Santonian News Central

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Culture > Entertainment


by Jules-Fernand de Maupeou in Saintes
14 June 2021 - 0922h
SAINTES – the internet subscription-based streaming service Interflix, one of the largest in the world, had taken up the Santonian-Prydanian co-production The Reluctant Queen (Santonian: la Reine réticente | Prydanian: Trega drottningin), making it available to audiences around the world.

“The Reluctant Queen”
The Reluctant Queen is a historical drama featuring the life of 19^th century Queen Luta Loðbrók of Saintonge, the Crown Princess of Prydania who ran away to avoid being a monarch, only to end up as the queen of another country. (Any more detail would necessitate spoiler warnings. If you want spoilers, click here.)

The creators largely hewed to the known historical details of the life of Queen Luta Loðbrók of Saintonge, consulting both Prydanian and Santonian historians such as Dr. Jeanne-Solange Chanfrault and Dr. Ketilbjörn Skarbövik. “There is no reason why we should deviate from the story,” said Robert-Thorbjörn Svegaarden, the show’s creator and executive producer, “Queen Luta’s story is exciting and fascinating in itself.”

Each episode also features a historical trivia from 19^th century Saintonge and Prydania as part of the show’s educational thrust.

Santonian-Prydanian co-production
The Reluctant Queen is a co-production by the state broadcasters Saintonge Télévisions (STV) and Ríkisútvarpið (RÚV) of Prydania. STV had been engaging RÚV in co-producing shows in order to help rebuilt the Prydanian broadcaster’s capabilities after the devastation of the civil war.

The Reluctant Queen is one of the co-productions by the two broadcasters. Shot in both Prydania and Saintonge, “The Reluctant Queen” features an ensemble cast of Prydanian and Santonian actors, such as Gytta Soltvedt, Maximilien Semundseth, Kolbjörn Nylund, Rune Skakkebaek, Ernestine Collin de Gourgues, Gabriel-Gaël Guermeur, Gustave-Émile Faulcon du Couëdic, and Timothée de Saint-Ogan. The show had already garnered awards from Santonian and Prydanian award-giving bodies. (The Prydanian-Santonian actors Gytta Soltvedt and Maximilien Semundseth won awards in both countries.)

The show also had garnered a strong following in the two countries, with the show topping the ratings in both Saintonge and Prydania.

Worldwide availability
“The Reluctant Queen is a very high-quality production that fits very well with Interflix’s content,” said Marc-Mechell Kegelin, director of programming for Interflix. “We would be honoured to make the show available for the worldwide audience.” Interflix will supply subtitles in various languages, including Mercanti. “We are confident that people will like this show, just like how Prydanians and Santonians liked it.”

translated by Kyle MacTaggart-de Flesselles
14 June 2021 - 1700h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Top Stories


by Marie-Marthé Parmentier in Saintes
11 July 2021 - 0823h
SAINTES – The Radical Party’s Congress being held in Saintes went off to a rocky start. The party got tangled up on multiple procedural issues rooted in the increasing divisions within the party.


Interim Leader
The Radical Party called a congress in Saintes this week to decide on a new head after the sudden death of its longtime leader, the aristocratic former deputy Prime Minister Georges Conté de Caunes (a.k.a. GCC), who died of a stroke last February. Their former floor leader in the National Assembly, Jean-Étienne Genêt (R, 23^rd Saintes), became interim leader.

Mr Genêt experienced multiple rebellions in both the National Assembly and the Party itself. Half of the Radical Party deputies rebelled against Mr Genêt’s recommendations against expelling Liberal deputy Justin Brudeau, against the ratification of the Saintes Convention, and against admitting and funding Predicean children fleeing war. The party’s section in the Department of the Haine ran a candidate against the official Radical nominee that Mr Genêt imposed for the by-election in Haine-6 last month. The move by the Radical Party of the Haine was supported by a dozen departmental sections.

Some observers were surprised that the split is happening in the Radical Party, a bastion of top-down leadership and long known for its intensely loyal base and politicians, where success is gained by towing the line imposed from above.

“I would’ve expected this to happen in the National Party, with its jostling factions,” said political analyst Marie-Danielle Ponceau. “But the Radical Party is experiencing pressure due to – pardon the pun – radicalisation because of a single issue.”

One issue is dividing the Radical Party: Immigration. The deaths of two longtime MPs brought two hardline anti-immigration deputies to the National Assembly: François-Louis Villault of the Simbruins and François-André Conté de Caunes (a.k.a. FACC) of the Capoterre. The latter is the grandson of GCC, the party’s former strongman. Mr Genêt also seemed to take on an anti-immigration stance as of late, such as lambasting the presence of players of foreign descent in Santonian football.

“GCC still commands a lot of loyalty within the party. My hypothesis is that Mr Genêt is trying to forestall a challenge from GCC’s grandson over the issue,” said Ms Ponceau. “By co-opting and adopting FACC’s stances on an issue FACC is vocal about, he’s courting his support. Mr Genêt may also be playing a bet that Saintonge will react to the huge influx of refugees into the country during the past two decades… because so far Saintonge has had no significant pushback against something that had arguably strained some aspects of the country.”

Indeed, FACC had announced his support for Mr Genêt in the leadership race. But the interim leader’s anti-immigrant sentiment is alienating a part of the Radical Party. In the protest letter to sent by a dozen departmental sections to Mr Genêt last April, it said that “the increasing xenophobia within the party, expressed by the interim leader and some loud minority voices, is not representative of the party.”

Acrimonious congress
The divisions came to the fore during the opening of the Radical Party Congress yesterday. Mr Genêt, being the interim leader and presider, refused to seat the delegation from the department of the Haine. The Hainois delegation, led by Samuel-Georges de Niverville, was instrumental in foisting a relatively successful independent candidacy that embarrassed the official Radical Party candidates, Richard-André Lecesvé and Ferdinand-Georges Danton. The anti-immigrant Mr Lecesvé and Mr Danton were Mr Genêt’s handpicked candidates in the Haine-6 by-election.

Mr Genêt said that because the Haine section refused to support and instead ran a candidate against the official Radical candidate in the by-election, the Haine section was “de facto expelled.” Instead, Mr Genêt seated Mr Lecesvé and Mr Danton as the representatives for the Haine.

National Assembly MP Damien-Michel de Lauriston (R, 7^th Haine) called Mr Genêt’s decision “shameful and vindictive.” Fellow MP Jules-Antoine Beaumarchais (R, 2^nd Simbruins), who is also running for the leadership, said that Mr Genêt was bitter because “his loser candidate got smacked down by the electorate… loser candidates that he thinks represents the Haine.”

Things got more heated when it was time to recognise the delegations from the Simbruins, the Puy-d’Or, the Chartreuse, and the Coole. Each of the four department’s Radical Party sections sent two sets of delegations: one anti-immigrant and supportive of Mr Genêt; the other traditional and supportive of Mr Beaumarchais.

Mr Genêt seated the Simbruins delegation led by Sara du Tertre, the daughter of former Simbruins Radical Party leader and strongman Rodéric du Tertre. Mr Du Tertre is currently in jail for ordering the death of an immigrant; the Du Tertre scandal caused the dissolution of the Simbruins departmental council in December 2019.

The seated Simbruins delegation promptly voiced their support for Mr Genêt; this left Mr Beaumarchais running for the leadership without the official support of his department’s Radical Party section. According to party rules, if a candidate is not supported by his/her departmental section, s/he will need the support of thirty departmental sections in order to be able to run for leadership, a higher threshold compared to if one is supported by one's own departmental section.


Protests
Multiple delegations scored Mr Genêt’s moves. Fourteen departmental delegations, including the some of the largest ones in east and south Saintonge where the party is still electorally viable, met and issued a declaration protesting the actions of Mr Genêt. “By seating the competing delegation from the Simbruins, Mr Genêt underhandedly, unfairly, and unjustly undermined the leadership challenge from Mr Beaumarchais,” said the letter. The delegations of the Basses-Alpes, the Argens, the Basse-Bléone, the Bouche-du-Rhâne, the Basses-Brômes, the Hautes-Brômes, the Corb, the Inde, the Lauter, the Monce-et-Briance, the Sarine, the Scyotte, the Sebre, and the Tage issued the joint letter, which they read out when Martin-Malcolm Malmanche, delegate of the Scyotte, yielded the floor to the letter-writers.

Mr Genêt reacted angrily to the accusatory letter, replying that the letter-writers were “traitors.” In response, multiple delegations took on the floor to reply. Mr Genêt’s reaction alienated even more departmental sections, with eight more openly adhering to the dissenting faction around Mr Beaumarchais.

“The Radical Party might be known for being loyal to its leadership, but that presupposes that the leader was chosen freely and fairly,” commented Gérard-Paul Rondy de Boiscuillé, head of the delegation of the Hautes-Alpes, who then announced that his departmental section would be joining the letter writers.

The rest of the day was filled with protests, counter-protests, and dilatory tactics. “This resembles more like a wrestling match than a party congress of the supposedly noble party,” said Christophe-Gaël Le Boëtté, delegate of the Côtes-du-Nord, “and we have nobody to blame but Mr Genêt.”

Mr Le Boëtté and Corentin-Charles Beaufrère de Kervereguin, delegate of the Rance, then rallied the seven Bethanian sections to the dissenters.


Leadership Race
Mr Genêt’s tactics may have backfired, as Mr Beaumarchais had gathered the requisite amount of support to mount a leadership challenge. Aside from the twenty-four departmental sections that joined the letter of dissent, Mr Beaumarchais gained the support of the seven northwestern Bethanian departments, allowing him to qualify for the leadership race. Several more announced their support for Mr Beaumarchais. As of this writing, forty departmental sections expressed open support for Mr Beaumarchais, along with seven out of the party’s seventeen National Assembly deputies and six of its eight representatives in the House of Lords.

Meanwhile, Mr Genêt has the support of fourteen departmental sections, including the Radical Party of Saintes, the largest section in the country, plus the five sections in the Haine, the Simbruins, the Puy-d’Or, the Chartreuse, and the Coole, where he chose the representatives. Six of the party’s National Assembly deputies and the remaining two of its House of Lords representatives also support Mr Genêt.

However, the contest is far from over. “Given that Mr Genêt resorted to illegal tactics to gain the leadership, I won’t be surprised if he will force tricks to maintain power,” wrote Arthur-Arnaud Arnée de Sévricourt, delegate of the Côle, when his department’s section announced their support for Mr Beaumarchais. “We must be vigilant.”

translated by Kyle MacTaggart-de Flesselles
11 July 2021 - 1003h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Top Stories


by Marie-Marthé Parmentier in Saintes
11 July 2021 - 2205h
SAINTES – After yesterday’s acrimonious session, the second day of the Radical Party Congress to select a new leader continued to be contentious. In the end, interim leader Jean-Étienne Genêt was elected as leader after ‘revamping’ almost half of the departmental delegations, provoking outrage from his opponents within the party.

Control of Accreditation Committee Seized
By the time the party congress reopened this Sunday morning, forty-six departmental delegations (majority of departmental sections of the Radical Party) expressed their support for Jules-Antoine Beaumarchais of the Simbruins, Mr Genêt’s challenger. Mr Beaumarchais is from the traditionalist wing of the Radical Party that had complained about the party’s drift into extreme right, xenophobic territory.

Instead of proceeding to balloting, Germain-Pierre Ricciardetti of the Saine-et-Loine, Mr Genêt’s ally, moved that the credentials of several seated delegations be examined further. Mr Genêt accepted the motion over the protests of Archambault Ducoeurjoly of the Dronne, who was the head of the accreditation committee. Mr Genêt packed Mr Ducoeurjoly’s committee with his allies, ostensibly to ‘help them and speed up the process.”

“It was a farce,” grumbled Hugbert Heldebaume of the Inde, who joined Mr Ducoeurjoly and fellow original committee member Jean-Marc-James Croenne de Suberville of the Vercors in dissenting against the decisions that the Genêt camp pushed through the committee.

The Genêt camp reinterpreted an obscure and previously-undisputed section in the party statutes that said that the departmental delegations to party congresses, specifically convened to elect a leader, must be selected by the party members in the department. “The wording is vague,” related Mr Heldebaume, “but ever since, there was no standard way in the Radical Party as to how departmental delegations were selected.”

The Radical Party, being a top-down, personalist party where local party magnates controlled the departmental sections, had not standardised the selection of members of departmental delegations to party congresses. In 2008, the last Radical Party congress specifically convened to elect a new leader, only 50 of the 90 departmental sections elected their departmental delegations. In the rest of the departments, the departmental delegations were simply appointed by the respective department’s Radical Party Executive Committee, “because the Executive Committee themselves were regularly elected by party members, and that’s from where their mandate emanates,” explained Mr Heldebaume. “That has been accepted for the past party congresses, as far as I can remember.” Because of Mr Georges Conté de Caunes’ sudden death, only seventeen departmental sections were able to hold primary elections to select their departmental delegations.

“We just wanted to make the leader selection process more democratic by requiring the delegations to be elected by the party members,” said Mr Ricciardetti as he defended the process.

“Revamp”
Mr Genêt’s camp withdrew the credentials of departmental delegations that were simply appointed by the respective departmental section’s executive committee. Mr Ricciardetti’s first target: the delegation of the Sarine, the largest delegation that have declared for Mr Beaumarchais, whose members were simply appointed by the Radical Party of the Sarine Executive Committee. As the delegation was escorted out of the venue, an outraged Grégoire Lansade of the Sarine declared, “This is a coup! This must not be tolerated!”

“Mr Genêt and Mr Ricciardetti were saying that they wanted to make the leader selection process more democratic,” said Mr Martin-Maxence Clautour de Sillaume of the Durance. “That’s bullsh~t. What is even more undemocratic is them foisting their own handpicked minions to replace the people that the departmental sections have chosen.”

Large delegations that declared for Mr Beaumarchais were particularly targeted. The delegations of the Bouche-du-Rhâne, the Basses-Alpes, the Hautes-Alpes, the Argens, the Besbre, the Hautes-Brômes, the Côle, the Corb, the Lauter, the Monce-et-Briance, the Nébrodes, the Sebre, the Suippe, the Tage, and the Tessin were tossed out and replaced with “supplementary representatives” from Mr Genêt’s camp.

The Genêt camp even tried to withdraw the credentials of Renaud-Sigéric Sarrebource d’Essenheim, representative of the Radicals abroad, after Mr Sarrebource d’Essenheim spoke out against “the highly-irregular process that is ultimately geared towards the selection of the incumbent.” Mr Sarrebource d’Essenheim silenced the Genêt camp after showing that the Organisation of Radicals Abroad conducted an online poll to select him as their delegate.

“It was a purge,” said Charles-Hendrick Houthoofd of the Argens, “a rapid, methodical purge of Mr Genêt’s opponents and supporters of his challenger. The mechanical efficiency in which they did it indicates that this was planned.”

By noon, 41 delegations were “revamped” and replaced with Genêt loyalists. Even small delegations were not spared, they were just expelled later. The most egregious case was that of the delegation of the Taur, whose credentials were withdrawn and the “supplementary representatives” did not even have a connection with the western department.

“It was systematic and selective. They only purged their opponents,” said Arthur-Arnaud Arnée de Sévricourt, delegate of the Côle. “If they are really true to their stated intentions, they would have purged the Griffonian delegations too – but they did not because these delegations supported Mr Genêt.” The delegations from the province of the Griffonné – the Baltée, the Capoterre, the Lys, and the Trieux – were also simply appointed by these departments' Radical Party Executive Committees. But none of the departmental sections that had declared their support for Mr Genêt were withdrawn.

“If they were serious and consistent in applying the ‘rules’ they invented just now, they should do it to Mr Ricciardetti,” commented an angry Gérard-Paul Rondy de Boiscuillé, head of the delegation of the Hautes-Alpes. “Neither did the Saine-et-Loine held an election. He was appointed by the Saine-et-Loine Radical Party Executive Committee. He should ‘revamp’ himself.”

Mr Heldebaume introduced a motion in the committee to ‘revamp’ the Saine-et-Loine delegation, but it was voted down by the Genêt appointees. In retaliation, Mr Ricciardetti and his camp targeted the delegation of the Inde (where Mr Heldebaume belongs), withdrawing its credentials and thus removing Mr Heldebaume from the accreditation committee.

Corentin-Charles Beaufrère de Kervereguin, delegate of the Rance, observed that “the Genêt people were vicious; they purged everyone they can purge.” The delegation of the Rance were able to stay, because the Radicals in the department held an election to select its delegates - the Genêt camp could not "revamp" it, hence it was an "unmovable" delegation.

The "unmovable" delegations of the Rance, the Côtes-du-Nord, the Basses-Brômes, and the Basse-Bléone protested loudly. Héloïse-Philippine Watremez-Talpaert of the Basses-Brômes tried to filibuster the session by speaking continuously. She had to be physically ejected from the podium and was subjected to misogynist insults by the Genêt camp. Robert-Henri Rohault, delegate of the Basse-Bléone, was expelled from the convention because of “unruly behaviour” after heckling the decisions made by the Genêt-controlled committee. Christophe-Gaël Le Boëtté of the Côtes-du-Nord made real-time twitcher updates of the session, and at one point attempted to rally his social media followers.

Genêt elected
Once all Beaumarchais-pledged delegations that can be “revamped” were “revamped”, the Genêt camp quickly moved to a vote for leader that afternoon. Ferdinand-Georges Danton of the Haine said that “Since Mr Beaumarchais no longer has the requisite support needed to mount a leadership challenge, I move to confirm Mr Jean-Étienne Genêt as leader of the Radical Party.”

Mr Genêt was overwhelmingly confirmed by the vote of the departmental delegations, thanks to the “revamped” departmental delegations. Eighteen delegations originally selected Mr Genêt; all forty-one “revamped” delegations supported him, plus the five delegations that he handpicked yesterday.

Of the seventeen “unmovable” delegations, all but one voted for Mr Beaumarchais as a write-in candidate. They followed the lead of the delegation of the Basse-Bléone, which defiantly registered their vote for Mr Beaumarchais. The five other delegations previously pledged to Mr Beaumarchais – the Basses-Brômes, the Côtes-du-Nord, the Luberon, the Rance, and the Ravennes – still voted for him.

“What was surprising was that ten more ‘unmovable’ delegations decided to support us,” said Mr Beaufrère de Kervereguin.

“This is a protest against the undemocratic, unfair, and underhanded way that the incumbent tried to retain his position,” declared Marc-Ladislaus Villechaise de Condillac, delegate of the Borgne, who has a strong Coalition pedigree (he is a descendant of a previous Liberal Prime Minister of Saintonge). “The delegation of the Borgne is voting for Mr Beaumarchais as leader of the Radical Party.”

“I’m sorry Borgne, but Mr Beaumarchais is not a candidate for leadership,” replied the presider, Mr Genêt.

“And neither are you a suitable candidate for leadership,” Mr Villechaise de Condillac retorted. “You are a deceitful despicable disgrace of a person.”

“The departments that could freely vote, they supported Mr Beaumarchais. It just shows that the party members, if allowed to choose freely, will choose Mr Beaumarchais and throw out Mr Genêt,” commented Cédric-Lambert Duroy de Chaumareys, delegate of the Ravennes.

Ten more delegations that stayed neutral during the day eventually abstained from the vote. “The delegation of the Basses-Andes is dismayed at the conduct of this congress,” said its representative, Denis-Guillaume de Montardier de la Tocnaye, “and seeing as there is no credible candidate for leadership, the Basses-Andes will abstain.”


Troubles far from over
The troubles in the Radical Party are far from over. Majority of the Party ‘superdelegates’, which includes national party officials and Radicals elected to national positions (such as members of Parliament), either abstained or registered a write-in vote for Mr Beaumarchais.

Mr Beaumarchais himself left the congress after he cast his vote, saying that the congress was a ‘farce’. “[Mr Genêt’s] leadership is illegitimate,” Mr Beaumarchais told reporters afterwards. “He gained his position by subterfuge, by deceit, by skullduggery. He will not last long.”

All of the expelled delegations met at the nearby Outremont Tennis Court, along with the five delegations that were refused to be seated yesterday. After the congress adjourned, they were soon joined by Mr Beaumarchais and his supporters. All sixteen delegations that voted for Mr Beaumarchais in the congress were present. Delegates from five neutral delegations – the Hautes-Andes, the Arconce, the Dropt, the Lignon, and the Vercors – were also present. Led by Mr Arnée de Sévricourt of the Côle and Samuel-Georges de Niverville of the Haine, the delegates promised to meet again the next day, when the third day of the Radical Party congress was supposed to be held.

translated by Kyle MacTaggart-de Flesselles
12 July 2021 - 0809h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Top Stories


by Marie-Marthé Parmentier in Saintes
13 July 2021 - 0322h
SAINTES – Saintonge’s right-wing libertarian Radical Party is on the verge of splitting up as the party congress remained bitterly divided. The anti-immigrant extreme right faction coalesced around interim leader Jean-Étienne Genêt, and included individuals such as François-André Conté de Caunes (grandson of former party leader Georges Conté de Caunes) and François-Louis Villault. The more moderate faction had Jules-Antoine Beaumarchais as its standard bearer, supported by individuals such as former Deputy Finance Minister Roméo de Villemessant and former Church Affairs Minister Louis-Auguste-François Primeau d’Avennes.

