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Springtime of Nations II: A European Republic Quest

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Seems open and shut.
Adhoc vote count started by Aranfan on May 23, 2023 at 3:49 PM, finished with 83 posts and 73 votes.
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[X] Authorize the meeting and stand firm as a matter of principle.

As much as I don't like risking war... anything that annoys Napoleon is good for the international revolution.
 
All else aside, I would like for people to remember that France is a despotic monarchy currently. They're a dictatorship. The government doesn't deserve to be treated with good faith, this isn't a moral matter of "let's not be assholes", it's about obtaining the best result for humanity.
 
[X] Authorize the meeting and prepare to negotiate in good faith.

I understand the reasons to want to make France look bad and empower the Italian left, but I'd prefer it if we had a France that was friendly to us in the immediate future when we go to war with Russia and Austria. We can piss them off in a decade or two once us and our new sister republics turn west to take the Entente down.
 
Well, this vote was a slam dunk. I feel pretty good about closing it here. Result imminent.
Scheduled vote count started by Etranger on May 23, 2023 at 12:24 PM, finished with 92 posts and 79 votes.
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CRISIS: The Schnäbele Affair of 1887, Conclusion
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    • CRISIS: The Schnäbele Affair of 1887, Conclusion​

    Following receipt of the French Emperor's diplomatic note, the National Assembly overwhelmingly authorizes Chief Representative Viktor Schmidt, former Commander of the Red Guards and later Marshal of the Northern Red Army, to meet with Napoleon IV at the latter's family estate at Arenenberg, near Lake Geneva. He is given wide latitude to negotiate terms and dispatched with a retinue of fellow delegates from the Foreign Affairs, Justice, and Interior Commissions.

    Arenenberg was originally the home-in-exile of Napoleon III's mother, Hortense de Beauharnais, daughter of Josephine and Queen Consort of Holland. She had the chateau and its grounds remodeled to resemble her mother's estate in France and it retains its First Empire aesthetic despite numerous renovations over the last half-century.

    After a day of welcoming ceremonies and much-needed rest from the multi-stage train-and-carriage journey, the German delegation is ushered into the salon, where they meet with the Emperor, his Foreign Minister, and several other prominent figures in the French court. In deference to the infamous casual style of the Germans, who have shown up wearing suit jackets of all things, the French delegation is in country dress, as though intending to go out hunting. Fortunately for all involved, there are no painters or photographers present.

    Schmidt later describes the Emperor as "charming, affable, not the most incisive mind but well aware of his own limitations, and clearly quite relieved that we agreed to this conference." Interior Commissioner Voight's own rather terse notes indicate that he's "a bit dim, but handsome enough, if you like that sort of thing." All delegates make strenuous efforts not to be seen as kowtowing to the Emperor, who for his part acts more like a man on vacation.

    The negotiations themselves are pleasant and straightforward. A joint statement indicating that Schnäbele was caught up in some kind of personal misadventure, a petty crime as opposed to an act of war, is agreed upon with only modest haggling over the wording and is then subsequently released to the press. A convention on border crossings, the rights of foreign citizens, and official conduct in foreign nations is likewise swiftly drawn up, signed, and copied; it will later be ratified by the other nations of the Entente, joining the Geneva Convention as another triumph of Swiss hosting prowess.

    As for the issue of Italy, Napoleon IV is more than willing to wash his hands of that entire sordid affair; the draft having been trumpeted in the radical press and turned from a quiet triumph into a very loud debacle, there is nothing more for France to gain from pursuing the proposed treaty. He is therefore pleased to quietly drop the matter, requesting only that he be given the chance to later pursue an amicable diplomatic agreement with the Italians, possibly involving a plebiscite along the border. No firm commitment is made by either side on this issue, but the door is left open for future talks.

    A few other issues of mutual interest, including renewed trade treaties and various minor technical issues, are brought up and resolved during the conference, leaving the Foreign Affairs delegates with plenty of work piled up for when they get home. The Emperor of the French concludes the proceedings with a speech congratulating everyone on their fine show of amity and reasonableness, and expresses seemingly earnest hopes for continued peace and commerce between France and Germany. The French delegation departs for Paris, the German delegation for Frankfurt, and Western Europe breathes a collective sigh of relief. No war. Not today, anyway.

