TLIAW: Daughters of Elysium - The European Federal Election of 2019
- Thread starter Major Crimson
- Start date
Exactly, also Labour are in the Coop, Sinn Fein are in the Left-Ecologists and every other party doesn't exist in its OTL form.
No, unfortunately.
Close to the truth but not quite, WWI went down as OTL, the PoD comes a little later. At least one person mentioned has been President and I will say that the US is not out and out Fascist, just very, very, very Paleo-conservative.
Chapter Seven
Oxford Union Bar
2.31 AM
2.31 AM
The Bells were chiming two thirty and all the chat still revolved around Frau Merkel and her unexpected resignation. Most thought she’d hang on for a few more years at least, maybe make it to 2024, even if 20 years would be the longest Presidency Europe had even seen, she’d already walked across that line years ago.
“She’ll go down in history though,” Simon noted, “One of the greats.”
“She’s no Mitterrand though!” Arthur shot back, the only ever Cooperative MP was still a source of massive pride to the party and its supporters, “And he only had 11 years, not 15.”
“At the very least, she was better than Pimentel.” The economists in the group groaned, the CPP’s first (and likely last) Portuguese leader was almost singlehandedly responsible for the ‘Lost Decade’ that were the 1980s, although he had handed the Elysian Palace to Mitterrand on a golden platter.
“You’d be better than Pimentel, along with anyone else in Europe.”
“I’d like her,” Marie chipped in, her accent blended primarily Cantonese pronunciations with a little bit of Indian inflexion and a thick Australian twang – typical for someone growing up in the Oceanic capital, “if she hadn’t gone with the Confederals last time. She had every ability to form a coalition with the Democrats but she knew they were opposed to Turkish intervention so women's rights and economic moderation go out the window.”
“You know-“ Simon wittered on about the specifics of coalition building and the rest of the circle fell into discussions of political minutia. Arthur's mind was still a little sloshed for this level of debate and so he found himself looking back up to the screen that had started the night, where Brooker was starting to look really worse for wear, even his guest had noticed.
“Starting to nod off on me Charles?” Jacob Rees-Mogg asked, smiling. “I know I get a bit carried away on constitutional complexities sometimes but I didn’t think I was quite so dull as that.”
“Apologies Jacob,” Brooker seemed to be on a first name basis with an awful lot of people, “It’s been quite the night and I am new at this.”
“Not at all, you’re doing quite the job. I believe we were talking about the future of the Confederal party?”
“Yes yes, do go on.”
“Well Charles, the problem with the Confederal party is that the reason we so wisely spun ourselves off from the Christian People’s Party – which is might I say an unfair appropriation of the Christian nom de plum – is because of our Euroscepticism, an ideology that has gone so cruelly ignored.”
“I’m sorry but it has been a long night, Euro-what?”
“Euroscepticism, the idea that the European Federation might not actually be good for Britain or any of its constituent nations, in fact.”
Dumbstruck, Brooker gawped at the man. “You can’t actually be suggesting that we should leave Europe? That’d be ridiculous, the economic effects alone-“
Rees-Mogg held up a hand to calm and silence the presenter. “Of course not Charles. What I merely suggest is that, as the Federation has always been “One County of Many Nations”, we might look more to each one of those nations. Allow them more control over their own tax rates, put the military of each nation under their own control instead of European High Command, allow them to arrange their own trade deals and so forth. Move from a centralised European Federation to a looser arrangement, a European Union if you will.”
“Well, I suppose the idea isn’t completely impractical but do you really think there is a desire for this?”
“I suspect so but I think we shall have to see, the problem is that constitutional arrangements have never been put to the vote of the people directly and there has been a cross party consensus for far too long.”
“Well I disagree Jacob,” came the thick Italian tones of the other guest who until now had gone largely ignored. “I think that what we’re seeing is an utter failure of the moderate right and their old supporters desperately looking elsewhere.” Matteo Renzi smiled and ran a hand through his hair, the Parliamentary Leader of the Italian Cooperatives had spent the past two months harried by the media for his party’s grim showings in Italian polls, the sudden success of the movement seemed to give him new life. “We Cooperatives and our friends in the Left-Ecologists have been talking for months of the need for peace, for economic reform and for social justice. The failure of the current government to deliver this is the true cause of any decline!”
“Thank you Jacob, I believe you have an arrangement at Confederal HQ. Mr Renzi, your insight on these changes is very welcome but the main reason we brought you on here is to discuss the entrance of Italy into the Federation and its liberalisation.
“Ah yes,” Renzi forced a grin, “A… difficult subject I’m sure you can understand.”
“Of course and yet likely very important to the events of this evening. Italy was one of the first Federation members alongside France, Britain and Belgium so why is it that Italy was the union’s only non-democracy at the time.”
