Union of the Midnight Sun

I'm not very experienced with timelines, in fact this is my first one, but I'll do my best. My knowledge is not really the best either, but I'll try to get things right. I know that this first bit seems a bit rushed, but I just want to get through the formation of the Nordic Union and get on with the political intricacies of the Union, as well as it's history.

The Nordic Union

The story of the Nordic Union beings in 1932 with the signing of the Nordic Economic Prosperity Community, NEPC for short. The signatories were Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and Finland. The agenda set for NEPC was to work for increased economic cooperation between the Nordic countries, as well as recreating a monetary union and strive to create a common market for all the Nordic nations.

In 1947 the signing of the Nordic Common Defense Alliance, or NCDA for short. Brought forth by an initiative by the Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Faroe, Greenlandish, and Icelandic Prime Ministers and Presidents, the NCDA was created to ensure the safety of the Nordic nations and prevent something similar to German occupation of Denmark and Norway, from ever happening again. The creation of NCDA had World War II to thank, because few people believe that the Nordic countries would ever had formed a defense alliance if Sweden had not given great help to the Danish and Norwegian resistance movement as well as the liberation of the two countries towards the end of WWII. Initially Sweden wished for Finland to be a member of the NCDA, however after the signing of the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between Finland and the Soviet Union, this was no longer an option.

The NCDA established a joint military command headed by all highest ranking officers in the armed forces of the Nordic nations. They would be responsible for all military and defensive matters in the Nordic nations, having complete authority over the Nordic Air Force, the Nordic Army, the Nordic Navy, and later also the Nordic Nuclear Weapons Program. Of course they did not act completely on their own since the Nordic Council consisting of the highest ranking members of government from all the Nordic nations had oversight over all military operations.

In 1949 Denmark granted increased autonomy to the Faroe Islands and Greenland so they got their own representatives in NEPC and the NCDA, though they were a part of the Danish delegation until 1967.

Representatives of the members of the NEPC/NCDA met in Reykjavik, Iceland on September 1st, 1965 to discuss the formation of a Nordic Union and the creation of a common constitution. The negotiations were unsuccessful since several representatives were resistant to give away any power to a Nordic Union. The plans for a union would put on ice during the following years, and not be brought up again until the Århus summit in 1969. That year the negotiations were more successful, with all nations being more receptive to a union. Nothing concrete would come out of the Århus summit, however plans were put forth to hopefully be able to come up with an outline of a union and a constitution during the Trondheim and Gothenburg summits that would be held during the fall 1969, and the spring of 1970, respectively.

The Trondheim summit of 1969 was an astounding success. It lasted for two weeks, a whole week more than expected, and during that time they had time to iron the basic shape of a constitution and the outline of union. In a interview with the BBC, Norwegian Prime Minister Per Borten said this after the summit was over: "I feel exhausted after these days filled with arguing and negotiations, but more importantly I feel proud. Proud over the fact that we have been able to strengthen the ties between our great nations and form a united and neutral front towards the rest of the world." No official signing of the constitution was made as it was not completely finished yet, and was due to be finished during the Gothenburg summit in 1970. At that summit it was decided that all future Nordic nations should hold referendums on the new constitution before new years eve 1971. If each nation approves the referendum, the President or Prime Ministers of the individual nations would sign the constitution as soon as possible after the result of the referendum was in. At the Gothenburg summit it was also decided were the capital(s) of the union would be located. The home of the Senate, the Parliament, and the President and his cabinet would be located in Gothenburg, Sweden, due to it's proximity to two nordic capitals. The judicial capital of the nation would have it's home in Copenhagen, Denmark, and the home of the highest military command of the nation would be in Oslo, Norway. A date for the official creation of the Nordic Union was also set. The first election for the Union Assembly, consisting of the Senate and Parliament would be held in May 1976. A President Pro Tempore would be appointed by a joint session of the Assembly until the first Presidential election was to be held in May 1978. The signatories of the constitution would be Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands, with Greenland opting out of the union while still remaining part of the common defense alliance and the common market.

