind him, at which point the screen filled with a graphic depicting the Zapadoslavian Chamber of Deputies.

"Katya, the arithmetic has certainly changed. There are five hundred and thirty-two seats in the Chamber of Deputies, and you need two hundred and sixty-seven seats to have the slimmest majority necessary to form a government. After the last election in May 2018 we had the Christian Democratic Party on two hundred and fifty-nine, eight short of a majority. They then formed a coalition with the Freedom Party which had ten Deputies and this gave Prime Minister Panek a majority of two, it doesn't sound like much but it ensured that legislation could pass. In opposition we have the Social Democrats on two hundred and twenty, the Green Party on twenty-one, the Communist Party of Zapadoslavia on twelve, and then ten Independents.

"Now that the Freedom Party have withdrawn from the coalition, the CDP government is eight short of a majority once again. Passing legislation could get far more difficult but if the opposition wants to hold and win a vote of no-confidence then they will need the Freedom Party to vote in favour of it or they will need members of the CDP to either vote against their own party or defect to other parties. As Daniel stated earlier, there's a lot up in the air and an awful lot to play for. Katya?"

"Thank you Anton. Other headlines still to come this morning: we have a special report from the Republic of Cameroon where President Felipe Nmbega is planning to step down after forty-five years in power, and we look at the increasing interest in so-called 'N-Pop', pop music from the Nanfang Republic."

A brief musical cue then played as she moved onto another news item.

"First though, in a piece which may have renewed significance as a result of the current governmental situation, our Foreign Affairs Editor Halina Kuras takes a look at Zapadoslavia's place in the world and what the future might hold for our nation. Halina?"

The cameras switched to another part of the studio where a middle-aged woman with short white hair peered over her glasses before gesturing to a screen which displayed a map of the world as divided up into individual nations.

"Thank you Katya. In a world of major powers, what part does a nation like ours have to play? We have the Empire of Britannia to our west, the Realm of Cotland to our east and north, and in the south of Europe we have the sprawling Caliphate of Rum. The Panek government have maintained a stance of what they called 'neutral sovereignty' where they refused to choose a side in international politics, but several political and diplomatic experts believe that such a stance has led to our relative isolation. Essentially we have been left alone because we are not viewed as important enough to engage with. In these ever-changing times it feels as though the smaller nations of Europe are having to choose sides, aligning with larger powers out of necessity. So what would be Zapadoslavia's options?

"The 'Zapadoslavia International Institute' think tank believes that the best option for our nation would be to look beyond Europe for a larger power to align with, their reasoning being that an outside power would be less likely to attempt to integrate us into their own territory. The Empire of Layarteb and the Kingdom of Apilonia are both large military powers with an existing European presence, so they are both clear options. However, the Institute suggests that the Shenzhen Pact is also a viable option, despite the organisation officially being named as the 'Afro-Asian Unity and Cooperation Organisation'. The Institute points to the speech made by President Yang Mingshu of the Nanfang Republic when the Pact was officially signed, in which she stated that the organisation 'would always welcome applicants and future members from elsewhere in the world' despite the name's focus on Africa and Asia. If we look at the Republic of Portugal, another smaller European nation in a similar position to ourselves, their government recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Nanfang Republic regarding infrastructure investment and future economic ties. There's been no official talk of Portugal joining the Shenzhen Pact but some analysts view the Memorandum of Understanding as an initial step. The presence of former Portuguese colonies within the membership of the Shenzhen Pact appears to have opened a door for Portugal, but could Zapadoslavia find our own door into the Pact? Would joining the Pact be the right move for us? These are questions that may well require an answer in the weeks and months to come. Back to you, Katya."

[Freistaat-Ostafrika]

4 May 2020 - 09:00hrs [UTC+1]
Chamber of Deputies
Kraków, Republic of Zapadoslavia

Kryštof Zahradnik hummed happily to himself as he settled down in the office provided to him within the Chamber of Deputies building, one of the state-provided resources available to the leaders of political parties which enjoyed representation in Zapadoslavia's unicameral legislature. The now thirty-nine year old had been the elected representative of the Kunratice constituency in Prague since the 2013 election and had quickly established himself as a serious force within the Social Democrats due to his oratorial and organisational talent, winning him the support of several Deputies who had also been elected for the first time in 2013. After the party had lost their second election in a row in May 2018, their then-leader Andrea Repková was forced out and a two-month leadership contest began, at which point Zahradnik's more calculated side emerged. Rather than openly throw his hat into the ring, Zahradnik engineered a situation where his supporter Deputies performed media interviews where they talked about the fact that he would be the best choice for the party if he could be persuaded to stand for the leadership. This created some degree of media interest which he then capitalised on by 'reluctantly stepping forward at the urging of his peers'. He managed to stand out from other leadership contenders by successfully appealing to younger party members, advocating greater inclusivity within the party's ranks while carrying himself with a certain amiable and level-headed charm. He also proved to be particularly effective in utilising social media to get his message across. Zahradnik's media savvy and increasingly ardent support base led to other Social Democrat Deputies switching their support to him as the leadership hustings continued, and when the field was reduced to two candidates in order for the broader party membership to elect a new leader, Zahradnik won with seventy-three percent of the membership's vote. On 27 July 2018, Kryštof Zahradnik had been announced as the new leader of the Social Democrats and the party began to transform under his leadership.

The first major change was the establishment of 'Ruch Zahradnika' (Zahradnik's Movement), a grassroots organisation which was founded by the man referred to as Zahradnik's 'heavy'. Štěpán Kolowrat was a fellow Prague native and had served as head of communications for Zahradnik's campaign. Aged twenty-nine at the time, Kolowrat founded Ruch Zahradnika as a method of harnessing the new party leader's popularity and stamping Zahradnik's authority on the Social Democrats as effectively as possible. By the end of December 2018, Ruch Zahradnika had forty-seven thousand members who helped fund the organisation through annual membership fees and small donations; now in May 2020, Ruch Zahradnika had seventy-one thousand members. All Ruch Zahradnika members were signed-up members of the Social Democrats and they could be relied upon to cast a block vote in favour of Zahradnik's agenda, while many of them also maintained a social media presence which extolled the virtues of their party leader. For his own part Kolowrat served as the Director of Strategic Communications for the office of the Social Democrat leader, acting as Zahradnik's enforcer within the party apparatus. Now thirty-one, Kolowrat was one of Zahradnik's most hardcore supporters and a leading figure in the selection of candidates for future elections. The influence wielded by Kolowrat and Ruch Zahradnika meant that Zahradnik had been able to reshape the Social Democrats according to his own design, justified by the massive majority that he had won in the leadership contest. This led to the second major change in the party, the enshrining of the so-called 'Manifest Zahradnika' (Zahradnik Manifesto). The Manifest Zahradnika formed the basis for the party's policy positions, ultimately defining what a Social Democrat government would look like.

Under a potential Social Democrat government, the social market economy would continue to operate as it was one of the few areas where the major parties agreed, although there would be some tweaking of the specifics. Market economics could be used for social aims as well as economic efficiency, according to the Manifest Zahradnika; public ownership was viewed as inefficient but the government would retain the right to nationalise, or acquire majority control in, large corporations and industries as a temporary measure to 'correct corporate abuse and irresponsibility'. Companies found to be guilty of tax evasion would have to either pay their owed taxes with high levels of interest or provide the government with shares equal to the value of their tax-plus-interest bill. The Zapadoslavian Health Service would remain entirely public-owned however as it ensured the right of citizens to enjoy healthcare services which were 'comprehensive, universal and free at the point of delivery'. The welfare state would continue to provide a 'social safety net' through the minimum wage (which would be increased and recalculated) and various benefits designed to prevent the worse-off in society from becoming even more disadvantaged. If an individual was found to have committed benefit fraud then they would not necessarily be sent to prison, instead there would be an alternate sentence of 'national service' where the individual essentially worked off their debt on national projects; if they found regular employment, their salary would be garnished until their debt was paid off. In the realm of civil rights, same-sex marriage would be legalised with an opt-out available for religious organisations while more comprehensive anti-discrimination laws would be implemented; these anti-discrimination laws would protect everyone regardless of their gender, sexuality, religion, ethnicity, or disability. There had been some wrangling over the same-sex marriage opt-out but Zahradnik had explained that it would be unfair to force religious institutions to conduct weddings that went against their beliefs. In actuality he had wanted to force it upon them but knew that doing so would probably alienate more voters than it attracted, so he compromised and in doing so he managed to neutralise the Christian Democratic Party's accusations of 'wanting to bully religious institutions into compromising their own beliefs'. In foreign affairs a potential Social Democrat government would seek to engage constructively with other nations rather than lecturing them, as Zapadoslavia 'had no right to condemn other nations for systems and practises which stem from their own unique cultural and political experiences'. Zahradnik's political opponents had taken this to mean that he would be soft on human rights abuses in other nations and frequently attempted to challenge him over it, but he always responded by questioning why Zapadoslavia had any more right to criticise other nations than other nations had to criticise Zapadoslavia; he also frequently managed to turn the accusation on critics from the CDP by questioning how they had the right to act so morally superior when they were in coalition with the likes of the Freedom Party.

This particular Monday morning would see Zahradnik meeting with an individual who stood for many things that Zahradnik positively despised. A knock on the office door heralded the entry of Štěpán Kolowrat, who escorted Łukasz Walski into the oak-panelled office. Walski took a seat at Zahradnik's desk while Kolowrat took up position standing at his party leader's right side, hands clasped behind his back. There was an awkward silence before Zahradnik spoke to break the quiet.

"Let's get the unpleasantries out of the way, shall we? I believe that you are a racist, misogynistic, and homophobic hatemonger with a deeply concerning moral compass. If there was any justice in this world, men like you would not be allowed near politics."

Walski scowled. "I believe that you are a threat to our national identity, seeking to undermine the crucial role of faith in our society so that you can replace it with millennial feel-good initiatives which will see our nation overrun with deviancy. You would see us swamped by so-called refugees who simply want to sponge off hard-working citizens and bring their own ethnic strife to our nation."

Zahradnik shrugged in response. "Now that we've cleared that up, we need to discuss the upcoming session of the Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday. I've spoken to the other party leaders and the independents, they all agree that Panek must face a vote of no-confidence. It galls me to admit that the Freedom Party hold the political future of Zapadoslavia in their hands but there is no way for me to change that fact. I have therefore asked you here to discuss doing the right thing for this nation."

"You want us to support your vote of no-confidence. Why would we possibly want to help the likes of you and your rabble?"

Kolowrat interjected at that point. "You walked out of the coalition because Panek wasn't strong enough for your liking. Undoubtedly that played incredibly well to your party faithful and demonstrated that you'll stand up for your beliefs. That same base of supporters might question your judgement if your Deputies then turn around and help to prop up the same government that you walked out on mere days ago. You'd miss out on an opportunity to seize some political capital from your actions and potentially gain some ground in the Chamber."

Zahradnik nodded as Kolowrat finished. "He's correct. You and I both know that if a vote of no-confidence is successful, I would be unable to form a government of my own. The Chamber arithmetic makes it incredibly unlikely as I would need the Freedom Party's support and we both know that will never happen because neither of us would want it to happen. So we'd be facing an election and the Freedom Party would receive more media attention than usual because you were the ones who effectively brought down the government."

Kolowrat then spoke up once again. "Of course you could abandon that possibility by abstaining in the no-confidence vote or supporting the CDP in it. If you follow that route then imagine the awkwardness when the media start asking your Deputies why they supported a government that they were condemning as weak mere days before. You call Mister Zahradnik a 'threat to national identity', we wouldn't hesitate to portray you and your Deputies as a threat to national progress as you would've kept a minority government in power. We would also have a field day discussing your hypocrisy as you supported a government that you walked out on and condemned for being too weak."

Walski's gaze darted between the two. "You make quite a double act, don't you? You two know as well as I do that this isn't about the Freedom Party supporting a weak CDP, this is about us stopping you from getting into power. I saw the opinion polls released this morning, I listened to the broadcasts. As it stands, you could form a coalition with the Greens and waltz into Wielopolski Palace as the new Prime Minister."

Zahradnik offered an understanding nod. "Of course you're missing the big picture from your party's perspective. A Social Democrat government, or a Social Democrat and Green coalition, would prove to be a far better enemy for the Freedom Party than Panek and the CDP. If I'm the threat to national identity that you apparently believe me to be then I would end up galvanising your support and driving more voters into your orbit. You would truly have an enemy to fight, as opposed to the damp squib of Panek's government which is much closer to your way of thinking than I ever will be. Who knows, you might be able to get that message across in the election which would result from the no-confidence vote. If not then you'd have five years of my government's policies to oppose, garnering you greater public visibility."

Walski scowled once again, primarily because Zahradnik and Kolowrat were making sense. The Freedom Party could gain even wider visibility and potentially a larger voting base if the Social Democrats got into power because the CDP would be wrangling over the future of their leadership for a good couple of months, during which time the Freedom Party would be opposing the new government from the very start. "Very well. The Freedom Party will support the vote of no-confidence, but we're not doing it to help you. We're doing it to remove a weakened government and hopefully bring about a stronger and more stable administration."

He stood and raised an eyebrow. "I'm not going to shake your hand on it, I think I've associated with you far too much this morning."

Zahradnik nodded. "Agreed."

"I'll show myself out."

Walski smoothed down the front of his suit before striding out of Zahradnik's office, leaving Zahradnik and Kolowrat to exchange a knowing smirk. If Walski kept his word then the vote of no-confidence would be successful and a general election would be required. If Walski failed to keep his word...well, that was why Kolowrat brought his hands around from behind his back and stopped the recording feature on his smartphone. It never hurt to have proof of a rival party leader lying, especially if you could spin it in exactly the right way.

[Freistaat-Ostafrika]

4 May 2020 - 12:30hrs [UTC+1]
Unity Palace
Yaoundé, Republic of Cameroon

While the Republic of Zapadoslavia was undergoing a rancorous period of political uncertainty, the Republic of Cameroon was undergoing a rather smooth transfer of power. Bordered to the north and south by members of the Shenzhen Pact (the Republic of Nigera and the Kingdom of Orungu respectively), there was often some dispute as to whether Cameroon was located in West Africa or Central Africa due to its location at the crossroads of both regions. The former Portuguese colony's location at a cultural and regional crossroads was demonstrated by the fact that over two hundred and fifty languages were spoken within its borders; although English and Portuguese were the nation's official languages, there were many in the more educated elites who also spoke fluent Ostafrikan German. With a population of just over twenty-five million, Cameroon possessed a great deal of geographical diversity and enjoyed a relatively strong primary commodity economy due to its abundant agricultural land and mineral resources, including oil and liquid petroleum gas. This did not necessarily mean that Cameroon was a significantly wealthy nation, however. When Cameroon officially became an oil-producing nation in 1977, the authorities claimed that they wanted to establish extensive financial reserves in case of difficult economic times. This led to "off-budget oil revenues" being diverted away from the government treasury with no independent oversight and these funds inevitably found their way into regime-established accounts in Dar es Salaam and Singapura; the Ostafrikans had no problem with such an arrangement and for the Singapuran banks, it was business as normal to look after such accounts. This led to several billion dollars being funneled away to the benefit of oil companies and regime officials, a practise that continued to this day. Unlike neighbouring Nigeria and Orungu, Cameroon had not fallen under the sway of the Margrave Oil Company based in the Nanfang Republic; instead they had courted the interest of Petronas and OAG Petrochemikalien, and both companies worked within the nation in partnership with the state-owned Companhia Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (National Hydrocarbons Company). This meant that while neighbouring oil producers had seen regime change enforced by the MOC at times, Cameroon's ruling elite had enjoyed their position since 1975 when the Cameroonian Prime Minister, Felipe Nmbega, managed to force out President William Itondo and merged the two positions. Once he was both head of state and head of government as President, Nmbega proceeded to stamp his authority and identity onto Cameroon over the next forty-five years. Although Cameroon was officially a democracy, the ruling Cameroon People's Union party had dominated national politics since President Itondo's rise to power and they were not about to lose that stranglehold in the near future. Elections took place every seven years for the position of President and the one hundred and eighty members of the National Assembly; the CPU had developed a wide variety of tactics which helped them secure their desired result in every election.

Now aged eighty-eight, Nmbega and his cronies enjoyed a lifestyle which was out of the reach of most Cameroonians. Residing primarily in the sprawling compound of Unity Palace in the political capital of Yaoundé, Nmbega enjoyed the finest things in life alongside his wife Babila. While Nmbega had a large collection of fine art pieces from around the world, Babila enjoyed regular shopping trips to major foreign cities via the President's private Kranich K600 business jet which had been acquired from Ostafrika in order to replace the regime's previous Presidential aircraft. For the most part the Nmbega government was comprised of sycophantic bureaucrats and opportunists who viewed their position as an excellent way to enrich themselves, but the exception to this rule came in the form of Nmbega's three sons. Gabriel was aged forty-two and was the Minister of Public Service and Administrative Reforms, putting him in charge of the nation's civil service and giving him substantial experience in administrative matters. A calm and calculating individual, Gabriel was widely viewed as the 'President-in-Waiting' and was often pictured alongside his currently pregnant wife Sandrine. Fernand was thirty-eight and served as Minister of External Relations, putting him into regular contact with diplomats and representatives of other nations. Married with two sons himself, Fernand knew the value of cultivating a composed public persona but he was far more volatile behind closed doors. In addition to his rather wild temper he had another son and a daughter by women other than his wife as he had a wandering eye, a fact that did not impress his father yet he was still considered to be a serious possibility as a successor. Leo was aged thirty-three and served as Minister of Energy and Water Resources despite his clear attraction to more military matters. Due to his position Leo frequently met with representatives of both Petronas and OAG Petrochemikalien, and he had become known for his legendary parties where business was discussed and concluded in the lap of luxury; Leo had discovered that this was an effective way to conduct business and had secured several lucrative deals with better terms than had been initially expected by the rest of the administration. Currently single, Leo was viewed as the absolute outsider as far as potential succession was concerned but his father always found his recreational exploits to be rather entertaining as he conducted his philandering without breaking any marriage vows. While Gabriel and Fernand resided in Yaoundé with their families, Leo preferred to reside in the 'economic capital' of Douala due to the port city's proximity to the nation's offshore oil fields and far more vibrant nightlife.

Although President Nmbega was still as sharp as he had always been, he had decided that it was time for him to retire. Not that he had any real intention of removing himself from a position of influence but because retirement would allow him more free time to enjoy the fortune that he had amassed during his time in power, while establishing one of his sons as the new President would allow him to retain enough influence to keep the money rolling in. In response to the announcement of his stepping down, the Ostafrikanische Gesellschaft (OAG) which ruled Freistaat Ostafrika had privately offered Nmbega a position as an 'independent director' in recognition of the excellent relationship between them and his years of dutiful service to his own nation. The offer had actually been made because the OAG recognised the worth of having Cameroon's former President on the payroll in order to maintain their own influence within the country, a fact that Nmbega was all too aware of but he was more than willing to accept the offer for the prestige and income that it would provide. With the date of Sunday May 31 pencilled in as Nmbega's day of departure from office the administration were now planning for a lavish military parade and a public speech to mark the President's retirement, combined with a new national holiday so that as many citizens as possible could be in attendance; as it was a Sunday most citizens would be off work anyway, but the regime wanted to make absolutely sure that they attracted the largest possible crowds. One detail which was rather required knowledge in advance of the festivities was the identity of Nmbega's successor, and the reveal of that information was the reason behind the special cabinet meeting about to take place in Unity Palace at 13:00. Those cabinet ministers who were not part of the Nmbega family were desperate to know the identity of their next President so that they could start switching their sycophancy to him in advance of him taking office, and of course Nmbega's three sons wanted to know which of them would be succeeding their father. As Gabriel Nmbega stepped into the waiting room which adjoined the conference room in Unity Palace, he was surprised to see that Leo Nmbega had already arrived.