Tennis Court Oath
After the exclusion and expulsion of half of the departmental delegations that had supported Mr Beaumarchais, the Genêt faction elected Mr Genêt the leader last Sunday night. Meanwhile, the forty-five expelled delegations, joined by sixteen Beaumarchais-supporting delegations and five neutral delegations that the Genêt faction were unable to expel, gathered at the nearby Outremont Tennis Court and agreed to meet the next day.

Rival Conventions
This resulted in two rival Radical Party Conventions yesterday. The much-diminished original Radical Convention of Mr Genêt was reduced to about a quarter in attendance, while the much larger Beaumarchais convention packed the tennis court.

Genêt Convention
The Genêt convention’s first order of business was to expel even more delegations: all of the 21 delegations that attended the Beaumarchais convention. Some delegations, such as that of the Vercors, split their delegation to attend both, but the expulsion “pushed us to the other camp,” commented delegate Jean-Marc-James Croenne de Suberville of the Vercors. “We had been in talks with delegations that have representatives in both conventions, and the Vercors delegation would’ve wanted to be the bridge between the two factions. They’ve just burned the bridge.”

Four more delegations walked out from the Genêt convention in disgust. “It’s unfortunate that Mr Genêt wanted to do this,” commented Denis-Guillaume de Montardier de la Tocnaye, delegate of the Basses-Andes. “’Expelling’ the bulk of the Radical Party clearly exposes that Mr Genêt and his faction is in the minority here. It’s clearly tyranny.”

The delegation of the Haute-Bléone made a dramatic exit. Taking the floor, the head of the previously neutral delegation, Joseph-Maximilien Mackert, yelled “you cannot expel us because we are leaving! The Haute-Bléone does not recognise this farce of a convention!”

To which, the head of the Huisne delegation, the real estate magnate and reality TV show personality Donald-Jean Atout, responded, “Well then, YOU’RE FIRED!”

Aside from the additional expulsions and walkouts, the Genêt faction moved against individuals. The aforementioned Huisne delegation, for instance, was neutral until Mr Atout seized control of the delegation by mobilising his allies to remove the moderate faction. The delegation of the Lisle, controlled by the Genêt faction, expelled Mr Primeau d’Avennes, leaving him without a formal departmental party.

The Genêt convention then adopted a “Restore Saintonge” manifesto that included many anti-immigrant positions and proposals. Some of the proposals include a ‘comprehensive immigration plan’ that would lower Saintonge's immigration cap, amending Loi Joyal (Saintonge’s immigration law) to prevent the immigration cap from being suspended (a so-called ‘hard cap’), barring the Santonian government from spending money on immigrants and refugees, making chain immigration more difficult by removing the preference for relatives of immigrants already in Saintonge, and revoking the refugee status of foreigners whose countries are now deemed ‘safe’. The last proposal was deemed by National MP Finnkarl Thorstvedt as “deliberately targeting Prydanians.”

The Genêt convention also contained positions that are deemed fringe in Saintonge. The “Restore Saintonge” manifesto advocated for the repeal of the Beginning of Life Amendment, a constitutional amendment passed overwhelmingly by referendum last year, which ensconced Saintonge’s strict limits on abortion. The Genêt manifesto went further, advocating for “legalisation of abortion, for any reason, throughout the pregnancy, up until birth.” Even Green Party deputy Kimo-Philippe de Sabarthès flinched, posting on Twitcher that “even the Green Party does not advocate unlimited abortion because we know that more mature foetuses feel pain. The Green Party supports abortion up to the point when it does not feel pain.”

“Restore Saintonge” manifesto also advocated for a complete laïcité, or separation of church and state, in Saintonge. Laïcité, championed by former Radical leader Georges Conté de Caunes, is surprisingly a divisive issue within the Radical Party, mostly as to the extent of the separation: whether it is simply benign separation and neutrality of the state about religion; or actively enforcing secularism. The Genêt convention favoured the latter, including “secularisation of the church and its removal from all realms of the state.”

After the passing of the manifesto, the Genêt Convention opened a letter for signature. The letter was to be sent to the Santonian Royal Elections Institute (Institut royal des élections, IRE) that “emphasises that [the Genêt] faction is the official Radical Party.”

Beaumarchais Convention
Half a block away at the Outremont Tennis Court, the Beaumarchais faction held its convention. It condemned the “illegal, repressive tactics” used by Genêt to “enforce his tyranny and that of his faction on the majority.” The Beaumarchais faction drafted a petition for the IRE, for it to be recognised as the official Radical Party, which prompted the Genêt faction to make its own letter later that day.

After four more delegations that walked out from the Genêt convention were admitted, the much larger Beaumarchais convention elected Mr Beaumarchais as leader of the Radical Party. The Beaumarchais convention then issued its own platform and manifesto. It was largely a continuation of the old Radical Party manifesto, including lower taxes, liberalisation of labour laws, more active participation in international organisations such as the Meterra Economic Treaty Association (META), and neutrality of the state in church matters. What was striking was the inclusion of a sentence, introduced by the delegations of the Simbruins and the Haine: “The Radical Party condemns all forms of xenophobia, racism, and ethnicism and shall support efforts to combat these ills that divide Santonian society.”

Rank-and-file take sides
Party rank-and-file took sides too, mostly plopping for the Beaumarchais Convention. The social media handlers of the Facegram and Twitcher accounts of the Radical Party, @PartiRadical, formally supported the Beaumarchais faction. This led the Genêt faction to make its own accounts under @RadicalParti.

Many of the local elected officials, even in departments controlled by the Genêt faction, went over to the Beaumarchais faction. In the Lisle, where National Assembly deputy Louis-Auguste-François Primeau d’Avennes was expelled, more than half of the Radicals in the departmental council of the Lisle declared themselves as the official departmental Radical Party section, joined by all of the Radical mayors in the department. Led by Pont-Saint-Prix mayor Joël Batifoulier du Tremble, they sent representatives to Outremont to attend the Beaumarchais convention. In the other departments whose delegations supported Mr Genêt, many other Radical Party local officials registered their protest or left the party.

In the departments whose delegations supported Mr Beaumarchais, the defections were rare; the most prominent were the Genêt-aligned Du Tertre faction in the Simbruins, which set up its own Radical Party in the department. In the smaller departments like the Taur or the Aure, the loyalty to the Beaumarchais faction is almost complete.

Future
It is expected that the IRE would have to adjudicate which is the real Radical Party, although whether the decision will go even higher up to the courts remain to be seen.

translated by Kyle MacTaggart-de Flesselles
13 July 2021 - 0821h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Top Stories


by Marie-Marthé Parmentier in Saintes
16 July 2021 - 0956h
SAINTES – In a surprise move, the Radical Party Caucus in the National Assembly expelled the Genêt faction of the Radical Party. Supported by the majority of the Radical Party MPs, Jules-Antoine Beaumarchais took over the leadership of the Radical Party caucus and expelled the Genêt faction, a further deepening of the divide between the two factions of the Radical Party.

Letter
Mr Beaumarchais sent a letter to President of the National Assembly Sophie-Anne Laliberté (N, Basses-Brômes-1) informing her that Mr Beaumarchais was assuming the leadership of the Radical Party caucus. The letter was signed and supported by ten other Radical Party MPs, the majority of the hitherto 17-member caucus of the Radical Party.

Signatories
The following are the signatories of the letter:

• Jules-Antoine Beaumarchais (Simbruins-2)
• Gilles-Rombaut de Bruyne (Argens-4)
• Édouard-Martin de Clorivière (Simbruins-4)
• Jacques-Arthur Dacier de Cheverus (Sarine-7)
• Robert-Thomas Decobert (Simbruins-3)
• Damien-Michel de Lauriston (Haine-7)
• Denis-Rémismond de Mendonce (Tage-4)
• Louis-Auguste-François Primeau d’Avennes (Lisle-1)
• Radboud Vandemonde (Bouche-du-Rhâne-1)
• Henri-Vasque Vediguerre de Gamme (Tage-2)
• Roméo de Villemessant (Sarine-8)

The letter states that 12 Radical Party deputies have duly met last 14 July and voted to remove Jean-Étienne Genêt as the leader of the Radical faction. Of the dozen deputies at the meeting, all but Jean-Charles Caruhel (Saintes-29) voted to remove Mr Genêt; Mr Caruhel abstained. By the same 11-0 vote tally, Mr Beaumarchais was elected leader of the Radical Party Caucus.

Expelled
The Beaumarchais letter also informed the President of the National Assembly that five deputies from the Genêt faction were expelled from the Radical Party caucus by a vote of its members. Expelled were:

• François-André Conté de Caunes (Capoterre-3)
• Georges-Alexis Fortier d’Orsanne (Capoterre-4)
• Jean-Étienne Genêt (Saintes-23)
• Jean-Ragnebert Roch (Trieux-4)
• François-Louis Villault (Simbruins-1)

Acknowledgement
Ms Laliberté acknowledged the Beaumarchais letter yesterday. Having been expelled from the Radical Party caucus, Mr Genêt and his four other allies became non-iscrits, or party-less members of the National Assembly. Non-iscrits lose many privileges in the National Assembly, such as shares of speaking time allotted to caucuses and committee seats allotted to caucuses. Thus, the five were thrown off all the parliamentary committees they were sitting in.

The first signs showed in yesterday afternoon’s oversight meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Justice about the implementation of the Rossignol Agreement. Mr Vandemonde appeared at the meeting to take over the Radicals’ seat being held by Mr Villault. Mr Villault protested, but Committee Chair James-Bertéric Battiston (N, Basse-Bléone-4) ruled that Mr Villault has lost his privilege to be a committee member and instead seated Mr Vandemonde. Mr Villault had to be dragged kicking and screaming out of the meeting room by parliamentary sergeants-at-arms on Ms Laliberté’s orders, after Mr Battiston called for support from the President of the National Assembly.

The Genêt faction cannot form a caucus on their own, as the minimum number of members to form a caucus is ten. They can rejoin parliamentary committees if they make a formal agreement to sit with another caucus. This is the current arrangement of the Green Party’s four deputies, who, as part of the 2019 electoral agreement, are sitting with National Party deputies in order to guarantee a Green Party member in all parliamentary committees.

Tit-for-Tat
The move was interpreted by political analysts as a ‘tit-for-tat’ move by the Beaumarchais faction, after the Genêt faction took over the Radical Party convention last weekend and purged it of Beaumarchais supporters. Political analyst Marie-Danielle Ponceau said that “It’s payback time. Genêt did it to Beaumarchais and his supporters at the convention; now Beaumarchais did it to Genêt and his supporters.”

“It’s a brilliant countercoup,” opined political analyst Brice-Gauthier Kermadec. “They have seized control on where it matters – in the halls of power of the National Assembly. The Genêt faction didn’t really get the entirety of the Radical Party machinery – more than half of the departmental Radical Parties went with the Beaumarchais faction, and with it, the party machinery in these departments.”

Analyst Jean-Barthelémy des Pallières said that “Beaumarchais being the leader of the National Assembly caucus will strengthen their case before the Santonian Royal Elections Institute (Institut royal des élections, IRE) when it adjudicates which of the two factions is the real Radical Party.”

Meanwhile, Mr Genêt and his four deputies will be left party-less in the National Assembly, with their influence severely curtailed at the National Assembly.

translated by Kyle MacTaggart-de Flesselles
16 July 2021 - 1125h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Top Stories


by Marie-Marthé Parmentier in Saintes
19 July 2021 - 1344h
SAINTES – the civil war between the two factions of the Radical Party is now affecting the Liberal Party. The Liberal Party, the longtime partner of the Radical Party as part of the Coalition, is now being dragged into the controversy as the two Radical Party factions jostle for power and recognition.

Wednesday Meeting
The Liberal Party started to be dragged into the civil war when Jean-Étienne Genêt (Saintes-23) met with Liberal Party leader Paul-Lenthéric Baumann (L, Lauter-2) and the Liberal parliamentary floor leader Michel-Fernand Roux de Bézieux (L, Sarine-8) on the evening of 13 July. This was before the President of the National Assembly Sophie-Anne Laliberté (N, Basses-Brômes-1) acknowledged the letter from the rival faction of Jules-Antoine Beaumarchais (Simbruins-2) that removed Mr Genêt from the leadership and expelled the Genêt faction from the Radical caucus.

According to deputy François-André Conté de Caunes (Capoterre-3), who was also at the meeting, the Liberal Party promised them ‘support’. Accordingly, when Ms Laliberté acknowledged the Beaumarchais letter on Thursday, 14 July, Mr Roux de Bézieux railed against the ruling and demanded that Ms Laliberté “let the Radical Party sort out their problems among themselves.”

However, confusion reigned among the Liberal ranks as Mr Baumann never released a formal statement. An example was the 14 July oversight meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Justice about the implementation of the Rossignol Agreement where the Radical seat, held by François-Louis Villault (Simbruins-1) was taken over by Radboud Vandemonde (Bouche-du-Rhâne-1). Matthias-Conrad Cruypenninck (L, Basses-Brômes-8), one of the two Liberal committee members voted to validate the procedural decision of committee chair James-Bertéric Battiston (N, Basse-Bléone-4) to seat Mr Vandemonde. The other Liberal member, Charles-Guillaume Ridereau (L, Doire-7), abstained.

Competing Friday Letters
On Friday, 15 July, both Mr Genêt and Mr Beaumarchais sent a letter to Mr Baumann asking that the Liberal Party continue their partnership in the Coalition, in effect asking the Liberal Party to recognise their faction as the true Radical Party. The situation is more acute with the Genêt faction, who had been declared non-iscrits and who need to caucus with a larger group in order to function effectively in parliament. The faction that the Liberal Party recognises will effectively bolster their claim as the true Radical Party.

The Liberal Party still had no formal response to both letters as of this writing, although the 32-member Liberal caucus in the National Assembly met through the weekend to decide on a response.

Weekend Meeting
According to an insider, the Liberal Party was strongly divided on the course to take. Mr Roux de Bézieux and his allies were taking the stand of recognising the Genêt faction. He reportedly said: “Genêt and his allies supported us when the Nationals were expelling Justin-Pierre Brudeau. Guess who voted with the Nationals to remove one of our own? The moralising Beaumarchais faction. Why should we recognise them now?”

Mr Roux de Bézieux’s main ally Jean-Martin-Phillippe Caire du Lhut (L, Sarine-3), also recited a litany of instances when the Beaumarchais faction rebelled against the position of the Genêt faction and the Coalition’s stance. “They can’t be trusted as allies.”

On the other hand, a faction of deputies from southern Saintonge, led by Matthieu-Folcuin Troendle (L, Basses-Brômes-4) cautioned the group from recognising the Genêt faction, saying that Genêt and his allies’ stance on many things such as immigration “is downright disgusting and may be electorally poisonous.”

“You definitely don’t want to be associated with that,” agreed Matthieu-Sébastien Lacépède (L, Outremer). “As the member for Santonians abroad, I know that foreigners and foreign governments are disgusted and alarmed about the views that the Genêt group express. You don’t want that taint.”

“If the results in the Haine-6 by-election is to be a sign, the Genêt faction is not electorally popular,” Kurt-Timothée Kleinhentz (L, Vauperté) reportedly said, “The Genêt faction is basically the equivalent of electoral herpes. People avoid them.”

The stance of the deputies from southern Saintonge may have a big influence on Mr Baumann, a southerner himself, representing the city of Ratisbonne.

Émile-Albert Schweighoffer (L, Ill-2) also posed this question: “If we accept the Genêt faction, they will sit with this caucus. That means they will now be entitled to committee seats that our caucus currently hold. Which of you are willing to yield your committee seats to Genêt, Villault, Roch, Conté de Caunes, and Fortier d’Orsanne??”

Some MPs tried to find a middle ground. Deputy Timothée Ortonnes III (L, Saintes-25) wondered “Why are we chasing those small number of MPs anyway? They’re just five MPs. I’d prefer taking a neutral stance and not recognising any of them, rather than plopping for Mr Genêt.”

“[Mr Roux de Bézieux] said it, let the Radical Party sort out their problems themselves,” Pauline-Cordélie Cauneille (L, Sarine-6) reminded the group. “By choosing a faction, we are involving ourselves in their civil war.”

Mr Roux de Bézieux countered that it is necessary to choose to maintain the Coalition. The southern members made their preference for the Beaumarchais faction known, with Mr Troendle saying that “if you are going to make us choose, we will choose the sane option, and the one that’s easiest for us where we won’t get disadvantaged electorally and in parliament.”

Mr Kleinhentz pointed out that “You don’t need to worry about the Coalition. It will survive this. The Radicals need us more than we need them. Why do you think they are coming to us to beg for recognition?”

Several former cabinet ministers in the previous coalition government, including Xavier-Bertrand Vergnet (L, Scyotte-6), Jean-Joseph Michaud (L, Inde-2), and Gaudéric Ledoult (L, Puy-d’Or-6) had previously worked with Mr Genêt. “We know Mr Genêt,” Mr Ledoult said. “Maybe the Liberal Party should try to bridge the two factions and stop the civil war?”

According to sources, the meeting was inconclusive, and Mr Baumann is set to issue a statement later this week.

translated by Kyle MacTaggart-de Flesselles
19 July 2021 - 0425h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Top Stories


by Marie-Marthé Parmentier in Saintes
22 July 2021 - 1502h
SAINTES – Liberal Party leader and Leader of the Opposition Paul-Lenthéric Baumann (L, Lauter-2) formally made an offer last Wednesday to the rival factions of the Radical Party to bridge the widening rift between them.

A copy of the letter was obtained by l’Indépendant. In the letter, Mr Baumann offers to mediate between Mr Jean-Étienne Genêt and Mr Jules-Antoine Beaumarchais, the two leaders of the opposing factions. “The Liberal Party would like to offer its good offices to mediate and help resolve the conflict within our longstanding ally.”

The proposed mediators included Mr Baumann and three former ministers in the previous Coalition government - Xavier-Bertrand Vergnet (L, Scyotte-6), Jean-Joseph Michaud (L, Inde-2), and Gaudéric Ledoult (L, Puy-d’Or-6). Notably, the mediators do not include deputy Liberal party leader Michel-Fernand Roux de Bézieux (L, Sarine-8), who is known to be partial to the Genêt faction. None of the southern Liberal deputies who prefer the Beaumarchais faction were also present in the mediating team.

“It’s brilliant in a way,” said political analyst Brice-Gauthier Kermadec. “Mr Baumann can stave off the disagreements within the Liberal Party, while at the same time providing for political cover for any potential result.”

“If either Mr Genêt or Mr Beaumarchais reject Mr Baumann’s offer, the Liberals can just recognise the faction that accepted it,” Mr Kermadec adds. “If both factions reject, then he has now a reason to end the Coalition. If both factions accept, then the Liberals can regain the Radical Party intact.”

translated by Kyle MacTaggart-de Flesselles
22 July 2021 - 1800h

by Caël Coatéval Le Carff
29 August 2021 ~ 1052h
BEAUCAIRE (Capoterre) – The province of the Griffonné, known for the Griffonian Riviera with its picture-paradise beaches, secluded exclusive areas, and luxurious mansions, is the bastion of the rich and wealthy. Large mansions dot the coast from Durbanne to Le Havre-de-Grâce, all the way to Vitrolles. However, it is also known to be an expensive place to live, with high prices of goods and elevated property prices.


Expensive Riviera
The high prices of goods are due to limited connections to the rest of Saintonge. Only two conventional trains reach the Griffonné, one serving Embrun via the Trieux Valley, and the other serving Tarascon and Vitrolles from Bâle. The department of the Capoterre has no railways serving it, in part because of the department’s longstanding resistance to the Société saintongeaise des chemins de fer (SSCF, Saintonge's national railway company) building tracks and “spoiling the natural environment”. The stance of the department is, in the words of former deputy Prime Minister Georges Conté de Caunes (Radical), who hails from the Capoterre, “We don’t want mass tourism; that is not something that the Capoterre sells. What we’re about is being an exclusive, secluded location... a getaway.” Transport in the Griffonné is reliant on air travel, particularly chartered planes and helicopters, and on ferries from Saintes and Bâle.

Despite its relative inaccessibility, the area still has one of the highest property prices in Saintonge. The elevated property prices are due to its clean, sunny coastal environment that attracts the well-heeled and moneyed. According to the Cadastral Survey of the department of the Capoterre, the average price of beachfront property per square metre in the so-called “ABC Coast” ranges from £7,890 (IBU 5,260) in the town of Maison-la-Romaine to a whopping £48,210 (IBU 32,140) in some districts of the city of Caunes. Similar figures are to be seen in the neighbouring department of Trieux, and to a lesser extent, the other Griffonian departments of the Lys and the Baltée.

This makes development expensive in the region and, as the obvious consequence, house prices are also one of the highest, affordable only to the upper class. Rent prices are also one of the highest in Saintonge. This has driven out the middle class and working class out of the region’s coastal cities and into inland towns such as Signes, Sallagriffon, Belcodène, and Caderousse. But even then it is becoming difficult.


“I was born in Caunes,” said retiree Jean-Martin Chaussade, 82, from his modest bungalow in the inland village of Corps-des-Alpilles. “Back then the Griffonné was already popular, we see a lot of wealthy people and celebrities around. They even came to Caunes in our boats.” Mr Chaussade, like his father and grandfather, were ferrymen – operating a ferry making daily trips from Saintes to Caunes. But in the 1950s, “Caunes was still liveable for working people like us.”