Now we will take a look at the different branches of government of the Nordic Union.

Legislative branch:
The Union Assembly
-The Union Senate (upper house)
In the union senate each nation in the Union has are given six senators, no more, no less. These are elected by the legislatures of the different nations at the same time as the Nordic Parliamentary election. The Senate's have several powers exclusive to it, such as the approval of the President's appointments for union judges, heads of union agencies, military officers, union ambassadors, as well as the impeaching of federal officers. The Senate must also approve all treaties and bills brought before the Assembly, in conjunction with the Parliament. The senators in the parliament serves for four year terms which may be renewed. The Vice President of the Nordic Union is also the President of the Senate.
-The Union Parliament (lower house)
The seats in the Union Parliament are divided between the nations of the Union based on their population. The main duties of the Parliament is to pass legislation that will affect the Union, although the bills must be approved by the Senate as well. The Speaker of the Parliament is elected after each election, and is usually an MP from the biggest party in Parliament. The Parliamentary election is leeched with a system which is completely proportional to the population of the Union.

Executive branch:
The President of the Nordic Union
The duties of President of the Union is to represent the Union internationally, appoint union ministers, as well as being the Supreme Commander of the Nordic Armed Forces. His duty is also to work closely with the heads of government of the nations of the union when it comes to form union policy.
-The Vice President of the Nordic Union
The Vice President has no duties other than being President of the Senate as well as assuming the Presidency should the President be unable to.
-The Cabinet
The Ministers of the cabinet are appointed by the President and their duties are to work for the different issues their posts are responsible for, as well as forming union policy together with President.

Judicial branch:
The Supreme Court of the Nordic Union
The duties of the Supreme Court is to handle disputes which includes citizens of two or more nations of the Union, cases involving federal officers, cases involving the government of one or more states, cases involving the federal government, cases involving citizens of foreign nations and union citizens, as well as grave financial and environmental crimes.

Just before the first Assembly election of 1976 several political parties in the different nations bonded together to form Union parties which would be their representatives on a Union level. The parties which were formed are the following:

Social Democratic Coalition Party (SDCP)
Sweden: Social Democratic Worker's Party (Socialdemokraterna)
Norway: Labour Party (Arbeiderpartiet)
Denmark: Social Democrats (Socialdemokraterne)
Iceland: Social Democratic Party (Alþýðuflokkurinn)
Faroe Islands: Republican Party (Tjóðveldisflokkurin), Social Democratic Party (Javnaðarflokkurin)


Nordic Conservative Party (NCP)
Sweden: Moderate Coalition Party (Moderata Samlingspartiet)
Norway: Conservative Party (Høyre), Christian People's Party (Kristelig Folkeparti)
Denmark: Conservative People's Party (Det Konservative Folkeparti)
Iceland: Independence Party (Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn)
Faroe Islands: People's Party (Hin føroyski fólkaflokkurin - radikalt sjálvstýri), Union Party (Sambandsflokkurin)


Nordic Centrist Alliance (NCA)
Sweden: Centre Party (Centerpartiet)
Norway: Centre Party (Senterpartiet)
Denmark: Danish Social Liberal Party (Det Radikale Venstre)
Iceland: Progressive Party (Framsóknarflokkurinn)
Faroe Islands: Centre Party (Miðflokkurin), Self-Government Party (Sjálvstýrisflokkurin)


Liberal Union Party (LUP)
Sweden: People's Party (Folkpartiet)
Norway: Liberal Party (Venstre)
Denmark: Venstre (")
Iceland: Not represented
Faroe Islands: Not represented


United Left Party (ULP)
Sweden: Left Party - the Communists (Vänsterpartiet Kommunisterna)
Norway: Not represented
Denmark: Socialist People's Party (Socialistisk Folkeparti)
Iceland: People's Alliance (Alþýðubandalagið)
Faroe Islands: Not represented


The Assembly election of 1976

The election of '76 was the first election in the history of the Union so it led to a lot excitement among the population, and it was probably the most important Assembly election ever since the Assembly was to appoint the President Pro Tempore which would serve until the first Presidential election which was to be held in 1978. The election was held on the first Sunday of May, with heavy campaigning going on during the winter and the spring. The year before the election when the union political parties were formed, they elected party leaders who were the main figures of the the parties, though the leaders of the various national parties played a big role as well.

