New power in Pelhafor?

Kannex

Kannex

TNPer
A Catholic school had been converted into a polling station for the day. It was evening. The moon, a full white orb, had arisen. The sky was dark blue, like the corner of the Protestant flag fluttering in the wind. But the small group of marchers waving the Lutheran colors passed by the polling station unmolested. They were quiet; for the most part they chattered among themselves, having finished their voting. Residents of the mainly Catholic neighborhood shot indifferent glances.

"I'm tired of this -- what are those folks waving around that flag anyway?" A man scoffed. He covered his mouth as he lit a cigarette. "Are they looking for a fight?"

A younger woman in a light coat shrugged. "They're just feeling excited, I guess. Not hard to see who they're backing."

"I don't know what Catholic would back Trunicht."

"Some do."

"Granted, some do," the man affirmed, twisting his neck. "But I don't know why."

"Suppose it's not a simple Catholic versus Protestant thing anymore? Not all of us were in favor of independence."

"C'est impossible. They know who they're oppressing."

"Shush. Oppressing is a strong word."

The man's face grew flushed and tense. "They know what they're doing! Why do you think our neighborhood was grouped with the inner city -- which we both know is predominately Prottie territory? And -- we both know, the people checking our I.D. cards, those handling the voting numbers -- " At this point, two black-dressed police officers strolled by, batons in hand.

The woman's eyes shot open and she grabbed the man's arm. "Come on, let's go."

The pair took uneasy steps forward and away.



"Four years since independence, Pelhafor is a country of peace and tolerance. Protestants and Catholics have set away their differences for the good of the country. The German used by Pelhaforans have Kannexan descent and the French have become co-official languages, spoken in tandem in the great city of Zarya. Foreign investment has risen 300%... President Maximilien Trunicht of the Liberals, who negotiated Pelhafor's independence from the Kannexan Empire, enjoys support from both Protestants and Catholics but faces opposition from a number of parties. Today the Republic of Pelhafor sees its first election..." -- Kannexan news report on Pelhafor.



"NOUS SOMMES LE PEUPLE! ÉGALITÉ DE LA RELIGION! TRU~NICHT, TRITT ZURÜCK!"



Liberal Party - economic liberalism
Christian Democratic Party & Socialist Party alliance - wealth redistribution, anti-poverty initiatives, investigation of anti-Catholic discrimination
National Front - nationalism, military-backed

The Liberal Party of Pelhafor has ruled Pelhafor since before independence, derisively described as a party of Protestant oligarchs by the left. Maximilien Trunicht runs for reelection as their leader. Named after the Liberal Party in Kannex, it is promising a protection of the rights of German-speaking folk in Pelhafor and continued economic investment. Trunicht negotiated the independence of the Republic of Pelhafor four years ago and has served as its President since. Trunicht and his party have been accused of corruption and discrimination against the Catholic, French-speaking majority.

The Christian Democratic Party was formed after the failure of the Pelhaforan Democratic Party. Its emphasis is on social welfare and wealth distribution programs in the spirit of progressive Christianity. The CDP maintains a conservative line in regards to social issues, but has joined with the leftist and socially liberal Socialist Party to run against the Liberals. The CDP finds its support among middle- and lower-class Catholics.

Running for the National Front is Henri Lascaux, a retired Pelhaforan Army general. He has gained popularity in the past two years after his return to public life. He speaks in nationalistic terms and promises stronger government response to domestic and international issues. Henri Lascaux has argued for accepting refugees from the North, but only "Christian or People of the Book refugees."

Despite sectarian tensions leading up to election, streets seem to be relatively calm.
 
The Pelhaforan Liberals have won with a 61% majority, reports say. More information to come later.
 