The general increase in worldwide prosperity at the end of the Fascist War meant that the wealthy from all over the world came to discover the Griffonnian Riviera and sought to have their own houses, villas, and bases in the area. Even foreign monarchs, such as the Sultan of Aydin and the Emperor of the Suavidici, have their own villas in the Griffonnian Riviera.

That pushed property prices and values up, and with it, the property taxes. The Chaussade family’s humble home was sold in the 1980s and they moved to the town of Cabannes-les-Pins, an inland town immediately to the east of Caunes. The ferryman now has to commute to his place of work.

The land where the Chaussade family home once stood is now owned by the Sultan of Aydin, who had also bought the neighbouring parcels, demolished all the old homes, and built his own palatial estate on it. “I used to be able see that palace from my window of my house in Cabannes,” said Mr Chaussade. “At least it’s not an architectural eyesore, unlike its occupants.”


Mr Chaussade has to move again in 2016, after rampant, spiraling demand affected not just beachfront property, but even land near the coast. “Our property tax bill was just going upwards,” said his grandson Thibault-Malcolm Chaussade, 24, who works as a bartender in Caunes. “We had to convince Grandpa that we should move.” The Chaussades’ house in Cabannes-les-Pins was bought by a property managing company who rents out houses in the area for short-term renters – tourists.

The Chaussade family now lives in Corps-des-Alpilles, a mountain hamlet 24 kilometres from Caunes. Thibault-Malcolm and his brother Matthias-Paul, who became a ferryman like his grandfather, ride a motorcycle to and from work in Caunes. Matthias-Paul used to rent a small apartment in Caunes. The rent became expensive that he lived in the cabin of the ferry he was working in. But when Matthias-Paul married and started a family, that arrangement became untenable. Matthias-Paul then rejoined his brother in Corps-des-Alpilles last year because “the rent is insane. It’s even more expensive than an apartment in central Saintes.”


Housing Shortage in the Riviera
The result is a housing shortage in the Riviera. Indeed, the Saintonge’s Housing and Development Agency (Agence de logement et de développement, ALD), an agency under the Ministry of Public Works, has rated the four Griffonnian departments as having a “severe” shortage in housing – even worse than the city of Saintes, which is just rated as having a “moderate” shortage.

Despite the population of eastern Saintonge growing slower than the rest of the country, the four Griffonnian departments had average or above-average population growth, putting more pressure on housing. The ALD estimates that the departments of the Baltée, the Capoterre, the Lys, and the Trieux have a combined shortage of 100,000 housing units, about 10% of the estimated housing units needed. In contrast, the city of Saintes only has a 4% housing shortage. To put this further into perspective, of all of Saintonge’s 90 departments, 70 do not have a housing shortage, thanks to proactive house-building policies by the national and local governments.


Would-be house buyers in the Griffonné often come up empty-handed. Marc-Brendan and Estelle-Marie Ravoyard, a couple in their mid-twenties, have two daughters, one of whom is less than a year old. Because the family is growing, Marc-Brendan would’ve wanted to move out of his family home in the rural town of Valavoire, in the upper Trieux valley. But he found out that even after saving up £300,000 (IBU 200,000) for five years, there were no family homes available in the lower Trieux valley. “I searched all over the area. From Sallagriffon to Embrun and its suburbs, all of the asking prices for family homes exceeded my budget.”

The Ravoyards work in the Embrun area, and commute everyday via the SSCF train that passes by the neighbouring village of Belgentier. “I guess we have to continue to commute,” Mr Ravoyard sighs. “We found a property in Belgentier; at least that’s closer to the train station while still being near Valavoire, so my parents can help look after their grandkids.”

“It would be much easier if there was socialised housing nearby,” Estelle-Marie adds.

Socialised Housing
Despite Saintonge being known for its socialised housing and its strong right-to-shelter laws, the situation varies throughout the country, as housing is partly under the competence of the departmental councils. (This is much like healthcare in Saintonge.) The ALD builds and manages the housing on the request of the departments, who are responsible for the planning, location, and permits.


Building more affordable housing is an obvious solution to the problem in the Griffonné. The National government last year offered packages to build socialised housing in the urban areas in the province. The responses of the four departments varied.

The Coalition-controlled department of the Capoterre outright rejected the offer, with departmental president Charles-Hérbert Santhune (Radical) saying that “The government should not be in the business of building houses. It distorts the market.” Then-departmental councillor, now National Assembly deputy for Capoterre François-André Conté de Caunes (Radical) blithely remarked in July 2020 that “socialised houses will cheapen the area and depress property prices.”

The department of the Trieux, also Coalition-controlled, accepted the package but then had a dispute with the central government on the location of the socialised housing. The ALD wanted to build the housing in the royal (public) lands within the large wealthy towns of Durbanne, Embrun, and Fos-sur-Mer. The Coalition-controlled councils of all three communes rejected the proposal in August 2020. As a compromise, the departmental council then identified locations further inland, to which the ALD agreed in October 2020. However, ownership of these lands is being disputed by Count Charles-Albert de Sallagriffon, the local noble in the area. The Cadastral Survey of the Trieux indicated that the proposed locations within the territory of the communes of Sallagriffon, Venterol, Mongriffon, and Le Thoronet-sur-Trieux were royal (public) lands. The Count of Sallagriffon disputed it, saying that royal lands within the county of Sallagriffon were implicitly transferred to his administration by virtue of his descent from the Santonian Royal Family, the letters patent of the ennoblement of his father, and the fact that the Estates of the Griffonné never seized the royal family’s lands after the Santonian Revolution, in contrast to other nobles’ lands in the province.

The government, the ALD, even the president of the department Luc-Victor Casseleux (Liberal) pushed back against the Count of Sallagriffon. It is surmised that the Santonian Royal Family also spoke against the Count, through Duke Thibault X of Champagne, who, as Chancellor of the Royal Trust, manages the income from the royal lands. “The Santonian Royal Family never implicitly alienated any royal lands in favour of any family members it was giving courtesy titles to,” the Duke said in an official statement from the Chancellery last February 2021. “If it’s not in the letters patent, it’s not theirs.”

Even the Count’s grandson, Brice-Ketille de Sallagriffon, went on Twitcher against his grandfather. “Haven’t we learned the lessons of the Santonian Revolution? Stop landgrabbing and build the houses already.”

Only in the National-controlled departments of the Baltée and the Lys had the house-building went smoothly, with the new socialised housing to be distributed among its beneficiaries in the last quarter of 2021.


Political Issue
The housing issue had started to gain a political dimension as well. The region’s wealth translates to support for the Coalition of the Liberal Party and the Radical Party, which is currently in opposition to the National Party-controlled Santonian government.

The Radical Parties in all four departments were against socialised housing, but the Radical Party is in opposition in the Baltée and the Lys. In the Trieux, the Liberals, who head the coalition government, pushed through with accepting the national government’s proposals. Only the Capoterre, where the Radicals lead the coalition government, refused.

Radical Party politicians also tried to link the socialised housing with other issues. Mr Conté de Caunes insinuated on Twitcher that the real reason why the national government wants to build socialised housing in the Capoterre is “to house all of those foreigners coming into Saintonge, that's why. Why does this government put foreigners over Santonians?”. Mr Santhune, for his part, said that socialised housing “will decrease property values and will make the people of Capoterre poorer. It will also decrease the income of our local governments, which is dependent on property taxes.”

In the Trieux, the Count of Sallagriffon has the support of the local Radical Party. Last March 2021, the vice-president of the department François-Georges Robic de Menthière (Radical) threatened to leave the coalition if the departmental government sides with the ALD. Mr Casseleux then responded, “we will not give in to blackmail.” However, the departmental government remained neutral in the dispute between the ALD and the Count of Sallagriffon, even though it was the department itself that chose the sites for the housing. The case filed by the Count of Sallagriffon is still pending before the courts, further delaying the construction of the housing.

Meanwhile, up in Valavoire, the Ravoyards are having doubts whether to push through with buying the house in Belgentier, or waiting a little longer for the much cheaper socialised housing to be finally approved and be constructed. “The socialised housing could’ve been a godsend,” Marc-Brendan said with a shrug. “But then, there are a lot of people looking for houses in the Trieux, and so this could be our only shot for the Belgentier house. We’ll be thinking about it. We just wish things get resolved quickly.”

translated by Kyle MacTaggart-de Flesselles
29 August 2021 - 1520h

President: The Chair recognises the deputy from Saintes, Mr Charles-Emmanuel Calafiore, who has requested a few minutes of our time to listen to his privilege speech.

Mr Calafiore (deputy of Saintes): Thank you, Madame President and colleagues in the National Assembly, for allowing me to speak on a topic that is dear to my heart, on a topic that I feel I must make a stand, on a topic that I feel we should make a stand.

I stand here to draw the attention of the government, this body, the people of Saintonge, and the world, to the New Alemaner atrocities in Predice.

At the start of this year, the despicable regime of New Aleman launched an unprovoked invasion of the Most Serene State of Predice. In a few weeks, the communist regime of New Aleman occupied multiple border provinces, before being stopped by the Predicean Army at the Ausa and Chiave Rivers. As I speak, the front lines are still straddling those rivers, with intense battles in the key cities of Vittoria and Bellaterra – with the fate of the free democratic Predice hanging with the control of those cities.

New Aleman did not confine itself to the battle zone. It was able to bomb many Predicean cities, despite the valiant efforts of the Predicean Air Force. New Aleman’s recent indiscriminate bombing campaign killed and injured many civilians, so much so that many of you here supported evacuating Predicean children here to Saintonge for safety.

We know of the New Aleman attacks on Predicean cities. But we don’t know what happened to the occupied zones and the cities of Bellaterra and Vittoria, because of the lack of journalists and foreign representatives there. Fortunately, Saintonge’s valiant diplomatic personnel remained in Bellaterra and Vittoria right up to the end, observing the events there. I will tell you, right here in the National Assembly, what happened to those two cities. I will read here, verbatim, a letter from Santonian Ambassador to Predice Nathanaël Le Graët. Here he describes New Aleman’s wanton carnage and destruction of these cities:


This, Madame President, is what is happening in Predice, unreported by news media because of the viciousness and barbarity of the New Alemaner regime. I salute our diplomats who bravely stayed on to help the Prediceans.

I also call on this body, the Kingdom of Saintonge, and the world community to hold the bloodthirsty New Aleman regime accountable for its atrocities. Stopping the murderous regime is the only way that peace and freedom will be restored to our continent.

Thank you.

Mr Charles-Emmanuel Calafiore, deputy for Saintes

---

OOC Note: Post drafted with approval from @Predice and @Zyvun

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Top Stories


by Mélanie Bacrot in Saintes
14 August 2021 - 1628h
SAINTES – the impassioned 12 August speech by Saintes deputy Charles-Emmanuel Calafiore (N, Saintes-21) on the floor of the National Assembly in support of Predice and against New Aleman had made ripples throughout Saintonge. Many had been disgusted with New Alemaner atrocities and urged the Santonian government to act. However, another furore is erupting over the contents of the speech.

Questions
On Thursday, shortly after Mr Calafiore read the letter from Santonian Ambassador to Predice Nathanaël Le Graët into the Official Journal of the National Assembly, Green Party deputy Kimo-Philippe de Sabarthès (V, Saintes-16) questioned the provenance of the letter. “The events happened in June. It has gone literally unreported in the media, and I cannot find corroborating news articles. Is the letter some sort of secret that we don’t know?”

Mr Calafiore replied that “there was an inadvertent news blackout about the conflict; because of its viciousness, only few journalists dared go there.”

Leaked Letter
Mr de Sabarthès’ question was apparently answered by Foreign Minister Marcelline Tréhet in a press conference on Friday, 13 August. Responding to a journalist’s question whether the contents of the letter are true, Ms Tréhet said, in an obviously annoyed tone, “I can confirm that the contents of the letter are true. I had talked to Ambassador Le Graët, and he said that sent the letter in utmost confidence and it was supposed to be a secret. The Ministry is performing an investigation as to how Mr Calafiore got hold of the letter. I had been assured by Prime Minister Courseaux that the National Party is also investigating Mr Calafiore for the breach.”

The publicisation of the Le Graët letter and its contents not only put on the spotlight the New Aleman atrocities and the violence of the conflict, but also of Saintonge’s actions in Predice. “I won’t be surprised if New Aleman becomes hostile to Saintonge because of that,” said Labour Minister Jeanne-Élisabeth Vertières-Clérembault (N, Bouche-du-Rhâne-3) last Friday. “And it brings into jeopardy our neutrality and our efforts to save civilians.”

Deputy Prime Minister Matthieu-Gauvain Lamblin (N, Haute-Loine-1) disputed that assessment during the weekend. “What did Ambassador Le Graët and his staff did in Predice aside from saving civilians? I don’t see any reason why New Aleman should get angry. New Aleman should see that Saintonge was very careful that we only saved civilians and not give their opponent an advantage.

If this happened in reverse, if Predice invades New Aleman, I’m sure our Santonian diplomatic staff would do the same to New Alemaner civilians.”

Mr Lamblin, however, still had issues as to how the letter was handled. “I am dismayed and alarmed that such a leak of confidential documents had happened. If it can happen to a letter, it can happen to any document.”

Source
Over the weekend, there was much speculation as to the source of the leak. Opposition leader Paul-Lenthéric Baumann (L, Lauter-2) asked “the letter says ‘I fully supported Counsellor’s judgment; this we had discussed.’ Who is Ambassador Le Graët discussing stuff with? I’m sure it’s not Mr Calafiore because the Foreign Affairs Ministry is not his ministry. He’s not even in the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee.”

“We suspect the source is whoever Ambassador Le Graët is in communication with,” said the Chair of the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, Charles-Ferdinand de Pontleroy (N, Saintes-27). “We hope to find out soon.”

Ms Tréhet said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is undertaking an investigation and is set to release its findings hopefully next week.

translated by Kyle MacTaggart-de Flesselles
14 August 2021 - 1923h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Local


by Daniel-Jean Lisée in Côme
29 July 2021 - 1250h
CÔME (Simbruins) – five Radical-led communes in the Côme metropolitan area had withdrawn from the urban community over disagreements about distribution of refugees. Five communes – Bouche-d’Aveau, Corelle, Diges, Montevue, Saint-Pierre-d’Aveau – communicated a notice to Simbruins superintendent Martin-Fabien Baraillon and Côme mayor Joseph-Maxence Dandrieux (Liberal), who serves as the intercommunality’s head.

Côme intercommuniality
The Communauté urbaine de Côme is an intercommunality – an association of neighbouring parishes within the metropolitan area – that serves to coordinate the development and services in the metropolitan area. The intercommunality of Côme was established in 1988, when the then-National government of Arnaud-Gauthier Laënnec sought to resolve issues with haphazard, disharmonious, and uncoordinated development in Saintonge’s major metropolitan areas: Nyon, Côme, Plaisance, Coire, Bâle, Beaune, Sens, Provins, Loudun, Ratisbonne, Novale, Embrun, Beaucaire, Vantes, Drest, Aubeterre, Gresible, Aurigny, Vitrolles, and Béthanie. Prime Minister Laënnec’s government proposed merging these large cities with their surrounding suburbs and exurbs in order to put in a single coherent administration over the metropolitan area, similar to what was done in Saintes in the early 20^th century.

Many of these cities, which were governed by the Liberal and Radical Coalition, resisted the move, because many of the suburbs and exurbs tend to vote for the National Party. Electorally, this could lead to the Coalition losing many of the city halls. As a compromise, the Santonian government passed a law to allow departmental councils to establish “intercommunalities”, which are loose associations of communes in the metropolitan area, with varying delegated powers as decided by the departmental council and approved by the Ministry of Interior. Côme’s intercommunality was established by 19 communes as a voluntary association; the Simbruins departmental council consequently delegated some powers – including, crucially, housing and distribution of refugees within the metropolitan area – to the intercommunality. The Communauté urbaine de Côme had subsequently grown to encompass 50 communes in the Côme metropolitan area.

Spat over refugees
In a regular meeting of the 50 mayors in Côme last 26 July, seven mayors – the aforementioned five plus the mayors of Montdragon-en-Simbruins and Villarembert – resisted the decision by the intercommunality to distribute the incoming Predicean refugee children among the metropolitan area’s 50 communes. Saint-Pierre-d’Aveau mayor Sara du Tertre, of the Radical Party’s anti-immigrant Genêt faction, led the push to stop the acceptance of refugees: “They’re going to bring in crime and poverty, just like all the previous waves of immigrants before them!”

To this, Thônes mayor Thomas-Thibault Trimoulinard (National) retorted angrily, “Madame Du Tertre, we are talking about CHILDREN here! Are you serious? You are accusing children of being criminals!”

Ms Du Tertre remained steadfast in her opposition to the influx of refugees, despite pleas from Mr Dandrieux and angry comments from Mr Trimoulinard and two other mayors, Maximilien Boubée de Gramont (Radical – Beaumarchais faction) of Bellecôte-des-Pouilles and Marc-Alphonse Gasparella (National) of Terracine. Ms Du Tertre and the six other mayors, all belonging to the Genêt faction of the Radical Party, walked out of the meeting. The next day, the five communes served their notice of withdrawal from the intercommunality.

In the two other communes, Montdragon-en-Simbruins and Villarembert, the mayors tried to push the withdrawal, but their parish councils responded by withdrawing confidence in their mayor. In both communes, the Liberal councillors teamed up with National councillors and Beaumarchais-aligned Radical councillors to oust their Genêt-aligned mayors.

Upheaval in other communes
The break in the intercommunality sparked upheaval in the ruling coalitions in other communes. In many of the Coalition-controlled communes, Genêt-aligned Radical councillors demanded that their mayors leave the intercommunality and resist the immigrant influx. In four communes, the mayors (three Liberal, one Radical) survived with the assistance of Green and independent councillors; in five more, the Liberal mayors formed a coalition with the National councillors. Three communes – Bellecombe, La Bridoire-sur-Mer, and Lescheraines – saw a National Party councillor assume the position of mayor. In the city of Côme itself, Mr Dandrieux’ majority in the city council went down to one.

Warning
Departmental officials of the Simbruins opposed the move. Simbruins President Marc-Cédric Majurel (National) warned that “even though the five communes can try to refuse the settlement of immigrants and refugees for now, it is a losing battle.” Simbruins departmental councillor Jean-Baptiste de la Terinière (Radical – Beaumarchais faction) said that “we can simply force these communes into the intercommunality by ordinance. We can make membership in the intercommunality mandatory, or we can explicitly state which communes would be a part of it.”

Simbruins superintendent Mr Baraillon said that “even though they’re out of the intercommunality, that just means that they will no longer have to share the immigrant and refugee quotas with the other 45 communes. Their immigrant and refugee quota will now come directly from the department.”

Should the five communes try to resist, Mr Trimoulinard said that “there is precedent for this. Four communes in the Coire metro area fought the Santonian Immigration and Integration agency to prevent the resettlement of immigrants in their communes. They lost in court.”

translated by Kyle MacTaggart-de Flesselles
29 July 2021 - 1652h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Top Stories


by Mélanie Bacrot in Saintes
15 August 2021 - 2342h
SAINTES – in what would be another remarkable twist in the saga of the Le Graët letter, the two consuls named in the letter penned an op-ed published in this newspaper (L’Indépendant) earlier today. Seth-Benjamin Lustiger, the former Santonian consul in Vittoria; and Annabelle Estrabaud, the former Santonian consul in Bellaterra, also appeared in the Saintonge Télévisions newsmagazine Les Yeux sur le Monde (LYSM) episode a few hours ago.

The confirmation came amidst some politicians expressing their doubts or misgivings about the contents of the Le Graët letter.

The two consuls, who had since been withdrawn to Saintonge in the first week of August after everyone had been evacuated to safety, opened their article with a stark, clear statement: “The contents of the Le Graët letter are true.”

Mr Lustiger and Ms Estrabaud said in their article that “People had been doubting the veracity of the contents of the letter. People even went so far as to casting aspersions as to the motivations of the Santonian diplomats in Predice. This is why we are writing this letter.”

“As consuls, our task is not only to assist Santonian citizens in need, but also report on the situation on the ground so that the decision-makers will be informed. We and our staff at the consulates did these tasks dutifully despite bombs falling, people dying, dire desperation setting in. It was the most difficult and challenging of circumstances. To those who say that we engaged in spewing falsehoods that would favour one side: we have a lot more important things to do than that. Like saving lives.

As consuls of the Kingdom of Saintonge, our concern is Saintonge’s national interest. As public officials, our concern is to speak the truth. As human beings, our concern is saving lives. None of these will be served if we tell lies.”

At LYSM, the two consuls were asked in-depth about why they decided to speak. “I have staff members who had nervous breakdowns because of people over here saying that we’re liars,” Ms Estrabaud said. “They had seen the burnt-out city blocks. They had smelled the corpses. They had heard the wails of the bereaved. They had felt the quakes every time a bomb explodes in the city. And people here are telling them it’s not true??”