"Unusual for you to be here so early, brother."

Leo grinned and rose from his seat, approaching Gabriel and sharing a brief hug with his oldest sibling. "It's an unusual occasion. Besides, I wanted to talk to you before the old man makes his announcement."

Gabriel gave his brother a wry smirk. "You want to be Minister of Defense."

Leo shrugged. "That or, I dunno, 'Special Plenipotentiary for Resource Security' if you don't want to have an awkward conversation with General Boukar. I could stay where I am but also form a special force dedicated to ensuring the security of Cameroon's resources, a rather broad and vague remit but it would be under my personal command. We can talk about that after you get named as Dad's successor though, I actually wanted to talk to you about Fernand."

"What about him?"

"Do you trust him not to act up when he fails to get the nod from Dad?"

Gabriel pursed his lips and let out an exasperated noise. "We still don't know for definite who is being named as the next President."

"Yeah we do. You were put into a position where you actually helped run the nation, you've gotten to know all of the cronies and loyalists who keep Cameroon ticking along day-to-day. Gabriel, you're the smart choice and you're the oldest brother so you're going to be named as successor unless Dad's lost his mind, and Dad's as sharp as he's ever been. Now you know me, I'm flexible. I've got no problem taking orders from you. Fernand might not be so cooperative."

"What are you suggesting?"

Leo scratched his chin. "Maybe ship him off to be the new ambassador to Mexico or something? We both know that he won't be loyal to you, he'll plot behind your back-"

Gabriel raised a hand to cut him off. "I do hear what you're saying but Fernand has served well as Minister of External Relations. Let us wait and see who actually becomes Father's successor and then action can be taken if it is required." He lowered his voice as the door to the waiting room began to open. "We did not speak anything of this."

Leo nodded and then turned to smile broadly at Fernand, who had just entered. "Fernand, good to see you brother!"

[Freistaat-Ostafrika]

6 May 2020 - 12:30hrs [UTC+1]
Chamber of Deputies
Kraków, Republic of Zapadoslavia

"On Monday, President Nmbega of the Republic of Cameroon announced that his oldest son Gabriel would be succeeding him as President at the end of this month. President Nmbega has determined that it is time to hand over power to the next generation. A pity that Prime Minister Panek is seemingly unable to determine that it is his own time to step down and make way for new leadership."

A roar of approval erupted from the Social Democrat Deputies within the Chamber of Deputies as Kryštof Zahradnik spoke during the debate which was focused on the vote of no-confidence in Prime Minister Panek's government. The Chamber was packed as every Deputy was in attendance for this vote, corraled into attending by the various party apparatchiks on all sides in an attempt to give their own side as many votes as possible. The Chamber's floor plan divided the large room between Deputies and functionaries. Most of the Chamber was occupied by the five hundred and thirty-two seats for the Deputies which were organised in a semicircular fashion, each seat featuring its own desk and touchscreen. All Deputy seating faced the central rostrum at the front of the Chamber, where the Speaker and their various civil servant assistants sat to preside over proceedings. The Speaker of the Zapadoslavian Chamber of Deputies was a rather hawkish-looking individual named Oswald Mirski, who had been Speaker for the past fifteen years and had a reputation for withering put-downs if any Deputy held up the procedures of the legislature. Zahradnik continued to criticise Panek in his usual calm fashion.

"Mister Speaker, Prime Minister Panek has lost his majority. His former coalition partners walked out on him because they viewed him as too weak to lead a government. Reports in the media state that he had to be told to act against the Freedom Party by the grandees of the CDP. When a crisis emerges we need strong and decisive leadership, not a Prime Minister who will dither and prevaricate until someone else tells him what he should be doing. Every opposition party in this Chamber views the Prime Minister as weak, but for different reasons. Whether he is viewed as weak for failing to act, bowing to pressure, or requiring orders in order to do anything, the simple fact is that he is weak. His government is now weak. A minority government which has alienated the only political party which was willing to enter into coalition with them. Weakness has led to mismanagement, which has led to further weakness. Zapadoslavia deserves better from the office of Prime Minister, the people of Zapadoslavia deserve better from their government. Our nation should be focused on forging a tolerant and fair society while engaging constructively with other nations, instead we have to discuss the weakness and ineptitude of a Prime Minister who refuses to take control of events and tries to avoid responsibility for his own actions. That is why I hereby confirm the tabling of a vote of no-confidence in the government of Prime Minister Panek and the Christian Democratic Party."

Speaker Mirski then turned his attention to Panek. "The Prime Minister has the right to respond."

Prime Minister Panek slowly rose from his seat and nodded to the Speaker. "Thank you, Mister Speaker. The fact is that Mister Zahradnik finds it easy to speak at such length about leadership because he has no real experience of it. He strolled into his position as Social Democrat leader and has faced no real opposition, if anything he has successfully silenced any opposition within his own party. Some may consider that to be strong leadership, I consider it to be worrying. He is calling for a vote of no-confidence because he hopes for an election that he believes he will win. What would Zapadoslavia look like under his administration? He would trample all over the religious beliefs of many Zapadoslavians, he would bully religious organisations into doing what he believes they should be doing. He would eradicate the sacred bond of marriage between a man and a woman by opening it up to anyone who wants to marry anyone else. Our nation would transform in ways that many of us cannot begin to understand, and that is worrying to me. The Manifest Zahradnika would become the new sacred text of the government while Ruch Zahradnika would enforce its tenets through social media harassment and intimidation. Zapadoslavia would become what the Social Democrats currently are, a dictatorship under the supposedly liberal watch of Kryštof Zahradnik and his party cadres. If the other parties in this Chamber are comfortable with that as a potential outcome, then by all means vote for his motion of no-confidence. If you believe, as I do, that Zapadoslavia needs stability rather than upheaval then vote against the motion of no-confidence. Our current path is a safe one, we have no need to suddenly veer off into uncharted territory."

Panek then sat back down as the CDP Deputies applauded his words, while the Social Democrat Deputies and their allies in the Green Party smirked to one another or shook their heads dismissively. Speaker Mirski then addressed the Chamber of Deputies as a whole.

"Second in support of the vote of no-confidence in the government of Prime Minister Igor Panek?"

The response was a loud cheer from the Social Democrat and Green Party Deputies, so Mirski nodded in agreement.

"Motion has been seconded. Deputies will now vote on the motion, the vote of no-confidence in the government of Prime Minister Igor Panek."

It was now time for the electronic voting system in the Chamber of Deputies to take centre stage. Each and every Deputy's touchscreen in the Chamber switched to a simple interface, displaying the motion in question and two sections which would register a response if pressed, one which stated 'Yes' and the other stated 'No'. As each Deputy selected their response and then confirmed it, the large display screen on the wall behind the Speaker began to show the tally of votes as it updated. As time progressed the tally drew ever closer between the 'Yes' and 'No' votes until it came down to ten votes remaining to be cast, the smirk on the face of Łukasz Walski revealing that the Freedom Party were holding out until the last minute before casting their votes. The vote sat at two hundred and fifty-nine for 'No' and two hundred and sixty-three for 'Yes', meaning that if the Freedom Party voted 'No' then Panek's government would continue. Walski rather enjoyed the way that the rest of the Deputies in the Chamber turned their attention to his party, knowing that he would be ensuring a great deal of media coverage for himself through his actions. He gave a nod to the Freedom Party Deputies who all entered and confirmed their votes. The tally on the screen then changed to two hundred and fifty-nine for 'No' and two hundred and seventy-three for 'Yes'. The defeated expressions of the Christian Democratic Party Deputies were contrasted by the joyous cheers erupting from the Social Democrats and the Green Party, and the Chamber fell into respectful silence as Speaker Mirski stood to confirm the result.

"The result of the vote of no-confidence in the government of Prime Minister Igor Panek is as follows. Those in support, two hundred and seventy-three. Those opposed, two hundred and fifty-nine. The vote of no-confidence is therefore successful. Prime Minister?"

Panek rose from his seat with a scowl of anger, although he kept his voice as even as possible. "Mister Zahradnik, do you intend to attempt to form a new government from the Chamber of Deputies as it stands or are you willing to waive that right in favour of a general election?"

Zahradnik wasted little time in replying. "I intend to waive that right in favour of a general election."

"In that case, in accordance with the constitution of the Republic of Zapadoslavia, a general election shall now be called. I shall go to Wawel Castle this afternoon to inform President Nagyová of my intention to officially dissolve the Chamber of Deputies one week from now on May the thirteenth. The general election shall be held on Thursday the eighteenth of June in order to provide sufficient opportunity for organisational arrangements and political campaigning."

Panek then turned his head to glare at the grinning Łukasz Walski. "May God guide Zapadoslavia through these trying times."

[Freistaat-Ostafrika]

8 May 2020 - 09:00hrs [UTC+8]
Palace of the Republic
Nanjing, Nanfang Republic

As the leader of the largest member nation of the Shenzhen Pact, President Yang Mingshu had found herself becoming the focus of much more international attention than she previously experienced. Thankfully she was not one to buckle under increased attention, rather she made the most of it. Just over five months on from the formation of the Pact, President Yang was continuing to espouse the message that the Pact was about mutual security, stability, and prosperity; member nations would not have their political inclinations questioned or challenged unless they posed a threat to that mantra. Of course the Shenzhen Pact was dosed with a heavy helping of national self-interest from all members, both full and observer alike, but there was no harm in making the Pact sound like a more altruistic endeavour than it actually was. For the Nanfang Republic, national self-interest was represented within the Shenzhen Pact by several smaller members granting permission for Nanfang forces to be stationed within their borders, thus increasing the reach of the Republic's military; there were also the economic benefits as the Republic was gaining greater access to resource-rich economies, allowing them to acquire the resources they needed to expand their own economy while having a larger market for their own exports. President Yang's Friday schedule had changed since the formation of the Pact as she now held an weekly afternoon meeting with the ambassadors of the other ten full members of the organisation, while the ambassador from the Empire of Layarteb (currently the Pact's only observer member and the only other member that could match the Republic's capabilities) was welcome to visit as and when they needed to do so. This meant that the weekly cabinet meeting had been moved to an earlier morning slot in President Yang's schedule and it was one of these meetings that she was currently chairing.

"So let us begin with foreign affairs, I understand that we have some items of interest. Minister Huang, where do we start?"

The typically bureaucratic Minister of Foreign Affairs Huang Li tapped the touchscreen of his tablet before speaking.

"Madam President, we begin in Europe with the Republic of Zapadoslavia. Last week there was relatively little to report, but as they say 'a week can be a long time in politics'. Prime Minister Igor Panek experienced a political crisis after his Deputy Prime Minister and coalition partner, Łukasz Walski, had various offensive comments made public. Panek was left with no choice but to dismiss Walski, who promptly withdrew from the ruling coalition and opened the door for a vote of no-confidence in the Chamber of Deputies. This vote was held on Wednesday and it passed, so there will now be a general election. The Chamber of Deputies will officially dissolve in five days and the election itself will be held on the eighteenth of June. The conventional political wisdom, and according to our ambassador the betting odds, would see victory for Kryštof Zahradnik and the Social Democrats. The primary question seems to be whether it would be a Social Democrat government or a coalition between them and their closest allies, the Green Party."

Yang raised an eyebrow. "What do we know about Zahradnik?"

"Well he's young, clearly ambitious, and appears to have a very keen mind. First elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 2013, became leader of the Social Democrats in 2018, now looks to be the next Prime Minister in 2020. Renowned for the way that he transformed his party upon taking leadership, you could say that he has created something of a personality cult. The major policy positions come from a manifesto named after him and he has a grassroots organisation which is extremely vocal in their support for him, again named after him. He advocates anti-discrimination and apparently seeks to engage constructively with other nations around the world. 'Zapadoslavia has no right to condemn other nations for systems and practises which stem from their own unique cultural and political experiences', his words."

"Interesting. Any overt outside interest in Zapadoslavia?"

Huang shook his head. "Not as far as we can see. Unsurprising really, the incumbent government has always veered towards a Zapadoslavian-centric foreign policy and their coalition with a even more heavily right-wing party led them down a path of 'moralistic and God-fearing' foreign policy, if you'll excuse my terminology. If there is a change in government then Zahradnik will want to engage more with the rest of the world if we take him at face value. His more 'internationalist' approach may see him veer more towards our own camp in all honesty."

"Now that is of interest." President Yang leaned back in her chair. "Keep us updated regarding the progress of the election campaigns, we will not make any public comments regarding the situation though. If we were to describe Zahradnik in glowing terms then his opponents would undoubtedly try to twist that in order to undermine him, so we will not interfere in any way. If he is successful and becomes Prime Minister then we should endeavour to be the first, or at least one of the first, to congratulate him."

"As you say, Madam President." Huang then cleared his throat. "Next item involves the Republic of Cameroon. President Felipe Nmbega has announced that his oldest son Gabriel will be succeeding him as President on the thirty-first of May. Gabriel was the obvious choice, currently the Minister of Public Service and Administrative Reforms so he has experience working with the nation's bureaucracy."

"Cameroon is certainly of interest to us. Not only is it an oil producer but it is located between Nigeria and Orungu, if it became aligned with our interests then it could open up several possibilities. Cameroonian membership of the Shenzhen Pact would create an unbroken mass of territory at the heart of Africa, giving the possibility of infrastructure projects stretching from Lagos to Dar es Salaam and even further. That would of course depend upon Gabriel Nmbega being interested in Pact membership."

Minister Huang pulled a face. "In that regard Madam President, we are uncertain. He's never really spoken about such matters, potentially waiting to be named as successor before saying anything about his policy intentions. There is, however, someone close to him who could be on our side in this. His youngest brother, Leo Nmbega. As Minister of Energy and Water Resources, Leo has worked closely with representatives of the two major oil and gas companies which operate within Cameroon. As luck would have it, those companies are Petronas of Singapura Raya and OAG Petrochemikalien of Freistaat Ostafrika."

"So Leo Nmbega would therefore have contacts within Singapura Raya and Ostafrika who could convince him of the merits of Shenzhen Pact membership, then he could convince his brother?"

Huang grinned. "Well, 'contacts' is undoubtedly the polite way to say it but yes, that is correct."

"Hmm." Yang then detailed an idea which had just formulated in her mind. "I shall talk to President Wakiman regarding Petronas and their operations but I suspect that Präsident Luxenberg and Ostafrika would be more amenable to approaching Leo in this regard. He probably already has members of their intelligence services as friends and he doesn't even know it. I'll discuss Cameroon with the Ostafrikan ambassador this afternoon and see what the OAG can do. They'll undoubtedly relish the opportunity for a bit of espionage and meddling."

"As you say, Madam President."

Yang smirked at Huang's chuckling before moving her attention to Finance Minister Ma Zhen. "Minister Ma, let's hear the latest economic news."

[Freistaat-Ostafrika]

11 May 2020 - 19:10hrs [UTC+1]
Leo Nmbega's Penthouse
Douala, Republic of Cameroon

While Zapadoslavia was entering what would undoubtedly be a rancorous electoral campaign, Cameroon's transition of power was proceeding far more smoothly. Gabriel Nmbega had been named as his father's successor and all preparations for the official handover on the thirty-first of January were continuing. Armed with the knowledge that he was definitely the successor, Gabriel had set about his own preparations for power by identifying the individuals that he wanted as cabinet ministers and advisors. He was in fact only going to make minor changes to the existing cabinet and advising team, with the most significant change being Leo's appointment as the new 'Special Plenipotentiary for Resource Security' and the subsequent establishment of the new 'Resource Security Battalion' (RSB). The RSB were officially to be a force of six hundred military-trained individuals who would provide special security for the nation's oil industry, but unofficially they were to be Leo's personal army in a nod to his love of military affairs as well as a way to keep the actual military happy. The Defense Minister, General Albert Boukar, was more than happy for Leo to have his own force if it meant that he himself remained at the head of the Cameroon Armed Forces. The RSB and Leo's new title would not become official until Gabriel became President, which was just as well as the RSB currently had no personnel earmarked for membership and Gabriel had made it clear to his youngest brother that since he wanted the RSB, it was his responsibility to recruit the personnel. To that end Leo had invited a good friend to meet with him at his stylish Douala penthouse to discuss the matter.

Maximilian Kigoye Amooti was the third son of Omukama Duhaga III of Bunyoro-Kitara, one of the autonomous kingdoms which were part of Freistaat Ostafrika. As the thirdborn prince, 'Maxi' was unlikely to ascend to the throne of the kingdom and had therefore ventured on his own path, albeit one which was related to his homeland. After graduating from the University of Dar es Salaam, Maxi had started working for OAG Petrochemikalien in a move which made a great deal of sense as Bunyoro-Kitara was home to a significant part of Ostafrika's oil industry. He was now something of an ambassador and lobbyist for the OAG's petrochemicals subsidiary, travelling around the world and adding the prestige of a genuine African prince to his work. Maxi had spent a lot of time in Cameroon and had struck up a good friendship with Leo Nmbega, and it was somewhat fortuitous that Leo had invited him for an informal meeting as Maxi had received communications from Dar es Salaam regarding their hopes for the future of Cameroon and the part that he could play in achieving them. Aged twenty-nine, Maxi was clean-shaven, kept his black hair in a short military-style cut and always wore the latest business styles from Ostafrika. He was greeted at the entrance of Leo's apartment building by a smartly dressed attendant before heading up to the top floor, where he knocked once at the penthouse door and was quickly greeted by Leo's beaming grin.

"Maxi! Good to see you, come on in."

The pair exchanged a brief hug before Maxi proceeded to the lounge and took his usual seat while Leo fetched two cold bottled beers from the kitchen, handing one to Maxi before taking his own usual seat opposite. They clinked their bottles together and took a sip before Maxi spoke.

"So to what do I owe the pleasure of the invitation?"

"Well you've heard about my new position I take it?"

Maxi nodded. "Special Plenipotentiary for Resource Security, yeah I heard. Isn't that a pretty redundant title though, you're already Minister of Energy and Water Resources so what extras do you get for being the 'Special Plenipotentiary'?"

Leo grinned and took a sip of beer before answering. "I get to act in whichever way I deem necessary in order to maintain Cameroon's resources. If, in my opinion, a foreign company is abusing Cameroon's natural resources then I have the authority to bring them to heel. I can also hire and fire the bureaucrats involved in management of our natural resources if I judge them to be incompetent and in need of replacement. The best part of it is that I get my own 'Resource Security Battalion', six hundred-strong with top-line military equipment. The RSB is actually why I wanted to talk to you, I want them to be the best military unit in Cameroon but I know that General Boukar would pitch a fit if I tried poaching personnel from the military's Rapid Intervention Battalion. The RSB will become an official entity on the thirty-first of May when Gabriel becomes President and I officially become Special Plenipotentiary, and it would be awesome if I could have personnel ready for use on that day. So I don't suppose you'd know anyone who could provide me with about six hundred highly-trained military personnel?"

Maxi chuckled and wagged a finger at Leo. "Oh very clever. You know full well that the security divisions of OAG subsidiaries are trained by retired Ostafrikan military officers, and we've got extensive mercenary contacts with several mercenary companies based in the Freistaat. As a result I know quite a few people who could provide you with about six hundred highly-trained military personnel. Of course there would have to be some favour in return, even between good friends like us."

"A guarantee that OAG Petrochemikalien will always keep their position within Cameroon's oil industry?"

Maxi raised an eyebrow. "Given our membership of the Shenzhen Pact, Ostafrika would want to see Petronas receive the same guarantee. We're not going to screw over Singapura Raya. Speaking of the Pact, what is Gabriel's view on the organisation?"