    Several weeks later, after all the protocols and conventions have been ratified, news reaches the Assembly that Minister of War Boulanger has tendered his resignation and been assigned to oversee coastal fortifications in Brittany, while a handful of his allies in the French Senate have likewise left their seats for various forms of comfortable retirement. Stymied by the loss of their leadership and the lack of public support for outright conflict, the French warhawks, quietly furious but temporarily rudderless, turn toward a cause familiar to their counterparts in Germany - military preparedness.

    Wilhelm Schnäbele spends the next sixteen months in a French prison for smuggling and misuse of official authority. Upon his release, he emigrates to America, where he lives in obscurity for the remainder of his life.


    Crisis over. I'm taking a break and then we'll be back with the 1887 election.
     
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    • I believe in the next session that our country develop an national intelligence service to combat enemy spies, saboteurs and propagandists. We should also work on developing another branch to handle intelligence gathering on our neighbors.
     
    Huh, a surprisingly nice guy, Napoleon IV.

    I love how the whole thing just ends in an anticlimax.
    Sometimes, the best thing to do is simply to let peace have a chance.

    This also means that we get the time to prepare for and absolutely wreck the Imperial League.
    Man, who doesn't love peace?
     
    The Election of 1887
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    • The Election of 1887​

    Germany experiences an unprecedented wave of public confidence and contentedness as the crisis with France is successfully defused, seemingly securing the Sunrise Coalition's continued dominance as the natural party of government and paving the way for another decade of low-acrimony elections.

    This optimism lasts about six weeks.

    The first sign of calamity is the collapse of the Constitutional Socialists and Moderate Democrats. Once seen as potential pillars of the left and right, both parties have had anemic recent showings in the last few elections, and as their membership has dwindled so has their funding and institutional support. Neither party even bothers holding a convention.

    As for the Radical Republicans, their own implosion is less expected but swift nonetheless. Their convention is poorly attended, with most of their luminaries having defected to the Progressives or the Social Radicals, and they barely manage to field any candidates outside their northern strongholds. Few consider them a serious contender in 1887.

    The other factions of the Republic suffer from the opposite problem; teeming with cliques and unable to exercise any real discipline, they lack sufficient cohesion to impose their leadership's will, and their constant dissolution during coalition talks has left them more of a theoretical allegiance than anything. Not even the most disciplined faction finds itself able to rally a majority around a single platform, and so, they functionally cease to exist as well.

    The disintegration of the factions scant months before the election results in a novel experience for most Germans: a truly wide-open electoral contest. Candidates scramble to put together their own proposed manifestos and capture the local electorate's imagination, leading to the prospect of entirely new ideologies and alliances emerging. As the 19th century nears its final decade, the German political landscape resembles nothing quite so much as an empty void, ready for an entirely new status quo to emerge.

    Until it does, chaos reigns.

    Which plan will you support in the election of 1887?


    Vote for ONE plan, consisting of six planks ranked in order of preference from top to bottom. Each plank should be no more than two concise sentences. Any plan that receives at least 10% of the vote will have its top-most plank enacted as part of the governing agenda. For every 10% it receives after that, it will enact its second plank, then its third, and so on. The exact math may be subject to change depending on how the vote shakes out.

    If two enacted planks from different plans are considered "harmonious," they may be merged and the next-highest priority of the party with more votes used in addition. If two enacted planks from different plans are considered "opposed," they may both be nullified and the next-highest priorities from those plans used instead. I will be the final arbiter on whether planks are harmonious or opposed and what results from that.

    No governing agenda can have less than five planks or more than nine. If the governing agenda has fewer than five qualifying planks, additional planks will be selected from the plan with the greatest unallocated vote share, then the next greatest, and so on, until the agenda has the minimum number of planks. If there are more than nine planks, those planks from the plan with the lowest vote share will be removed in reverse priority order.

    If a corner case or unusual situation arises, the plan with the larger vote share will take precedence over the plan with the smaller vote share. If there's a tie somewhere, I'll flip a coin. If something really weird happens, I'll make a ruling on the spot.

    Each plan must have a unique, distinctive name; do not post "That Plan, Version 2" or "That Plan But With Sprinkles".

    There will be a 24-hour moratorium and then a 24-hour voting period. An example plan is included below:

    [] Plan Ostrich
    -[] Build forts along the eastern border.
    -[] Build forts along the northern coast.
    -[] Turn Frankfurt into a walled city.
    -[] Build bunkers everywhere.
    -[] Put every idle hand to work making bricks.
    -[] Teach children how to dig trenches.

    Enjoy, and remember to keep it civil and respectful.
     
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