Mr Lustiger said that what Saintonge’s actions in Vittoria had a deep connection to him. “My grandparents were Shaddaist refugees chased out of Craviter and Gothis during the Fascist War. Santonian embassies took them in and sheltered them. I cannot just sit here while they tell me that Saintonge didn’t do those actions. What was the country’s main source of overseas news back then? Wasn’t it the wide diplomatic network that we had? If Saintonge did it during the Fascist War, it can do it today in a conflict nearby.”

LYSM host Catherine Canuel-Gaignault posed a question: “Did the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ask you to write your op-ed in L’Indépendant and for you to appear here in this show?”

“No. It was our decision to write and to come.” Ms Estrabaud answered earnestly. “Seth and I went to Ms Tréhet [Marcelline Tréhet, Santonian Minister of Foreign Affairs] to ask her if we can write the article and ask to appear in your show. Because we wanted to do it for ourselves. Because we wanted to do it for our staff. Who are being unfairly maligned and painted as Predicean propagandists when all we had been doing is to tell the truth and help people.”

“Ms Tréhet gave us the go signal.” Mr Lustiger continued. “She didn’t even ask us to run the article with her. Because she knows what the truth is. There is no need to censor or sugarcoat the truth.”

Ms Canuel-Gaignault tried to fish some details about the leakage of the letter. “Do you know who leaked the letter? Was it Ambassador Le Graët?”

Both consuls looked at each other. “It wasn’t Ambassador Le Graët, that we can tell you for certain,” Mr Lustiger said. “He is an honest man.”

“We know who did it, but it is not in our position to comment on the investigation,” added Ms Estrabaud. “Minister Tréhet will be releasing the results of the investigation soon.”

Ms Canuel-Gaignault then went to the possible effects of the letter being made public on world public opinion with regards to the Predice-New Aleman War. “They shouldn’t blame us,” Ms Estrabaud said. “We’re not the ones doing the atrocities.”

“I think the end of the letter says it all,” Mr Lustiger added. "My Shaddaist ancestors have a saying: Le mensonge n'a qu'une jambe, la vérité en a deux. The lie has only one leg; the truth has two."

Mr Lustiger and Ms Estrabaud ended their letter by saying that, “If one side says that the contents of the letter made them look bad, that’s their fault for perpetrating all these atrocious actions. They cannot blame the messenger. Always remember that the truth will always come out.”

translated by Kyle MacTaggart-de Flesselles
16 August 2021 - 0922h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Top Stories


by Mélanie Bacrot in Saintes
18 August 2021 - 1422h
SAINTES – In a press conference earlier today, Minister of Foreign Affairs Marcelline Tréhet (National) announced the results of the ministry investigation about the leakage of the controversial and confidential Le Graët letter.

Le Graët letter
Last 12 August, Saintes deputy Charles-Emmanuel Calafiore (National) read out the contents of a letter from Santonian Ambassador to Predice Nathanaël Le Graët into the Official Journal of the National Assembly by quoting it in his privilege speech in the chamber. Mr Calafiore, a son of Predicean immigrants in Saintonge, detailed the wanton destruction and atrocities of the invading New Aleman forces in southern Predice, particularly in the two cities of Vittoria and Bellaterra. Mr Calafiore ended the speech by calling for intervention in the war, something that did not sit well with traditional Santonian neutrality.

The pushback occurred quickly, with some questioning the reliability of the letter, given that there were few corroborating sources to confirm its contents mainly because of the viciousness of the war. Doubts about the contents of the letter were put paid by Ms Tréhet when she confirmed the authenticity of the letter on 13 April, and by the two consuls mentioned in the letter, Seth-Benjamin Lustiger and Annabelle Estrabaud, in an op-ed in this newspaper and in a television appearance in the Saintonge Télévisions newsmagazine Les Yeux sur le Monde.

Others scored as to how Mr Calafiore is propagandising for Predice, seeing as news of New Alemaner atrocities will likely turn Santonian and world public opinion against the communist regime at Saintonge’s southern border.

Another major concern was that the Le Graët letter was not intended for Mr Calafiore, a fact that eagle-eyed readers and listeners caught, leading to speculations that the letter might be leaked. Ms Tréhet confirmed on 13 August that the letter was indeed confidential and it had been leaked. Both Ms Tréhet and the two consuls ruled out that Ambassador Le Graët was the source of the leak; leading to the speculation as who was the ‘missing link/s’ between Ambassador Le Graët and Mr Calafiore.

Results of Investigation
The Foreign Affairs Ministry’s investigation revealed that the ‘missing link’ was Santonian Deputy Foreign Minister for Meterra Raphaël Santaniello, a career diplomat, also of Predicean descent. According to the ministry’s investigation, Mr Calafiore allegedly e-mailed a request to Mr Santaniello on 3 August, asking about the situation in Vittoria and Bellaterra. It was around that time that rumours were swirling that Saintonge was about to vacate its consulates in the area (Vittoria was evacuated on 6 August, Bellaterra on 9 August).

Mr Santaniello then wrote a letter to Ambassador Le Graët on 4 August, asking for updates about what happened in Vittoria and Bellaterra. Mr Santaniello is Ambassador Le Graët’s superior.

“Ambassador Le Graët sent the letter on 7 August to Mr Santaniello in full confidence, as an official business," said Ms Tréhet. “The transmitted letter from our embassy in Antofagosta to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Saintes bears the word CONFIDENTIAL.”

Mr Santaniello allegedly forwarded the letter to Mr Calafiore on 9 August, which Mr Calafiore read in the National Assembly on 12 August. Unlike some other privilege speeches, which may be circulated among members for support, Mr Calafiore kept the contents of his privilege speech to himself.

Explanations
In a statement released to the media, Mr Santaniello claimed that “I passed Ambassador Le Graët’s letter to Mr Calafiore, an elected member of the National Assembly and a government official, in full confidence. I did not expect him to publicise its contents.”

Mr Calafiore, in his own statement, appeared to return the buck to Mr Santaniello. “I did not know that the contents of the letter are confidential… and regardless people have the right to know about what is happening.”

Ms Tréhet said that more investigations are needed to confirm the two conflicting statements. She said that copies of emails between Mr Santaniello and Ambassador Le Graët (which Mr Santaniello deleted on his end) were retrieved from the Foreign Ministry’s servers, but copies of the emails between Mr Santaniello and Mr Calafiore could not be found. Mr Santaniello said that he used his personal SMail accounts to communicate with Mr Calafiore, something that Ms Tréhet found “highly unusual and inappropriate for official business.”

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also sent a request to President of the Santonian National Assembly Sophie-Anne Laliberté, asking them to examine its servers for Mr Calafiore’s emails after Mr Calafiore refused to provide copies of his communication with Mr Santaniello. A subpoena is also being requested for SMail for copies of the communications between the two men.

Repercussions
Ms Tréhet removed Mr Santaniello from his position as the Santonian Deputy Foreign Minister for Meterra, "effective immediately". Anne-Maureen Gausserand-Landet, the current Santonian Ambassador to Oklusia, will be his replacement.

The National Party had opened an ethics investigation on Mr Calafiore. Deputy Prime Minister Matthieu-Gauvain Lamblin, who also chairs the party’s ethics committee, said that “we expect Mr Calafiore to cooperate fully with our investigation. If not, there will be consequences.”

translated by Kyle MacTaggart-de Flesselles
18 August 2021 - 2010h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Top Stories


by Héloïse-Anne Pinel in Saintes
24 August 2021 - 1125h
SAINTES – the Santonian government had launched an appeal and mobilised its diplomatic and civic resources to help child refugees who fled from the Predice-New Aleman War, and for help in neighbouring countries as well.

Refugees arrive
As per the Rossignol Agreement, Saintonge admitted Predicean children fleeing the war, providing for them in boarding schools in Predicean Youth Communities (Communautés des jeunes predicéens, CJP). According to the CJP Administration, 333,190 children had been admitted to Saintonge as of last week, being housed in 66 sites in 43 departments, with more sites to open. Saintonge had largely borne the cost of allocating for the CJP programme, but CJP’s director Paul-Brice Augello said in an interview last Wednesday that “more money is needed.”

Saintonge ramps up spending
The cost of the CJP programme forced the National Party government of Anne-Douceline Courseaux ramp up spending. The Santonian government appropriated money for housing, renovations, construction of buildings, hiring of social workers, educators, and other employees, for food, among other things. Finance Minister Maximilian Leclère de Rochebloine revealed to the National Assembly last Thursday that Saintonge is already running a budget deficit, the first budget deficit in three years. Mr Leclère de Rochebloine said that Saintonge’s capacity for deficit spending is “limited”, as the constitution has a balanced-budget clause, passed in a referendum last year. This clause limits Saintonge’s structural deficit to 0.35% of the Santonian Gross Domestic Product (GDP), or 35 billion livres (23.3 billion IBU) – equivalent to 0.63% of the Santonian government spending.

“It’s a tight spot to be in,” said economic analyst Prof. Joseph-Robert Pellissier of the University of Saintes. “The government does not have much wiggle room for spending. They could withdraw the maximum allowable from the Fond national saintongeais’ net income, which is 76 billion livres (50.5 billion IBU), half of its net income. But those additional money, along with the estimated twenty-five trillion livres already reallocated or realigned, pales in comparison to the estimated forty trillion livres should Saintonge really admit the one million Predicean children as it promised.”

“The government could suspend the constitutional balanced-budget clause and the debt-brake clause, but that might be unpopular with voters,” said Prof. Pellissier.

Saintonge mobilises international resources
Already the country is seeking assistance and donors from the international community for refugees under its care. According to sources, almost all Santonian diplomatic missions were tasked to solicit donations for refugees in their countries of posting. Xentherida had already pledged 300 million livres (200 million IBU) for the endeavour.

Seven deputy ministers of foreign affairs had already been sent throughout the world to ask for pledges of donations for Predicean children in Saintonge; Santonian deputy foreign minister for Iteria Abigaïl Vorilhon is set to visit Iraelia this week, while Santonian deputy foreign minister for Kian Jeanne-Lucille Escande is meeting with the Foreign Affairs Minister of Mondari. Santonian Foreign Minister Marcelline Tréhet herself is visiting Gojannestad later this week, with aid to Predice and refugees likely on the agenda.

Saintonge’s Ambassador to the Meterra Economic Treaty Association (META) Rachel-Francine Chambault raised the issue of aid to Predice and to Predicean children in Saintonge in the regional grouping. Ambassador Chambault asked for donations for the CJP programme from members of the organisation.

Meanwhile at the Food Security Organisation, Saintonge’s Ambassador Pascal-Florent Goudeau asked members to donate surplus foodstuff for the children in Saintonge’s care. Saintonge’s agricultural surplus stocks are being diverted to feed the children. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, 12 billion livres (8 billion IBU) worth of food in Saintonge’s strategic food reserves are already mobilised for the refugees. Prydania announced that it will be sending food to Predice and Predicean refugees in Saintonge.

CJP Administrator Paul-Brice Augello, met publicly last Saturday with private donors such as Justine Santagemma’s Aide aux enfants charity for Predicean children, pasta maker Micucci, and the Santonian branch of Zamboni’s Pizza. Mr Augello assured donors “that all donations shall be properly accounted for by the CJP Administration, in the typical trustworthy transparent Saintonge style.”

Aid to warring countries
Aside from admitting children, Saintonge, through the International Federation of Red Heart Societies (IFHRS-FISCR), is also sending food aid to civilians in both Predice and New Aleman. This aid is done under the auspices of IFRHS-FISCR and not national governments. Patrick-Gérard Dombreval, head of the International Red Heart Society (Société internationale de la Coeur-Rouge, IRHS-SICR), said that “all the donations from the various countries are consolidated and packaged in Saintonge, before they are sent to Predice and New Aleman. No marking as to which country it came from; that could cause some political issues for some donor countries. Everything is done in a neutral fashion.”

Mr Dombreval, like Saintonge, also reiterated its plea for donations to both member organisations, countries, and other organisations.

translated by Kyle MacTaggart-de Flesselles
24 August 2021 - 1628h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Top Stories


by Jules-Florent Tabarly in Saintes
22 November 2021 - 0823h
SAINTES - The Santonian men’s national football team ended their victory tour with a huge party in the capital Saintes, a national celebration not seen since the team’s first World Cup victory exactly a decade ago in 2011. The Red Devils went on a whirlwind three-week tour across the breadth of Saintonge as cities, fans, and ordinary Santonians paid tribute and recognised the team’s achievement.

From South to North
The Victory Tour started in the southern city of Nyon, Saintonge’s second-largest city, last 23 October. On the shores of the Cottian Lake, Nyon Mayor Gauthier-Childéric Knockaert presented the team with the keys to the city. Olympique Nyonnais midfielder Brice-Baudouin Schaelaekens, who scored three goals in the tournament, delivered the team’s response, thanking his home city for the support.


The next day, there was a short parade from the town of Saint-Martin-de-Lauter to the city of Ratisbonne, the capital of the province of Bavière. At the head of the welcoming team was Duke Ulrich VI of Bavière and his heir, Lord Protector Kilian-Brice, Count of Trèves. It being a Sunday, the team and the citizens of the city packed the Cathedral of Saint Peter and the cathedral square as they attended an afternoon Mass presided over by Archbishop Rodolphe Wiltberger of Ratisbonne.

On Tuesday 26 October, the party went over the Trans-Santonian Mountains to the Bléone Valley, in a day-long caravan from the city of Barenton, through Mainfonds and Tilly-la-Campagne, and ending in the city of Loudun. Citizens from all over the Bléone and upper Saine valleys lined the procession route along the Trans-Santonian Highway, which was closed specifically for the occasion. Seven southern departments declared a special holiday so that Germands could join the celebration.

Thursday 28 October was another caravan, this time to the east, as the parade started at Novale, passing by the towns of Alexandrie, Rotherens, Terracine, and ending in the city of Côme. The procession route included Predicean-Santonian Timothée Chiarisoli’s hometown and the city he plays for. In his hometown of Terracine, Mayor Marc-Alphonse Gasparella, himself also of Predicean descent, presented Chiarisoli with a city council resolution naming him “Terracine’s Favourite Son”. In the city of Côme, Mayor Joseph-Maxence Dandrieux quoted the Côme FC defender: “When you said that ‘you will try to make it two stars’ for Saintonge, you guys were totally serious!”

In another town the procession passed though, the mayor could not help but insert the politics of immigration, a hot topic in local politics. Mayor Maximilien Boubée de Gramont of Bellecôte-des-Pouilles, a wealthy seaside suburb south of Côme, said that “This wonderful team that made Saintonge’s dreams come true, this victorious team that brought glory to Saintonge, this youthful team that inspired Saintonge… would not have been possible without immigration.” The mayor’s speech was thoroughly well-received, not the very least by the Red Devils themselves, with one-fourth of the team being of immigrant roots.

The city of Plaisance held a massive beach party on Saturday, 30 October, in celebration of the team’s victory. The celebrations extended throughout the entire weekend even after the team departed on Sunday morning after attending a Thanksgiving Mass at the Basilica of Saint Brice.

Celebrations resumed on Thursday, 4 November, in the twin cites of Beaune and Courbevoie. Goalkeeper Folc Thauvin plays for the local Première Ligue team Stade Beaunais FC. The fountain in the middle of Beaune’s city square was transformed into a wine fountain with free-flowing Beaune wine.


The twin cities of Sens and Villefranche-en-Champagne would also not be outdone in the weekend of 6 and 7 November. This being the province of Champagne, the celebratory drink flowed freely as the happy red-clad fans thronged along the parade route. Corks were popped, wine sprayed all over the partygoers, and everyone had a good weekend.

The Tri-Cities of Aubeterre, Montmirail, and Neuilly-sur-Loine organised a parade on Monday 8 November for western Saintonge and the Loine valley, with an estimated 100,000 fans going to the celebrations.

It was Bethany’s turn on Wednesday, 10 November, with a party in the Bethanian capital of Béthanie. Bethany is the home province of striker Matthieu-Donatien Kerbriant, who scored five goals in the tournament, including the Red Devils’ only hat-trick, in the game against Iraelia. Bethany brought out its distinct flags and cuisine, with Kyle’s sausages everywhere.

Friday, 12 November, the city of Embrun hosted the Red Devils. In an apparent jab at Archbishop Pierre-Paul Payette of Embrun, the partygoers set up an inflatable Red Devil mascot during the celebrations at Embrun’s Cathedral Square. The archbishop finally got the humour and commented: “sometimes the Devils do some good.”

The weekend of 13 and 14 November was for the city of Coire, which held a special place for four of the Red Devils: goalkeeper Thibault-Ragnar Guttormsen and midfielders Thorbjörn Kjellander and Hugberg Steenstrup, who all play for the local team AJ St-Tobie de Coire; and Saintes-Saints-Brice FC midfielder Jonathan Jeandupeux, a product of the AJ St-Tobie de Coire football academy. The city’s Prydanian community went all-out for the team’s players of Prydanian descent, including a Prydanian-language Mass at the Cathedral of Saint Tobias. The city hosted a huge Prydanian dinner open for everybody, where Santonians could get a taste of Prydanian food.

Neighbouring Bâle hosted the team next on Tuesday, 16 November. With alternate captain Jeandupeux having a bad experience with the city, Bâle mayor Grégoire-Paul Caudrelier expressed regret. “On behalf of the city’s team, Bâle is sorry that you had a bad experience with our city. We are very happy that you had achieved the ultimate victory, too bad our team didn’t see your big potential back then… if last year’s Première Ligue season is to be an indication, clearly this is karma.” The city’s best team, SC Bâle, was relegated from the Première Ligue in the 2020/2021 season, leaving Bâle the largest Santonian city without a team in the top tier of Santonian football.

There was a caravan along the Saintes suburbs of Nogent-sur-Lisle, Torcy-le-Grand, Meaux, Royan, and Lanthenay on Thursday, 18 November. It was a prelude to the huge celebrations in the weekend.

Saintes celebrates
The events in the capital last weekend were the culmination of the victory tour. The huge Boulevard de Saintonge was closed off as the eastbound parade snaked from Villeurbanne’s Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the western left-bank terminus of the Boulevard de Saintonge. Almost all of the side streets emanating from the Boulevard de Saintonge were also closed off and filled with spectators wanting to see the parade.

Three of the city’s large green spaces near the parade route were converted into party grounds. The Champmars military parade ground at the Royal Military Academy in Saint-Lambert was temporarily opened to partygoers, with large screens installed to link the partygoers there to the action in the parade.

The Île de la Cité, the island in the middle of the Saine River where the Royal Palace and the National Basilica of Our Lady of Saintonge are located, was the second party ground. The large green Place de Saintes erupted in cheers as the victory parade arrived, with King Thibault II of Saintonge and the Pope of the Santonian National Church acknowledging and blessing the team as the parade stopped by. The twin princes Thibault-Maximilian and Timothée-Brice of Saintonge, clad in Santonian football shirts, went on the victory bus with the team as it trudged forward.


The parade route went on through the Jardin des Saints, the third area designated for partying. The parade then passed in front of the National Assembly of Saintonge and ended in Place de la Révolution in the 7th arrondissement. A smaller parade from the east started from the Place du Triomphe and Place de la Liberté, went through the Porte de Gresible to join the end of the parade at the Place de la Révolution. Even though the parade ended, the partying continued through the night, with various acts entertaining the attendees at the six evening concert areas, all for free. The Royal Santonian Symphonic Orchestra played an open-air concert at the Place de Saintes after the Pope said a Thanksgiving Mass. Over at the Place de l’Assemblée, fans of country and folk music chilled out with Guillaume Desourteaux, Gauthier Spiller, Carissa L’Armature, Christophe Urbain, and Tailleur Rapide. The Royal Santonian Army Military Band performed at Champmars, followed by rock bands such as Lac Amer, Filles de Fer, Sour Eye Candy, Poêlon, Pousser-Tirer, Poinçon de la mort de cinq doigts, Loups Mauvais, Bête en Noir, and Constellation.

Metalheads congregated at Place de Ville in front of the Saintes City hall to listen to acts such as Trollgaard, Auréole Courbée, Frontières sacrées, Guerriers d’Automne, Éphéméralité, Mort au Avril, Souhait Nocturne, Ensauvagement, and Dans la Tentation.

Saintonge’s pop superstars Julienne Zenné, Odile Cendrée, Bijou, Catherine Cazeneuve, Natalie Saint-Paul, Marie Stefansen, Johanne, and Justine Santagemma entertained people at the Porte de l’Ouest.

The Jardin des Saints near the Obelisque turned into a huge dance floor as act such as Bandit propre and Pika, plus DJs such as Kyle Freako, Gooeymauve, and Castille.

Saintes authorities estimate that about 500,000 people partook in the celebrations. “This a night to remember,” commented Saintes Mayor Marie-Angélique Koenig-Thoumyre, who attended the concert at Porte de l’Ouest. “Thanks to the Red Devils for giving us a victory and a reason to celebrate!”

translated by Kyle MacTaggart-de Flesselles
22 November 2021 - 1114h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Sports


by Anne-Victoire Sorbon-Lamirault in Saintes
5 December 2021 - 1025h
SAINTES – fresh out of hosting and winning the CEFA World Cup 2021, the Santonian Football Federation (Fédération saintongeaise de football, FSF) risks losing the popular goodwill over its resistance to the proposed reintroduction of the Argentin law.