"He views it as a positive. To see so many African nations cooperating is a good thing, even if it is out of eagerness to attract investment and the like from the Nanfang Republic." Leo paused before nodding understandingly. "You want to know if Gabriel will seek Pact membership for Cameroon."

"The thought had crossed my mind."

"Hmm, your mind and probably the mind of every government official in the Shenzhen Pact. That sort of massive decision won't be something that Gabriel rushes into, he'll weigh up the options and talk to his advisors and ministers before deciding one way or the other. I wouldn't expect him to start thinking about it for a good couple of months yet."

Maxi leaned forward intently. "How do you think the advisors and ministers would want to go?"

"Well there are a lot of factors to consider, aren't there? The economic benefits, sovereignty concerns, defense, the effect on other diplomatic relationships...and their own prosperity of course. If I were to consider a complete hypothetical then most of them could probably be won over fairly easily, especially if you had a lobbyist arguing for the Pact within Cameroon's government. The main problem would be Fernand. If Cameroon joined the Shenzhen Pact then he'd likely be visiting the same nations all the time and he wouldn't feel like such a statesman, he takes his position as Minister of External Relations very seriously."

"Very interesting hypotheticals there. Anyway Leo, I can think of some people who would be extremely interested in helping you to establish the RSB. I'll make some calls tomorrow and see what I can do."

Leo smiled broadly and raised his beer bottle. "I appreciate that, Maxi. Let's just say that if I get help with the RSB then the Shenzhen Pact will find themselves with a lobbyist in the Cameroonian government."

[Freistaat-Ostafrika]

25 May 2020 - 19:30hrs [UTC+1]
ZST Studios
Kraków, Republic of Zapadoslavia

As the opening music of the scheduled television programme died down and the title card faded out to show a rather minimalist studio setting, a face that would be familiar to Zapadoslavian viewers strode into view and turned on his heel to address the audience at home.

"Good evening to our viewers across Zapadoslavia and around the world. My name is Daniel Stolarz and I am the Political Editor for ZST News. Tonight I will be acting as the moderator for the first televised debate of the 2020 General Election in the Republic of Zapadoslavia. We have a live audience-"

At this point the production staff changed cameras in order to show the studio audience already in place, then the focus returned to Daniel Stolarz.

"-and we are joined live here in the studio by the two main figures in the election campaign. Prime Minister Igor Panek of the Christian Democratic Party and Kryštof Zahradnik, leader of the opposition Social Democrats."

The camera view changed once more to show the two politicians in question, standing at podiums on a slightly raised stage and facing the live audience. Stolarz then walked to the desk positioned in front of the stage and took his seat, facing the candidates. The camera view changed to display him as he donned a pair of spectacles, perched on the end of his nose so that he could peer over the rims in the manner of a disapproving teacher at the politicians before him.

"Tonight's debate will primarily feature questions submitted by members of the public. We held a coin toss before the candidates came out here and Mister Panek won, so he will receive the first opportunity to answer every question. Once he has answered, Mister Zahradnik will then receive his opportunity to respond. Gentlemen, I must ask you to keep proceedings as civil as possible, and please do not use profanity as we are live." Stolarz then picked up the first card in the pile before him. "Our first question is from Zofia in Gdańsk. 'If you are Prime Minister after the election, how will you address the presence of the Caliphate of Rum?' Mister Panek."

Prime Minister Panek lowered his shoulders slightly as he adopted a more confident pose. "That is an excellent question, thank you. The Caliphate of Rum is still a relatively unknown quantity in European politics, they are a huge territorial presence in Southern Europe but in truth, we know very little about them. What we do know is that they tax Christians and Jews for their religious beliefs. I know of no other nation on the planet which applies financial penalties to religious communities. I believe that the best way to address the Caliphate's presence is to implement a policy of accepting Christian and Jewish refugees from the Caliphate's territories while increasing ties with nations that wish to see more freedom and democracy brought to Southern Europe."

"Mister Zahradnik?"

Kryštof Zahradnik nodded appreciatively to Daniel Stolarz before beginning. "It's interesting, isn't it? Mister Panek wants to accept Christian and Jewish refugees yet only last month he headed a coalition government with a man who has expressed disgusting antisemitic views, we've all read the reports and heard the recording. What about citizens in the Caliphate who don't express a clear religious view? What about members of minority Muslim denominations? What about LGBTQ+ individuals? Mister Panek's idea of addressing the presence of the Caliphate is to cherry-pick sections of Caliphate society which he views as 'acceptable' and invite them to come here. That does nothing. The Caliphate will still be there and will have been further antagonised. I believe that the best way to address the Caliphate's existence is to increase cooperation and engagement with nations that are already in the process of engaging with it. That way we can potentially show the Caliphate's government that the world is not a case of 'us versus them', which could then open the door for a genuine recognised framework for individuals to leave the Caliphate and resettle in a nation with laws which protect their individual rights without fear of discrimination."

Stolarz thanked them for their responses and moved onto the next question. "This is from Jerzy in Warsaw. 'My partner and I have lived together for twelve years and enjoy a very happy relationship. We would very much like to get married but as it stands, it is illegal for us to do so. Now that the Freedom Party is out of government, is there any chance for same-sex marriage to be legalised?' Mister Panek."

Panek shifted slightly in his spot. "The Christian Democratic Party has long held the view that marriage is a sacred bond between a man and a woman. We are examining the possibility of introducing a form of civil partnership for same-sex couples but we will not force religious institutions to go against their faith by making them conduct same-sex marriages."

Stolarz did not get a chance to mention Zahradnik's name before the Social Democrat leader spoke up. "Introducing same-sex marriage does not entail 'forcing religious institutions to go against their faith'. It is a travesty that Zapadoslavia denies same-sex couples the right to get married, we are supposed to be a democracy which ensures equality for all. Under Prime Minister Panek, it is equality for all unless they happen to be part of a group that the CDP views as being against their faith. The Social Democrats have committed to legalising same-sex marriage as a civil institution, with an opt-out available for religious organisations which do not wish to conduct such ceremonies. Prime Minister Panek seems to have forgotten that there are such things as civil marriages. He wishes to see a blanket ban on same-sex marriage due to his faith while I wish to see same-sex marriage legalised with consideration granted to those who disagree. His idea of 'civil partnership' is a clear demonstration of his attitude towards the LGBTQ+ community. He wishes to give them something that's a bit like marriage but totally isn't marriage because only straight people can ever be permitted to use the word 'marriage'.

"The Social Democrats will also implement anti-discrimination laws which are sorely lacking in our nation. As it currently stands, there is nothing to prevent a landlord from refusing to rent to a same-sex couple based on their sexuality. There is nothing to prevent a retail or commercial business from providing their services to the LGBTQ+ community based on their sexuality. The Christian Democratic Party seek to protect those of their faith. The Social Democrats seek to protect everyone."

Panek set his jaw and raised his eyebrows at Daniel Stolarz as the audience applauded Zahradnik's response, but the ZST Political Editor simply shrugged and waited for the applause to die down before asking the next question. "This next question is from Alena in Prešov. 'Recently it was stated that benefit fraud cost our country well over a billion last year. How do you intend to tackle such an expensive problem?' Mister Panek."

"Well, benefit fraud is seen by some to be a victimless crime. It is anything but that. Benefit fraud is essentially stealing taxpayer money. Hardworking Zapadoslavians pay their taxes and the benefits system is designed to help those who need temporary assistance while they find a new job or those who need support due to illness or disability. Benefit fraud makes it more difficult for those in genuine need because it casts suspicion on them, as people start to wonder how many claimants are in fact committing fraud. So the Christian Democratic Party will increase prison terms for those found guilty of benefit fraud, and their assets will be seized and sold off in an attempt to recoup the money that they have stolen through their actions."

"Mister Zahradnik?"

Zahradnik frowned as he began to respond. "That all sounds very nice and organised. The problem I have with it is that just sending people to prison for benefit fraud may end up costing the state more in the long run. Think about it, taxpayers have already lost money due to the fraud. They now have to pay for the prison time of the fraudster. Their food, their accommodation, any potential training and education, the parole procedures when they are released. The Prime Minister says nothing of how the value of someone's assets will be determined. Is it a case of seizing assets estimated to be the value of the fraud or is it just a blanket seizure? If their assets have been sold off then they'll have nothing when they come out of prison, so what do they do then? They will either apply for benefits, which they will likely be refused due to their previous benefit fraud, or they will turn to crime. At which point they end up back in prison and the vicious cycle continues. We want people to be productive and employed members of society, handing out convictions, and selling off their possessions will make that rather difficult.

"So instead, the Social Democrats intend to introduce an alternative. If an individual is found to have committed benefit fraud or otherwise abusing the benefits system then they would be recruited into what I call 'national service'. Essentially they would become part of a workforce for the construction and development of national projects such as infrastructure and the like. Instead of being held in prison, they would work off their debt to the state. This scheme would be far less expensive than holding them in prison and it would also be far more productive as they would be working on projects which need to be completed. Those recruited into 'national service' could be used to assist with road maintenance and similar jobs, basically we're talking about necessary work to keep the nation going. They would be free to find other employment during this time but if successful, they would have their salaries garnished until the amount of fraud has been repaid. This would prevent them from having their homes and belongings seized and sold off. The CDP approach treats everyone as a career criminal and imposes a 'one size fits all' punishment. The Social Democrat approach provides a proportional and rehabilitative response."

Panek interjected. "Of course we're not talking about making people homeless! The assets of convicted fraudsters will be evaluated by professional valuers, then seized and sold off. Your scheme will not be as inexpensive as you'd like it to be, you'll still have to either pay them a remittance or have the state pay for their food and rent while they are on 'national service'."

Zahradnik regarded Panek with a quizzical expression. "If you don't get the price that the valuers provide then you'll end up needing to seize more of an individual's assets in order to cover the cost of their fraud. You'll also need to pay for these professional valuers. Your idea is to enter someone's home while they're in prison, take some of their belongings, and try to sell them. If you don't get what you were expecting then you'll go back into their home and take more of their belongings, repeating that until you get the amount that you're after. So you'd be incurring the cost of valuations as well as the costs of organising and administering the sale of assets, in addition to the costs of the individual's prison term. In the long term, your approach will only result in increased benefit claim attempts and increased crime, as you'd be making it nigh-impossible for benefit fraudsters to change their ways and find honest employment. Our approach can provide them with additional skills which will make them more employable, which will decrease their chances of reoffending. That will not only save the state money in the long term, it will also help businesses because there will be more individuals with employable skills in the job market."

At this point, Stolarz raised his hand. "Gentlemen, I think we've spent enough time on this subject as we have other questions to get through. I do however thank you both for keeping the discussion as civil as you did. Our next question is from Anton in Prague, and he asks...."

[Freistaat-Ostafrika]

31 May 2020 - 16:00hrs [UTC+1]
Estádio Felipe Nmbega
Yaoundé, Republic of Cameroon

Retirement day had arrived for President Felipe Nmbega and it was certainly a retirement celebration to remember. It was also quite an occasion for the incoming President, Nmbega's eldest son Gabriel.

The Cameroonian media had been paying tribute to Nmbega and Gabriel all morning, with no other news stories being covered by the newspapers, radio stations, and television networks. Of course, the entirety of the coverage was glowing, to say the least, extolling the innumerable virtues of the eighty-eight year old national leader who was credited with the development of Cameroon's oil and gas wealth. While this was technically true, naturally there was no mention of the billions which had been squirreled away into overseas accounts or the President's extravagant lifestyle; as far as the media were concerned, President Nmbega had been the greatest thing to ever happen to Cameroon. Every broadcast followed the same formula: praise President Nmbega through the roof and then praise Gabriel through the roof. The Cameroonian media were portraying Gabriel as the worthy successor to his father, a hardworking patriot who had stood at his father's side and tirelessly toiled to make Cameroon a great nation. The forty-two year old was the obvious choice to continue the Nmbega legacy and lead Cameroon into the future, according to the relentless propaganda, and it would be interesting to outside observers that neither of Gabriel's younger brothers were being mentioned in any great detail. While it had yet to be announced publicly, Fernand Nmbega would be retaining his position as Minister of External Relations while Leo Nmbega was to be officially appointed as the new 'Special Plenipotentiary for Resource Security', a grandiose upgrade to his role as Minister of Energy and Water Resources which now furnished him with his own 'Resource Security Battalion' of six hundred highly-trained military personnel. Leo's dealings with Maximilian Kigoye Amooti of OAG Petrochemikalien had paid off considerably as the Ostafrikan prince had helped Leo to obtain six hundred personnel in time for the handover of power, namely an Ostafrika-based mercenary force known as 'Die Hellebarde' (The Halberd). As Die Hellebarde was a rather small organisation compared to more famous mercenary corporations such as Aegis Specialized Protection, LLC, the Special Resource Battalion contract would employ their entire personnel roster, all of whom had been trained by retired members of the Ostafrikan armed forces. Die Hellebarde brought their own armoured personnel carriers and helicopter gunship squadron to the contract in addition to their personnel, furnishing Leo Nmbega with the military force that he had always wanted. In return, Leo would do his utmost to lobby Gabriel in regard to the Shenzhen Pact.

While the morning of the thirty-first had seen the unrelenting optimism of the Cameroonian media in relation to the imminent handover of power, the afternoon had seen a military parade through the streets of the capital of Yaoundé which had been attended by a large proportion of the capital's two-point-eight million population. The parade certainly appeared to be impressive as the Cameroonian armed forces had spent a great deal of time identifying their best equipment and having it transferred to the capital so that those troops marching in the parade would make the armed forces seem to be far more impressive than they truly were. The total number of active personnel was fourteen thousand and two hundred across all three services, of which over twelve thousand were in the army. In order to bulk out the numbers in the parade, units from the nine thousand-strong paramilitary Gendarmerie were brought in to march alongside the regular army personnel. The air force flyover consisted entirely of helicopters and turboprop transport aircraft as the Cameroonian air force did not currently possess any jet-propelled combat aircraft, and the small Cameroonian Navy were represented by a contingent of personnel. While the Resource Security Battalion would have undoubtedly enhanced the spectacle of the military parade, they were still in the process of reactivating a previously decommissioned military base outside of Douala which had been transferred to them as part of their open-ended contract; Leo also wanted to avoid showing up the regular military so the mercenaries were kept away. Nmbega and Gabriel stood side-by-side on a raised viewing platform and received salutes from the military personnel as they marched past, wearing identical suits in order to symbolise the continuity between Nmbega's now-ending reign and Gabriel's reign which was about to begin. Once again Fernand and Leo did not receive the same level of attention of Gabriel, instead standing with the other cabinet ministers at the right side of the viewing platform.

The day's events were now drawing to a close with a rally at Estádio Felipe Nmbega, the nation's largest open-air stadium and home to the national football team. The forty-two and a half thousand-capacity stadium was full of fervent Nmbega loyalists and a mass of media representatives as proceedings were being broadcast live on every channel in the nation. President Nmbega stood atop the stage which had been erected at the heart of the stadium and waved gleefully at the cheering masses which surrounded him, making his way to the awaiting podium and soaking in their adulation as he waited for them to quieten down. At that point, he was able to make the final speech of his Presidency, Gabriel and the cabinet ministers now sharing the stage with him as they were sat in a long line behind him.

"My fellow Cameroonians, I stand before you with mixed emotions. I have been President of this great nation for forty-five years and in that time we have achieved so much. Together we have marched forward and brought about so much progress, so much progress. A booming oil and gas industry, a strong economy, a strong military, the respect of other nations around the world. All of that was achieved by us working as one. I am proud to say that I led Cameroon to the position that we are in now. Yet today I am both proud and saddened. Saddened that I am stepping down and retiring as your President-"

Mournful sounds from the assembled loyalists brought a pause to his speech for a few moments.

"I know that you want me to continue forever and I would if I could, but I'm eighty-eight! I need to slow down. I'll still be around, enjoying my twilight years with my beautiful wife Babila. As I was saying, I am saddened to be retiring but I am proud, so very proud, to see my eldest son Gabriel stepping into my shoes. You know, he's only one year younger than I was when I became President. He takes after me in so many ways. Smart, canny, tenacious. In forty-five years he'll probably be stood here handing over power to his own son! The future of Cameroon began with me and my family, and the future of Cameroon will continue with me and my family. You've always trusted me, always voted for me, I've won every election because you all wanted me to continue the work that I was doing. Trust me when I say that you can trust Gabriel. He knows what is best for Cameroon. With Gabriel as your President, you can rely on continued stability and a definite vision for the future, a future which will undoubtedly be brighter than any of us can imagine! Anyway, I've taken up enough time. I would now like to introduce you to your new President, Gabriel Nmbega!"

The stadium erupted into rapturous cheering and applause as Gabriel rose from his seat and stepped forward, exchanging a warm hug with his father who then stepped back as Gabriel approached the podium and began to address his country.

"My fellow Cameroonians, I join you in your sorrow at the fact that my father is stepping down as President. I too wish that he would keep going as he is the greatest leader that our nation has ever known. I realise that I have enormous shoes to fill and I will endeavour to live up to my father's example as much as I can, no matter how difficult that may prove to be. As your new President, know that I am also your new servant. I serve the people and I serve the nation. I will serve you by continuing to strengthen the economy and bring more jobs to Cameroon. I will serve you by ensuring the security and stability of this nation. I will serve you by ensuring the prosperity of this nation. I will serve you by ensuring the strength and influence of this nation. I will serve you by ensuring that the great nation of Cameroon continues to be great!"

Gabriel paused as more applause erupted, letting it die down before continuing.

"I will serve you by ensuring that this nation is only governed by the best. People you can trust to get the job done. People you can trust to do whatever it takes to ensure Cameroon's greatness. My father stated that the future of Cameroon will continue with him and his family, he's not wrong. In my first act as President, I hereby reaffirm Fernand Nmbega as Minister of External Relations." He paused and pointed towards Fernand, who was sat in the row of ministers behind him. "Fernand is an excellent representative of Cameroon abroad. He has great knowledge of international relations and many contacts around the world. He has done a fantastic job in his role and therefore it makes sense for him to continue in that role. Why would I move someone so good at his job?"

He then pointed towards Leo. "My second official act as President is to appoint Leo Nmbega to the new position of Special Plenipotentiary for Resource Security. As Minister of Energy and Water Resources, Leo has gone above and beyond to develop our water supply and our energy sector, two aspects of our nation which have vital significance. He has proven to be so adept at managing his responsibilities that he deserves more. So he will now be in charge of protecting our natural resources in addition to continuing to develop our water supply and energy sector. He will be in command of the Resource Security Battalion, a new armed force specifically designed to protect our natural resources from thieves and bandits; not just those who would steal the resources themselves, but also those who would steal the proceeds derived from our resources. Just as Fernand has proven to be an expert in dealing with foreign governments, Leo has proven to be an expert in dealing with foreign corporations. He knows which ones are trustworthy and which ones would try to pillage our nation for their own ends. He knows which ones will help us and which ones would hurt us. Simply put, Leo is the best man for the job.

"If we already have the best possible people in government, we should keep them in government."

He looked around the stadium and nodded approvingly at the latest loud standing ovation. "The Nmbega family has led Cameroon for forty-five years, and those forty-five years saw our nation go from strength to strength. Here's to another forty-five years!"