Leaders of the union parties:

Social Democrats: Svend Auken (Denmark)
A relatively unknown Danish politician who came to prominence after his unexpected appointment as the Danish representative in the Nordic Development Council. In the election of chairman of the Social Democratic Party he faced off against Ingvar Carlsson, the Swedish Minister of Housing, and Odvar Nordli, the Norwegian Minister of Local Government. However in the election Auken surprised several people by his knowledge as well as his great public speaking skills. The election was close, with Auken winning by just one vote, followed by Carlsson and Nordli.


Conservatives: Sjur Lindebraekke (Norway)
Lindebaekke was the former leader of the Norwegian Conservative Party and very popular among the rest of the Nordic Conservatives. Thus he ran unopposed and was unanimously elected by the party.


Centrists: Ólafur Jóhannesson (Iceland)
Jóhannesson was the former Prime Minister of Iceland between 1971 and 1974. He ran against the Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Karin Söder, however he won in a landslide election. After his election as the leader of the Nordic Centrists he resigned his position as the chairman of the Icelandic Progressive Party.


Liberals: Ola Ullsten (Sweden)
Ola Ullsten was a MP from Sweden who served as the Swedish representative to the Nordic Development Council. He ran unopposed in the party chairman election, and thus he became the chairman of the Liberal Union Party.


United Left: C.-H. Hermansson (Sweden)
The former leader of the Swedish Left Party was tremendously popular in Sweden and the rest of the Nordic nations, well known for his criticism of the Soviet Union during the Prague spring and his demands that Sweden should cut all diplomatic connections with the Soviet Union, making him the only party leader to demand that. His popularity resulted in him being unanimously elected by the United Left.


After all the leader of the political parties had been elected the political campaigning really came off to a start. During the first debate in January, Svend Auken was seen as the clear winner and polls were pointing towards a Social Democratic supermajority in the Parliament with 57,2% of the vote. The Social Democrats enjoyed a leading position over the centre-right parties for the early months of the election, however the support in polls was slowly dropping. By March it had dropped to 49,1%, however the Social Democrats would probably still win since it had the support of the United Left. The sixth debate which was held towards the end of March and Centrist leader Ólafur Jóhannesson was seen as the clear winner. The polls from the first week of April showed that the Social Democratic lead was all but erased since they showed Social Democrats getting 45,5% of the vote while the United Left would get 5,0% which would result in an incredibly close Left wing victory.

During March there was also a scandal in which the Conservative party secretary was caught stealing secret documents from the Centrists. This significantly cooled the relationship between the two parties, and would affect the parties relationship with each other for years to come.

The Issues of the election:
The main issues of '76 election was mainly dominated by how much power the new Nordic Union should actually get. The Social Democrats, the United Left, and the Liberals all supported a strong central government similar to that of the United States of Germany, while the Conservatives and the Centrists supported a confederal structure with the members of the Union being given a great deal of autonomy.
Another important issue was weather the Union government should take over operations of Statoil, the Norwegian state owned petroleum company. The Social Democrats and the United Left were supportive of this idea, while the Centrists and the Conservatives wanted the Statoil to remain in Norwegian hands and the Liberals wanted to privatize 75% of the company.

Towards the end of the campaigning things were looking to be increasingly close, with polls both showing the leftists and the centre-right in the lead. Towards the election night things were very exiting with the lead jumping back and forth between the two blocs. Finally at 2 am, the final results were in. While the Social Democrats had won the most counties, they did not bring home the popular vote.

election1976.png


Immediately after the election the Social Democrats called up the Centrists with the intent of negotiating a deal with the party. The were attempting to exploit the rift which had formed between the Centrists and the Conservatives after the espionage scandal. After a long period of negotiations which lasted for three days, and included a lot of compromise, the Centrist finally agreed to form a coalition government with the Social Democrats.