Argentin Law
The Loi Argentin was a law passed by the National Party government in 1986, named after then-Minister of Culture & Sports Marc-Jonathan Argentin, who was a former ice hockey player. The Loi Argentin incorporates no-trade clauses by default in all professional contracts in team sports. A no-trade clause means a player cannot be bought, sold, or traded to another team without the player's consent. “Argentin clause” eventually became the shorthand term for no-trade clauses in Saintonge. Players and their teams may mutually agree not to have the no-trade clause in the contract, making it an opt-out system.

Loi Argentin was repealed by the Coalition government in 2017, led by then-Minister of Culture & Sports Rachel Bordier-Nadège (Liberal). Ms Bordier-Nadège blamed the Argentin law for being too inflexible, for making Santonian sports too ‘sclerotic’ and ‘boring’, for trades being less common, and for driving down player pay.

Advocates of the Loi Argentin include current deputy Brice-Cédric Charbonneau (N, 6^th Cenise), who is a former Red Devil himself, from the famed 2011 team that won Saintonge’s first World Cup. Charbonneau summed up his advocacy for the law in a twitch: “…Argentin clauses in sports contracts means DIGNITY for players. Aside from being a labour issue, it's a human rights issue. Athletes and sportspeople should not be bought, sold, or traded like slaves in a market.” Mr Charbonneau reintroduced a similar version of Loi Argentin in the 2021 Parliament, co-sponsored by Gabriel-Luc Schneiderlin (N, 1^st Sûre), a former handegg player; and Maximilien de Brincat (N, 4^th Basses-Alpes), a former ice hockey player. Current Minister of Culture & Sport Alexandre-Stachys de Beaucroissant (N, 1^st Sarine), a former footballer, endorsed the measure.

Strongly supported by the centre-left National Party, which holds an overwhelming majority of seats in Parliament, the passage of the law seemed all but certain.

Lonely Battle
Except that the FSF started to wage a lonely battle against the reintroduction of Loi Argentin. The National Assembly’s Permanent Committee on Culture & Sports invited the representatives of the major Santonian team sports federations as resource speakers. The Santonian federations for ice hockey, basketball, handegg, volleyball, and rugby supported the reintroduction of the law. The Fédération saintongeaise de main d'oeuf (FSMO, handegg) president Jourdain-Alexandre Marchessault: “The FSMO had always believed in Argentin clauses. We never removed it from our bylaws.” The FSMO even fought (and won) a lawsuit in 2017, brought by the previous Coalition government, to take down its Argentin clauses.

Kurt-Heinz Kühnhackl, president of the Fédération royale saintongeaise de hockey sur glace (FRSHG, ice hockey) said that “parts of the Argentin law remained in our bylaws. It’s easy for us to reintroduce the rest that had been removed in the past four years.”

The Santonian basketball federation went further. In a twitch, the Fédération saintongeaise de basketball (FSBkB) said that “the Santonian Basketball Federation has resolved to reinstate Argentin clauses for all its future contracts and retroactively offer them to players that weren't given the opportunity to decide.”

The Santonian baseball federation is still deliberating as of press time, although insiders say that the Fédération saintongeaise de base-ball (FSBsB) is likely to follow the other five major sports federations that put their foot down in favour of the law. This would just leave football – Saintonge’s most popular sport.

“Only the FSF had major reservations on the law,” commented the committee chair Candace-Caroline Crémont (N, 8^th Côle), an ex-volleyball player.

Ms Crémont’s comment may be an understatement, as FSF President Caroline Cercel-Radenne went on full attack mode in a press conference after the parliamentary hearing. “We have seen the improvements in Santonian football with the liberalisation of contracts. We even won the World Cup. Players and teams have put more value and effort into their work, leading to better games and better players,” Ms Cercel-Radenne said.

Rebellion brewing
“That’s b~llsh~t,” remarked Stade de Saintes midfielder Timothée-Justin "T.J." Descoteaux, captain of the Santonian national football team that won this years’ World Cup, in an interview with Saintonge Télévisions. The usually outspoken Descoteaux then followed it up with “that’s a huge leap in logic. If there were any improvements in Santonian football, it’s because of the players.” Descoteaux is one of the few remaining Première Ligue players with an Argentin clause in his contract, having signed a six-year contract in 2017, just before the Argentin law was repealed.

Ms Cercel-Radenne actually alluded to Descoteaux in a subsequent comment, “If you look at the underperforming players in teams, even in our national team, the underperforming ones have Argentin clauses in their contracts.”

Several of Descoteaux’ teammates went forward to his defence. “I think equating performance with the existence of an Argentin clause in their contract is silly,” said AS Beaucaire forward Tristan-Lambert Saint-Huile, who has no Argentin clause in his contract because he transferred in 2018. Saintes-Saints-Brice FC midfielder and Red Devils assistant captain Jonathan Jeandupeux (who also has no Argentin clause in his contract) wrote on Twitcher: “AJ St-Tobie de Coire maintained the opt-out system for Argentin clauses in their contracts, and look how the team performed last season and how their players performed well in the World Cup.”

Indeed, within the FSF, some clubs are criticising the FSF’s stance against the Loi Argentin. Leading the charge is AJ St-Tobie de Coire and five other teams that resisted the directive to dismantle the Argentin system in their contracts: En Avant de Saintes, US Ouvriers des Pouilles, CS Chantiers de Domnonée, and the sister teams AS Étoile Rouge du Nord and AS Étoile Rouge du Sud. The list of signatories in the letter penned by the six teams is growing by the day; as of press time, 26 teams have signified their support, including two other Première Ligue teams: Stade de Saintes and Tiffauges FC. Given that Santonian teams are community-owned, many teams are now dealing with activist shareholders and club members mobilising to convince their teams to support Loi Argentin.

The Professional Footballers’ Union (Union des footballeurs professionels, UFP) is also set to vote on whether to support the reinstatement of Loi Argentin. If the UFP votes to support, it would put it in a collision course with Ms Cercel-Radenne, who was a former UFP President. Ms Cercel-Radenne also got elected in 2020 as FSF President thanks to the strong lobbying by the UFP. UFP President Marie-Claire Gorée (US Ouvriers des Pouilles) said that “the union expects that Ms Cercel-Radenne would listen as to what the players would say.” Ms Cercel-Radenne, for her part, is rallying some of her support within the UFP for the FSF’s stand. “We’d want to make the game better, for the teams, the players, and the fans,” commented Ms Cercel-Radenne, “and many players support that goal… no pun intended.”

All of the other six professional players’ unions endorsed Loi Argentin and urged the UFP to do the same. “Offering Argentin clauses are ultimately geared towards the welfare of the players,” twitched Lukáš Kindl (Corsaires de Plaisance), president of the Association of Professional Ice Hockey Players (Association des joueurs professionnels de hockey sur glace, AJPHG). “If a player doesn’t want it, they can opt out. We are only fighting for the right to be given the option of having a no-trade clause. It’s not as if it is being required on all contracts.”

“It would be a shame if the UFP decides not to back Loi Argentin, as the UFP was one of its prime movers in 1986,” commented Benoît-Joseph Le Chevestrier (Bléone Volley), president of the Professional Volleyball Players’ Union (Syndicat des joueurs professionnels de volley-ball, SJPVB).

For now, the FSF doesn’t seem intent on backing down and risks being isolated among the sports federations. “The FSF thinks it has the heft and prestige to challenge the proposal,” opined Thibault-Tobie Brassart, manager of the AJ St-Tobie de Coire football team. “Given the popularity of the proposal, I won’t be surprised if the FSF’s resistance will alienate the fans.”

A MétéoSociale poll commissioned by the sports website ToutLeSport.st in 2020 indicated that of the Santonians who had an opinion on Loi Argentin, a big majority of them were against its repeal. In the poll, 34% of those surveyed said that repealing Loi Argentin was a mistake; 8% said it was good for the sports; and 58% had no opinion or were not aware of the law.

“As the debate becomes even more public, Santonian public opinion might swing towards the reinstatement of Loi Argentin,” said Mr Brassart. “That will be problematic for the FSF.”

translation by Hunter Kidlington de Collobrières
5 December 2021 - 1544h

(OOC Note: This is a letter published in all major Santonian newspapers.)

---

We, the captains of the twelve Ligue des Jarlais ice hockey teams, are writing this open letter to draw attention to the politically-motivated and xenophobic attacks made against our teammates, fellow players, and the sport itself.

We would like to first congratulate Sighvat Holt for being chosen as the new captain of the AJ St-Tobie de Coire ice hockey team. We are confident that he will lead his team brilliantly, and we look forward to some good games on the ice.

The abuse that Holt received from xenophobic politicians and their diminutive but vocal gang of supporters, however, is absolutely unacceptable. Also unacceptable are the continued stream of insults and insinuations against the sport of ice hockey and its players, especially against the good, hardworking players of immigrant descent.

We strongly believe that immigration has vastly improved the quality of Santonian ice hockey, so much so that our national team now holds its own against historically better and much-storied northern teams. The improvements in the sport are a good showcase of how immigration and integration make Saintonge better and stronger.

Our players’ union and our sports’ federation will be working on ways to improve the sport and protect it from anyone that will impugn it or its players.

We urge all Santonians to reject the xenophobic rhetoric being proffered by devious, desperate politicians who resort to divisive, polarising tactics just to maintain their relevance. We are confident that this great country and its people, who have historically welcomed and helped people in their great times of need, will stay true to its course and destiny.

Vive le Saintonge!

(Signed)

Brice-Kévin Beaudoin
Captain, ARS Saintes

Olaf-Rüttger Trabandt
Captain, Ours de Bâle

Thibault-Morgan Hercouët
Captain, Les Hermines de Béthagne-Domnonée

Alexandre Lamorlette
Captain (retired), AJ St-Tobie de Coire

Gabriel-Jonathan Beaugendre
Captain, Chevaliers de Côme

Brice-Antoine Cardonneret
Captain, CHG des Comminges

Matyáš Konfršt
Captain, Griffons du Nord

Jacob-Canute Holst
Captain, USL Novale

Hrafnkell Fjeldstad
Captain, Olympique Nyonnais

Timothée-Eugène Latendresse
Captain, Corsaires de Plaisance

Finnbjörn Kylefjord
Captain, Odinspylique de Ratisbonne

Blaise-Brendan Bodereau
Captain, Val Bléone HG

---

OOC2: Special thanks to @Prydania for his input

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Sports


by Anne-Victoire Sorbon-Lamirault in Saintes
3 January 2022 - 1620h
SAINTES – in an unprecedented and unusual move, a Santonian professional players’ union of a team sport dabbled in politics. The Association des joueurs professionnels de hockey sur glace (AJPHG), the union of professional ice hockey players in the three professional tiers of Santonian ice hockey, unanimously approved a resolution condemning the anti-immigrant Radical Party faction of Jean-Étienne Genêt. In a week of balloting during the holidays, the members of the AJPHG voted 330-0 to approve the resolution.

Ice Hockey and Immigration
The sport of ice hockey seemed to be on the hit list of the anti-immigration Radicals, ice hockey being one of the immigrant-heavy sports in Saintonge. Excluding those holding foreign citizenships, four out of every five members of AJPHG have immigrant backgrounds. This is reflected in the national team: 21 out of the 25 members of the Santonian National Ice Hockey Team come from immigrant backgrounds.

Ice hockey lagged in popularity in Saintonge throughout much of the 20th century. Santonian ice hockey had a brief renaissance after the Fascist War, when refugees from northern countries brought their love of the game to the Meterran country. This was the time when teams such as Ours de Bâle and Griffons du Nord were established.

The real surge of popularity in Saintonge started in the 1980s, when Norsian and Hessunlander refugees rekindled the Santonian ice hockey scene. This was further reinforced by the waves of Prydanians and Korovans arriving in Saintonge in the last two decades. Ice hockey is now rapidly rising in popularity in Saintonge, with even native Santonians dabbling in the sport. Many multi-sport clubs, such as AJ St-Tobie de Coire, Union Sportive Littoral de Novale, ARS Saintes, and Odinspylique de Ratisbonne reported that signups to ice hockey more than tripled during the past few years.

Still, Santonian ice hockey is still stereotypically viewed as a sport of immigrants, particularly Norsians, Hessunlanders, Prydanians, and Korovans. (Previously, ice hockey was thought of as a sport for rich people, because the gear was expensive.)

Radicals and Ice Hockey
This made the sport a particularly juicy target for the anti-immigration Radical Party faction of Jean-Étienne Genêt. Mr Genêt and the faction’s stalwarts such as François-Louis Villault tout the sport as an example of the ‘replacement theory’, where immigrants replace or crowd out ethnic Santonians.

Members of the faction regularly make comments about the sport on Twitcher. Mr Villault, for instance, implied that ice hockey is a violent Prydanian national sport, and so the immigrants are also violent.

Players react
The last straw for the ice hockey players seemed to be Mr Genêt’s 16 December twitch on the appointment of Sighvat Holt as the new captain of the Ligue des Jarlais ice hockey team AJ St-Tobie de Coire, due to the sudden illness of its captain Alexandre Lamorlette. Holt holds Prydanian citizenship, and Mr Genêt railed against “foreigners taking away positions from Santonians.”

The players of the AJ St-Tobie de Coire ice hockey team let out a strongly-worded statement on Saturday 18 December, where they supported their captain and denounced Mr Genêt. The statement was read before the teams’ game against CHG des Comminges. The players of CHG des Comminges then joined and signed the letter as well.

On Monday 20 December, a similar letter excoriated “xenophobic politicians”, obviously referring to Mr Genêt and Mr Villault. The letter was signed by all the captains of the other eleven Ligue des Jarlais ice hockey teams and Mr Lamorlette. The so-called “Captains’ Letter” said that the AJPHG and the Fédération royale saintongeaise de Hockey sur Glace (FRSHG) will take action. Brice-Kévin Beaudoin (ARS Saintes) said in an interview with STV9: “The sport and my fellow players are being unfairly mischaracterised for nefarious political ends. All we want is to be able to play the sport that we love. Ice hockey knows no ethnicity.” Val Bléone HG’s captain Blaise-Brendan Bodereau twitched that “As captains of our teams, we are going to defend our teammates, that’s our job. On ice, and even off ice. We’ve had enough. We’re tired of being a punching bag for political points.”

AJPHG’s president Lukáš Kindl (Corsaires de Plaisance) took up the cudgels for the player base on Tuesday, 21 December. Kindl, Claus-Ernst Greiffendorff (Odinspylique de Ratisbonne), and Marc-Pacôme Pierrevelcin (Pithons de Quercy) consolidated the two letters into a resolution to be voted on by the entire player base over the holidays. On December 24, players of Chevaliers de Côme hosted a community Christmas party in their arena, which is located within Mr Villault’s constituency. The team also held a public signing of the resolution and asked the Comasques to sign too. Gabriel-Jonathan Beaugendre, captain of Chevaliers de Côme, commented that “the outpouring of support we saw today is proof that Mr Villault does not represent the Comasques. He’s just a replacement deputy after all. He couldn’t even judge players correctly based on his own criteria, why would we let him set the criteria on who is Santonian and who is not?”

Kurt-Heinz Kühnhackl, president of the FRSHG, fully supported the AJPHG in a 23 December statement. Kühnhackl, who is of Hessunlander descent, said that “the politically-motivated attacks on the sport and its players must be stopped.”

AJPHG Resolution
The resolution, aside from condemning the anti-immigrant Radicals, also paves the way for possible legal actions against Mr Genêt and Mr Villault. Copies of the resolution were sent to Minister of Culture and Sport Alexandre-Stachys de Beaucroissant and to National Assembly President Sophie-Anne Laliberté. The AJPHG also directed its legal team to pursue any possible action against Mr Genêt and Mr Villault, including complaints to the relevant parliamentary bodies.

translation by Hunter Kidlington de Collobrières
3 January 2021 - 2012h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Top Stories


by Mélanie Bacrot in Saintes
10 January 2022 - 1622h
SAINTES – in a shock to the country, Prime Minister Anne-Douceline Courseaux announced that she is temporarily relinquishing her positions as Prime Minister, as parliamentary deputy, and as leader of the National Party. In an evening press-conference, flanked by the entire government of Saintonge, Ms Courseaux made the announcement.

“I would have wanted to stay with you and all of Saintonge, thankful of the trust you had given me two years ago. But circumstances have forced me to temporarily relinquish my positions, because I think it would be a disservice to you and Saintonge if I continue holding these positions that I cannot fully discharge.”

Ms Courseaux then stated the cause: “I am pregnant with twins.”

Ms Courseaux already had two sets of twins, with a total of four children. The first female Prime Minister of Saintonge had garnered praise and admiration for being able to juggle work, politics, family, and raising young children.

“But my doctor said I need to rest, since I am almost in my forties and this is a delicate pregnancy,” she related. “I hope that Saintonge understands that even Prime Ministers need their maternity and medical leaves too!”

“I am happy that my entire cabinet supports my decision, and I ask that you and all of Saintonge support my decision as well.” All of the Santonian government ministers would remain in their positions, except deputy Prime Minister Paul-Geoffroy Barèges (N, 3^rd Seudre), who would exchange positions with the National Party Leader in the National Assembly Matthieu-Gauvain Lamblin (N, 1^st Haute-Loine).


Ms Courseaux then announced the caretakers for her positions. Mr Lamblin will be Saintonge’s Prime Minister while Ms Courseaux is on leave. Mr Barèges will be the interim leader of the National Party. For her parliamentary constituency of Saine-et-Loine-21, her suppléant Jourdain-Aubin Jamelin will be sitting in her stead. Mr Lamblin and Mr Jamelin are due to be sworn in tomorrow.

translated by Kyle MacTaggart-de Flesselles
10 January 2022 - 1852h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Sports


by Jérôme-Claude Molfenter in Sauveterre-de-Comminges
9 January 2022 - 1206h
SAUVETERRE-DE-COMMINGES – a rare flap happened in the Ligue des Jarlais game yesterday between CHG des Comminges and ARS Saintes. Comminges goaltender Jesper Thorsgaard slammed and broke his stick against the net near the end of the second period, after learning that he was being pulled and replaced.

Rare Occurrence
Such outbursts are rare in Santonian hockey, which stands out as one of the leagues where violence in ice hockey is uncommon. Fighting is less common in Santonian ice hockey, and such events typically generate news. The sport in Saintonge is generally “clean”, with an average of less than three penalties taken per game. The Santonian ice hockey federation, the Fédération royale saintongeaise de hockey sur glace (FRSHG), actively discourages fighting and encourages fair and honest play.

Even in countries where such events are common, goaltenders getting irate and upset are uncommon, which made last night’s game even more remarkable.

Game
The Comminges team was very disorganised, plagued by very poor defence. At the end of the first period, the home team was down 3-0, thanks to goals by Baldr Hnappdal, Karlbjörn Slettebö, and Baldr Gudmundseth. At two minutes into the second period, a penalty shot was called against Comminges, courtesy of defender Vincent Delpeuch fouling his former teammate Finnsteinn Ramsland. Ramsland turned the puck in, out-dekeing Thorsgaard, increasing the score to 4-0.

Another Slettebö slapshot from near the blue line piled on a 5-0 lead by the middle of the second period, while Ramsland added another five minutes later as the Comminges defenders were unable to clear the front of the crease. Neither of the Saintes players celebrated their goals; Ramsland cautioned Slettebö and his teammates against doing so. The play continued, and the home team was sunk 7-0 after a Gottsveinn Robberstad backhander where Thorsgaard alone had to face three Saintes players in a three-to-one matchup.

Despite Thorsgaard stopping 50 out of 57 shots on goal in two periods, the home team was on the losing end. The disorganisation of the Comminges play was evident when Saintes goaltender Michel-Laurent Le Flore only had to stop 10 shots on goal in those same two periods.

Pullout
CHG des Comminges’ coach Matthieu-Canice Régnier decided to pull out Thorsgaard near the end of the second period, to replace him with backup goaltender Joseph-Ulrich Lehrhaupt. A visibly angry Thorsgaard pointed his stick at his team’s bench, and then proceeded to slam his stick thrice onto the net, breaking it in half on the third hit. He then threw the remnants of his stick backwards in frustration.

Saintes’ Ramsland skated to Thorsgaard, his friend and former shooting practice buddy, to talk to him and calm him down. Ramsland seemed to advise Thorsgaard against indignantly approaching his team’s bench, where his teammates all sat stone-faced at the humiliation in their home arena. Before Thorsgaard went down the tunnel back to the locker room, he shot his teammates another angry stare. Thorsgaard was then seen deliberately knocking down a holder of hockey sticks before going back to the locker room.


Third Period
The home arena’s reaction was also sullen and dour. Comminges fans started to leave after the second period, with some fans twitching: “I will be following Thorsgaard.” The remaining Comminges fans even booed their own team as Lehrhaupt gave up three more goals. This record, though, belies the statistics: Lehrhaupt managed to save 19 out of 22 shots on goal during the third period; while Saintes’ Le Flore only needed to save 7.

Comminges went down 10-0 against Saintes, in the biggest defeat of any Ligue des Jarlais team ever since Ours de Bâle flattened US Ouvriers des Pouilles 12-0 in 1994.