[Freistaat-Ostafrika]

8 June 2020 - 20:00hrs [UTC+1]
ZST Studios
Kraków, Republic of Zapadoslavia

The third and penultimate televised debate of the Zapadoslavian election campaign was taking in place in ZST Studios before a live audience, with Daniel Stolarz once again acting as moderator. ZST had been sharing the hosting of debates with ZapSat, the most-watched commercial television network within Zapadoslavia; ZST hosted the first and now third debates while ZapSat hosted the second and would host the fourth and final debate on June 15. With the election being held on June 18, it was becoming increasingly likely that voters had already made up their minds and it was not looking particularly good for the incumbent Christian Democratic Party. While there was some degree of difference between opinion poll results, all current polling pointed to the Social Democrats either winning an outright majority or being close enough to be able to form a coalition with the Green Party. Led by veteran campaigner Angela Rakowska, the Green Party had already publicly stated that they would have no hesitation in forming a coalition with the Social Democrats, or simply supporting their government if they won an outright majority. Prime Minister Igor Panek still soldiered on despite the poor polling of his party but this was playing into the hands of Kryštof Zahradnik, as the Prime Minister's insistence on continuing the debates was providing Zahradnik with continued opportunities to distinguish himself against the nation's incumbent leader.

The debate had been proceeding relatively smoothly for the past thirty minutes with Panek looking much more comfortable than usual, but the mood began to shift after Daniel Stolarz uttered the next viewer-submitted question. "This next question is from Celina in Torun. 'What objectives would you pursue in terms of foreign policy?' Mister Panek."

Panek nodded confidently at the question. "That's simple. The Christian Democratic Party has always pursued a foreign policy known as 'neutral sovereignty'. There is no need for us to 'choose a side' as long as we trade with others on an equal footing, it is entirely possible for Zapadoslavia to engage in meaningful diplomacy without becoming a pawn in the games of larger nations. My government will, of course, continue with that policy. Zapadoslavia should engage with the world on our own terms, in a manner which allows us to avoid foreign entanglements."

A derisive snort from the opposing podium grabbed Panek's attention and he could not help but respond. "Obviously the Social Democrats disagree and want us to become trapped in the web of international alliances."

Daniel Stolarz cleared his throat. "Mister Zahradnik, your response?"

Zahradnik shook his head and rolled his eyes. "It is precisely that policy of 'neutral sovereignty' which has seen Zapadoslavia become forgotten in international affairs. The CDP's foreign policy has seen a reality arise where we are not viewed as important enough to engage with because we never get involved in anything. When was the last time that our nation was able to announce any significant trade deals? When was the last time that any other nation even thought a trade deal with us was worth their time? Zapadoslavia has fallen behind other nations in terms of global trade because the CDP seems to believe that we are capable of some form of 'splendid isolation' where we trade with others without any other engagement. At the same time, the CDP and their now-former coalition partners in the Freedom Party uttered statements that demonstrated a definite disrespect towards what they call 'paganism'. One of our largest neighbours, the Realm of Cotland, has a 'pagan' faith as their largest religion, and they are not the only nation. How can we follow 'neutral sovereignty' when our government is insulting other nations?

"I've always argued that our nation should engage constructively with others and that we should always follow a foreign policy which is best for Zapadoslavia. I do not believe that attempting to play neutral is in our best interests. Let me give you an example of what I mean. The Shenzhen Pact has been around for what, seven months at this point, but the full members of that organisation were affiliating with the Nanfang Republic for at least a year before the Pact's official founding. The more wealthy members of the Pact are actively investing in the less wealthy members. The Grande Império do Zaire announced yesterday that they had secured sufficient investment to proceed with the Inga III project thanks to the signing of contracts with Nanfang, Ostafrikan, and Emirati companies. That will see a hydroelectric dam constructed which will generate at least 4,500 megawatts of electricity. That won't just benefit Zaire, which will benefit their neighbours as they will eventually be able to purchase affordable electricity from a fellow African state. How many infrastructure projects in Zapadoslavia have been planned under Mister Panek or previous governments, only to fall at the first gate due to lack of investment? More active engagement with the economic powerhouses of the world does not mean that we would surrender our sovereignty, instead we would be building ties which would ultimately enrich our nation and our people."

Zahradnik took a sip of water before continuing as he clearly felt that he was on a roll. "Roughly two months ago, the Republic of Portugal signed a 'Memorandum of Understanding' with the Nanfang Republic regarding infrastructure investment and future economic ties. Have they lost their sovereignty? No. Have they been dragged into some foreign entanglement against their will? No, of course not. Prime Minister Duarte Cordeiro and his Partido Socialista government had no concern about such an endeavour, so why is Portugal being braver than Zapadoslavia? Prime Minister Panek, could you enlighten us in regard to that point please?"

Panek smirked and pointed at Zahradnik. "Of course he would praise the Cordeiro government. The party of power in Portugal is the Partido Socialista. Socialists. Is it any surprise that socialists want to weaken their nation and become foreign puppets? I wouldn't be surprised if Mister Zahradnik was being bankrolled by Nanjing."

Zahradnik peered over the rims of his spectacles at Panek in the manner of a disapproving teacher. "You sound like a member of the Freedom Party, Prime Minister. The Social Democrats declare our funding sources and major donors to the Oversight Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, our financial records are a matter of public record. To address the rest of your verbal diarrhoea, the Partido Socialista are social democrats. I realise that you are getting somewhat desperate these days but please do not lower yourself to clumsy right-wing nationalism." He then turned to address the audience once again. "Of course, that is ultimately what you will get if you elect the CDP into power once again. Clumsy right-wing nationalism. If you vote for the Social Democrats then you will be voting for a sensible foreign policy which will seek to encourage foreign investment in the Zapadoslavian economy, rather than a foreign policy which makes us invisible on the world stage."

"You mean a foreign policy where Zapadoslavia kowtows to despots and dictators." Panek seemed to be emboldened as he struck upon a new avenue of attack. "Your paymasters in Nanjing must love you, Mister Zahradnik."

"So it would appear that Mister Panek is hellbent on offending the nation whose currency has become the world's most prominent reserve currency." Zahradnik made an exaggerated eye-roll and held up his hands. "I think that it's rather interesting to hear Mister Panek going after the Nanfang Republic as a despotate or dictatorship, as these terms infer a lack of freedoms. The fact is that citizens of the Nanfang Republic actually enjoy wider civil rights than Zapadoslavians. Let that sink in for a moment. The Nanfang Republic engages constructively with Muslims both within and outside their borders. The Nanfang Republic legalised same-sex marriage almost twenty years ago. Our current government still wring their hands over how to talk with Muslims and still believe that same-sex marriage is somehow abhorrent to their faith. The CDP's policies do nothing but perpetuate a stereotype of Central Europeans being 'behind the times'. You've all seen in the past few minutes that Mister Panek has started insulting the Nanfang Republic in an attempt to sling mud at me, based entirely on the fact that I spoke well of them. What's next? If I compliment the Empire of Layarteb, will he start attacking them?

"Mister Panek is flailing around, desperately trying to save himself from losing his position, and he gives no thought to the potential damage that he could do to our international standing in the process. He would see us reduced to a parochial worldview which will inevitably lead to growing support for the Freedom Party as Zapadoslavia becomes even less important globally and our government starts blaming other nations for that. If you want to live in a nation that is afraid to seek out global opportunities then, by all means, vote for the Christian Democratic Party. If you want to live in a nation that ventures out proudly into the world, seeking out new opportunities and new friendships, then vote for the Social Democrats."

[Freistaat-Ostafrika]

19 June 2020 - 08:00hrs [UTC+1]
ZST News Broadcast
Republic of Zapadoslavia

"Good morning, this is ZST News and I'm Katya Dunin. This morning's news is unsurprisingly the Zapadoslavian general election, held yesterday following events set in motion by the collapse of the coalition between the Christian Democratic Party and the Freedom Party. The voting counts have been going on throughout the night for the five hundred and thirty-two constituencies in what had been predicted to be a contentious election by some commentators, a prediction which certainly came true. We now cross live to our Political Editor, Daniel Stolarz, who has all the latest updates. Daniel?"

The camera focus switched to Daniel Stolarz, who stood in another part of the news studio with a large screen behind him.

"Thank you, Katya. As we all undoubtedly know by now, there are five hundred and thirty-two seats in the Chamber of Deputies and you need two hundred and sixty-seven seats to have the slimmest majority necessary to form a government." He gestured towards the screen which now displayed a graphic of the interior of the Chamber of Deputies, each seat coloured in according to the incumbent's political affiliation. "After the last election in May 2018, we had the Christian Democratic Party on two hundred and fifty-nine, eight short of a majority. They then formed a coalition with the Freedom Party which had ten Deputies and this gave Prime Minister Igor Panek a majority of two, just enough to allow for the passage of legislation. In opposition, we had the Social Democrats on two hundred and twenty, the Green Party on twenty-one, the Communist Party of Zapadoslavia on twelve, and then ten Independents. Then we had that scandal in April where Freedom Party leader Łukasz Walski was revealed to have made several disturbing comments regarding minorities within Zapadoslavia. Mister Walski was fired as Deputy Prime Minister as well as Minister of Science and Higher Education, and the Freedom party subsequently walked out of the coalition. Social Democrat leader Kryštof Zahradnik then called for a vote of no-confidence in the minority Panek government and that vote passed, leading to the election campaign of the last few weeks.

"That campaign has been rather savage at times, to say the least. In the final days of the campaign, Prime Minister Panek was peddling the idea that Mister Zahradnik is a puppet of the Nanfang Republic, something which Mister Zahradnik has openly dismissed. Mister Zahradnik continued to hammer home the idea that Prime Minister Panek was weak and ineffective, clutching at any straw available to remain in power. Yesterday saw opinion polls still split between an outright Social Democrat victory and a coalition between the Social Democrats and the Green Party, and Mister Panek said yesterday morning that we shouldn't believe the opinion polls as they had been wrong before. Well...he was right in one respect. The opinion polls were off with their predictions, but only in terms of the size of the Social Democrat victory."

The screen behind him now changed to represent the new composition of the Chamber of Deputies.

"Look at that. The Social Democrats started with two hundred and twenty seats. Now they have three hundred and seven. That is the single largest voting swing in Zapadoslavian history. So Mister Zahradnik will now become Prime Minister with an outright majority of forty-one. That means that he will easily get legislation through the Chamber, especially as Angela Rakowska's Green Party has committed to supporting the Social Democrat agenda. The Greens have gained two seats which puts them at twenty-three, so potentially that means three hundred and thirty Deputies voting in favour of Social Democrat policies. Independent Deputies are down by one, meaning that nine Deputies are unaffiliated with any of the established parties. That one loss went to, unsurprisingly, the Social Democrats.

"Now let's look at the losers in this election. The Communist Party of Zapadoslavia and the Freedom Party have both lost all of their seats. Completely wiped out. The exit polling suggests that some of the traditional CPZ vote swung behind the Social Democrats, not necessarily due to disillusionment with the CPZ itself but rather in an attempt to install the strongest possible left-leaning Prime Minister. That demonstrates some true tactical voting by far-left voters which has unfortunately led to the wiping out of their usual preferred party. As for the Freedom Party, it appears that they lost sufficient support to allow the Christian Democratic Party to sweep up their constituencies. While this did give the CDP a little bit of a morale boost as they got their revenge on the party which walked out of the coalition with them, they still lost seats elsewhere. So the CDP is now in opposition with one hundred and ninety-three seats, a net loss of sixty-six seats. Mister Panek has already conceded defeat and now eyes will turn to a likely leadership contest within the Christian Democratic Party, with three now-former Cabinet ministers already hinting that they will be throwing their hats into the ring."

The screen now changed to display a picture of Kryštof Zahradnik celebrating in his home constituency of Kunratice in the city of Prague. Stolarz gestured towards the screen as he continued.

"So we now begin the era of Prime Minister Zahradnik. Thirty-nine years old with a grip on his party so firm that other politicians are undoubtedly envious. We've known for years what a Social Democrat government would look like under him due to the 'Manifest Zahradnika', the manifesto published when he became party leader in 2018. So what played in his favour in this election? Undoubtedly there was the attraction of a young and even-tempered leader, someone of a different political generation to Mister Panek. Mister Zahradnik promised a very different way of doing things and that seems to have struck a definite chord with voters who had become disillusioned after the disastrous end of the CDP-Freedom Party coalition. A far more liberal social agenda with the legalisation of same-sex marriage evidently appealed to younger voters. Interestingly though, foreign policy appears to have played more of a part in the election than expected. Mister Zahradnik set out this grand vision of a Zapadoslavia which takes more of a role internationally, cooperating more with other nations and establishing firm strategic partnerships of mutual benefit. That is a complete change in tone compared to the CDP doctrine of 'neutral sovereignty' and it could well be that Zapadoslavian voters want to see this nation become more active globally. Related somewhat to that is public opinion regarding the conflict between the Realm of Cotland and the Confederacy of the Urals. Not a subject that was touched upon much during the election campaign, but there seems to be definite concern among the Zapadoslavian public regarding the possibility of further flashpoints in Europe. The existence of the Caliphate of Rum and the Cottish-Ural conflict has introduced some unease, and so Mister Zahradnik could well have struck a chord by talking about finding friends around the world. Who would these friends be? Well, with his positive mentions of the Republic of Portugal and the Nanfang Republic, some commentators are thinking that Zapadoslavia could look towards the Shenzhen Pact. Social Democrat Central Office released details of the first two national leaders to call Mister Zahradnik in order to congratulate him on his victory. The first was Prime Minister Duarte Cordeiro of Portugal. The second? President Yang Mingshu of the Nanfang Republic. Evidently, Mister Zahradnik's complimentary words were heard loud and clear in Lisbon and Nanjing, time will tell if that turns out to be to the benefit of Zapadoslavia. Katya?"

The broadcast feed returned to the young brunette newsreader, who smiled warmly into the camera.

"Thank you, Daniel. So, as reported, we now have a new Prime Minister in Zapadoslavia. We are expecting him to arrive at Wawel Castle in the next hour or so to meet with President Nagyová and officially receive an invitation to form the new government, then he will travel to Wielopolski Palace to take up residence. So who is Kryštof Zahradnik? We now have a special report looking back at his political career thus far and his journey to become the Prime Minister of Zapadoslavia."

[Freistaat-Ostafrika]

23 June 2020 - 13:00hrs [UTC+1]
Wielopolski Palace
Kraków, Republic of Zapadoslavia

The first few days of Kryštof Zahradnik's premiership in Zapadoslavia were understandably the focus of much media attention within the Central European nation. The new Prime Minister had wasted little time in appointing his Cabinet as he had already plotted out which Social Democrat would receive which ministerial position, so the transition of power was proceeding peacefully and smoothly. It was now a warm Tuesday lunchtime and Zahradnik had spent much of the previous three days meeting with various civil service bureaucrats, in addition to the Chief of the General Staff (the highest-ranking professional officer in the Zapadoslavian armed forces), and several union representatives as the Social Democrats enjoyed an excellent relationship with the labour unions in the nation. Zahradnik was now moving into the routine of governance with the official reopening of the Chamber of Deputies scheduled for the coming Friday, giving him time to finalise the policy agenda that he wanted to implement; it also gave him an opportunity to craft a speech for his first appearance in the Chamber as Prime Minister. He considered himself fortunate in that the politician who was now Leader of the Opposition was the same man who had lost the election, lost the position of Prime Minister, and was in the process of losing the position as leader of the Christian Democratic Party. Igor Panek had steered clear of the media as much as possible since being ousted from government, but unfortunately several former ministers of the CDP government had not followed his example. The identities of the potential candidates for the CDP leadership had become abundantly clear over the preceding days as the same individuals had been giving media interviews where they all did their best to call for new party leadership while attempting not to be too critical of Mister Panek, as they undoubtedly believed that attacking the current CDP leader would not put them in good stead with the wider party membership. Instead, they all attempted to direct criticism towards Prime Minister Zahradnik by questioning his experience, his temperament, his attitudes towards religion, and other aspects that they believed to be valid targets. Unfortunately, they tended to find themselves repeating the same criticisms leveled at Zahradnik during the election campaign, and so the CDP leadership hopeful were failing to land any meaningful political hits on the new head of government. What was perhaps interesting was the fact that Panek's late attempts to paint Zahradnik as a 'puppet of Nanjing' were not being repeated by his potential successors, perhaps due to the final opinion polls of the election which had shown that a substantial majority of Zapadoslavians had been unimpressed with the accusations. Those Zapadoslavians who did buy into such a narrative were primarily those who already disliked Zahradnik and found the idea of him being a foreign pawn to be in keeping with their existing opinion of him.

Zahradnik's honeymoon period at home was being matched by a similar honeymoon period in terms of international relations. His long-discussed view that Zapadoslavia should be more active internationally and should also refrain from criticising other nations had been greeted warmly by a large number of nations, with the membership of the Shenzhen Pact comprising a substantial proportion of the nations who appeared to be welcoming of a more engaged Zapadoslavia. As far as European nations were concerned, one in particular saw Zahradnik's election victory as the potential beginning of something special. The Republic of Portugal had been overjoyed to see another social democratic government rise to power and the Portuguese government was hoping to build a fruitful cooperative relationship between the two states. While it was still extremely early in Prime Minister Zahradnik's first term to be thinking of such things, Prime Minister Cordeiro of Portugal was not a man who lacked imagination. This was the reason for Zahradnik's lunchtime arrangements on this particular Tuesday, the effective 'Day Five' of his term in office. The Cordeiro government wanted to strike while the iron was hot and had therefore instructed their ambassador in Kraków to request a lunch meeting with Prime Minister Zahradnik, a request which had been accepted as the new Zapadoslavian government could spin it to the media as an example of how Zahradnik was already improving the nation's international standing.

The dining room of Wielopolski Palace was decorated primarily in mahogany wall panels with a matching inlaid ceiling, a variety of landscapes hanging on the walls, and modern lighting fixtures hanging from the ceiling. The large mahogany dining table at the centre of the room sat upon an intricately designed rug that protected the wood-paneled floor beneath from scraping, and comfortable dining chairs were positioned at regular intervals around the table. While the table could easily accommodate twenty people, this lunchtime saw it accommodating a mere two: Prime Minister Zahradnik and Ambassador Frederico Rosário, a fifty-two year old career diplomat who had seen the importance of his position substantially enhanced over the previous few days. After enjoying a delicious three-course lunch and making pleasant small talk during the meal, the pair got down to the business which had brought Rosário to the palace.

"With the election campaign and your subsequent victory, I imagine that you've been unable to keep up with news from other nations. Next month, President Yang is going to making a visit to Lisbon. Not a state visit mind you, she's coming in her capacity as head of government rather than as head of state, but it's still an incredibly important event for Prime Minister Cordeiro. Officially she's coming to finalise an investment and trade agreement which is going to see Portugal benefit greatly from Nanfang interest in Europe. The agreement will cover things like the development of Portugal's 5G telecommunications network and a leasing deal where Nanfang Merchants Group will be leasing part of the Port of Sines. That leasing deal would be major news on its own because NMG wants to expand and upgrade the port facilities, as Sines is our main port I'm sure you can imagine the economic benefits that the deal could give us."

Zahradnik raised an eyebrow. "That's certainly important for Portugal, but I'm curious as to why you said 'officially'. That implies something more going on."

Rosário nodded. "Unofficially, President Yang and Prime Minister Cordeiro are going to be discussing the possibility for Portugal to become an observer member of the Shenzhen Pact. It's a step that we would have to take anyway if we wanted to become a full member, and it would still be a while before we officially express our interest, but Prime Minister Cordeiro wants to be secure in the knowledge that we'd be accepted if and when we actually apply."

"Well I can understand where he's coming from, no-one would want the embarrassment of officially applying and then being told 'no'. I do have to ask though, what does all that have to do with me?"

"Prime Minister Cordeiro was understandably pleased to see your election victory and he hopes for a strong friendship between our two nations, based on the shared values of our governments. He had a video conference with President Yang on Saturday and he asked if she would be amenable to your attendance in Lisbon while she's visiting. It turns out that she's quite happy about such an idea, so I am here to formally extend the invitation to you. It wouldn't be an official meeting between you and her, and you wouldn't have to give a press conference or anything like that unless you wanted to do so, in which case we could organise a press conference where you appear alongside President Yang and Prime Minister Cordeiro."