One week after the election, the Parliament opened for the first time in the newly finished Union House in Gothenburg. The first duty of the Parliament was to vote for the President Pro Tempore that would serve for the next two years. Thanks to the support of the Centrist Svend Auken was elected as President, with Ólafur Jóhannesson as his Vice President.

The policies of the cabinet were the following as a result of the compromises made by the two parties.
-The Union government would neither be weakened nor strengthened during the following two years.
-The federal government will buy 40% of the ownership the Norwegian petroleum company Statoil.
-The Nordic Union will assume a more aggressive stance against all dictatorships and human rights violating regimes.
-The Auken government will work towards free trade agreements with Finland, Germany, and other European nations.
-The minimum wage will be raised.
-Funding for education and welfare will increase
-A commercial television channel will be created in the terrestrial network by licensing broadcasting rights to a company which is deemed most fit for broadcasting.

The cabinet of Svend Auken:

Svend Auken, President of the Nordic Union (Social Democrats) (Denmark)

Ólafur Jóhannesson, Vice President of the Nordic Union (Centrist Alliance) (Iceland)

Ingvar Carlsson, Minister of Foreign Affairs (Social Democrats) (Sweden)

Karin Söder, Minister of Defense (Centrist Alliance) (Sweden)

Odvar Nordli, Minister of the Interior (Social Democrats) (Norway)

Ragnar Christiansen, Minister of Finance (Social Democrats) (Norway)

Steingrimur Hermannsson, Minister of Health and Social Services (Centrist Alliance) (Iceland)

Gunnar Sträng, Minister of Labor (Social Democrats) (Sweden)

Per Borten, Minister of Agriculture (Centrist Alliance) (Norway)

The Senators which were appointed by the legislatures of the different members nations were also appointed at the same time. This is how the division of seats looked liked when the Senate opened for the first time.

Sweden:
1st Senator: Social Democrat
2nd Senator: Social Democrat
3rd Senator: Centrist
4th Senator: Social Democrat
5th Senator: Conservative
6th Senator: Liberal

Denmark:
1st Senator: Social Democrat
2nd Senator: Social Democrat
3rd Senator: Liberal
4th Senator: Liberal
5th Senator: Centrist
6th Senator: Social Democrat

Norway:
1st Senator: Social Democrat
2nd Senator: Social Democrat
3rd Senator: Social Democrat
4th Senator: Conservative
5th Senator: Conservative
6th Senator: Social Democrat

Iceland
1st Senator: Conservative
2nd Senator: Centrist
3rd Senator: Conservative
4th Senator: Centrist
5th Senator: United Left
6ht Senator: Social Democrat

Faroe Islands:
1st Senator: Social Democrat
2nd: Senator: Social Democrat
3rd Senator: Social Democrat
4th Senator: Social Democrat
5th Senator: Conservative
6th Senator: Centrist

Total number of seats:
Social Democrats: 14
Conservative: 5
Centrist: 5
Liberal: 3
United Left: 1

Next up: The Military of the Nordic Union. I hope to post it tomorrow or on Sunday.
 
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Umm....:confused:

Iceland with a population of 300k has the same representation as Norway with 3M, Sweden with 7M and Denmark with 10M

Edit: those numbers are wrong, but in the general ballpark.


The Faroe Islands are a constituent part of Denmark, and weren't made an autonomous province until '48 after your PoD

Sweden was staunchly neutral, Norway and Iceland pro-West.

I don't see what causes this 'union' to happen, especially this way.
 
Umm....:confused:

Iceland with a population of 300k has the same representation as Norway with 3M, Sweden with 7M and Denmark with 10M

Edit: those numbers are wrong, but in the general ballpark.

Iceland only has the same representation as in the Senate in which all members of the Union has the same representation, however in the parliament they get a number of seats based on their population


The Faroe Islands are a constituent part of Denmark, and weren't made an autonomous province until '48 after your PoD

Yes, and in this timeline they are give autonomy as well.

Sweden was staunchly neutral, Norway and Iceland pro-West.