Reaction
Last night, FRSHG stated that it will be opening disciplinary proceedings against Thorsgaard for ‘unsportsmanly conduct’. As of this writing, Comminges’ coach Régnier still had not commented on whether he will support his goaltender, something that Thorsgaard’s teammate Tim-Dietrich Hellmuth scored on Twitcher. “You just don’t drop your player like that,” wrote Hellmuth, who is currently out on injury. Also last night, CHG des Comminges’ captain Brice-Antoine Cardonneret said on an interview on STV9 that “The team supports Jesper. We understand why he’s upset. We had failed him earlier on the ice. Let us not add more insult to the injury.”

Most veteran commentators and current players came out in support of Thorsgaard. “Goaltenders are the most unappreciated and most maligned players in hockey,” commented Gabriel-André Godart, a retired goalie who used to play for ARS Saintes and the Santonian National Ice Hockey team. “People blame goals being scored against them on the goaltender. Statistics count the goals against the goaltender. But when you look at it, in many instances, it was a failure of the defence… or the plans… or the play.”

“Goaltenders are the team’s last line of defence,” wrote Corsaires de Plaisance goaltender Joseph-Germain Hillion, “and when the puck reaches the goaltender, it means the defence broke down. 79 shots on goal against Comminges versus just 17 against Saintes? Comminges need to improve on a lot of things.”

Claus-Ernst Greiffendorff, goaltender for Odinspylique de Ratisbonne and vice-president of the player’s association Association des joueurs professionnels de hockey sur glace (AJPHG) replied to journalists that “I understand that FRSHG wants to make ice hockey a family-friendly game. However, we players are humans too; we have feelings and emotions that sometimes get the better of us. And as a goaltender, I could certainly relate with Jesper Thorsgaard.”

A similar sentiment was even expressed by the opposing goaltender during that game. In an after-game interview, ARS Saintes goaltender Michel-Laurent Le Flore said that “I can understand Jesper’s frustration… He was left hung up to dry; the defence either broke down or was absent. Even I would probably react that way.”

Greiffendorff, meanwhile, also praised ARS Saintes’ conduct during the game. With FRSHG having no ‘mercy rule’ for the professional leagues, Greifendorff found nothing wrong with ARS Saintes racking up the score, as goal differentials are used to break ties in rankings. Greiffendorff instead commended ARS Saintes’ sportsmanship. “They stopped celebrating goals, starting with Ramsland’s fourth one. Anything else would make it seem like they’re rubbing it in.” Ramsland and ARS Saintes captain Brice-Kévin Beaudoin requested the team from celebrating any subsequent goals. “We’ll just continue to play and not look at the score,” Beaudoin reportedly told his team. “Just do your best.”

translation by Hunter Kidlington de Collobrières
9 January 2022 - 1905h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Science and Technology


by Louisa Grundt in Saintes
14 January 2022 - 0902h
NOVALE (Saintonge) and HALAND (Prydania) – tucked in the respective southeastern corners of their nations, the Haland Valley is rapidly becoming the Tech Valley of Prydania because of numerous investments in the area.

Tech Valley
Saintonge’s “Silicon Valley” is the Tech Valley, located in southeastern Saintonge, spanning the departments of Basses-Alpes, Hautes-Alpes, and Tech. Contrary to popular perception, the Tech Valley is not named after its products, but after the Tech river (pronounced “Tek”). Rising from streams in the Vercors mountains, it descends down the north face of the eastern Alps, through the towns of Evolène and Brissogne, before turning eastward at Courtilon to head towards Saluces and the city of Novale. Its southern reaches are thick with high-tech industries that most people hadn’t heard about but are crucial in modern digital infrastructure.

“When people think of Santonian digital companies, they’d think of Nile, Twitcher, SMail, Facegram, Stopify, Viédeo, and the like… all headquartered in Saintes. But the physical stuff that powers this digital world is made here in the Tech Valley,” said Alexandre Maurussane, head of the Tech Valley Consortium, an alliance of the valley’s three departmental governments that aims to promote the region.

Maurussane notes that the region has a well-educated workforce, lots of land, and plenty of resources. The Tech Valley is located near the petrochemical industries of the Pouilles and copper mines in the Vercors, which provide for raw materials. Saintonge’s uranium mines in the Basses-Alpes power nearby nuclear power plants, which, along with wind, solar, and tidal energy plants, provide plentiful and reliable clean energy in the region. The seaport at Novale provide transport links to the outside world; while rail lines, including high-speed trains, connect the Tech Valley to the rest of Saintonge. Also in the area companies and institutions that are consumers of high-tech goods, such as the Alexandrie Space Station (Basses-Alpes) and the Compagnie aérospatiale saintongeaise in Novale.

Companies
One of these ‘background’ Tech Valley companies is Fonderie Saintongeaise de Semiconducteurs (FSS, “Santonian Semiconductor Manufacturing”), a large semiconductor firm that supplies microchips. With the burgeoning digital world, microchips are in increasing demand, being found not just in computers, but even in everyday objects such as cars, phones, and home appliances. FSS has a majority share of the Santonian market, which is almost fully-fulfilled by domestic production. FSS has five foundries in the Tech Valley: two in Courtilon, one in Brissogne, one in Verceil, and one in Saluces. The FSS’ foundries in Courtilon manufacture the advanced next-generation 3-nanometer chips, the demand of which is expected to rise even further in the coming years. The vertically-integrated FSS also produces the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography equipment used for making chips in Saint-Véran-sur-Tech.

“Microchips are the gold in the digital age,” said Mr Maurussane, “everything runs on it. We are happy it has such a huge presence here in the Tech Valley.”

Other companies that utilise these microchips are also located in the area. JaloC, whose factories are in Courtilon and Tende, makes graphics processing units (popularly known as “graphics cards”) and system on a chip units. The factories of AlpDisk, a maker of hard disk drives, solid-state drives, flash memory, and other data storage equipment, are located at Arles-sur-Tech and Evolène. Nolf, a Santonian electronics manufacturer, has a laptop making factory in Novale and a smartphone making one at Saluces. Sister, a company that manufactures, printers, keyboards, and peripherals for computers, also has a factory at Novale. Xenon, Sister’s competitor that also produces cameras, has a factory in Divonne. Even car manufacturer Salmson is setting up a plant in Courtilon for its smart luxury electric cars. The demand in the supply chain is high such that Santonian chemicals company Liebig set up a plant in Salernes, in the neighbouring department of the Simbruins, to meet the demand in the Tech Valley. Indeed, if Saintes is known for software, the Tech Valley is where the hardware is made.

Haland Valley
The Haland Valley in Austurland (“Eastern Land”) in Prydania shares many of the characteristics of the Tech Valley. It has a highly-educated workforce. Being one of the first areas to be liberated from the Syndicalists, it was then one of the first areas where universal basic education system was re-established, under the auspices of the FRE (royalist government). Children from the labour camps were instead sent to school, learning mathematics and science instead of making bullets. The University of Haland was one of the first universities to be de-syndicalised. This freed the educational system from the constraints of ideology and the demands of adherence to Syndicalist thought.

The Haland Valley also has good transportation links, with a cargo seaport in Haland. Highways and railways radiate out of Haland into the Haland Valley and along the coast down to Mosfell and Darrow.

Compared to Saintonge, Prydania has cheaper labour costs. Coupled with an increasingly favourable business climate, thanks to the previous Free Democrat and current Peace not Blood – Conservative government, this had enticed many Tech Valley companies to set up shop in the Haland Valley. Goods destined for Saintonge are still made in Saintonge so they would qualify as “Made in Saintonge”; however, goods destined for the world market are increasingly being made in Prydania as Santonian companies increase their market share worldwide.


Investments
The first Santonian company to move in was Ouellette-Paccard, a Santonian producer of desktop computers, monitors, and peripheral devices. Ouellette-Paccard established a manufacturing facility in Haland in 2016, even before Saintonge recognised the FRE. The company was able to do so because it was an entirely private entity with the Santonian government having no stake or equity in the company. Ouellette-Paccard responded to the call by the FRE and its foreign allies for investments in the liberated areas. Three more companies followed: imaging equipment and camera maker Tranchant (Mosfell), laptop maker Lenouveau (Haland), and Blasio (Haland), which was known for its calculators and watches.

After Saintonge recognised the FRE government in 2017, investors came flooding in. Santonian companies setting up manufacturing facilities in the Haland Valley include home appliance manufacturer Tristar (known for television sets, airconditioning units, microwaves, and various white and brown goods), networking equipment maker Frisco, AlpDisk, and JaloC. JaloC even named a series of graphics cards dedicated to gamers as “Viking”, which are made in its Mjölby plant.

For companies with significant government or SNIS/FNI investment, the Santonian government’s recognition of the FRE government took that issue away. Thus, Nolf established a plant in Haland in 2019; Xenon is constructing one in Skänninge.

The jewel of these Santonian investments is a planned FSS manufacturing facility in Hoskuldsar. Saintonge had hitherto kept its semiconductor manufacturing technology and expertise to itself. “Semiconductors are one of Saintonge’s tightly-kept commercial and technological secrets, a symbol of Santonian advancement in the technology race,” commented Santonian National Assembly deputy Finnkarl Thorstvedt (N, 6^th Haine), who was born and raised in the Haland Valley, “It is an area of active technological competition, with commercial and national security implications. Frankly, I’m surprised that FSS decided to invest in Prydania. I did not expect that. It implies that Saintonge is treating Prydania like a close ally.”

Cooperation
The governments of the Tech Valley and Haland Valley are also active in cooperation. Last month, the Tech Valley Consortium signed a cooperation agreement with the Austurland Interprovincial Council, a new organisation created by the provincial governments of North and South Austurland. North and South Austurland comprise the ancient province of Austurland. “We sought out the Tech Valley Consortium’s advice,” said the spokesperson of the Austurland Interprovincial Council, “we wanted to know how did they nurture and grow the knowledge-based, high-technology companies in their region. We want to do that for Prydania.”

translation by Jérôme-Caden Bardeloux Colcolough
14 January 2022 - 1632h

by Danielle Ponceau
03 April 2022 ~ 0623h
“Saintonge is a two-faced, unfriendly neighbour,” New Alemaner Ambassador to Saintonge Henry Dalman fumed on Twitcher last week. “Saintonge pretends to be neutral, but is clearly choosing a side. Saintonge is a war profiteer!”

The comment immediately earned a clapback from Saintonge. Santonian Prime Minister Matthieu-Gauvain Lamblin responded, “On Santonian neutrality: Saintonge is only neutral when it comes to belligerents. Saintonge shall always be on the side of the oppressed, the vulnerable, the victims.”

Mr Lamblin added some more snark: “We can’t be war profiteers if there never was a war, can we?” New Aleman had started the escalation of the war by invading Predice last year.

Other parts of Saintonge’s government piled on. “If I was the foreign minister, I would’ve had the New Aleman ambassador declared persona non grata and expelled from the country,” commented Charles-Ferdinand de Pontleroy, chair of the National Assembly’s Permanent Committee on Foreign Affairs. “Fortunately for him, it’s not me who is the foreign minister, but my fiancée.”

New Aleman’s petroleum problems
Ambassador Dalman’s tirade came after Saintonge rejected New Aleman’s appeal to increase the oil and gas being sent to New Aleman through the Spire-Seehafen Link pipeline. New Aleman asked Saintonge to augment the oil supply by 50% and the gas supply by 20%.

New Aleman has now become totally dependent on Saintonge and the vital Spire-Seehafen Link (SSL) for its petroleum supply. Previously, the oil and gas companies of the two countries signed a supply agreement in 2018. The Compagnie saintongeaise des pétroles (CSP), Saintonge’s state-owned oil and gas company, would supply its southern neighbour with 313,000 barrels of oil per day (114 million barrels per year) and 2.17 million cubic metres of gas per day (790 million cubic metres per year).


“That’s about 60% of the New Aleman oil supply and 80% of its gas supply,” said Professor Carine Marcotte-Gaudreau of the École nationale des mines in Côme. “Because it is an international pariah, New Aleman has found it difficult to find countries willing to sell petroleum products to it. The rest of its oil imports have to go by sea… until now.”

With Predice gaining the upper hand in the war in the recent months, seaborne New Alemaner petroleum imports have been brought to a near complete halt as Predice blockaded New Alemaner ports. Overseas exporters to New Aleman have also voluntarily cut back, for fear that Predice might seize their cargo or they might not be paid.

“Hence, New Aleman asked that Saintonge fill up that gaping hole in their supply,” Prof. Marcotte-Gaudreau added.

Prediceans pull to the opposite direction
Pro-Predicean campaigners, on the other hand, lambasted Saintonge’s continued sending of oil and gas to New Aleman as being tantamount to supplying the New Alemaner war machine. “Santonian oil and gas are killing Prediceans,” protested Justine Santagemma, a Predicean-Santonian singer and an anti-war campaigner. In November 2021, a petition with almost two million signatures was sent to the Santonian National Assembly, to stop Saintonge from exporting oil and gas to New Aleman.

Predice itself was largely officially publicly silent on the matter, as the continued supply of oil and gas to New Aleman was a part of the Collignon Agreement signed in April 2021. The Collignon Agreement ensures the neutrality of the waters of the Cottian Lake and the airspace above it, ensuring that Predice can use them for transport and resupply from Saintonge. In exchange, the SSL and the railway and roads connecting Saintonge and New Aleman would not be attacked.

A notable exception to the official silence was the Grand Doge of Predice’s New Year’s speech, where Saintonge was implicitly criticised for its stance: "… some countries, despite our protests, continue to fuel this murderous regime with money and food… If your wish is to keep supporting this regime to the end, then the history books shall judge it. Our children will look up to us as heroes, while yours will look up to you as enabling murderers."

In private, however, Predice has even stronger and harsher words for Saintonge as it had been exerting strong pressure on Saintonge to halt the export of oil and gas and to sever those supply links to New Aleman. “The Prediceans had been very persistent in asking that Saintonge stop supplying New Aleman,” said a third country’s diplomat in Saintes, who wanted to remain anonymous. “Predice was saying: if Saintonge stops the supply to New Aleman’s war, the war would stop, the refugee flow would stop.”

Santonian public opinion
Public opinion in Saintonge had been mostly in favour of Predice, thanks to cultural and linguistic links, a successful pro-Predice social media campaign, and the presence of the Predicean diaspora in Saintonge. In a Populus/STV/L’Indépendant poll in May 2021, 91% of Santonians polled wanted Predice to win the war. However, Santonians are also loath to abandon Santonian neutrality. In the same poll, 66% of respondents said that Saintonge should stick to its neutrality. Still, public pressure and demonstrations indicate that Santonians are strongly on Predice’s side of the conflict.

Civil society had mobilised in favour of Predice. There had been a never-ending vigil in front of the New Aleman embassy in Saintes since the outbreak of the war last year – a protest that has went round-the-clock for almost 15 months and running. People in Saintonge have been massively donating to Predicean causes, with some even sending privately-bought military equipment. Dockworkers’ unions at all of Saintonge’s Cottian Lake harbours refused to load and unload New Alemaner ships, effectively shutting out New Alemaner shipping from the Cottian Lake. This meant that only Predice gets to enjoy the benefits of the military neutrality of the Cottian Lake.


Santonian public opinion had been inflamed even more with reports of New Alemaner atrocities in Predice, such as the Le Graët letter. Protesters have been blockading the Col du Faivre – one of the two road links between Saintonge and New Aleman protected in the Collignon Agreement – for seven months already. Fifteen incidents of attempted sabotage of the SSL had been recorded, so much so that members of the Santonian 807^th Infantry Battalion had been guarding the SSL since September 2021. Along the stretch of Saintonge Autoroute 99 between Juliers and the frontier with New Aleman – the only remaining open road link between Saintonge and New Aleman – all roadside billboards have been bought by campaigners. Those southbound to New Aleman show pictures of New Alemaner atrocities against Predice and asks motorists “Unterstützt du das?“ (“Do you support this?”) Upon reaching the border village of Brettendorf-des-Frontières, activists reach out and have a ‘heart-to-heart’ talk to urge the truckers to turn around, as the truckers wait for Santonian customs to process their cargo.


All aid short of war
The Santonian government had to tread the fine line between maintaining neutrality and non-intervention, and following the overwhelmingly pro-Predice public opinion.

“If neutrality wasn’t ingrained in Saintonge’s national psyche, it would’ve intervened in favour of Predice a long time ago,” said former Santonian Deputy Foreign Minister for Meterra Raphaël Santaniello.

The Santonian government moved the needle slightly towards Predice, with a response termed by then-Deputy Prime Minister Lamblin as “toute aide sauf la guerre”. “Saintonge should provide Predice will all aid short of joining the war,” Lamblin wrote on Facegram last March 2021. “Saintonge should stand with victims of aggression.”

The Santonian public had largely countenanced the Santonian government’s response regarding the war, with its actions meeting broad domestic approval. Setting aside its own immigration quotas, Saintonge had taken in almost one million Predicean children fleeing the war, as per the Rossignol Agreement. Traditionally debt-averse Saintonge is running a budget deficit to support the refugees. It is also raising funds for the refugees in Saintonge, along with coordinating humanitarian aid through the International Red Heart Society (Société internationale de la Coeur-Rouge, IRHS-SICR). Santonian diplomats had remained in Predice to assist in evacuations not only of Santonian citizens, but also of refugees. In some instances, such as in Vittoria and Bellaterra, the Santonian diplomats sheltered Predicean civilians in the consulates itself.

The aid extends beyond humanitarian support. Saintonge has allowed the sale of military equipment to Predice. Years of joint Santonian-Predicean military cooperation started to bear fruit for Predice. In the past two decades, Saintonge and Predice jointly developed planes, ships, tanks, equipment and other weaponry, which meant that Predicean soldiers could easily operate recent Santonian military equipment without need for additional or special training. For instance, Saintonge sold to Predice two recently-completed Corb-class frigates, originally destined for the Royal Santonian Navy. Also sold to Predice were the 23 Falcon fighter aircraft that rolled off the Compagnie aérospatiale saintongeaise production facilities in Novale and Joinville.


Saintonge had given Predice unprecedented access to Saintonge’s massive military-industrial manufacturing capacity. As to Ambassador Dalman’s accusation that Saintonge is profiting off the war: Predice is getting the equipment on credit.

Santonian credit lines
Technically speaking, Saintonge is not selling equipment to Predice on credit. “It’s more complicated,” said Mr. Santaniello, “Saintonge uses some contorted arrangements to make it seem that Predice is also paying for the equipment.”

The arrangement between Saintonge and Predice uses the Fonds d'amitié pour la reconstruction et le relèvement (FARR, Friendship Fund for Reconstruction and Recovery) - a minimal-interest state loan from Saintonge that was originally set up for Predice’s infrastructural reconstruction and economic recovery after the overthrow of Communism. Predice secured Saintonge’s consent to use the FARR to pay for the Predicean military equipment purchases from Saintonge.

“Essentially, Saintonge is lending money to Predice through the FARR; Predice then uses the FARR to buy military equipment from Saintonge,” Mr. Santaniello said. “Take out the intermediaries, and Saintonge is essentially providing Predice the military equipment on credit.”

“The reason why Saintonge had to use such complicated arrangements is that it is not prepared to extend the same to New Aleman,” added Mr. Santaniello.

New Aleman did indeed ask to buy from Saintonge on credit. Last May 2021, New Aleman asked if it could buy the oil and gas on credit. The CSP refused, insisting on being paid immediately on a daily basis, as the economically-troubled New Aleman had a history of delayed payments to the CSP.

The Santonian government framed it as a business decision by the CSP. “We have no control over the business decisions by the Compagnie saintongeaise des pétroles,” said Santonian Energy Minister Florian-Donnedieu Mattus.

When Ambassador Dalman again criticised the Santonian government after the refusal, he was again met by a barrage of ripostes from Santonian leaders.

“Does Ambassador Dalman think that Saintonge works like New Aleman, where state-owned companies are merely lackeys of the central government?” Santonian Commerce Minister Isabelle Vautrin-Caillaud commented. “If it was up to me, I would’ve cancelled the CSP’s contract with New Aleman… but alas, the CSP is not a lackey of the central government.”

“I cannot accept that New Aleman has no money to pay for the resources it is importing from us but it has money to wage a destructive war of aggression against a neighbour,” commented then-deputy prime minister Lamblin.

“New Aleman wants to buy Santonian military equipment?” mused MP Fabien-Caël Guyonnet, chair of the National Assembly Permanent Committee on Defence, last June 2021. “Never mind if they have the money, but can they even fly modern Santonian planes and pilot modern Santonian ships?”

Even the country’s leader of the opposition was scathing. Liberal leader Paul-Lenthéric Baumann said in Parliament that “Saintonge’s military and industrial companies sell to Predice because Predice has the funds for it… never mind that the funds came from us, because Predice asked for them years ago and deserved to be helped. New Aleman is free to come and ask Saintonge for loans to pay for its purchases, but I will be the first to oppose it in this chamber because New Aleman, the aggressor in this conflict, does not deserve to be helped.”

Another refusal
The Santonian government again left it to CSP to respond to New Aleman’s request to increase the oil and gas supply. In a statement, the CSP cited supply and capacity issues. “Southern Saintonge already has a tight oil and gas supply because of bottlenecks due to the delays in the construction of the Trans-Santonian Pipeline II. The CSP agreed to the 2018 supply agreement as this was the maximum amount it could commit to New Aleman without compromising other energy customers in Southern Saintonge.”