Zahradnik tapped his fingers on the table as he considered the offer. Although the vocal minority would likely scream about him meeting with President Yang, by meeting her in Lisbon rather than Nanjing it would be more difficult for his detractors to portray him as 'going to pay homage to his paymasters'. Prime Minister Cordeiro had been the first national leader to congratulate him on his election victory and so it made sense that he would visit Portugal at some point, and there was also the 'international stage' angle to consider. Zahradnik's pledge to involve Zapadoslavia more actively in international diplomacy would be realised for all to see if he met with both the Prime Minister of Portugal and the President of the Nanfang Republic within a month of taking office, and there was, of course, the possibility that he could begin a dialogue with Portugal and the Nanfang Republic regarding future relations. All in all, it did seem to be an excellent opportunity.

"I appreciate the invitation, Ambassador. I'll need to have a chat with my Foreign Minister first as I'd rather not surprise her with the news that I've already accepted, but I will be accepting the invitation once I've spoken to her. What's the date of the visit, so that I can give her as much information as possible?"

"President Yang will be visiting Lisbon from the twentieth to the twenty-second of July. Prime Minister Cordeiro will be very pleased to hear that you'll be attending but I shall refrain from informing Lisbon until after I receive your official acceptance. Just in case Foreign Minister Materska gets word of it before you consult with her."

[Freistaat-Ostafrika]

1 July 2020 - 14:00hrs [UTC+1]
Unity Palace
Yaoundé, Republic of Cameroon

One month on from the transfer of power which saw Gabriel Nmbega become the new President of Cameroon, there had actually been very little change within the African republic. Gabriel had moved into Unity Palace while his parents had relocated to an extremely comfortable mansion elsewhere in the capital of Yaoundé, with an additional residence located in a wealthy suburb of the northern city of Ngaoundere. However, at present Felipe and Babila Nmbega were on vacation in the autonomous Nanfang Republic city of Oumún (OOC: Macau), staying at the luxury integrated resort known as 'Liao Palace'. The resort was one of the many casinos and resorts in Oumún that were owned by the sinfully wealthy Liao family, Oumún natives who possessed such a level of political influence in the port city that they could effectively block operations by any foreign gaming companies who did not provide the customary kickbacks or share percentages. While the former President and First Lady were enjoying the first month of their retirement by vacationing in East Asia, Gabriel was finding it relatively simple to handle his new duties as the civil service and the rest of the apparatus of the Nmbega regime simply continued on as always unless he gave them specific orders to the contrary. As Gabriel had retained almost all of his father's ministers in the cabinet, the general governance of Cameroon barely saw any disruption at all. The one area of policy that was genuinely under revision was that of foreign policy, and Gabriel was facing the possibility of having an internal family fight on his hands as a result. Leo Nmbega had started to quietly lobby other government ministers regarding the idea of aligning Cameroon closer to the Shenzhen Pact, with the ultimate objective of joining the international organisation; the middle Nmbega brother, Fernand, had caught wind of this and was beginning to push back against Leo's efforts. While Leo had been hosting parties and 'informally chatting' with other ministers about the benefits of Shenzhen Pact membership to not only Cameroon but also themselves, Fernand had gone directly to Gabriel and complained that as he was Minister of External Relations, he should be the one discussing foreign policy with other ministers. Recognising that his two younger brothers could easily cause issues within the regime if they began to undermine each other's position, Gabriel had summoned both of them to Unity Palace in order to discuss the situation and attempt to reach some form of resolution.

The three brothers now sat in one of the ostentatious family lounges of Unity Palace, a large room with cream walls that featured walnut panels at regularly spaced intervals and art deco-style light fixtures. Four cream sofas were arranged in a square around a large and expensive plush scarlet rug which covered the marble floor in the seating section of the lounge, with a stylish marble coffee table positioned in front of each sofa. The interior of Unity Palace had been designed and installed at great expense over the years of Felipe Nmbega's presidency courtesy of the millions that he had 'acquired' during his time in office, ensuring that all future Presidents of Cameroon would have an exceedingly comfortable primary residence in the capital. Each brother occupied a different sofa, Fernand and Leo sitting directly opposite each other while Gabriel's position placed him 'between' them from a certain viewpoint. Given the circumstances of the meeting, it was rather apt for the Nmbega brothers to have positioned themselves in such a manner. Once the various toadies and advisors of the three had cleared the lounge, Gabriel leaned forward and clasped his hands together as he addressed his younger siblings.

"Okay. Leo, you will explain what you've been doing and why. Fernand, you will then explain to Leo why you find his actions to be so objectionable. Then I will decide on what is to be done about all this acrimony. Think yourselves lucky that Father isn't here, if he wasn't high-rolling in Oumún then he would be literally banging your heads together for introducing even the slightest hint of dissent among our family. Leo, talk."

Leo shrugged as he began. "It's simple, really. As Minister of Energy and Water Resources, and of course now as Special Plenipotentiary for Resource Security, I've met a lot of officials from Petronas and OAG Petrochemikalien. Hell, I've got an honest-to-God prince in my contacts list. The Resource Security Battalion is comprised of Ostafrikan mercenaries. Cameroon is bordered by members of the Shenzhen Pact, we've got them to the north and to the south. As the government minister who's had the most positive contact with Shenzhen Pact members, I've been talking to some of my cabinet colleagues about the idea of Cameroon applying for membership."

Fernand scowled. "You know damn well that foreign policy is my area-"

Gabriel raised his hand. "You'll get your chance, Fernand. Leo, continue. What have you been telling them?"

Leo leaned forward and poured himself a glass of water from the jug positioned on the coffee table before him. "I've been telling them that I've never had anything but positive encounters with representatives of the Pact." He took a sip of water. "I've also been pointing out that it just makes good sense. Our oil industry works in partnership with the Singapuran state oil company and the OAG's oil subsidiary, so we've got existing economic ties. Quite a lot of our nation's best and brightest speak Ostafrikan German because we've always gotten along with Dar es Salaam. Our Presidential business jet was made in Ostafrika. Dad's even been appointed as an independent director of the OAG now that he's retired, because of the good relationship between us and Ostafrika. That's how things stand now. If we were to apply for Pact membership then we'd have the likes of the UAE and the Nanfang Republic looking at Cameroon for investment opportunities. Imagine all that Nanfang and Emirati money flowing in. Imagine the parties, the summits, the international conferences that we'd be invited to. Plus we're in exactly the right spot geographically as far as they're concerned. If we joined the Pact then there would finally be a land link between Nigeria and the rest of the African members. They'll want to build rail and road links across the continent, those links will have to go through us. I've heard from some of my OAG friends that if we joined the Pact then they'd look at building a pipeline network that starts in Nigeria and links up to the rest of the Pact's African members, we'd be an integral part of that because of our location and our own oil industry."

He sat back and gestured towards Gabriel. "Not only that, but Pact membership secures our family's position. We've all seen the way that the Kingdom of Apilonia has been dismantling Emmanuel Xavier's regime in the East African Republic. What if they get it into their heads that we need to be next on the list? Even worse, what if instead of invading us they decide to start agitating? We'd be far better off with allies who have no complaints against our government. Besides, it looks like Portugal is cosying up to them as well. How awesome would it look if we could flaunt a renewed and equal relationship with the former colonial boss?"

Gabriel nodded slowly. "Fernand, your turn."

The middle Nmbega brother glared at Leo as he began his response. "Leo needs to keep in mind that I'm the damned Minister of External Relations, not him! I do the diplomacy, I talk to other foreign ministers. I give advice on foreign policy matters. He's scaremongering! Apilonia has no reason to target us, they're in the EAR because it's a former colony of theirs. They're also smart enough to know that our economic ties to Shenzhen Pact members would make us a politically awkward target." Fernand pointed at his younger brother and scowled once more. "He's only advocating Pact membership because it'll line his pockets and his Ostafrikan buddies have been whispering in his ear. If we throw ourselves into the Shenzhen Pact then that's it in diplomatic terms. We'll have made our choice, thrown in our lot with one particular power. Cameroon will become just another satellite orbiting the Nanfang Republic."

Leo snorted and sipped at his water once more. "You think that we can somehow play powers off against each other when most of them have no interest in us-"

Gabriel raised his eyebrows and gestured towards Leo. "Let him finish, Leo."

Fernand smirked condescendingly. "Thank you, Gabriel. As I was saying, if you want our nation to become just another piece of Nanjing's informal empire then go right ahead and join the Pact. Other nations will shrug and stop looking our way because we'll be just the latest acquisition of 'Nanfang Incorporated'. Portugal seeking Nanjing's friendship makes it even more attractive for us to steer clear, our former colonial master will become an unofficial colony themselves while we keep our independence and freedom to act as we wish."

"'Act as we wish'? Fernand, what the hell are you talking about? We're not Apilonia, or Britannia, or Cotland. We're definitely not the Empire of Layarteb! Exactly what do you think we can do on the global stage on our own? How many of those big powers would actually take anything that we have to say seriously? Membership of the Pact would give us a say in a major international organisation. We already have friends in the Pact." Leo leaned forward and addressed Gabriel directly. "You know the truth as well as I do, brother. The smaller nations of this world survive by finding a powerful friend. We've already got Ostafrika as a friend, they're reasonably powerful but they've got an even more powerful friend. Fernand says that we'd become an unofficial colony of the Nanfang Republic, but if you look at the current membership of the Shenzhen Pact then you can see that that's not happened to any of them. If he's worried about 'doing the diplomacy' for Cameroon then he should consider that there'll probably be loads of nice friendly meetings for him to attend if we were to join the Pact."

Sensing that Fernand was about to interject, Gabriel raised both of his hands in a 'shushing' gesture towards both of his brothers and rose from his seat. "Okay. I get it. Leo, you will stop lobbying our cabinet ministers. Fernand, while I agree with you that he shouldn't be attempting to influence our foreign policy, our younger brother does make some very valid points. As do you. So now that I've heard both points of view, I don't want to hear about either of you lobbying anyone else about joining the Pact or not joining it." He sighed before continuing. "As this is obviously a decision that needs to be resolved one way or another, I shall take a few days to consider both viewpoints before I give my own verdict. Do I have your word that you'll both abide by my Presidential decision, even if it isn't what you want to hear?"

Leo instantly nodded while Fernand took a few moments to show his assent. Gabriel then gestured for his younger siblings to stand.

"Both of you, shake hands."

Leo and Fernand stepped closer to each other and extended their hands to shake, earning an approving nod from Gabriel. "Right. Meeting over, and remember that I don't want to hear anything from either of you or about either of you until I've made my decision."

[Freistaat-Ostafrika]

8 July 2020 - 08:00hrs [UTC+1]
ZST News Broadcast
Republic of Zapadoslavia

"Good morning, this is ZST News and I'm Katya Dunin. Our leading story this morning concerns the latest reports regarding the possible interest of Prime Minister Kryštof Zahradnik and the Social Democrat government in affiliating Zapadoslavia with the Shenzhen Pact. With further details on this matter, we now go live to our Political Editor Daniel Stolarz, who is outside Wielopolski Palace. Daniel?"

The news feed switched to Stolarz, who offered his usual warm smile before beginning his report.

"Katya, these past seven days have seen numerous hints and rumours about the Shenzhen Pact and the potential expansion of their membership. That in of itself is nothing out of the ordinary as there are always rumours about everything in politics. The reason that we're reporting on the hints and rumours of the past seven days is that there seems to be genuine movement. On Monday, we had President Gabriel Nmbega of the Republic of Cameroon making a public speech about the 'excellent friendship' that exists between Cameroon and their two primary international partners, Freistaat Ostafrika and Singapura Raya. Both of whom are influential members of the Shenzhen Pact. He then went on to praise the 'spirit of cooperation' that was being fostered across Africa by the Shenzhen Pact and stated that that spirit of cooperation was something that Cameroon welcomed. That is about as clear as you can get without actually saying it, Cameroon is aiming to align with the Pact. I've spoken to several experts on international relations and they all agree that such a move is unsurprising due to Cameroon's ties with Pact members, but the significant thing about it is that Cameroon would be the 'last piece of the puzzle' to give the Pact an unbroken mass of membership stretching from Nigeria to the Republic of Ndongo and the Shoshanga Kingdom. In other words, almost thirty-three percent of the continent of Africa would be under governments that are either part of the Pact or aligned with it. Nanjing responded to President Nmbega's speech by stating that they are 'humbled by Cameroon's warm words' and that they will 'gladly cooperate with Cameroon if Cameroon wishes such cooperation'. In other words, 'we hear you loud and clear and we'll be in touch shortly'.

"Then yesterday, Wielopolski Palace put out a statement that Prime Minister Zahradnik has been invited to visit the Republic of Portugal by Prime Minister Duarte Cordeiro. That in of itself is not particularly surprising as the two men are both heads of social democratic governments, and they are both heads of government in what some call the 'European Minors' when compared to the likes of Britannia and Cotland. Prime Minister Zahradnik spoke well of Prime Minister Cordeiro's government during our election and Prime Minister Cordeiro was the first foreign leader to congratulate Prime Minister Zahradnik on his election victory some nineteen days ago. What is striking about the invitation is the timeframe. Prime Minister Zahradnik will be visiting Lisbon from the twenty-first to the twenty-second of July, so less than two weeks away. President Yang Mingshu of the Nanfang Republic will be visiting Lisbon from the twentieth and the twenty-second of July. Coincidence? Foreign Minister Zuzana Materska will apparently be accompanying Prime Minister Zahradnik to Lisbon and she made it abundantly clear in comments yesterday that the Prime Minister's visit to Lisbon is about 'establishing new relations and discussing future possibilities'. Prime Minister Zahradnik promised constructive engagement with other nations and that his government would seek to encourage greater foreign investment in the Zapadoslavian economy. Well in less than two weeks, he'll be meeting the leader of one of this planet's economic behemoths, an economic behemoth with a proven track record in investing in other nations. If that fact requires any more emphasis, President Yang is visiting Lisbon to discuss the possibility of closer ties and yes, you guessed it, increased investment in Portugal. Back to you, Katya."

The young brunette newsreader offered a well-practised smile as the news feed returned the studio. "Thank you, Daniel. With more on this, we have our Foreign Affairs Editor Halina Kuras over at the screen."

Focus now switched to the middle-aged and bespectacled Halina Kuras, her white hair worn short as always. She gestured behind her to a large screen which displayed a graphic featuring pictures of Prime Minister Zahradnik, Prime Minister Cordeiro, and President Yang Mingshu, the picture of each national leader imposed over a background of their respective national flag.

"Thank you, Katya. When Prime Minister Zahradnik visits Lisbon, he will very likely be meeting President Yang Mingshu of the Nanfang Republic in light of his commitment to greater engagement on the international stage. So who is President Yang Mingshu? Well, she's fifty-seven years old, married, and is currently serving her third term in office, having been first elected President fifteen years ago. She was born in Taipei City, the capital of the Republic's Taiwan Province, and served in the Republic's national security community before becoming the Mayor of Taipei City. She was later elected as Governor of Taiwan Province and established a firm following within the Constitutional Democrat Party, ultimately being elected as President in 2005. President Yang is the first female President of the Nanfang Republic and has been credited for the economic policies implemented during her tenure, policies which have seen the Republic's economy become a true global powerhouse. President Yang is also known for some rather liberal social attitudes as she addressed the Taipei City Pride parade every year while Mayor and Governor, and she has recorded a message for broadcast to the Nanjing Pride parade every year since becoming President. It is worth noting that she does not appear to pursue any social agendas within the wider Shenzhen Pact, instead maintaining the view that 'each nation possesses their own culture and it is not up to other nations to lecture them on cultural differences'.

"So Prime Minister Zahradnik and President Yang actually have quite a lot in common. They both champion equality within their nations and they both dislike the idea of interfering in or criticising the cultures and systems of other nations. Both came to power with aspirations of making their nation more relevant on the global stage, admittedly President Yang has had far more time and opportunity to achieve that aspiration and she has certainly done so. During the recent election campaign, Prime Minister Zahradnik was accused of being in Nanjing's pocket after he spoke positively about the Shenzhen Pact's activities, and there will undoubtedly be those who will point to this potential meeting as some evidence of collusion. However, it should be remembered that it is Prime Minister Cordeiro of Portugal who has invited Prime Minister Zahradnik to visit Lisbon during President Yang's visit. Katya?"

[Freistaat-Ostafrika]

20 July 2020
Lisbon, Republic of Portugal

Once a major colonial power with an extensive global maritime and commercial empire, Portugal now projected a far smaller presence on the world stage although a distinct cultural and linguistic legacy still ran through the nation's former colonies. The twentieth century had seen Portugal transition from an authoritarian monarchy to a democratic republic through a mixture of peaceful negotiation and tumultuous revolution, and the country now enjoyed a democratic system with extensive civil and political rights for all citizens. The Portuguese economy was primarily services-based supplemented by reasonably healthy agricultural and industrial sectors, and the population of just over ten million enjoyed a good standard of living as a result. The Constitution of the Republic of Portugal ensured the separation of political power between four different bodies, collectively known as the 'Organs of Sovereignty': the President of the Republic, the Government of Portugal, the Assembly of the Republic, and the Judiciary of Portugal. The checks and balances built into the Portuguese political system practically ensured that dictatorship was nigh-on impossible, no matter how large a political party's majority. The President was elected for five-year terms without any limit on the number of terms that they could serve although they could only serve two terms in succession, meaning that they would have to wait five years after the completion of their second term before they tried to run for a third. The President was formally the supreme commander of the armed forces and was responsible for appointing the Prime Minister, who was usually the leader of the largest political party in the Assembly of the Republic as the Assembly had the power to dismiss a government through a vote of no-confidence. The Prime Minister was the head of government and was responsible for selecting government ministers as well as the day-to-day governance of Portugal. The Prime Minister could hold the portfolio of one or more government ministries in addition to the role of Prime Minister and could serve an unlimited number of four-year terms. The Assembly of the Republic consisted of two hundred and nineteen representatives for the nation's nineteen districts, two representatives for Portuguese citizens living elsewhere in Europe, and two representatives for Portuguese citizens living outside Europe, for a grand total of two hundred and twenty-three elected via party-list proportional representation. Assembly Members (AMs) tended to have very weak ties to the districts that elected them as the Constitution stated that AMs represented the entire country as opposed to the districts that elected them, and the well-disciplined political parties played an important part in ensuring this. The President of the Assembly acted as the speaker for Assembly sessions and was elected by secret vote from the ranks of the AMs, and had the duty of substituting for the President of the Republic if they were ever unable to perform their job. Finally, the Constitutional Court was comprised of thirteen judges, ten elected by a two-thirds majority in the Assembly, and three elected by those judges elected by the Assembly. These judges had to meet a number of criteria and served a single nine-year term, and the independent Court's decisions on constitutional and political matters were above the decisions of any other authority in the Republic.