“It is worth remembering that the Federation did not come about until 1959, a whole decade after the Italian thaw. When Europe untied it was as the Atlantic Democratic League, an anti-communist military alliance, nothing more. It is only from our shared experiences with the wars that allowed the federation to bloom.”
“-and yet that doesn’t explain why Italy had a less democratic beginning as a part of Europe than-“
“Charlie, Charlie please! The Mussolini regime was always on borrowed time, whatever artificial popularity Il Ducewas able to create was clearly not backed by electoral support. When the NDSAP government fell in Germany, it was only a matter of time-“
“15 years is quite a long time.”
“But it is still less than a generation, no?” Renzi retorted with a chuckle, “Italia had her problems, si, but her transition to democracy came quickly and has clearly been near complete.
“But, if I may, one of Italy’s three major parties is a Vigilant associate, indeed the National Revolutionary Party is a direct continuation of the Fascist party of Il Duce himself. If the polls are to be believed then they could easily win more than 50% of the vote in Italy tonight.”
Renzi shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck. “Old habits die hard, you also have to consider that the left is divided between the Greens, Socialists and Social Liberals who all have to vie for-“
Brooker put his hand to his ear and broke in; “I’m sorry mister Renzi but whilst we’ve been talking the results for the Benelux have just come in have just come in and they are as follows:”
“Guys!” Arthur barked, and the group’s heads turned in sync, abandoning their political debates to fix their eyes on the screen.
“Good results for the Cooperatives and the Democrats it looks like,” Brooker intoned as Arthur and friends cheered, “We’re seeing them as the largest parties with 27 Cooperative wins and 16 for the Democrats. That’s followed by 12 for the Christian People’s Party, 8 each for the Left-Ecologists and Vigiliant and only 3 for the Marxists. It looks like the pendulum has swung and now the Cooperative party have taken the lead and will have the first opportunity to form a coalition.” Despite his efforts to hide it, Brooker was smiling.
“We’re going to do it guys,” Arthur said, “We’ve got Italy and Spain left which will be good for the VA, Portugal and Ireland next which will give us some wins and some for the moderates and at that point we should be pretty even going into-“
Arthur paused for a moment.
“What’s wrong?”
“Britain, it’s all going to come down to Britain.”
“Oh sod,” James nearly shouted, “We always make the wrong bloody decision.”
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I was really torn about it, they might be on the Right Wing of the Confederals but then, of course, I thought that given the PoD, they don't exist OTL. Nevertheless, their equivalent certainly is because that's more interesting; in fact Paisley (Senior) was their leader for a few years in the 80s.
Aha, again a little later
And by little, I mean about a decade and a half, it'll be revealed at some point I promise.
Bulldoggus
Banned
Paisley definitely wouldn't be long for the party leadership. The Catholics in Spain, Italy, and Poland (all the party heartlands, I'd think) would never tolerate such a thing.
That is a good point I did not think of! Never too late for me to retconn though
Also I'd like to take this opportunity to briefly mention that (as I alluded to before) not everyone I put in the VA is a fascist, not everyone voting for or even a part of the VA is fascist. They really do vary from Fascists in Italy, Hungary, Spain ect to Nationalists in France and Portugal and simply UKIP-esque Right Wing in Britain, Germany ect. Please noone be offended if they see a politician they like in a party they don't!
Bulldoggus
Banned
Well, he could be the sort of leader who undercuts his own party in a bad way. A sort of a Foot figure. Or it could be he kept his views on the pope quiet to rise within the party, and the worst of it was only exposed when he took the reins.That is a good point I did not think of! Never too late for me to retconn though
Oops they're not meant to be!
When the project started off the VA were the Vanguard Alliance but I changed it to Vigilant alliance and because I'm a moron I still get it confused! That's something I need to go back and fix. It's still pretty ironic though.I like it actually, I'll be stealing all your ideas if you don't mind.
MSF 23 LE 34 Co-Op167 Dems 39 CPP 68 Cons 47 Vigilant 156
Can I make a critic? It's pretty unlikely that Matteo Renzi would be a Coop. The OTL Democratic Party was formed by not-extreme ex-Communists and vaguely leftish ex-Christian Democrats. Renzi wad part of the second section. The first party he was affiliated with is the Italian Popular Party, one of the immediate successors of the dying Christian Democracy. And even now, his ideas are clearly neoliberal and liberists, and have really few things in common with Coops (in fact the Democratic Party today OTL is a center party, not a center-left). I think that TTL he would be member of the CPP, maybe a Dem. But not a Coop.
Thanks, I'll either swap him to a Dem or replace him with an alternative leftie Italian. I'm afraid to say that despite having a very brief knowledge of Italian politics, the details do elude me.
Not in the public eye, went into Banking and Business like OTL but unlike OTL never left. Currently a leading figure at Avril.