A small crowd gathered on either side of the red carpet as a smart-dressed, bespectacled man exited from his white limousine and jogged up to the entrance of the neoclassical Liberal Party office. He was Sam Hüttler, President Trunicht's deputy. He stopped and waved to the crowd, baring a shining smile in front of half a dozen cameras and reporters holding microphones to his face. "Guten Abend, Herr Hüttler..." one of the reporters, a woman, began in German. Hüttler tilted his head and asked again for her question, for the crowd was now getting loud. "Good evening, Mr. Hüttler..." the reporter repeated her question, "the polls show a victory for your party... "

"Ja, ja, Herr Trunicht and I are very pleased with the results -- " replied Hüttler, shouting into the microphone. The noise increased and in the background the crowd seemed shifty. Bodies were moving, pushing, shoving...

"Herr Hüttler -- Herr Hüttler, what are your plans -- "

Then a bottle was flung and cracked itself on the forehead of the handsome young politician. The glass splattered across his face as he cried out, collapsing. Then everything happened so quick. The reporter fell too as she was shoved by someone in back of here; the camera seemed to fall and rock and could only briefly pick up the chaos happening on the scene. Black military boots stormed across the carpet as gruff voices in German and French barked and clashed with the cries and the yells of the crowd. "Fraude! Imposteur!" the cries became louder.
 
"Strega Offenen -- der Glueck aller Muetter!"

"Totalement genial, l'homme! La nouvelle citron-Cola -- "

"Komm' vorbei, Mann! Praesentieren, das neue Doppel-Haehnchen Sandwich von MacDon's! Ich liebe es!"

No word of the protests. Julian's head was spinning. All junk, all the usual garbage -- advertisements, game shows, reality TV, and brief news reports about Rhuvanland or McMasterdonia or elsewhere. Anywhere but here, Pelhafor, except a sliver of a news report. A single line: "In Zarja-Stadt gibt es aufruehrerische Elemente nach der Mitteilung des Wahlausgangs..."

But Pelhafor was in an uproar. In every city at least a thousand -- in Zarya many more -- protesters marched in the streets, shouting and yelling and clashing in pitch battles with riot police. Shots rang out and one couldn't tell if the bullets were metal or rubber. Blood streamed down faces of young men and women as they collapsed or ran from the chaos. Every night since the election results were chaos.

Julian stared from his third-floor window at the remnants of the revolutionaries. Red banners lay torn on the asphalt. The street had just been cleared by riot police. Around the corner the police vans held a dozen protesters in handcuffs. And Julian's brother was missing. He did not know if he had been arrested or beat up in some alleyway or even dead; he placed a thousand messages in his brother's inbox but there was no response...
 
L'association pelhaforaine des avocats or der Pelhaforische Anwaltsverein (Pelhaforan Association of Lawyers) announced their intention to go on strike this week as the Pelhaforan protests continued.

Videos of cops beating and brutalizing college-age students, especially young women, spread across the internet, despite government requests to Pelhaforan social media websites to remove such content. Soon, foreign media had picked up. In Kannex, given the Kannexans' affinity with the Pelhaforan ruling class, the official reaction was muted, but many Kannexans were outraged nonetheless. "It is barbarity," spoke a Kannexan minister, a Lutheran, on a talk show, "for an armed man to be striking a woman."

On Thursday morning, in the port city of Ambers in Salento Province, everything stopped. A mass stream of protesters appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, and flooded the asphalt streets of the inner city. Roads were blocked with impromptu barricades, like parked cars. Angry masked men halted public buses and manhandled the bus drives out of their seats. By noon, all transport had stopped, schools closed and highways packed with cars stuck. Millions of dollars were being lost, shops were vandalized and looted.

The city was well under insurrectionist control, reported major news outlets. It was not clear what exactly happened to civil authority in Ambers; it appeared the mayor and the police department had either holed themselves up downtown or had gone over to the other side. Phone calls to the mayor's office went unanswered.

Posts on Fluttr and social media gave the signal. Beeps and dings and ticks sounded from cell phones all across Salento Province and soon the hashtag #RevolutionPelhaforaine was trending. What was first a hundred black-shirt, black-banner protesters became a thousand. By 10 pm, a significantly large force of thousands of marchers, accompanied by requisitioned cars, buses, and even police cars with working sirens were making their way through the Pelhaforan suburbs. It would be morning, when the first of the protesters reached the outskirts of Zarya, the capital, the jewel of Pelhafor...

