Another snippet from AJND, posted with Archangel Michael's approval.
The
2131 Nifelheim Lagting election was held against the backdrop of increased racial tension in what had, for the past decade or so, been a relatively quiet political scene. The arrest and life imprisonment of orcish nationalist leader and longtime fugitive from justice Chodam da-Harichada in March of 2130 sparked the first major interracial violence since the opening of the Orcish Council. Notably, Massacham Arise and other similar groups organised parades through majority-human neighbourhoods and came to frequent blows with the police. Humans formed neighbourhood watches in response, and some of the more radical groups struck back against the orcs. For three solid weeks, Massacham was at war with itself, and it is rumoured that Prime Minister Thorssen considered calling in federal troops to deal with the unrest. By the point he would've made a decision, however, the riots had petered out, and a state of low-level tension continued throughout the following year.
By that point, several houses had been burned down by both sides in the conflict, including that of populist Progressive Lagting backbencher Aksel Stordalen, who survived the arson as he was at an outreach meeting in his rural western constituency. At the next general motion period, an incensed Stordalen proceeded to motion for the establishment of a registry on "all present and former opponents of the established state and public order", which was thinly-veiled code for "orcish and centaur criminals". This had been floated before, but was never a popular idea with either the left or the urban right. Stordalen's motion was resoundingly defeated in the Lagting, but something still undoubtedly needed to be done to mend interracial fences. The government bill that was eventually tabled included increased policing measures as well as increased education funding to the native councils and the establishment of a forced busing programme, and it was passed with the support of the Greens and Dawn as well as most of the Labour Party.
By February of the next year, however, significant rifts appeared in the Labour Party over the measures, and busing in particular. An anti-busing pamphlet written by Labour backbenchers Sander Jørgensen and Viktor Stenbock was circulated around the political world of Nifelheim, using such language as "our communities and our future are disappearing before us" and "the programme makes our children pawns in a political game of chess". The resulting scandal would almost certainly have forced Jørgensen and Stenbock out of politics if it were not for two factors: firstly, they were both constituency deputies, which meant they'd sit on as independents even if the party were to expel them, and secondly, a significant number of party members, even at cabinet level, were in broad agreement with them, notably Finance Minister Anna Fritzon and Interior Minister Daniel Borelius. When Jørgensen and Stenbock were expelled from the party group, Borelius resigned from cabinet in protest, and Fritzon was kept around only by direct appeals from Prime Minister Thorssen. The rifts in the parliamentary party caused a significant drop in support for the Labour Party, and combined with Progressive agitation amongst the human working classes, a change of government seemed inevitable by the time the election campaign began in August.
The government was able to recover slightly thanks to the debates, in which Thorssen made a strong point of the economic growth record of the Labour government. It was not quite enough, however, and a hung parliament resulted, with Dawn and the NFF holding the balance of power. Dawn eventually agreed to a support agreement with the Progressive-Conservative coalition, in a turn of events that surprised many. However, da-Racham received very significant concessions from the coalition, including the retention of the cultural programmes of the Thorssen government and the abandonment of the longstanding Progressive commitment to abolishing native municipalities. It's unlikely he would've received such a generous deal from Labour, and Dawn moved during this period from their previous Labour alignment to a strictly neutral stance in bloc matters, aligning themselves with whomever gives them greater support on their issues.