The SSL is a spur of the Trans-Santonian Pipeline I, and southern Saintonge already experiences higher gasoline prices than the rest of the country due to the bottleneck. “CSP’s position is perfectly justified. If it agrees to New Aleman’s request, it would mean less oil and gas to southern Saintonge,” said Prof. Marcotte-Gaudreau. “It’s also the reason why Saintonge’s export of oil to Predice goes by sea, not across the Cottian Lake.”


As expected, Santonians welcomed CSP’s response.

“New Aleman is asking for an increase in oil supply so its vehicles can continue invading Predice,” said Ms Santagemma, “and it’s high time that Saintonge refuse that.”

“Ratisbonne and its people are not willing to go cold just because New Aleman wants to be able to continue its unjust war,” declared Luc-Heinrich Siebentritt, mayor of the southern city. “Even better if the oil be used to transport refugees to safety, those gas to heat up the buildings housing the refugees.”

Saintonge is not likely to turn off the oil and gas spigots entirely.

“The CSP is continuing to provide oil and gas to New Aleman as a humanitarian gesture,” Prime Minister Lamblin said in a press conference. “We in Saintonge don’t want New Alemaners to get cold, to not have electricity. If the New Aleman government diverts those resources to its war, then they shouldn’t blame Saintonge that their people don’t have enough.”

translated by Kyle MacTaggart-de Flesselles
03 April 2021 - 1520h

OOC note: Thanks to @Predice and @Norsia for their comments and inputs!

by Matthieu-Gauvain Lamblin, MP
03 May 2022 ~ 0915h
The Kingdom of Saintonge is world-famous for its neutrality, having been neutral since the Santonian Revolution in the 1790s. But what is Santonian neutrality? It’s something that everyone knows exist but everyone struggles to define. Ask the person on the street, the Santonian government, or foreign diplomats, and all of them will have widely differing interpretations of Santonian neutrality. Or even the word neutrality itself and the characteristics of it.

History of Santonian neutrality
Before the Santonian Revolution, Saintonge was anything but neutral. For instance, in 1511, Saintonge supported the claim of Baldr III to the Prydanian throne, even sending an expeditionary force led by Crown Prince Baldéric (future King Baldéric III ‘the Bold’). In 1698, Saintonge was rumoured to be forging an alliance with Astragon, then in a war against Syrixia over control of the Meterran Sea. In response, Syrixia sank the bulk of the Royal Santonian Navy moored in Saintes. Syrixia and Astragon subsequently intervened with the opposing factions in the Second Ducal War, internationalising the civil war.

Santonian neutrality emerged after the Santonian Revolution. Historian Amélie d’Hennebont cited several factors for the development of Santonian neutrality. The country had no appetite for armed conflict after a destructive civil war. After the Revolution, most nobles, who wage wars for dynastic, titular, territorial, and other self-serving reasons, were extirpated, leaving fewer reasons to have wars. The institution of democracy meant that the people, through their representatives, have to assent before any Santonian government could wage war. With universal suffrage came voting rights for women; and the female voting demographic tends to favour peaceful resolution of disputes. Over time, the only widely accepted reason why Saintonge would wage war was if Saintonge itself was attacked or invaded.

Saintonge asserted its neutral status multiple times throughout the past two centuries. During the Second Nordic-Syrixian War, Prime Minister Brice-Ulrich Charbonneau insisted on Saintonge’s right as a neutral to trade with both sides. In 1821, Prime Minister Charbonneau further enforced this by ordering the Royal Santonian Navy to escort Santonian ships supplying food to Syrixia, then at risk of famine due to the eruption of Mt Meru and the disruption of its trade due to war.

During the Fascist War, Saintonge maintained diplomatic relations with all belligerent countries and our diplomatic service sometimes served as a conduit for warring countries to send messages to each other. In Dominion countries, Santonian diplomats helped save ‘unwanted’ individuals such as Shaddaists; in Prydania alone, tens of thousands of Shaddaists escaped via Santonian legations. During and in the aftermath of war, Saintonge was able to send food aid to the people from both sides, saving thousands, if not millions, from starvation.

In this regard, Santonian neutrality had taken a more humanitarian dimension. Neutrality also became a means to an end – Saintonge would also wield its neutrality to help people. Some people would question whether supplying food to the people of an enemy country or whether recognising a loathsome government in order to save oppressed people is compatible with neutrality. Those questioning it may have different interpretations of neutrality.

What is Santonian neutrality?
Despite Santonian neutrality being something ingrained in the country’s DNA and politics, it was never defined in the 227 years post-Revolution. People might even be surprised that Santonian neutrality is neither embedded in the constitution nor enshrined in law. Pore through the 1795 Constitution or delve into the myriad of laws the Santonian Parliament has passed ever since – not one of them define what Santonian neutrality is.

Saintonge’s neutral status is well-accepted throughout the world. Some countries will have their neutrality recognised and/or codified (sometimes even forced upon them) by treaties, international agreements, or local laws. Saintonge never did so.

Instead, Saintonge maintains what is called armed neutrality. With armed neutrality, Saintonge prepares to defend itself against incursions from any party. This is typified by the defensive posture of the Royal Santonian Armed Forces and the maintenance of conscription in Saintonge. Since Saintonge exhibits a credible capability to repel any foreign invasion, no country has dared attack Saintonge for more than two centuries. And because the only widely accepted reason for Saintonge to go to war was if Saintonge itself was attacked or invaded, Saintonge never had to go to war.

Neutrality of different flavours
This armed neutrality is part of Saintonge’s military neutrality. This is, in my opinion, the basic Santonian neutrality upheld through the past two centuries and which Saintonge should maintain. Saintonge will still be militarily non-aligned – not part of any military alliance capable of dragging its members into an offensive war.

Being militarily neutral doesn’t mean that a country has to be politically neutral. Saintonge could and should still join regional and international organisations that will be able to help the country and the world. For example, Saintonge had applied and was admitted to the Meterra Economic Treaty Association (META), in 2020. During the lead-up to the META Membership Referendum, Article 3 of the META Charter had been misconstrued as a mutual defence clause; however, the ‘aid’ indicated there doesn’t have to be joining the war. This is one of the bases for Saintonge’s actions for Predice (a META member) during the latter’s war against New Aleman.

Saintonge never intended its neutrality to cover political neutrality, otherwise it would have been emasculated from acting or commenting on foreign affairs. Santonian non-intervention should not be confused with political neutrality. Non-intervention simply means that Saintonge will not significantly interfere with another country’s internal affairs. This is a lower bar than political neutrality, wherein Saintonge will not publicly and privately take sides in any conflict.

Saintonge was never politically neutral: its foreign policy is aimed towards humanitarian assistance, the promotion of democracy, and the maintenance of peace. Imagine if Saintonge professed political neutrality during the Fascist War: it would not have lodged diplomatic protests against atrocities; neither would it have saved lives.

Saintonge would always stand with the downtrodden and the oppressed. This will not be served by political neutrality.

Lastly, there is also economic neutrality, an idea that sprouted up recently with the Predice-New Aleman War. Some advocate that to be truly neutral, Saintonge had to supply both sides of a conflict. This is a foolish idea. As Saintonge has ditched political neutrality already, it does not make sense to maintain economic neutrality. Saintonge doesn’t have to trade with an unpleasant regime if it does not want to. Saintonge can and should use trade as a tool to further its foreign policy aims. Over the years, Saintonge had provided loans and investments (development aid to Norsia, Predice, Prydania, etc.), wielded tariffs and trade (additional tariffs for countries and products using slave labour, child labour, or unfair labour practices), and supplied food (to prevent famine in conflict zones) in order to further its foreign policy goals. Like with political neutrality, Saintonge never professed economic neutrality. It may insist in trading with both sides of the conflict as the right of a neutral, non-belligerent country, but it may also choose to trade only with one side if it wants to.

Having defined the different flavours of neutrality, it is clear what flavour Saintonge prefers. Saintonge shall continue to be militarily neutral. Saintonge can’t be politically or economically neutral.

Mr Matthieu-Gauvain Lamblin is the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Saintonge.

translated by Kyle MacTaggart-de Flesselles
03 May 2022 - 1123h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Top Stories


by Clarence-Marie Chantôme in Saintes
26 July 2022 - 1452h

SAINTES – the Constitutional Court of Saintonge yesterday sided with the Institut royal de la statistique et des études économiques (IRSEE, Royal Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies), the country’s civil registry and statistical authority, on an issue raised by a transgender group regarding changing sex in their personal documents.

In a 6-0 decision, the Constitutional Court, charged with reviewing laws, ministerial decrees, and government orders and policies, largely upheld the IRSEE’s policy on changing the sex in personal documents.

IRSEE Policy
The IRSEE’s policy, promulgated in 2018, allowed transsexuals to change the sex in their national identity cards (carte nationale d’identité, CNI), after a judicial hearing and evidence of sex transition or change (either chemical or surgical). The process is similar to a change in name, in which a judicial hearing is required in an administrative court before the change is granted.

Transsexual activist group Genres Égales said that the policy ‘did not go too far enough’. Genres Égales’ chair Martine Berment said that the process is ‘tedious’ and ‘humiliating’ to go through. The group wanted that individuals can change sex with a mere declaration to IRSEE. “That should be enough,” said Ms Berment. "We only need a simple declaration to IRSEE about a change in residence, why not sex?"

Digging further, Genres Égales also challenged an old 1956 IRSEE policy which added a third category to sex in the CNI, D for divers (“others”), to cover intersex individuals. Genres Égales also wanted to expand it to cover non-binary people or even have no sex marker at all.

Genres Égales also petitioned the Constitutional Court to force IRSEE to issue new birth certificates to individuals with their preferred sex. The group also wanted the ability to change their National Identification Number (Numéro d'identification national, NIN), which includes sex as one of the information used to generate the NIN. (The 11^th character of the NIN is the person’s sex.)

Court Decision
The Court decision, primarily written by Justice Humbert-Jean de Vogelaëre, was unusual as it delved into the complexities of sex and gender. Justice de Vogelaëre defined several sex and gender related terms. Sex, Justice de Vogelaëre said, is construed to be biological for the purposes of vital statistics and civil registry. Biological sex has four main types:

• genetic sex, whether the individual possesses a Y chromosome (male) or not (female);
• gonadal sex, whether an individual possesses testes (male) or ovaries (female);
• ductal sex, whether an individual has mature derivatives of the mesonephric ducts like the vas deferens (male) or mature derivatives of the Müllerian duct like ovaries and fallopian tubes (female); and
• phenotypic sex, whether the individual has a penis and scrotum (male), or a vagina and vulva (female)

Biological sex is determined at birth. Any discordance between any of these four main types is classified as an intersex. The 1956 policy addressed that, in which intersex newborns can be registered as such instead of being pigeonholed into male and female.

Sexual orientation or gender preference, Justice de Vogelaëre said, describes to whom (which gender) is a person attracted to. Under this group are categories such as gay, lesbian, and bisexual.

Justice de Vogelaëre then teased apart the difference between sex and gender. Gender identity is one’s internal sense of self or identity (whether one thinks of themselves as male, female, genderqueer, and so on). Gender expression is how one embodies gender attributes and present themselves (whether one acts masculine, feminine, androgynous, and so on).

After clearing the terminological minefield, the Constitutional Court mostly sided with IRSEE, largely because the IRSEE uses sex rather than gender.

The Constitutional Court upheld IRSEE allowing a change in the sex in the national identity cards, but the process must be followed. “A process is required to change the name of an individual, and that same process should be required to change any other information with regards to the individual,” wrote Justice de Vogelaëre in the decision. “However, IRSEE must ensure that the process is fair, accessible, and not an undue burden.” Justice de Vogelaëre countered one of Genres Égales' argument, saying that "one's address or place of residence doesn't appear in the national ID card, unlike sex."

Genres Égales scored a victory, though, when the Court asked IRSEE to allow individuals to leave the “Sex” category blank in their ID cards, leaving the options to be “Male”, “Female”, “Others” and blank. The “Others” category should also be open to nonbinary individuals, not just intersex individuals.

For the rest, the Constitutional Court concurred with the IRSEE. New certificates of birth or national identification numbers will not be re-issued when an individual changes sex. Said Justice de Vogelaëre: “The certificate of birth is a public, historical record of an event. Historical records are not changed a posteriori, years later, when changes occur. And since the national identification number is linked to that certificate of birth, it, too, must be immutable.” For Santonian citizens, the NIN contains information on the date of birth and sex at birth.

Justice de Vogelaëre added another analogy. “The NIN doesn’t change when the individual changes names, such as when a woman gets married or an individual petitions for a change in name. When that happens, one gets a Certificate of Marriage or a Certificate of Change of Name; one doesn’t change the Certificate of Birth. Likewise, IRSEE also gives out a Certificate of Change of Sex; one shouldn’t change the Certificate of Birth.”

Moreover, Justice de Vogelaëre reiterated that birth certificate references sex, not gender identity. “We cannot possibly divine what an infant now will think what gender they would belong to years or even decades from their time of birth.”

Reaction
Genres Égales expressed dismay at the decision by the Constitutional Court. “This is institutionalised transphobia!” roared Ms Berment at an impromptu protest in the Place de la Constitution. “Our bodies, our sex, our lives, we should be the ones determining that, not IRSEE!” The impromptu protest was joined by Green member of Parliament Aglaé Delcassé (V, Saintes-18). Ms Delcassé said that she would introduce bills in the National Assembly to override IRSEE’s current policy.

To many observers’ surprise, three LGBT members of the Santonian National Assembly agreed with the decision by the Constitutional Court. Ms Sacha Brouillette (N, Saintes-13), the only transgender member of Parliament; Joseph-Claude Cazaud (N, Saintes-7), a gay activist and sometimes drag queen; and Nicholas-Marie Delambre (N, Lisle-8), also a gay activist and a former president of the Arc-en-Ciel coalition of LGBT rights groups, said in a statement that “The Constitutional Court had done an excellent job understanding and navigating the intricacies of sex and gender. The decision lays out what is dependent on sex or gender. It gives satisfactory resolution that transsexuals and nonbinary individuals can be officially recognised and treated in the sex where they belong.”

In another interview with STV after the decision was released, Ms Brouillette, a male-to-female transgender who had sex-reassignment surgery when she was 27, said that “I don’t have a problem with my birth certificate saying I was male at birth. Is that false? No it’s not. I was born with a Y chromosome, a pair of testes, and a penis. It is what it is. What’s more important to me is that I can easily get my change of sex recognised officially and legally; the Certificate of Change in Sex is more important to me.”

“There are a lot more problems and challenges the LGBT community face than the sex in our birth certificates getting our gender identity wrong.”

translated by Kyle MacTaggart-de Flesselles
26 July 2022 - 1922h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Top Stories


by Francine Tarassioux in Saintes
20 August 2022 - 0952h

SAINTES – During the budget deliberations in Parliament yesterday, the Leader of the Opposition, Liberal Paul-Lenthéric Baumann (L, Lauter-2), scored the proposed budget for the Agriculture Ministry: “This budget is bloated because the government doesn’t make the market work for agriculture.”

Mr Baumann singled out multiple big-ticket items in the Agriculture Budget. “These distort the market!”

Price Stabilisation Programme (Programme de stabilisation des prix)
The Price Stabilisation Programme (PSP) is one of the longest-running government programs in Saintonge. The forerunner of this programme was established in 1817. The PSP aims to stabilise prices of basic foodstuffs in Saintonge by intervening in the market supply-and-demand. When prices of a particular good goes below the “floor price” – a level in which farmers would start to break even or suffer losses for producing that good – the government steps in the demand side by buying the excess supply. This excess supply is then either stored in government warehouses, given as unemployment benefits or food support to the poor, exported to other markets, or sent as foreign aid. However, when the prices of the good rises beyond the “ceiling price” due to increase in demand, the Ministry steps on the supply side by releasing the stocks to bring down prices.

Mr Baumann balked at the programme’s cost of 35 billion livres (23.33 billion IBU), which was almost one-quarter of the Agriculture Ministry’s 149 billion livre (99 billion IBU) budget. Mr Baumann urged the government to cut the programme, especially as Saintonge was running the maximum allowable budget deficit of 0.35% of the GDP under the weight of more than a million children and refugees from Predice.

“This proposed budget has a deficit of 36 billion livres (24 billion IBU),” Mr Baumann said. “That’s almost the entire cost of PSP. Eliminate this programme, and you eliminate almost all the deficit.”

“Saintonge is running deficits for what? Making flour mountains, wine lakes, butter walls, and sausage curtains?”

According to the Santonian Ministry of Agriculture, the PSP has been on a “buy mode” for almost a decade. Fuelled by improved productivity and increased number of farms and homesteads, the country’s agricultural production had skyrocketed. This has produced a glut in supply and depressed prices. PSP had been buying the excess foodstuffs feverishly.

For instance, Santonian wheat production in 2021 was 55 million metric tonnes, well in excess of the 32 million metric tonnes Saintonge consumed in 2021. Roughly half of the excess supply was exported, but the PSP bought 11 million metric tonnes for almost three billion livres (2 billion IBU). Saintonge currently has wheat and flour reserves to last for two years. Similar stories are repeated for every other basic foodstuff in the PSP, including wine, butter, corn, vegetable oil, and meats.

“We’re not going to face the Ten Plagues of Shaiva,” Mr Baumann said. “There’s no need to stock up on food. Are you waiting for another Mount Meru eruption?”

“Dented but not Destroyed”
Agriculture Minister Georges-Fulbert Meslot (N, Loing-4) defended the budget. “Without the PSP, many farmers would make losses or go bankrupt.”

“Then the Agriculture Ministry’s job is to encourage them to shift to more profitable crops,” Mr Baumann retorted.

In an intervention, deputy Paul Pavageau (N, Coole-2), a farmer from central Saintonge, said that “The Ministry of Agriculture already has a programme for that, but you don’t understand agriculture. Farmers cannot easily switch crops like you can easily change what a factory can manufacture. You need entire seasons – or years – to do so. And even then, you can’t just plant any crop anywhere. The soil and the climate must be right. You cannot buy the right soil or right climate just as you can buy equipment for your factory.”

Mr Pavageau tried to focus on the significance of the Santonian food stocks. “The stocks of food that we have, we have historically distributed it during the Fascist War to starving people of the world… more recently, it had kept alive Hessunlanders, Prydanians, and currently, Prediceans and Oklusis.”

“How much was used up, then?” Mr Baumann asked.

Mr Meslot, the Agriculture Minister, gave the relevant figures. “For wheat, we have used up 4.5 million metric tonnes for Predice and the Predicean Youth Communities; one million metric tonne for Oklusia. There still remains 66.8 million metric tonnes of wheat and flour in storage.”

“The flour mountain was dented, but not destroyed, then,” Mr Baumann concluded.

Make the Market Work
Mr Baumann said that the Liberal Party deputies will be voting against the budget if the “the substantial size of the PSP remains.”

“We should make the market work for farmers,” said Mr Baumann. “There are a lot of opportunities for export via the Food Security Organisation. The government should stay out of it.”

translated by Kyle MacTaggart-de Flesselles
20 August 2022 - 1132h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Top Stories


by Géraldine Guisgand in Céret and Tancredo Calogero in Saintes
12 September 2022 - 0822h
THE VIA – after an absence of 666 years, a Courantist bishop is back in Saintonge. At last week’s consistory in the Via, Courantist Pope John IX created as cardinal Pancrazio Giafferi, of Predicean citizenship, previously the apostolic delegate to the Republic of Oklusia. After giving him the red hat, Cardinal Giafferi was invested with the Titular Bishopric of Saintes (Episcopatus Santonensis in partibus infidelium) and the role of Apostolic Vicariate of Saintonge (Vicariatus Apostolicus Santonicus). The latter position was established in the recently-issued Apostolic Constitution In Fidelis Antiqua Terra (“In the old faithful land”). This meant that Saintonge now has a Courantist prelate.

History
The Courantist Church has been extirpated in Saintonge for more than half a millennium, after the Investiture Controversy. The Investiture Controversy was fought between the idea of the prerogative of the Courantist Pope to name anyone he wants as bishop versus the Santonian tradition of the diocesan chapters nominating and electing their bishops, which would simply be customarily approved by the Via. In 1342, the Courantist Pope rejected the Santonian nominee for the Patriarch-Archbishop of Saintes; instead, the Courantist Pope wanted to install his own teenaged cardinal-nephew to one of the richest dioceses at the head of the Santonian church. Saintonge resisted this nepotism; this brought about the Santonian schism and formation of the Santonian National Church (SNC) in the 1345 Synod of Sens.

The Santonian government supported the breakaway church, and King Archambault II issued the Edict of Vantes in 1347, evicting and exiling most of the nonjuring prelates and the remaining Courantists. The last prelate to be expelled was Humbert Cancerelle, Courantist Bishop of Brague, who tried to organise resistance in the mountainous border province of the Beyre. Bishop Cancerelle was captured in 1350 as he crossed back into Saintonge from Grescia (now part of Oklusia). Imprisoned for six years, Bishop Cancerelle was exiled to Rabensburg (now in Mintoria) in 1356 after foreign diplomatic lobbying. Saintonge would have no resident Courantist prelate until now – a gap of 666 years.