I don't see what causes this 'union' to happen, especially this way.

Actually I forgot to mention it, but the panscandinavinism grew more than in OTL during the inter-war period, and the Swedish participated in the liberation of Denmark and Norway (Operation Rädda Norge, Operation Rädda Danmark) only served to strenghten the ties between the Nordic nations further.
 
I've made some changes to the original post. I moved to the POD further back and included some more stuff about the Faroe Islands and Greenland.
 
Please remember that I'm not very experienced with this, and I'm just using this thread as training

Military of the Nordic Union

The military of the Nordic Union traces it's origins back to the signing of the Nordic Common Defense Alliance Treaty in 1947. After that a joint military council were formed, consisting of the highest raking officers in the militaries of all members of the Alliance. According to the treaty the different armed forces of all the Nordic nations was to be merged within five years after the signing of the treaty. The merger was completed on January 1st, 1952.

Internationally the Nordic forces maintained a stance of neutrality, however the Nordic nations clearly favored the western nations and they signed a secret treaty with the United States in the 60s which made it clear that the United States will help defend the Nordic nations should they come under attack. The only two instances when the Nordic forces participated in an armed conflict was during the Congo Crisis during the 60s and in the Coalition-Soviet remnant war during the early 90s. We'll go more into the detail of the Coalition-Soviet remnant war at a later point.

The current Supreme Commander of the Nordic Forces is General Ari Skoog. He heads the Joint Military Council, which is based out of Copenhagen, Denmark.

The branches of the Nordic Armed Forces:

The Nordic Army (current status: ACTIVE)
The Nordic Army is the branch of the Nordic Forces which is in charge of land operations.
The peace time organization of the Nordic Army is divided into a number regiments for the different branches. The number of regiments has been greatly reduced since the late 90s, however the Nordic Union still maintains a fairly large army due to the threat of the military junta in power in Russia.
Until 2009 the army recruitment was based on German style conscription, however this is gradually developing into a professional army.

The Nordic Navy (current status: ACTIVE)
The navy is responsible for the sea based defense of the Union. It's home base is located in Bergen, Norway. The Navy Air Force also handles operations of Aircraft aboard the Navy's aircraft carriers.
A ship which is often referred to as the pride of the Nordic navy is the NUS Gothenburg, the largest air craft carrier in the Nordic Union, the final ship left of the aging Bergen class carriers, and due to be replaced by the Monarch class in 2020.

The Nordic Air Force (current status: ACTIVE)
The air force is the branch of the Nordic Forces which handles the defense of Nordic airspace, in conduction with the Navy Air Force. The air force currently uses the Saab JAS Fenix (Phoenix) as its main fighter.

The Nordic Nuclear Weapons Command (current status: DISBANDED)
The Nuclear Weapons Command was the branch of the Nordic Forces which was responsible for the Nordic nuclear weapons arsenal after the first nuclear weapon made by a Nordic nation was successfully tested in 1966 on a remote island in the north atlantic called Jan Mayen. The Nordic countries eventually developed an extensive nuclear arsenal of nearly 300 weapons thanks to extensive uranium reserves in Sweden. They were mainly used as a deterrent so the Soviet Union would think twice before they decided to attack any of the Nordic nations.
However during the seventies, anti nuclear sentiment increased greatly, and in 1978 the Union Assembly passed a bill which called for the gradual disbandment of the Nordic nuclear arsenal, which would be fully completed in 1998. This of course resulted in the end of the Nuclear Weapons Command as well.

Next up: The Presidential Election of 1978.
 
Iceland only has the same representation as in the Senate in which all members of the Union has the same representation, however in the parliament they get a number of seats based on their population




Yes, and in this timeline they are give autonomy as well.



Actually I forgot to mention it, but the panscandinavinism grew more than in OTL during the inter-war period, and the Swedish participated in the liberation of Denmark and Norway (Operation Rädda Norge, Operation Rädda Danmark) only served to strenghten the ties between the Nordic nations further.
Ah. OK. Makes sense, now.
 
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