The present government of Portugal reflected the nation's rather progressive outlook more than previous administrations, with the Partido Socialista holding both the Presidency and the Government in addition to enjoying a majority in the Assembly. A social democratic centre-left political party, the Partido Socialista had long traded governments and Presidents back-and-forth with the centre-right Partido Popular Democrático with both major parties often having to rely on coalitions in order to hold the Assembly, but the Socialistas had finally managed to secure both the Presidency and the Government, something of an unusual occurrence in Portuguese politics. It was not necessarily a situation that was going to last, however, as President Jerônimo Salgado would be finishing his second consecutive term in 2021 and therefore could not stand in the 2021 Presidential election. For the time being though, the Partido Socialista was continuing to implement their political agenda under Prime Minister Duarte Cordeiro. Fifty-four years old with a stylish beard and a neatly-short haircut, Cordeiro had served as Minister of Foreign Affairs under a previous Partido Socialista government and now presided over a small outright majority of nine in the Assembly. The Assembly's current composition included one hundred and sixteen Partido Socialista representatives, seventy-nine for the Partido Popular Democrático, twelve for the Partido Comunista Português (Communists), eleven for the Partido Ecologista (Ecologist Party, known as the Green Party in other countries), and five for the right-wing Partido Popular. Formed in early October 2019, the Cordeiro government had been elected due to their pledges on boosting economic growth and employment as well as reinstating several benefits which had been eliminated under the previous administration in an attempt to save money. Something of a 'Nanfanophile', a word that he coined during a press conference in December 2019, Cordeiro had enthusiastically expressed an interest in increased cooperation between Portugal and the Nanfang Republic as he saw the potential for economic growth through a closer relationship with the far larger Asian nation. He had also expressed pro-Shenzhen Pact sentiments due to the presence of former Portuguese colonies in the organisation, namely the Kingdom of Orungu, the Republic of Ndongo, and the Grande Império do Zaire. There was a definite appeal for the centre-left and left-wing in Portugal to be involved in an organisation that was resulting in increased investment for the nation's former colonies, as Portuguese membership would see the nation once again affiliated with their former territories but on an equal footing this time. A Memorandum of Understanding had been signed between Lisbon and Nanjing in mid-April regarding investment and development projects, and President Yang Mingshu was now visiting Portugal in order to finalise an investment and trade agreement. Unofficially, Prime Minister Cordeiro viewed the visit by the Nanfang Republic's leader as an excellent opportunity to sound her out on the idea of Portugal applying for membership of the Shenzhen Pact. In an attempt to demonstrate how influential Portugal could be, Cordeiro had invited Prime Minister Zahradnik to visit Lisbon during President Yang's visit so that Yang could meet another potentially interested head of government without having to travel to Zapadoslavia; it would also provide Zahradnik with an opportunity to show that he was serious about Zapadoslavia becoming more involved on the world stage.

Arriving on the morning of the twentieth of July and accompanied by a small entourage comprised of media reporters and government functionaries, President Yang had found the first day of her visit to Lisbon to be rather standard fare for a visit by a head of government. She had spent much of the afternoon in discussions with Prime Minister Cordeiro at São Bento Mansion, the Prime Minister's official residence. A three-floor nineteenth-century mansion, São Bento Mansion was situated in the grounds of São Bento Palace, which itself had originally served as a monastery before being extensively renovated and expanded to become the home of the Assembly of the Republic. In truth, all negotiations regarding the investment and trade agreement had already been completed in advance of the visit and therefore just needed a signing ceremony to make it final, so the private discussions between the two leaders focused on the current status of the Shenzhen Pact and the potential of any Portuguese application for membership. President Yang explained to Cordeiro that the Pact's first anniversary on the twenty-fifth of November would see the unveiling of several new aspects to the organisation. Plans included the naming of a Secretary-General who would be the chief civil servant of the organisation; two new subsidiary bodies would formally come into existence, the 'Shenzhen Anti-Terrorist Structure' and the 'Shenzhen Interbank Consortium'; and the 'Shenzhen Free Trading Area' would finally be introduced, establishing a free trade bloc comprised of the Pact's full members. As stated by the organisation's charter, observer members would be welcome to join these new structures if they so desired. The two had then discussed Portugal's potential for joining and the reasons behind their intent. Yang had absolutely no issue with nations seeking Pact membership out of blatant national self-interest but she found it interesting to hear Cordeiro expressing an interest to re-establish strong ties between Portugal and the Lusophone nations that had already joined the organisation. Of course, there was the fact that Portugal would benefit economically from Pact membership and the Pact would undoubtedly benefit from one of Europe's advanced economies joining them, so Portuguese membership was in the interest of both sides. So it was agreed that a Portuguese application for membership should go ahead on the understanding that it would take time. While President Yang saw no immediate reason for any of the Pact's full members to refuse a Portuguese application, she felt that it would be advantageous to have some time to discuss the matter with other national leaders within the organisation; this would also give Prime Minister Cordeiro an opportunity to submit the idea of an application to the Assembly of the Republic and have the process ratified, thus ensuring that no-one could complain about a lack of democratic process.

After the discussions with Cordeiro, which were simply described as 'particularly constructive' in a typical government statement that gave no real information about the content of the discussions, President Yang had traveled to Belém Palace for dinner with President Salgado and his wife Mariana. Originally a residence of the former Portuguese Royal Family, Belém Palace was comprised of various buildings, courtyards, and gardens, and had developed into its current composition due to various construction projects between the eighteenth and twenty-first centuries. Although President Yang was visiting Portugal while 'wearing her head of government hat', protocol required President Salgado to meet with her as she was also the Nanfang Republic's head of state, even though she was not visiting in that particular capacity. The two had enjoyed a pleasant dinner and a walk around the grounds of Belém Palace, with an approved photographer from each nation covering the event, before Yang had returned to the Nanfang Republic's embassy in order to prepare for the events of the following day. There had originally been plans for her to visit a variety of historical sites throughout Lisbon but those plans had been changed after Cordeiro had suggested the idea of inviting Prime Minister Zahradnik to Lisbon as well. Yang had to admit to herself that Cordeiro was certainly proving to be an eager would-be friend to the Nanfang Republic and that he was saving her some time and effort by bringing Zahradnik to her instead of Nanjing and Kraków having to arrange a head of government meeting themselves.


21 July 2020 - 13:30hrs [UTC+1]
São Bento Mansion
Lisbon, Republic of Portugal

The reception lounge of São Bento Mansion was a fairly small room that tended to undergo changes in decor depending on the identity of those being hosted by Prime Minister Cordeiro. In this particular instance, the lounge had experienced a more contemporary makeover in an attempt to cast the imminent tripartite meeting in a modern and forward-thinking light. While the walls and carpet were an off-white colour, the drapes on the long windows and french doors were a solid black. The large rug which lay beneath the seating featured a geometric pattern of alternating triangular shapes which were coloured in white, gray, black, blue, and yellow, while the furniture was all rather postmodern in style. Three white couches had been arranged so those sitting on them could face one another, with a white-topped wooden coffee table placed between them. At the far end of the lounge behind the middle couch of the arrangement, three small flagpoles had been set up approximately two feet apart in order to display the national flags of the three leaders who were about to meet; the Nanfang Republic's flag on the right, Portugal's flag in the middle, and Zapadoslavia's flag on the left. Prime Minister Cordeiro and President Yang were already present and enjoying an amicable discussion about Cordeiro's ideas in regard to the Pact while awaiting the arrival of Prime Minister Zahradnik and the Zapadoslavian Foreign Minister, Zuzana Materska.

As Zahradnik's small convoy entered the grounds of São Bento Palace and began the approach towards São Bento Mansion, Cordeiro was given word of their imminent arrival and politely excused himself so that he could greet the Zapadoslavians upon their arrival at the front of the residence. Meanwhile, Zahradnik was looking out of the tinted rear window of his vehicle so that he could get a look at the well-tended gardens that they were driving through.

"Nervous?"

Zahradnik turned his attention to Štěpán Kolowrat, who was sat beside him. Following the Social Democrat electoral victory, Kolowrat had been appointed as Wielopolski Palace's Director of Communications and Strategy, a prominent special advisor role that had the power to issue orders to civil servants. This meant that the now-thirty-two-year-old was still Zahradnik's ever-loyal enforcer of party discipline and doctrine, although he now enforced the politician's will through the apparatus of the Prime Minister's Office. It was unsurprising that Kolowrat had joined Zahradnik on his first foreign trip as Prime Minister as he would want to know exactly who was in a room at any specific time, just in case anything leaked that should have remained private.

"Curious more than nervous." He shook his head and rolled his eyes as Kolowrat raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Yes, okay, there are a few nerves. Not so much regarding Cordeiro but Yang is the one I need to make a good impression with. Conventional wisdom says that we should get along but conventional wisdom can fly out of the window all too easily."

Kolowrat chuckled. "You'll be fine, Kryštof. Just be yourself and we'll have some fantastic press to look forward to once we get back home."

The car came to a stop in front of the red-carpeted white steps at the front of São Bento Mansion and a uniformed guard stepped forward to open the door for Zahradnik. As he stepped out of the vehicle, Zahradnik's attention was drawn to Prime Minister Cordeiro, who emerged from the mansion and descended the steps with a beaming smile. Upon reaching the bottom of the steps, Cordeiro extended his hand. "Prime Minister Zahradnik! A pleasure to finally meet you, my friend. Social democrats of Europe unite, don't you think?"

Zahradnik returned the smile and shook Cordeiro's hand as both men turned to the waiting press so that photographs could be taken of the initial handshake. "It's an honour to be here, Mister Cordeiro. We smaller Europeans need to stick together these days."

The pair ascended the steps and stood side-by-side in the front entrance of the mansion as more photographs were taken, then Cordeiro escorted Zahradnik inside with Kolowrat and Foreign Minister Materska in tow. The Portuguese head of government took great delight in pointing out various pieces of artwork as the small group made their way through the corridors until they reached the reception lounge, where President Yang rose from her seat and offered an almost-motherly smile. "Prime Minister Zahradnik, it is good to finally meet you in person. I must once again congratulate you on your election victory, it is always reassuring to see reason and equality triumph over close-mindedness."

Zahradnik nodded slightly and shook hands with the President of the Nanfang Republic. "Thank you for your kind words, Madam President. They mean a great deal, coming from the first female President of one of our planet's greatest nations."

The three leaders took their seats facing each other while Foreign Minister Materska sat next to Zahradnik, with the four of them taking a brief moment to smile towards the approved photographer for a picture that would undoubtedly be reprinted several times in all three nations. The photographer then left the room and the door was closed, ensuring that no unauthorised individuals could listen in on the conversation. Aside from the four seated politicians, the occupants of the lounge included Štěpán Kolowrat as well as a small number of Portuguese and Nanfang officials. Prime Minister Cordeiro started things off.

"So, I believe that it is safe to say that we have quite a lot to discuss....."

[Freistaat-Ostafrika]

22 July 2020 - 16:00hrs [UTC+1]
São Bento Mansion
Lisbon, Republic of Portugal

The simultaneous visits by President Yang and Prime Minister Zahradnik to Lisbon had thus far been successful for all of the national leaders involved. Prime Minister Cordeiro was demonstrating that Portugal had influence on the world stage by hosting the two and was using the opportunity to advance his ideas for his nation's future. President Yang could now point to the fact that the Shenzhen Pact was finding friends among the European powers, opening up possibilities for the organisation's expansion on a wealthy continent renowned for its historical influence on the world. Finally, Prime Minister Zahradnik was showing the Zapadoslavian electorate that he followed through on his manifesto. Zahradnik had spoken during the election campaign about his belief that Zapadoslavia should engage more internationally and find friends around the world, and now here he was, in a foreign capital, meeting two national leaders a mere thirty-three days after taking office. Even better, one of them represented a nation that was counted among the world's great powers. All three governments were making the most of the opportunity as official photographs had been released of the three leaders meeting in the reception lounge of São Bento Mansion, walking together in the residence's garden, and visiting the National Museum of Ancient Art. The visit was now culminating in a joint press conference inside São Bento Mansion, where the press briefing room was packed with representatives of the media of all three nations in addition to some of the more global media networks. The offwhite-decorated room had a pleasant breeze wafting through it as the french doors had been opened out onto the gardens, and the gathered media personnel murmured among themselves as the three leaders emerged and took up position at the three podiums that faced the press. As the hosting leader Prime Minister Cordeiro was in the middle, with President Yang on his left and Prime Minister Zahradnik on his right, each leader being framed by their national flag as banners depicting the flags had been hung from the ceiling. Cordeiro beamed at the press as the flashes of cameras went off.

"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us this afternoon. It is my distinct honour and genuine joy to stand before you in the company of two such distinguished individuals. Prime Minister Kryštof Zahradnik won the election in Zapadoslavia just over one month ago on a platform of social democracy and international engagement, with a manifesto that I believe will benefit his nation greatly. The Social Democrats in Zapadoslavia and the Partido Socialista here in Portugal are of the same family, political parties that seek to enshrine equality and fairness in their home nations while engaging constructively with nations around the world. Constructive engagement around the world benefits everyone, and it is entirely possible to engage with others without passing judgment on them. It is far better to engage and cooperate with other nations on the basis of shared aims rather than judging any differences. That is a belief that I share with Prime Minister Zahradnik and a belief that we both share with President Yang Mingshu of the Nanfang Republic."

He gestured towards President Yang with a smile. "President Yang is, in my opinion, a true visionary. Under her leadership, the Nanfang Republic has established itself as one of the great powers of our world. They are an economic juggernaut with extensive civil rights, equality is enshrined in their constitution. Yet they are not content to simply sit back and watch the rest of the world, instead the Nanfang Republic has reached out and created a new consensus involving a variety of other nations. The Shenzhen Pact is undoubtedly the single greatest change in global politics over the last twelve months. Eleven full members and one observer member. An organisation dedicated to stability, security, and prosperity for its members. An organisation that recognises the differing cultures of its members and respects them. An organisation that has ideals in common with both Portugal and Zapadoslavia."

Cordeiro then handed over to Zahradnik, who nodded appreciatively. "Thank you, Prime Minister Cordeiro. The election of the Social Democrats in Zapadoslavia was a clear endorsement of the ideals of equality, fairness, and international engagement. It was a clear rejection of the ideals of inequality, prejudice, and isolationism. Prime Minister Cordeiro is indeed correct when he states that Zapadoslavia and Portugal are now led by parties that are of the same family, and this creates the potential for close cooperation between us as we stand for the same ideals. After our discussions over the past day, it has become even more evident that the Nanfang Republic also stands for those ideals. The three of us have identified several areas where we have similar objectives that would benefit us all, and we have agreed to pursue greater cooperation in those areas. I stated during my election campaign that the Shenzhen Pact is an organisation that works together to benefit all of its members. Wealthier Pact members are actively investing in the economies of less wealthy Pact members, allowing for the development and advancement of infrastructure and energy projects that will greatly benefit millions of people. As Prime Minister Cordeiro has stated, that is an organisation that shares our ideals. The wealthy using their fortunes to benefit the less wealthy. Nations working together to their common betterment. That is an organisation that we both feel is an organisation that our nations could enjoy a meaningful and fruitful relationship with."

Zahradnik then handed over to President Yang, who offered a warm smile towards him in response. "Thank you, Prime Minister Zahradnik. This visit to Europe has been of particular value to me as it has demonstrated that the ideals I hold close to my heart, and the ideals upon which the Shenzhen Pact was founded, are shared by nations all around the world. Prime Minister Cordeiro and Prime Minister Zahradnik are both thoughtful and rational individuals with admirable government policies, and I very much look forward to seeing how Portugal and Zapadoslavia develop under their respective leaders. I must express my appreciation for the kind words offered by both Prime Ministers in regard to the Shenzhen Pact as our organisation is constantly striving to bring stability, security, and prosperity to our membership and it gladdens me to see that our efforts are noted by others. While the Shenzhen Pact's official name is the 'Afro-Asian Unity and Cooperation Organisation', I have always made it clear that we would welcome friends and future members from all over the world. I know that I speak for all of the Shenzhen Pact's members when I say that we would be honoured to count Portugal and Zapadoslavia among those friends. Prime Minister Cordeiro?"

Cordeiro cleared his throat. "Continuing on from what President Yang has just said, a couple of months ago the Republic of Portugal signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Nanfang Republic regarding infrastructure investment and future economic ties. We can now announce the completion of a new investment and trade agreement between our two nations that will be of benefit to both of our nations. However, it is my intention to go further. The Shenzhen Pact membership includes Lusophone nations that were once colonial territories of Portugal and it is my ambition to see Portugal working closely with those Lusophone nations once again but on an equal footing this time. Re-establishing relationships with former colonies should never involve reasserting colonial administration, it should always involve mutual understanding and respect of one another. After careful consideration of the global political reality, I have consulted with President Salgado and this Partido Socialista government shall seek observer membership of the Shenzhen Pact."

He allowed this to sink in before continuing. "Over the next few weeks my government shall present the case for Shenzhen Pact membership to the people of Portugal and of course, opposition parties shall be welcome to present any objections that they may have. The proposal to seek observer membership will then be submitted to the Assembly of the Republic for a binding vote. If the Assembly of the Republic votes in favour then we shall formally submit our application for membership."

Prime Minister Zahradnik then took over. "The Republic of Zapadoslavia fully supports our Portuguese friends in this move. While we do not have previous agreements in place with the Nanfang Republic, we do see the value in observer membership of the Shenzhen Pact. I therefore intend to hold a consultation period with other party leaders, respected experts, and other individuals of note regarding the possibility of a Zapadoslavian membership application. Any decision regarding Zapadoslavian observer membership of the Shenzhen Pact would only go ahead with the approval of the Chamber of Deputies and the Zapadoslavian people, and full disclosure will be given in regard to the potential benefits and drawbacks of membership. If it is decided that we are not ready for observer membership then we shall seek trade and investment agreements with individual Pact members. During the election campaign, there was concern expressed that if Zapadoslavia sought greater involvement on the world stage then we could find ourselves losing our independence. When you look at the membership of the Shenzhen Pact, they all retain their independence and work cooperatively. That is precisely the relationship that I envision Zapadoslavia enjoying with others. The Shenzhen Pact offers an alternative to a world dominated by global-spanning empires, it offers an opportunity for independent nations to work together and achieve great things cooperatively. It is an organisation that I feel would be ideal for Zapadoslavia, as we would benefit from membership in addition to helping others to benefit from our membership."

[The Kingdom of Apilonia]

His Royal Highness The Archduke of Austria
The Hofburg, Vienna
The Archduchy of Austria
Wednesday 22nd July 2020, 0900hrs Local Time

---

The new Archduke of Austria smiled fondly at his wife as she sat at her dressing table putting the final adjustments to her makeup and general appearance ahead of the day. Considering that the Wedding Feast, and the associated entertainment and celebration, after their marriage the previous day had gone into the small hours of the morning, it was almost a miracle that they were both looking as refreshed as they did. It was perhaps a small mercy that, as the newly married couple, they were expected to retire shortly after minute to ‘consummate the marriage’ (although, George thought wryly, the boat had sailed on that some months previously) so they had been able to get away from the celebrations relatively early and enjoy some time together before getting a relatively early night. This was fortuitous, as they had a busy day ahead of them; they were due to depart on their honeymoon later in the afternoon, but had a number of meetings with key advisors and government members before they left. Afterall, within the Austrian system the Archduke (or Archduchess) had very real influence over the day-to-day governance of the Archduchy, and as such it was just good practice of the Chancellor to go over various matters for Archducal approval in advance if they were going to be out of the country for a prolonged period of time.

As Sophia was putting the final touches to her appearance, George was leafing through daily intelligence briefing from the Austrian intelligence services, the first such briefing he had received as a result of his new title and responsibilities. George had officially retired from the Apilonian Army the previous Friday, in recognition of the fact that his duties as the new Archduke of Austria would preclude the time necessary to commit to a military career especially given that Sophia had been adamant that he would rule alongside her as a (mostly equal) partner. It had solved the delicate issue, at least for the next few weeks until Austria formally became part of the Kingdom, in which he would technically have had to report everything in the Austrian daily briefing to his superiors in the Intelligence Corps. Although he was disappointed that his military career had ended so soon, he was more than prepared to sacrifice it in order to be with Sophia; besides, as an Apilonian Royal, and the Austrian Archduke, there were still plenty of ceremonial (but still important) military appointments that he would likely hold in the coming years.

