alternatehistory.com

The longest serving Prime Minister in Plattinean history, Albert Crowley’s government didn’t seem destined to last long: the collapse of the Perón government in 1955 caused a panic in the National Coalition, as early reports of aircraft scrambling put the country on high alert, and it would take hours for clearer information to reach 33 River Road (the Prime Minister’s official residency). Crowley was forced to intervene personally to prevent John Hamm – still Minister of Defense – from ordering a strike, and the row with the National Union prompted near-libelous attacks against the Prime Minister from the Commonwealth Times.

As it became clearer that the outcome in Argentina would ultimately be favorable to Platte, the situation in the cabinet stabilized enough that he could reassert a semblance of control over his own government, albeit forced to accept Hamm’s virtual promotion to Minister of Labour and Social Services (a significant blow to his own party, which had held the post since 1946) after the controversial right-wing leader won his riding with a much-increased majority in the 1958 elections.

When the right of the party attempted to push him out in 1960, he would be forced to appeal to the leaders of the Alliance and the Popular Party to forestall a new leadership contest; he would repay the effort by removing John Hamm from cabinet entirely, finally securing the support of the liberal wing of the Conservative Party by giving them control over the economy (compensating long-time holders of the Economy Ministry, the Alliance, with appointments to the Foreign and Justice Ministries).

His second cabinet would serve as a prelude to George Roem’s success in 1968: the National Union would be excluded from all the major ministries (although they would continue to occupy a handful of junior ministries) for the first time since 1947; the Popular Party would accumulate more junior positions beyond the Speakership; and the Alliance would overtake the Conservatives in the cabinet for the first time since the 1930s.

This second cabinet would prove more resilient than the first, and his government would ride out the first half of the 1960s in relative strength. But it was a tumultuous time for the region, and Crowley’s popularity would erode quickly after the 1966 elections as student activism resulted in an infamous police crackdown on the downtown campus of the National University of Platte that sent protestors and mounted police running through the city’s bustling streets.

Rattled by the negative press, Crowley would implement his most significant reforms just before his retirement in 1968, promoting the Education department to a senior ministry and establishing a new campus on the outskirts of the capital where Montevideo’s largest universities would relocate to over the next few years. Informally dubbed “University City”, the ambitious project was meant to balance the need to invest in the country’s aging higher education with keeping the increasingly politicized students concentrated in a single, easy to police location.

During the last 2 years of his government, Crowley would break ground on schools across the country, including a new campus for Salto’s Oriental University meant to take in the influx of Argentine scientists expelled after Onganía’s coup in 1966. When he retired in 1968, it was the Conservative party which failed to rally around a single figure this time, allowing Crowley and his allies to anoint a successor from the Coalition’s left wing.

The Commonwealth Times is infamous among Platte’s press: it holds the dubious honor of having both the best sports journalists and the most vicious political commentators in the same number, and they proudly pander to the lowest common denominator on every page in between. Openly derisive of the Coalition’s inclusion of Oriental figures, it is a rallying point for the country’s right that is comparable to the River Star’s in reach, if not in cohesion.

Long a thorn in the establishment’s side – not least for their habit of stoking the passions of the country’s football fans to the point of riotous confrontations – they quickly rallied around the figure of John Hamm and his National Union, moving their sports section to the back pages in a sign of its changing relationship with politics after the nationalist leader’s row with Crowley. Their ability to whip up a feverish rally in his defense startled the capital’s conservatives and scandalized the rest, and both factions understood their potential influence in the coming decade.

Their bombastic opposition to Crowley only grew as time wore on, reaching its climax upon the announcement of George Roem as the Christian Democrat’s successor with a grim cover accusing the incoming Prime Minister of being a secret communist, the first in a series of incendiary attacks that would last until John Hamm’s public rebuke of the paper fresh from his reappointment as Minister (although now stripped of a major brief).