Flandes Military District mobilized. A peach-faced man in uniform sat in an unlit room, his back to the window. The full moon reflected off his hair, dry and combed like ashen hay. A large, bushy mustache characteristic of many great men of history adorned his upper lip. His thick eyebrows furrowed deep in a frown. His golden name plate read GEN. HERMANN FRANZO. He was the very picture of Germanic masculinity -- a Lutheran, an mustached officer, a patriot. Before him was one large flatscreen television a third the size of the room. On the screen, five equally grave faces stared back at him.

"I count on you all," he declared. "Do not forget what we have spoken of." The five faces nodded, and one by one, disappeared into black.

Before long, tanks were rolling on the outskirts of Zarya.
 
<<Diplomatic Communique>>:
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE​
KINGDOM REPUBLIC OF CERETIS​



To the Government of Pelhafor,

By direction of His Majesty, Tsar Harold Francis Callahan, we call upon you this day. The Cereti people have been hearing reports of discrimination for some time now against their fellow Catholics living in your nation. These reports seem to have found a voice in your people. These cries have grown stronger and stronger most recently, now we are hearing reports of voting irregularities. These actions will not go unnoticed, their voices will not fade into the darkness; the fruit of these cries can be seen in your very streets. Look to your streets in Zarya, look to your streets in Ambers, there can be no denying the fact that their cry must be heard. The discrimination of Catholics in your nation must stop, and truth must prevail, the voice of the people must be heard.

We call upon your government Mr President to end discrimination in your nation. Let the voice be heard, prove that there is no wrongdoing in the elections; or yourself reveal the truth. Our people stand by the voice of truth, we support freedom, we support our Catholic brothers and sisters as well as our protestant kin. Therefore we urge you to allow outside investigators to review this recent election and verify or debunk these claims of injustice. We also call upon your government to take a strong stand against discrimination in your nation, let freedom live in the hearts, minds, and actions of your people.

There are reports of military mobilization beginning to spread. There is a chance to stop this situation now, a chance for your people to heal, or a chance for this to devolve into a tragedy. End this now, do not let the fire of insurrection spread, don't allow this violence to emerge and scorch the fabric of your nation. Let the jewel of Zarya shine with the light of truth, and not be covered instead with the stain of blood.

The world watches this situation at hand Mr President; we wait, and we watch.


Raymond Reddington
SECRETARY OF STATE, CERETIS
Straathgard Castle; Sion
Click to expand...
 
Chancellor Jörg Henneburg, the old Kannexan Democrat, read the briefing with furrowed, gray eyebrows between sips of coffee. He set down his cup with a clank and through his eyeglasses looked up at his secretary.

"Erzählen Sie Herrn Trunicht, dass wir keine Unterstützung für die pelhaforische Regierung mehr geben werden."

The young woman gave what was between a bow and nod to the old chancellor and furiously scribbled the order on her notepad. She knew well, of course, to clarify later with Henneburg exactly which steps he would take. If the underlings miscarry an order a first time, it is the fault of the commander; the orders were not clear enough -- that was what Henneburg told her and the rest of his office staff. The old man had read his war treatises.

Henneburg would not support a shaky Pelhaforan government any longer. When he came into power and first moved into the Chancellor's main office, with all its gemütlich sofas and bookcases and paintings of heroic Kannexans, the first thing he did was to take down the Christian cross that his conservative predecessors had placed in the room. Henneburg was no devil-worshiper. But he did not want to mix his poisons.

Yet, under pressure, he had supported Trunicht's Protestant-minority regime in Pelhafor. The Nationalists wanted it. The evangelicals and the Protestant investors wanted a Pelhaforan regime that favored Luther over the Pope. Now it was appearing that Trunicht was not a good investment. Kannex simply could not continue support for Trunicht, now that Ceretis was stepping in on the whole sectarian mess...

 
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