Even as she was applying her makeup, Sophia was thumbing through her own copy of the intelligence briefing having long ago developed a knack for reading and absorbing the information whilst doing something else. For all her shyness, and instinctively meek personality, which had put her at a disadvantage versus her older and more experienced courtiers, Sophia was intelligent and sharp-witted, and was a very quick study.

Aside from the delicate domestic situation, the main thing of interest to both of them was the developments in the Republic of Zapadoslavia and the Republic of Portugal, with rumours and speculation that they were both planning to join the Shenzhen Pact in the coming weeks or months. Given that President Yang of the Nanfang Republic, the supposed ‘first amongst equals’ of the Pact, was visiting Lisbon with both the President of Portugal (of course) and the Prime Minister of Zapadoslavia on record as meeting her yesterday, although the specific agenda of that meeting was unknown due to both he lack of real intelligence penetration of any of the parties, and the security in place in any event.

The Shenzhen Pact was something of an enigma to the Kingdom of Apilonia. Under normal circumstances, the idea of so many nations, particularly with some of the human rights and democratic records of some of the members, coming together would have caused a great deal of concern and opposition from the Kingdom. Indeed, Freistaat Ostafrika being a part of the Pact alone would have been enough to ring numerous alarm bells in Royal Bainbridge, given the tensions between the Kingdom and Ostafrika, given the Kingdom’s historic colonial presence in Africa and the Indian Ocean. However, the fact that the Pact was headed up, and arguably dominated by, the Nanfang Republic changed the complexion of the situation to a great degree, as the Republic was far more acceptable to the Kingdom’s ideals and sensibilities and was a major trading partner to say the least. Nevertheless, the increasing size of the Pact, not to mention its increasing pool of manpower and the sheer scale of its economy, was increasingly troubling and it was only the fact that Apilonia and Nanfang largely shared geopolitical aims (or at least those that differed would not really interfere with the other) that reduced the likelihood of a conflict between the two.

Indeed, in many respects the Pact and the Kingdom were pursuing largely the same thing; the principle that the whole was greater than the sum of its parts. In the aftermath of the East African Campaign, in which a former colony had accepted a place back in the fold, this time as a equal partner rather than a subservient position, there was a very real movement both within the Kingdom and some of its former colonies, that it would be in the interest of both for a reunion. The Kingdom would benefit in much the same way as it had in the first place, whilst the former colonies would greatly benefit from both the private investment and the governmental budget of being part of a larger, more powerful and more wealthy power. In many respects, rebuilding the old Apilonian Empire in a new, more democratic and equal form, was really what should have been done in the first place; rather than the frankly shameful process that had happened during the Crisis of Confidence era. As such, the Kingdom would not exactly be the first to cast stones against a new international organisation swallowing up new members when it was entirely possible that it was about to start doing so itself.

Had it not been for some of the dubious member-states that the Pact had accepted into its number, it was entirely likely that the Kingdom would not have any reservations at all. The Kingdom would have liked to see the Pact, in its formative period, adopt a more principled selection criteria; the fact that it hadn’t raised some questions within Royal Bainbridge to say the least. Afterall, the modern Kingdom was a stalwart defender of human rights and the rule of law and would never accept a returning colony which did not meet those standards… even if it meant that it had to resolve them itself.

Nevertheless, George knew as well as anyone in the Kingdom that even if conflict was unlikely that certain measures had to be taken; not the least of which was to underline the Kingdom’s ability and commitment to protect it’s interests with more than just diplomacy. In particular, both doctrine and long tradition called for the Royal Navy to maintain absolute dominance over the Pacific Ocean, although (as with so many things) this had been put at risk in recent years by a pullback from certain island holdings across the Pacific by the idealistic (but often naïve, particularly in terms of foreign policy) Liberal Party of the 1960s and 70s, which despite numerous successes at home had fumbled spectacularly on the international stage. Moreover, although there was a general hope that Nanfang would hold it’s more… unsavoury Pact members in line, there still had to be a military defence against the potential threat posed by them, even if in absolute terms the threat had diminished greatly by those ‘states’ opting for Pact membership.

Of course, as far as Austria was concerned neither Zapadoslavia nor Portugal had posed a threat to its geopolitical security before joining the Pact and it was unlikely that they would do so in the future. Far more concerning was the likes of Authoritarian Yugoslavia to the south, whose history with the Archduchy was as intertwined as its politics had diverged, as well as other regional hotspots.

“So, we’re going to border the Pact,” Sophia commented wryly, as she carefully put her earrings in.

“Looks like it, although I’d rather have them than the Yugoslavians,” George replied, placing down the intelligence briefing and walking over to her, kissing her gently on the back of the neck. “Or the Ostafrikans for that matter, Apilonia has that particular pleasure now in East Africa.”

“That is a point,” Sophia nodded, having had a front-row seat view to the tensions with Ostafrika during her time at UW. “I suppose we don’t know for sure that they’re joining the Pact.”

“Technically not,” George nodded. “Although mark my words, there’ll be some sort of announcement hinting at membership before the day is out.”

Sure enough, by the time that George and Sophia were boarding a Boeing 787 Dreamliner of Royal Airways, the Archduchess joining the Apilonian Royal Family’s tradition of flying commercial wherever possible, word reached them of the press conference in Lisbon in which the leaders of both Zapadoslavia and Portugal expressed their desire to have their nations join the Pact. Of course, President Yang of Nanfang had immediately expressed that she would be more than happy to accept them as members of Pact and, formalities aside which would obviously follow in the coming weeks and months, that was that as far as either George or Sophia were concerned. For the most part, both the Archduke and Archduchess wanted to get on with their honeymoon in the Caribbean, where King William V had been good enough to lend them the Royal Yacht Apilonia for a week-long cruise.

“Told you,” George smirked as they settled into their private suites in the First Class cabin.

“Oh shush,” Sophia rolled her eyes. “I knew there was a reason I kept you around.”

“Is that so,” George laughed. “Do you want to do anything about it in response?”

“No, its not going to have any impact, so its not worth the effort,” Sophia shook her head. “Besides, anything that stabilises the region more is good for Austria, in the long run.”

“Fair enough,” George nodded. “For now, let’s just focus on each other… everything else will work itself out.”

[Freistaat-Ostafrika]

26 July 2020 - 19:20hrs [UTC+1]
Unity Palace
Yaoundé, Republic of Cameroon

While the governments of Portugal and Zapadoslavia were preparing to hold open discussions on the prospect of applying for membership of the Shenzhen Pact, the Republic of Cameroon had no such intentions. The Nmbega regime was such that the National Assembly would rubber-stamp any legislation put before them, so any potential Cameroonian application for Pact membership was likely going to sail through the completely illusory scrutiny of the national legislature. This meant that it would simply be a case of President Gabriel Nmbega taking the final decision to formally submit the application, an application that was practically guaranteed to be accepted. Cameroon was simply in too strategic a location for the Shenzhen Pact to refuse them, and the Nmbega regime's nature meant that any major infrastructure projects would be given a path through Cameroon with very little bureaucracy to navigate. On paper, it seemed to be an ideal match, but the one potential issue with the Nmbega regime was, unfortunately, raising its head. The national legislature would accept anything put before them and the cabinet ministers would follow orders, but if a member of the Nmbega family wanted to cause trouble then it could delay or even derail the entire process. Despite Gabriel's decision that he saw Cameroon's future as being a member of the Pact, Fernand Nmbega was still opposed to the idea. In his position as Minister of External Relations, Fernand had the potential to scupper Cameroon's membership application and the resulting disagreement between Gabriel and Fernand required a definitive resolution before the nation could proceed towards Pact membership. To this end, Leo Nmbega had gone behind the backs of his older brothers and reported the entire situation to their father, the now-retired Felipe Nmbega. Felipe was so furious to hear about the disagreement between his two older sons that he and his wife Babila had returned to Cameroon early from Oumún in the Nanfang Republic, and the Nmbega family patriarch was intent on resolving the dispute one way or another.

When Fernand arrived at Unity Palace, he was unaware of the fact that his parents had returned from their vacation until he was escorted into the family lounge of the Presidential residence and was faced with a scene that caught him completely off-guard. Gabriel and Leo were sat on one of the cream sofas next to one another with their parents occupying the sofa directly opposite them, the four of them chatting about the vacations that the elder Nmbegas had been enjoying. As the door to the lounge was closed to give the family some privacy, Gabriel looked up and offered a warm smile towards Fernand.

"Brother! Look who decided to come home early!"

Fernand approached the seating area with a degree of caution, nodding to his mother and father as he took a seat on one of the free sofas; in doing so, he wound up with his brothers located not too far to his right and his parents located to his left. Gabriel turned his attention back to their father and gestured towards Fernand.

"Fernand has been expressing concerns about Cameroon's potential membership of the Shenzhen Pact, Father. He seems to think that we would be better off being independent so that we can be free to act as we wish."

The somewhat-corpulent eighty-eight-year-old retired dictator slowly leaned forward and directed a quizzical and disapproving gaze towards his middle son, peering over his metal-rimmed spectacles. Fernand shrunk back into the sofa slightly as his father spoke.

"Your brother's joking. He is joking, isn't he?" Fernand's hesitation in answering caused his father to narrow his eyes and tut loudly. "Tsk. I can't believe I'm hearing this. Gabriel is your President, you are his Minister of External Relations. He listens to your advice but when he makes a decision, you abide by it. You had no problem doing that when I was your President so why aren't you obeying your brother? He's made his decision so why are you still arguing your point?" Felipe shifted closer to the edge of his seat so that he could begin lecturing Fernand. "If I was still President then I'd be telling you that we're going to join the Shenzhen Pact. Do you think you know better than your older brother? Do you think you know better than your father?! Listen to me very carefully, boy. When Cameroon joins the Shenzhen Pact, and believe me that it's a case of 'when', this family is going to become even more wealthy than we already are. We'll have all that foreign money pouring into our nation. As you know, the OAG made me an independent director when I retired as President, I'm looking at consultancy fees and all sorts of other paydays if we join the Pact. All that foreign money pouring in will mean more money in the economy, and that means more money in the off-budget oil revenues. That means more money in our accounts in Singapura, that means more money for you! I'm going to be getting my own business jet from Ostafrika so that I don't have to borrow the Presidential jet. Leo is going to be getting his own Ostafrikan business jet because he's Special Plenipotentiary for Resource Security and works so well with our international partners. Even you're supposed to be getting your own damn jet from the Ostafrikans if this works out!"

Felipe sighed and removed his glasses, rubbing the bridge of his nose before continuing. "You know what your problem is? You're too busy trying to be a diplomat, instead of doing what's best for your goddamn family. Joining the Pact means that our control of Cameroon becomes guaranteed by the likes of Ostafrika and the damn Nanfang Republic! No-one would dare to challenge us if we've got Nanjing on our side! Yet all you've been doing is moaning. 'Oh, we'll be a satellite of Nanjing'. Even if that did happen then we'd still be in charge of Cameroon and we'd be still be making money hand over fist! You want us to remain as independent as possible, well what's the point of that? What would you prefer, for us to be independent and as wealthy as we currently are or members of the Shenzhen Pact and so much more wealthy than we currently are? I know which option I prefer! I know which option your older brother told you that we'd be taking!"

The Nmbega patriarch now began to jab his index finger in Fernand's direction as the lecture continued. "First you cheated on Ana and fathered that son and daughter that you're still paying the mother to keep quiet about. Now you're refusing to do the most simple thing that you've ever been asked to do! I thought you might be capable of doing this job. All you had to do was be polite to other governments, go to fancy conferences, and look the part. Why do you have to be so selfish, trying to act all nationalistic? Is it because Gabriel is President now? Are you trying to see how far you can push your older brother? Are you just acting out because I appointed him as President and not you? If so, then all you've done is prove that I made the right choice." He sighed heavily. "If it were up to me, you'd be shipped off to be ambassador to Mexico or Yemen. A couple of months being shot at by cartels or terrorists might teach you a lesson about how lucky you are to be where you are right now. Luckily for you, your older brother is a bit more mellow than I am."

Fernand simply stared at the floor before him as his father's lecture came to a close. He deeply resented the fact that even at the age of thirty-eight, he could still be made to feel like a disobedient child by his father. He also knew that Felipe was correct in regard to any possible 'punishment' for his perceived disobedience. The Nmbega patriarch would not have hesitated to pack him off to a warzone, indeed Fernand had found himself having to grovel when his infidelity had been discovered by his family. Felipe had only forgiven him after he promised to end the affair, buy a nice home for his now ex-mistress, and regularly pay her hush money out of his own wealth, but the lecture of the last few minutes made it abundantly clear that his father would never forget the incident. He looked up from the floor with a scowl as Gabriel addressed him.

"Brother. I do not want any more disagreement within the family on this issue. I am in favour of Pact membership, Leo is in favour of membership, Mama and Father are in favour of membership. If you agree right now to stop your opposition then, as far as I am concerned, this discord never happened. However, Cameroon will be applying to join the Shenzhen Pact regardless of whether you support it or not. If you support it then you'll be the Minister of External Relations who will take us into the Pact and you'll be attending very high-profile diplomatic summits. If you support it then we will look at how to bring a definite end to you having to pay to keep your ex-mistress silent. If you continue to oppose Pact membership and defy the rest of the family then I cannot have you in the cabinet." Gabriel set his jaw determinedly before uttering his next few sentences as he had no real desire to act upon them, but under the circumstances, he would have no choice if Fernand forced his hand. "If you continue to oppose Pact membership and defy the will of our family then you will not be demoted to the position of ambassador, you will be demoted to the position of consul and posted to Aden. You will be given the responsibility of leading our consulate in Yemen as we do not have an embassy there. Ana and your legitimate sons will remain here in Cameroon, you will be alone in a foreign nation that is not exactly known for its stability."

He then rose from his seat and gestured to the rest of the Nmbega family to do the same. "Why don't the four of us get something to drink while Fernand considers his position." Leo, Felipe, and Babila all rose from their own seats and followed Gabriel out of the lounge, leaving Fernand alone to contemplate his future.

[Freistaat-Ostafrika]

14 August 2020 - 16:00hrs [UTC+1]
São Bento Palace
Lisbon, Republic of Portugal

The eleven full members of the Shenzhen Pact simply had to sit back and observe as the national governments of Cameroon, Portugal, and Zapadoslavia continued their steady progression towards applying for observer membership of the organisation, each of the three governments adopting their own variation on the same method of determining any domestic appetite for such a move. The Cameroonian government had simply issued a declaration on the first of August that they were submitting a formal application for observer membership, a move made possible by the Nmbega regime's control over the administrative apparatus of their nation. Fernand Nmbega had given a speech to the National Assembly where he laid out his reasons for supporting such a move in his capacity as Minister of External Relations, a move that privately signified his acquiescence to the collective will of the Nmbega family as he had absolutely no interest in being packed off to Yemen; put simply, he had realised that Cameroon's prospective membership of the Shenzhen Pact was a very stupid 'hill to choose to die on' due to the fact that there was no way for him to win the argument. The National Assembly had then rubber-stamped the declaration just as they rubber-stamped everything that the Nmbega regime put before them. Cameroonian state media were now in the opening stages of a pro-Pact information campaign where various economic and diplomatic 'experts' were trotted out to explain the numerous benefits that would shower down upon Cameroon as a result of joining the international organisation, with absolutely no opposing points of view being presented because of two reasons: the state media had no interest whatsoever in presenting opposing viewpoints, and even if they did wish to present opposing views then they would hard-pressed to find anyone foolish enough to appear on state media and directly contradict the government. The Cameroonian announcement was warmly welcomed by the full members of the Pact, many of whom expressed their joy at the 'strengthening sense of African brotherhood' that was being fostered as a result of the Pact's existence.

As for the two prospective European applicants, their respective governments were adopting a more cautious and informative approach due to their political systems genuinely possessing opposition parties. Zapadoslavia's Social Democrat government was being by far the most cautious in their approach as they had only been elected into office about two months beforehand, and although their majority in the Chamber of Deputies meant that it was highly unlikely that they could face a vote of no-confidence in the near future, Prime Minister Zahradnik did not want to face a situation where he helmed an unpopular government for a five-year term. So the Zapadoslavian government primarily focused their information campaign on the Nanfang Republic as they knew that such a focus would help them to appeal more strongly to the more progressive parts of Zapadoslavian society. The campaign spoke about the benefits that would come from increased cooperation with the far larger Asian nation, stressing the progressive and social democratic aspects of the Nanfang Republic as well as Nanjing's preferences for cooperation and free trade over tariffs and conflict. Carefully worded in an attempt to avoid offending some of the less savoury members of the Pact, the Zapadoslavian information campaign portrayed potential Zapadoslavian membership of the Pact as a case of the West Slavic nation joining with the Nanfang Republic (and others less often-mentioned) in an organisation that promoted friendship, understanding, and mutual benefit. The opposition Christian Democratic Party did their best to rip holes in this approach by bringing attention to the dictatorships and military-led regimes in the Pact, but the Social Democrats countered this by mobilising the extremely vocal social media presence of Ruch Zahradnika, Prime Minister Zahradnik's ever-loyal grassroots movement that had originally helped him to mold the Social Democrats into his own image. CDP members were accused of 'white supremacy', 'neo-colonialist attitudes', 'white Christian privilege', 'conservative hypocrisy', 'Eurocentric racism', and countless other charges by young left-leaning Zapadoslavians on social media platforms; while this would have been bad enough under normal circumstances, the CDP was still being led by their now-'interim leader', the former Prime Minister Igor Panek, as the party finalised their leadership elections. Panek's previous coalition with the Freedom Party was constantly being brought back to haunt both himself and the CDP, and it was becoming increasingly difficult for the CDP to achieve any real breakthrough on the issue of the Shenzhen Pact as they were simply being drowned under a deluge of social media accusations and repeated reminders of an unwise coalition pairing. A referendum on Zapadoslavia's potential application had been announced and was organised for the tenth of September, with Prime Minister Zahradnik hoping that a successful vote in favour of Portuguese membership would give him another positive to push in the public information campaign.

The Republic of Portugal had adopted a more easily-controlled approach to its application than Zapadoslavia. They already had a good developing relationship with the Nanfang Republic and Prime Minister Cordeiro's pro-Nanjing attitude was no secret. The Partido Socialista government had also presented a public information campaign but with a more Portugal-centric message, extolling the potential economic benefits but also describing the potential for Portugal to enjoy a rapprochement with any former colonial territories that were members of the Pact as independent nations. This message tapped into the idea of greater friendship and cooperation between the Lusophone nations of the world, an idea that did enjoy support in Portuguese society as a whole and Portuguese business circles more specifically. Unlike Zapadoslavia there would be no referendum held on the subject of the Portuguese application as the matter would instead be settled by a vote in the Assembly of the Republic. Prime Minister Cordeiro had selected that course of action for two specific reasons. The first reason was that a vote in the Assembly would be more quickly settled than a referendum campaign, while the second reason was that the Partido Socialista had far more control over the outcome of an Assembly vote than a popular referendum due to their majority in the national legislature. So on the afternoon of the fourteenth of August, the Assembly of the Republic was meeting in a special session in order to vote on the proposal for Portugal to formally submit an application for observer membership of the Shenzhen Pact. Every single Assembly Member was in attendance due to explicit instructions from their party whips that absence would be a matter for disciplinary action, and so the Assembly chamber was bustling with activity. As with many legislative chambers, the Assembly chamber was organised with the Assembly Member seating forming a semicircle that faced a raised seating platform against the far wall; in the case of the Portuguese legislature, the raised seating platform was occupied by the President of the Assembly of the Republic. Lídia Tavares was sixty-six and a veteran politician, a well-regarded mainstay of the Partido Socialista who had been elected to her current position by a secret ballot of the Assembly Members, and she had demonstrated a distinct disdain for unorthodox behaviour in the chamber. The final debate before the vote had been taking place since eleven o'clock in the morning, with the five-hour session now finally drawing to a close following closing remarks from Prime Minister Cordeiro and the leader of the opposition, Tiago Ferreira of the Partido Popular Democrático. Once both had finished their statements, Lídia Tavares stood to address the Assembly.

"The motion under consideration is as follows. Should the Republic of Portugal submit a formal application to join the Afro-Asian Unity and Cooperation Organisation, more popularly known as the 'Shenzhen Pact'? Endorsement of the motion?"

There was a cheer of approval from the members of the Partido Socialista as well as those of the Partido Comunista Português. While the members of the Partido Ecologista remained fairly subdued, it was expected by many commentators that they would be voting with the government.

"Opposition of the motion?"

A noise of disapproval erupted from the membership of the Partido Popular Democrático and the smaller Partido Popular. Tavares nodded. "Assembly Members, please cast your votes."

All eyes in the chamber turned towards the large screen that was mounted on the wall behind Tavares as it displayed the running vote totals as cast via the Assembly's electronic voting system. Each Assembly Member has a small handset featuring three buttons, clearly marked 'Yes', 'No', and 'Abstain', and the members cast their vote by pressing one of the three buttons. The process only took a few minutes as the system tallied up the votes as they were cast and finally the screen displayed a result. Tavares rose from her seat in order to make the result official.

"The motion under consideration was as follows. Should the Republic of Portugal submit a formal application to join the Afro-Asian Unity and Cooperation Organisation, more popularly known as the 'Shenzhen Pact'? The total number of votes cast was two hundred and twenty-three. The number of votes in favour of the motion was one hundred and thirty-nine. The number of votes in opposition to the motion was eighty-four. The number of votes in abstention was zero. Therefore the motion passes. I repeat, the motion passes. Prime Minister Cordeiro."

Tavares took her seat as Prime Minister Cordeiro rose to his feet, a wide triumphant grin on his face. "Madam President of the Assembly, fellow Assembly Members. This is a truly historic day for the Republic of Portugal. We have decided to pursue membership of the most significant international organisation in existence today, the Shenzhen Pact. We have decided to pursue closer ties with the Nanfang Republic and the ten other full members of the organisation. This decision will not just bring Portugal economic benefits, it will also bring us greater influence and prestige on the international stage. We will be helping to show the rest of the world that the way forward is not through aggression and conquest but through cooperation and mutual understanding. We shall also be in a position to pursue closer relations with those African nations that were once under Portuguese colonial rule. The Kingdom of Orungu, the Republic of Ndongo, and the Grande Império do Zaire are already full members of the Pact. Now we know that the Republic of Cameroon will also be applying for observer membership. Four independent nations, who together comprise the majority of our former colonial territories. The Shenzhen Pact has the potential to provide a forum for the Lusophone nations of the world to build a new familial relationship based on mutual respect and equality, and that is something that Portugal would be proud to be a part of.

"I would like to thank those from other parties who voted with the government on this vitally important issue. A national government should always be looking forward to their nation's future, seeking out and implementing policies that can make that future as bright as possible. By voting in favour of applying for observer membership in the Shenzhen Pact, it is my belief that this Assembly has taken the correct decision for the future of Portugal. The world is still in the first few months of the Shenzhen Pact's existence and I believe that the organisation has the potential to change the world for the better. It would be to our benefit, and the benefit of others, that Portugal is a part of the Pact so that we can help to make the world a more stable, secure, and prosperous place for everyone. Thank you."

Cordeiro nodded appreciatively as he received a standing ovation from the Assembly Members of the Partido Socialista and the Partido Comunista Português, the members of the Partido Ecologista remaining seated but still adding their applause.

[Freistaat-Ostafrika]

11 September 2020 - 08:00hrs [UTC+1]
ZST News Broadcast
Republic of Zapadoslavia

"Good morning, this is ZST News and I'm Katya Dunin. Our top story this morning is the result of the national referendum held to decide on Zapadoslavia's potential application for membership of the Afro-Asian Unity and Cooperation Organisation, more popularly known as the 'Shenzhen Pact'. Formal interest in joining the Pact was first expressed by Prime Minister Kryštof Zahradnik when he met with Prime Minister Duarte Cordeiro of Portugal and President Yang Mingshu of the Nanfang Republic during a visit to Lisbon in late July, and he announced at that point that Zapadoslavia would only proceed with an application for observer membership after a referendum had been held on the issue. The past few weeks have seen a great deal of information provided to the public in addition to a number of heated televised debates, and the voting took place yesterday. We now go live to our Political Editor Daniel Stolarz, who is outside Wielopolski Palace with more on the result. Daniel?"

The news feed changed to show Stolarz offering his now-expected warm smile. While he had been somewhat well-known in Zapadoslavia before all of the political wranglings that had started back at the end of April, he was now pretty much a bonafide national celebrity with a wide variety of fan pages and social media accounts that sang the praises of his often-informal manner of describing the intricacies of the nation's political scene.

"Well Katya, there are still a handful of areas left to have their votes officially verified but in all honesty, those votes will not change the outcome of this referendum. Prime Minister Zahradnik and the Social Democrat government went all-in on this referendum, all guns blazing. We had experts on international trade telling us how observer membership would open the door to access to the Shenzhen Pact's soon-to-be-created free trade area, a potentially huge opportunity for Zapadoslavia as we would get tariff-free access to goods from the Nanfang Republic and the other Pact members. Of course, we would also get to sell our goods to them without having to pay tariffs. According to the experts, that would mean a reduction in the price that Zapadoslavia pays for oil, which in turn would mean a reduction in the cost of petrol at the pumps. Smartphones and other electronics manufactured in the Nanfang Republic would be cheaper for us to purchase, and we would be able to upgrade our national telecommunications infrastructure to 5G for lower-than-current estimates. We had experts in international relations tellings us that membership of the Shenzhen Pact would greatly enhance Zapadoslavia's influence overseas because we would be a member of an increasingly influential organisation on the world stage, with opportunities for Zapadoslavians to gain important roles in subsidiary agencies established by the Pact. Prime Minister Zahradnik personally argued that the Shenzhen Pact was likely to have an enormous influence in global affairs over the coming years and that we would be far better off as members, instead of hunkering down behind our borders while the world changed around us.

"Of course there were the opposing arguments. Igor Panek led the charge against membership with the Christian Democratic Party supporting him, a rather strange situation where the party backed him to the hilt on this issue while simultaneously finalising the leadership contest that will replace him. Mister Panek railed against the idea of the Nanfang Republic having any influence in Zapadoslavia, decrying Prime Minister Zahradnik as a 'traitor who was selling out his nation to Nanjing', sounding more and more like the Freedom Party that he was once in an ill-fated coalition with. Mister Panek also stated that several member states of the Pact are controlled by military regimes or strongman politicians, and argued that Zapadoslavia would be aiding and abetting corruption and oppression if we were to join the Shenzhen Pact. That provoked absolute fury from a number of ambassadors who described Mister Panek as a 'white supremacist in conservative clothing'. Mister Panek refused to apologise for the comments and that led to an interesting situation where Prime Minister Zahradnik ignored the comments but social media became a hostile land for the CDP. Ruch Zahradnika, the grassroots movement of the Social Democrats, mobilised en masse in response to Mister Panek's comments. They were already a vocal online presence but they soon turned social media into shark-infested waters for the CDP, and the sharks were hungry. Mister Panek, in particular, was inundated with recordings of comments that he has made in the past about non-Christian faiths as well as a number of memes that portrayed him as a hollowed-out puppet being operated by Łukasz Walski, who as we all know is still the leader of the Freedom Party.

"As for Mister Walski himself...well the Freedom Party ramped up their rhetoric even more than usual. After being wiped out in June's general election they obviously felt that they had nothing to lose, so they published information claiming that Zapadoslavia and Portugal would be 'overrun by Africans' as a result of joining the Pact. The government was quick to publish information that directly contradicted that assertion but once again, the loyal devotees of Ruch Zahradnika showed just how much of a force they truly are. Campaign events featuring Freedom Party speakers were swarmed by protestors at every turn as Ruch Zahradnika appeared to team up with anti-racism activists and the Afro-Zapadoslavian community in order to prevent the Freedom Party from contributing to the referendum debate. There was even the infamous incident, still unattributed to any group, where the Freedom Party website and Mister Walski's social media accounts were hacked. The result being that a number of particularly offensive private conversations, allegedly conducted by Mister Walski, were released into the public domain. That saw the Freedom Party step back from their participation in the campaign as they were universally condemned in the popular press, and there are questions about whether the party can actually continue to exist."

Stolarz paused and took a deep intake of breath.

"So that all brings us here, to this morning, and the result of the referendum campaign. Fifty-eight percent voted in favour of an application for Shenzhen Pact membership, forty-two percent voted against. Now that is actually a slightly higher percentage in favour than expected. Current initial thinking about that result is that Prime Minister Zahradnik and the Social Democrats simply played the political game better than their opponents. The CDP simply do not have a grassroots movement as large or as effective as Ruch Zahradnika, and that gives the Zahradnik government a substantial advantage when it comes to social media campaigning, rallies, and street corner canvassing. In addition, credit where it is due to Štěpán Kolowrat, Wielopolski Palace's Director of Communications and Strategy. The government campaign made certain to show how Pact membership could benefit ordinary Zapadoslavians and tapped into the message of the Social Democrat general election campaign, that Prime Minister Zahradnik is the man to lead Zapadoslavia into the future."

Katya Dunin's voice now sounded. "So Daniel, what comes next?"

"What comes next is a confirmatory vote in the Chamber of Deputies and that is expected to be held next week. All parties agreed that the results of this referendum would be binding and you just know that Prime Minister Zahradnik is hoping for Mister Panek to express outrage at the result because it will allow him to further undermine the former Prime Minister's reputation. The confirmatory vote will then officially start the application process and that process is nowhere near as complicated as viewers might expect. All sorts of statistics have to be provided about population, the economy, and whatnot, but it's really nothing that couldn't be found on online information websites with some work. Foreign Ministry sources that I've spoken to have told me that Zapadoslavia's application is pretty much in the bag already but there is a specific date to circle in the calendar. The twenty-fifth of November is the first anniversary of the signing of the Shenzhen Unity and Cooperation Treaty, the treaty that brought the Shenzhen Pact into existence. The organisation is expected to be making a number of important announcements for the anniversary and various experts believe that the pact will wait until that day before officially welcoming the latest membership intake. The Republic of Cameroon and the Republic of Portugal have submitted their applications, the Republic of Zapadoslavia will evidently be submitting our own soon enough. There are rumours, nothing yet confirmed, that there could well be a fourth nation in the process of applying for observer membership at this time. If those rumours are true then we could be looking at the Shenzhen Pact having a membership of eleven full members and five observer members, encompassing roughly two-and-a-half billion people. Close to a billion of those people being citizens of the Nanfang Republic. A recent meme that has caught on is the idea of the Nanfang Republic as 'Trade Daddy' with the rest of the Pact as the 'Trade Fam'. Makes you wonder who the next member of the family might be. Back to you in the studio, Katya."

[The Kingdom of Apilonia]

General Chairman Vlatko Darković
The New Palace, Belgrade
The People’s Republic of Yugoslavia
Friday 11th September 2020, 1200hrs Local Time

---

The atmosphere in the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the People’s Republic of Yugoslavia was grim as the senior analyst from the Office of State Security completed his briefing and departed the room, leaving the senior officials to their deliberations. As far as the Politburo was concerned, the past nine months of the new decade could not have gone worse for the People’s Republic; and as far as it could tell, matters were only going to get worse.

Within the People’s Republic, the situation had already been de-stabilising for some years, largely due to the increasing stream of information from outside of Yugoslavia courtesy of technology. For decades, the People’s Republic has managed to hold together the competing ethnic and religious concerns through the overarching banner of socialism and, in particular, the basic living stipend (BLS) that ensured that every citizen, regardless of race or creed, a sufficient income to live on regardless of employment status. For many years this has been sufficient; with the Office of Public Information keeping a careful control over the news and information that entered the country, backed up by extensive state propaganda, the extensive proletariat within the People’s Republic had been largely content. As technology had advanced, however, it had become increasingly clear, even to the poorest, that the standard of living provided by the BLS was substantially below that which was available in even the least ‘decedent’ capitalist, western society, and the stories of wealth and prosperity for even the comparatively poor coming from their old masters, in the Archduchy of Austria, were destabilising to say the least. In the end, the rise of social media in the last decade had been devastating, as even the Office of Public Information had struggled to keep it under wraps.

As such, the proles has demanded successive increases to the stipend, which had been possible at first, but increasingly threatened to shatter even the best planned economy and, as a result, unrest had spread across Yugoslavia; initially against the government but increasingly targeted at everyone else as the ethnic and religious fault lines began to show signs of stress. This unrest had necessitated a violent crackdown by the People’s Military, against those that would ‘betray the revolution’, which had only made matters far worse.

As a counterpoint to this internal strife, the external threats were also becoming increasingly concerning to the Politburo.

The Archduchy of Austria, from which Yugoslavia had seceded in the 1910s following the Balkans Rebellions, had been stagnant for many years but had got a new breath of life in the form of a new ruler, the Archduchess Sophia. For some years, the Archduchy and it’s small but formidable military was seen as the most likely threat to the People’s Republic, but one that could largely be discounted due to the Archduchy’s political lethargy. Moreover, it was expected that the People’s Military would be able to overwhelm the far smaller Austrian Military in the event of a conflict. This new lease of life had been made worse by the fact that the Austrian Archduchess had fallen in love with an Apilonian Prince, resulting in a marriage and a political union that had seen the Archduchy join the far larger and more powerful Kingdom; which dramatically changed the military and geopolitical situation for the worse. Especially given that a great deal of the political opposition, that is actual organised opposition not proletariat unrest, was largely in the form of those families that had lost their titles, wealth and property to the revolution… many of whom now lived in the Archduchy and who conducted what opposition they could from it. Moreover, there was very real talk of secession by Hungary, which had always had a distant relationship with the rest of the People’s Republic.

If that hadn’t been back enough, the decision by the Shenzhen Pact to get involved and accept new member applications outside of it’s natural sphere was of increasing concern to the People’s Republic. Much of its geopolitical assumptions, and thereby it’s security and defence posture, was based around the principle that the surrounding nation-states were typically non-aligned and as such broadly weak or politically uninfluential. The first cracks in the foundation of this geopolitical stance had been caused by the Austrians forgoing a degree of pride to join the Kingdom of Apilonia, and Pact involvement was only going to make matters worse, particularly if other, smaller nation’s opted for Pact membership. It would be far harder to control their own destiny, in an area that was already at the crossroads of Europe, if the surrounding states were not small, independent and non-aligned, but instead backed by a larger power.

In short, the Politburo was deeply concerned about the geopolitical implications of everything that had happened in the last nine months, and the impact it would have on the deteriorating internal situation within the People’s Republic.

“So, what do we do about this?” General Chairman Vlatko Darković asked grimly, looking around at the other’s sat around the table.

“Realistically, there is very little that we can do, unfortunately, we have neither the military power nor the diplomatic influence to do any real damage to either the Shenzhen Pact or the Kingdom of Apilonia, so our options are limited,” Kristijan Gavrilović, Secretary of State Security and de facto second-in-charge within the Politburo, commented. “We should have taken on Austria years ago, when they were decadent and weak… now they are still decedent but also backed by a major power… as I suggested at the time, but was overruled by this body.”

“I think we all recall your opinion on the matter, Comrade Secretary Gavrilović,” General Chairman Darković replied sharply. “This is not the time for assigning blame, there will be plenty of that to go around… now we need to decide what we do next.”

“We need to stabilise our own internal situation… we need to be able to focus all of our attention, effort, and manpower on ensuring that we have a military capable of defending the revolution against those that might assail it, we can’t do that if our own house is divided,” Secretary Gavrilović said evenly, accepting the rebuke. “We cannot allow the situation to get away from us internally; so far the unrest has been handled by local law enforcement… eventually it’ll be federal forces that are targeted… when that happens, we need to come down hard, we can’t appear weak otherwise we’ll encourage further opposition that will only weaken us.”

“Agreed; at least initially it will all be about the optics, more than likely the initial interaction between protestors and federal forces will be incidental; there’s not enough organisation behind these protests to deliberately escalate, if we handle it right we can keep it contained,” Jovana Brđanin, Secretary of Public Information, added with a nod of agreement. “We’ll also want to minimise what is publicly available about the wider geopolitical situation, we don’t need people getting ideas about foreign intervention, so we’ll limit what information we allow onto the social networks as much as we can… we may need to take a real look at deeper state control down the road.”

“We’ll look into it,” Darković nodded. “So, which do we think is the bigger problem?

“Austria.”

“The Pact.”

Darković smiled without mirth.

“Explain.”

“Austria provides the biggest threat from a pragmatic perspective; we all know that the Hungarian regional government has made no secrets of it’s desire to break away from the rest of Yugoslavia… they were always a questionable member of the Revolution after all,” Secretary Gavrilović replied first. “The social and cultural links between Hungary and Austria are far closer than between Hungary and the rest of Yugoslavia, which is part of why it’s causing us most problems, so it is my concern that Austria will get involved with history… which would be the worst case scenario for making us look weak if they succeed!”

“A fair point,” Darković nodded grimly. “Comrade Secretary Brđanin?”

“I just don’t see Austria, or Apilonia, for that matter launching a invasion against the People’s Republic; it’s not their style… even if they took Hungary we could spin in sufficiently, as you say Comrade Secretary, they’ve always been the black horse of the People’s struggle,” Secretary Brđanin shook her head. “By contrast, not only does the Shenzhen Pact represent a very real threat to our geopolitical situation, but it also represents a very real threat to the internal security… particularly if we do start to see secessionist movements along ethnic lines, the Pact is far more likely to get involved, and any organised opposition would know that.”

“I simply disagree,” Secretary Gavrilović cut in. “There are so many in the Archduchy of Austria that would love to regain what they lost in the revolution… and theirs are names that would still command a lot of respect in the People’s Republic if people are starting to abandon the revolution.”

“Yet, the Apilonians have visibly made a effort to use a velvet glove with their attempts at rebuilding their Empire; look at East Africa, firmly in lock step with a well-developed opposition group, even if it is still imperialism, we don’t have the same established opposition,” Secretary Brđanin shook her head. “Based on what we’ve seen, the Pact seems more likely to latch onto whatever justification they can to add to their growing network; and they clearly aren’t fussy about who they accept, I just see them as far more likely to intervene if requested by even a grassroots opposition movement.”

Secretary Gavrilović looked like he was about to respond when Darković held up his hand to encourage him to silence.

“Enough, you both make very good points about our potential threats, unfortunately, so we’ll proceed under the assumption that either could be a problem… now we’re unlikely to play nice with Austria, but let’s see if we can’t improve our relations with the Pact… turn them into a partner rather than a threat, within the boundaries of what is allowable by the revolution, of course,” Darković said firmly after a moments thought. “I also want to increase our military exercises, I want our people at the highest possible readiness in case something happens, and I want the Planning Staff to start drawing up plans for putting down a secessionist action in Hungary… I agree with Comrade Secretary Brđanin that we can’t afford to appear weak, and that an overt attack by Austria and Apilonia is far more difficult to cover up than internal unrest targeting our forces.”

“I’ll get right on it, Comrade Chairman,” Secretary Gavrilović nodded, accepting the direction.

“I’ll make sure my department liaises closely with State Security, Comrade Chairman,” Secretary Brđanin also nodded.

“Very good,” Darković smiled, again without mirth. “We’ve got a lot of hard work to do, people, we’d best get started.”