Courantist Church in Saintonge
The Edict of Vantes outlawed the Courantist Church in Saintonge. Because of its history with the Courantist Church, the church had been reviled as a foreign institution used as an instrument to meddle in Saintonge’s affairs. This persisted throughout the centuries, even during the Age of Nobility, when the Santonian monarchy was severely weakened. Powerful local nobles locked horns with the Santonian church, the only national institution left that is able to oppose them, but the nobles were not able to leverage the Courantist Church to oppose the SNC. For instance, when Duke Georges V of the Soleure quarrelled with Bishop Marc-Émile Canteloube de Canson of Soleure, the duke had the bishop expelled from his domains in 1607. The Duke of the Soleure also invited Courantist missionaries to replace the priests of the SNC. However, King Charles IV ‘the Simple’ and three neighbouring dukes (Modane, Grésivaudan, Griffonné) promptly marched their armies to reinstall Bishop Canteloube de Canson and remove the Courantists from the province.

Things started to ease after the Santonian Revolution. While Santonian citizens were formally required to be members of the church, practicing the religion was not made compulsory. Still, membership in the SNC is still a requisite for acquiring citizenship; thus, many immigrants integrating into Santonian society have to convert to the state church. As the church does not monitor practice, some of these immigrants lapsed back to the Courantist Church.

Thus, Courantists in Saintonge mostly consists of two groups: immigrants and non-citizens who are Courantist, and Santonian citizens who had converted or reverted back to Courantism. Santonian citizenship is not withdrawn if one moves away from the SNC, as there is technically no way to renounce SNC membership. These people are still counted as SNC members even if they practice other religions.

The first Courantist Church in Saintonge was the Church of the Virgin of the Assumption (Chiesa della Santa Maria Assunta, Église de l’Assomption de Sainte Marie) in Nyon, built by Predicean immigrants in 1840. Nyon and Alessano have had a special relationship since the 11th century, and the friendship survived even between the (Courantist) Archdiocese of Alessano and (Santonian) Archdiocese of Nyon. Archbishop Alexandre Hoellard of Nyon allowed its construction for the Prediceans in the city, provided that the Courantists did not proselytise. The superintendent of the department of Bouche-du-Rhâne, which covers Nyon, tried to block its construction, but he was overruled by the Liberal government of Prime Minister Archambault de la Mothe III. Since then, the entire territory of Saintonge was put under the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Alessano.


Immigration
Saintonge experienced bouts of heavy immigration throughout the past two centuries, which brought in Courantists from diverse nations. Heavily Courantist Predice contributed the most immigrants to Saintonge in the past 150 years. Prydania, particularly those from the country’s east, also contributed much to Saintonge’s Courantist population. Eukluzi from Oklusia and religious Hessunlanders were the next largest sources of Courantist immigrants. Many of them converted, given the striking similarities between the Courantist Church and the Santonian National Church.

According to In Fidelis Antiqua Terra, which established the Apostolic Vicariate of Saintonge, the vicariate was erected to fulfil the spiritual needs of the Predicean refugees who fled the Predice-New Aleman War. Within the last year, Saintonge had accepted more than one million Predicean children and their guardians. It was recognised that the existing structure of the Courantist Church in Saintonge, which was dependent on the Archbishopric of Alessano, was inadequate. Saintonge only had 45 accredited Courantist priests out of a Courantist resident population of approximately two million, mostly new migrants and temporary refugees.

Searching for Solutions
Santonian Minister for Church Affairs Geneviève Boisjoly, whose ministry is responsible for registering foreign churches and accrediting their priests, wanted to recruit Courantist priests for the refugees but faced backlash, both in Parliament and in public. A substantial chunk of the National Party joined the opposition to decry the plan. National Assembly Deputy Samuel Croguennec (N, Côtes-du-Nord-3) said in Parliament that “Even we are not directly paying the salaries of the priests in our own Santonian National Church. Why should we pay the salary of priests of other churches?”

Conservative Archbishop Pierre-Paul Payette of Embrun said that “While the Santonian state had progressively eroded the position of the Santonian National Church, it is increasingly giving privileges to other foreign churches… and as a Santonian, this is plainly unacceptable.”

“I’m sure that with the increasing drift of the Santonian National Church to the more liberal ecumenic positions, they would also be in the position to provide spiritual care for the refugees,” opined opposition deputy Jean-Martin-Philippe Caire du Lhut (L, Sarine-3).

“We didn’t see the need to hire Thaunic shamans and Laurenist pastors for all those Prydanian refugees, why are we concerning ourselves with Courantist priests?” said deputy Brice Chadourne (N, Saine-et-Loine-10). “We’ve had thousands of Predicean immigrants throughout the decades and we didn’t need to hire any Courantist priest.”

Jean-Ragnebert Roch (I, Trieux-4) of the anti-immigrant Genêt faction of the Radical Party, was more scathing. “If we didn’t admit all these immigrants in the first place, it wouldn’t be our problem. And it shouldn’t be our problem.”

Ms Boisjoly, with the assistance of the Archbishop of Alessano and Pope François IV of the Santonian National Church, instead approached the Via for assistance. This was why the Via had come with the solution In Fidelis Antiqua Terra.

It is still uncertain how Saintonge would react to the first Courantist prelate in the country in more than six centuries. Cardinal Giafferi is set to take possession of his see this Sunday, at a Mass in the Courantist Church of Saint Thibault of Saintonge (Chiesa de San Tibaldo de Santongia, Église de Saint Thibault de Saintonge) in Saintes.

translated by Kyle MacTaggart-de Flesselles
13 September 2022 - 1654h

OOC Note: Apprived by @Predice .

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Top Stories


by Pauline-Anne Ménétrier in Saintes
26 September 2022 - 0927h

SAINTES – Saintonge’s largest trade union, the Confédération générale du travail (General Confederation of Labour, COGENT), voted against joining the International Workers Association in yesterday’s session of its annual meeting. After three of the most influential and largest member unions lent their weight against, the proposal to join IWA was defeated with 1,055 votes for; 5,311 votes against, and 230 votes abstaining.

International Workers Association
The IWA was founded in Beaune, Callise in 2011 as an alternative to Syndicalist Prydania and Communist Predice. The goal of the organisation is to become an umbrella organisation for Democratic Socialist movements and a de facto ideological centre of the workers’ movement. Members can be political parties (under the Congress of Socialist and Workers Parties) and unions (under the Congress of Industrial Labour Unions). All members must satisfy the so-called “Eleven Conditions.”

General Confederation of Labour
The Confédération générale du travail (COGENT) has had difficulty accepting all of the eleven conditions. As Saintonge’s largest trade union, COGENT represents 91% of all unionised workers in Saintonge, or about 33 million people. Unlike many trade unions, because of its big-tent membership, COGENT traditionally had consensus-driven decision-making, eschewed dogmatic positions, and avoided multiple splits because of increasing radicalism.

Proposal to Join
This was the third time that COGENT had a debate to join IWA. The first time was in 2012, when IWA was first created; the COGENT National Convention voted down the proposal to join IWA. The second time was in 2017, when the labour sector found itself in opposition to the right-wing Coalition government. The COGENT National Convention narrowly voted in favour to join IWA; the 2018 referendum to ratify the decision saw IWA membership being massively rejected by COGENT members by a margin of three-to-one.

In December 2020, Émile-Louis Séguy of the Fédération des syndicats du spectacle (Federation of Entertainment Unions, FESS), which represents workers in the entertainment and media sectors; and Philippe Frachon of the Union syndicale de l'Intérim (Temporary Staff Union, USI) again forwarded a new proposal for COGENT to join IWA. COGENT secretary-general Cédric Lassarade was initially supportive of the idea and circulated the proposal to member unions. Lassarade said that “Workers of all countries must unite in order to improve the lot of everybody. Here in Saintonge, we have it great; but we must not stop at our borders and instead think of our fellow workers abroad.”

Reservations
During the consultations, while some of ideas within the “Eleven Conditions” were widely accepted, various member unions expressed reservations especially on others. A commonly held-view was that COGENT already meets and agrees with points 1 (“rank-and-file democracy”), 2 (“financial independence”), 4 (“organisational integrity”), 7 (“rank-and-file control”), 8 (“freedom of dissent”), and 10 (“socialist pluralism”); these six points were unanimously or near-unanimously accepted by member-unions that released their positions.

The other points were contentious. The three most-opposed points were points 3, 5, and 9. Of the member-unions that expressed positions, half of them objected to point 3 (“end of capitalism”). The Fédération nationale de l'énergie et des mines (National Federation of Energy and Mines, FENEM), wrote that “it is unbridled, uncontrolled capitalism that must be ended. The current system of a social market, social capitalist economy that is working for Saintonge is not a problem that must be eliminated.” Marguerite Ogrel-Desbordes, of the Fédération générale de la pharmacie (General Federation of Pharmacy, FEGEPharm), wrote that “redistribution can be achieved without dismantling the proven and successful economic system underpinning the prosperity of most of the world’s economies.” Matthieu-Cyril Bouladoux of the Fédération des travailleurs catholiques (Federation of Catholic Workers, FETCat) said that “we fundamentally agree with the concept ‘from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.’ The Bible says that in the Gospel and the Book of Acts. However, we don’t see the need to eliminate all existing variations of capitalist systems; only those that fail to accomplish this basic Biblical concept.”

Point 5 (“proletarian internationalism”) was also a sticking point for many member-unions. Having been linked to the objectionable point 3, many member-unions rejected point 5 as well, even though Saintonge had been notoriously and vocally anti-imperialist for centuries. Ogrel-Desbordes wrote further that “while COGENT and its member-unions had been consistent and strident in its opposition to imperialism – wherever it comes from – the struggle against imperialism is a lofty goal in itself, not one to be subsumed to the dubious goal of eliminating capitalism.” The Fédération des syndicats des travailleurs de la santé (Federation of Healthcare Workers Unions, FEDSYNTRAS) said that “it is not in COGENT’s interest to internationalise a one-size-fits-all approach to improving workers’ rights… the imposition of a system or an ideology that ignores the local conditions is tantamount to using a similar approach employed by the imperialist, capitalist powers.”

A third of member-unions also cited Point 9 (“unity of action”) as problematic. Fédération des travailleurs de la métallurgie (Metalworkers’ Federation, FTM) expressed the opinion that “this item disempowers the union during its negotiation and bargaining… it may undermine the organisation should a minority resort to wildcatting… and it may promote disunity rather than unity.” Sailors’ union Fédération nationale des syndicats maritimes (National Federation of Maritime Unions, FNSM) secretary-general Brendan-Augustin Couëdelo remarked: “Isn’t COGENT already violating Point 9 by opposing the rank-and-file’s decision to reject IWA membership in 2018? Are they just going to make us vote and vote until they get the result that they want?” Similar sentiments were expressed by at least two dozen member-unions, such as the Association des syndicats de défence civile (Association of Civil Defence Forces Unions, ASDC), a group for police, firefighters, and emergency responders unions; and the Fédération des syndicats sportifs (Federation of Sports Unions, FEDSSport), a group for sports and athlete’s unions.

National Party
Some unions cited potential for conflict in point 6 (“class independence”). COGENT is affiliated with the labour wing of the currently-governing National Party. The National Party is a big-tent party that arose when the Labour, Centre, Popular, and Agrarian Parties fused in 1900. The Fédération des syndicats du secteur financier (Federation of Financial Sector Unions, FSSF) said that “this position will leave workers politically isolated.” Carisse-Marie Delefortrie, head of the Fédération nationale de l'action sociale (National Federation of Social Action, FNAS), the social workers’ union, said that “We do not live in isolation. We live in a society. And living in a society means you need to negotiate, you need to compromise, you need to come up with solutions that are at least acceptable to everyone. It’s not ‘my way or the highway’.”

The National Party itself deferred applying to IWA in 2017, after then MP (and now Labour Minister) Jeanne-Élisabeth Vertières-Clérembault and her allies managed to put it in the National Party’s agenda during its annual convention. The National Party decided in 2017 that “the issue will be revisited once COGENT delivers a favourable vote on joining IWA. The National Party will be following COGENT’s lead on the matter.” Since the COGENT membership rejected IWA application, the issue of IWA membership for the National Party remains frozen. Then-National Youth head Matthieu-Gauvain Lamblin (now Prime Minister) stated that “Point 6 of the IWA Eleven Points is very problematic for us. It’s as if they want labour movements to take an antagonistic stance to everything. That’s not a way to achieve goals. That’s certainly not the way that the labour movement in Saintonge achieved their successes. They succeeded with us, right here with the National Party.”

Third rejection
The 2022 COGENT National Convention again rejected the proposal to join IWA after three of the country’s most influential unions voiced dissent. The civil servants’ union Fédération de l'administration générale de l'état (Federation of General State Administration, FAGE) rejected the proposal to join IWA after a lopsided negative vote from the rank-and-file in August 2022; given the size of Santonian bureaucracy, FAGE’s influence was critical.

The service sector’s umbrella union Fédération des Services (Services Federation, FEDSERV) also rejected IWA membership a week later. During the convention, the president of Association nationale de l'éducation (National Education Association, ANED), Célestine Martelly-Gaffard, announced that ANED would be withdrawing its support for joining IWA. The top hierarchy of ANED used to be the biggest supporter of IWA membership, but a majority of ANED's local chapters opposed IWA membership. Support for the proposal collapsed after Martelly-Gaffard’s announcement, with many other smaller federations and unions withdrawing support as well.

“We will respect the decision of the body,” said Mr Lassarade. “COGENT had said no three times, and maybe we can focus our efforts on other things.” However, Mr Séguy seems to be thinking otherwise: “Maybe now’s not the time. Maybe next time.”

translated by Kyle MacTaggart-de Flesselles
26 September 2022 - 1188h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Top Stories


by Marie-Marthé Parmentier in Saintes
11 October 2022 - 0827h

SAINTES – Édouard Terrade had barely took his seat for the first electoral circumscription of the Sebre when insults came his way during his swearing-in ceremony at the National Assembly.

Replacement
Mr Terrade was the suppléant to Fernand-Éric Cardouceau (National), who resigned the Sebre-1 seat for health reasons last September 2022. The National Party tandem of Mr Cardouceau and Mr Terrade won Sebre-1 from the Liberal Party in the 2019 elections in the second round.

Mr Terrade was formerly the mayor of the town of Lacorogne and before taking the parliamentary seat, was the leader of the National Party that currently sits in opposition in the departmental council of the Sebre.

Swearing-in
Mr Terrade was sworn-in by National Assembly President Sophie-Anne Laliberté at the plenary session yesterday, October 10. Soon after he finished his oath, a loud slur (not fit for print – ed.) referring to Mr Terrade’s homosexuality was heard over the applause.

Fellow National Assembly members and the Assembly’s sergeants-at-arms identified Jean-Ragnebert Roch (R-Genêt faction, Trieux-4) as the source of the slur. Mr Terrade did not react, but Ms Laliberté declared Mr Roch out of order and commanded him to apologise. Mr Roch did not apologise, after which Ms Laliberté expelled Mr Roch from the chamber for the rest of the plenary session.

‘Outed’
“I’m not really closeted,” Mr Terrade said, “but I view my homosexuality as a private matter.” Mr Terrade would be the fourth LGBT member of the current National Assembly, joining Sacha Brouillette (N, Saintes-13), the only transgender member of Parliament; Joseph-Claude Cazaud (N, Saintes-7); and Nicholas-Marie Delambre (N, Lisle-8). Mr Terrade was also formerly the head of the department’s section of the National Youth, the organisation that current Saintonge Prime Minister Matthieu-Gauvain Lamblin used to head.


Mr Terrade is currently engaged to Thibault Reinbolt, a paediatrician in Avéry. Mr Terrade’s sexuality is an open secret in the Sebre. “Everyone knows about it,” said James-Pélage de Carmonée (N, Tage-4), another National deputy from the province of Beyre. “It’s not an issue for the Beyrois, it’s not an issue in the Sebre, and clearly it wasn’t an issue for voters. Just as what we think it should be.”

The other deputy from the Sebre, who comes from the social-conservative Liberal Party, was nonetheless supportive as well. “There is no need for slurs or personal attacks in the National Assembly,” commented Antoine de Bourges (L, Sebre-2). “As a famous writer once said: ‘Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people.’ We now know what kind of mind Mr Roch has.”

translated by Kyle MacTaggart-de Flesselles
11 October 2022 - 1157h

Brice-Arthur de Montligeon @BAMontligeon
28 April 2023
A video game that had been reviewed as “depressing” and “morbid” had become the best-selling Santonian video game for the month of March 2023, taking even its developers by surprise.

Santonian video game distribution platform Vapour revealed that the bestselling game of March 2023 in Saintonge was Kyle de Spycker, which was created by the ironically-named Veinard Studios, a small independently-owned affiliate of Arts Électroniques.

Video game
Kyle de Spycker is an open-ended third-person graphic adventure game of interactive fiction which follows the life of a 13^th century chivalrous knight. The character is an adaptation of stories about Kilian de Spycker, a tragic hero of southern Santonian folklore. The game builds on the stories and creates even more scenarios, where, inevitably, Kyle de Spycker’s goodhearted nature and sense of justice lead him to situations where he will meet defeat, suffering, or even death.

“There are less than a dozen story outcomes in the game where Kyle de Spycker survives unscathed,” said the game’s main writer Hubert-Liévin Vangrevelynghe. “Many times, he dies.”

“The player leads the main character through the scenarios, explores the world, and chooses the character’s next actions. It’s relatively open-ended; it’s up for the player to set what their objectives are,” said the game’s director and designer Josse Le Malicot. “Do they want Kyle to survive? Do they want Kyle to stay true to his principles despite the terrible cost? There’s no right way or wrong way to play the game; there is no ‘winning’ scenario.”

Breakthrough
Kyle de Spycker is Veinard Studio’s fourth title, and its first big commercial success. The small nineteen-employee indie developer specialises on graphic adventure games of interactive fiction. Its three previous titles Dorée l’Exploratrice, Où dans le monde est Carmen Saint-Didace ?, and La Quête ! were modest commercial successes; all of which were geared towards children. The children’s games section of Vapour is teeming with similar adventure titles.

Kyle de Spycker was Veinard’s first title aimed at adults, especially late teens and young adults. It seemed that Veinard had hit an untapped niche in the market.

“We weren’t sure what the gaming community will think of this oddball game,” admitted Thorold Vaubaillon, Veinard’s president and one of Kyle de Spycker’s programmers. “Even we were surprised.”

Released October 2021, Kyle de Spycker remained relatively unknown for more than a year, with just a cult following. The player demographic tended towards two groups: those who play adventure games like the fantasy tabletop roleplaying games Donjons-et-Dragons and Empire de Slobbovie; and those older gamers in their thirties and forties, who grew up reading gamebooks such as Choisis Ta Propre Aventure in the 1980s and 1990s.

“We made the game on a small budget, and like many of our previous titles, it was merely a modest success… until now,” said Vaubaillon. “We never expected to make it this big.”


The game spread via word-of-mouth through online communities. It shot to popularity after being reviewed by Patrice-Robert Matthieu of Les Théoriciens des Jeux on 31 January 2023. BancMourirTarte, Saintonge’s biggest Viédeo gaming streamer followed on February 2023, and subsequently many game streamers came after, piqued by the game. Skjold Rongstad, the game reviewer for the Þ-Series (@Thorn-Series), the largest Viédeo channel by subscriber count, said “People were raving about the game, they say it’s not fun but they couldn’t stop playing it. And I was like, what kind of game isn’t fun? Why are you continuing to play it if it’s not fun?”

Reviews
“Depressing!” commented Félix (@BancMourirTarte) during his February 2023 stream. “How do I stop Kyle from dying?!”

“Kyle’s story is so sad, yet I could not put down the game,” Félix said at the conclusion-review of the video. “There’s something in you that makes you take up the game again and hope this nice guy lives.”

“Mon Dieu, how morbid!” exclaimed Matthieu F. (@Mattiplier) after six playthroughs. “I’ll never get Kyle’s dead face out of my head. It will haunt my dreams.”

“You just build this emotional bond with Kyle… the way he talks to you, you feel like you’re his guardian angel or something,” related Emmeline (@fersouris). “Which makes you not want to fail him… but you do.”

“You seem to like lose in every game, you get sad because you ‘lost’ and you die,” said Antoine of Smoosh Games (@SmooshGames), “but unlike other games where you ‘die’ out of frustration because you ‘lost’, here you ‘die’ with a purpose so you don’t really ‘lose’ in a way… do you even get what I mean? If it doesn’t make sense, just go ahead and play the game.”

“The game is simple yet deep,” remarked Patrice (@PatMat). “There’s something that draws you in. It’s not fast-paced like first-person shooter games, but paradoxically much more rewarding than them. I cannot explain it.”

“Now I understand why it isn’t fun,” said Rongstad after nearly a dozen playthroughs. “You invest so much in this character, and at the end, he just dies or gets maimed. That’s not fun. But then, you just hope that his suffering was not for naught, and that Spycker became a better place because of it.

“And then on another day, you pick up the game again and want to do him better.”

---

OOC Comment: Play a game: see how many references you can find!

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Top Stories


by Marie-Marthé Parmentier in Saintes
13 December 2022 - 1025h

SAINTES – Yesterday, King Thibault II gave Royal Assent to Law 51-315, popularly called the “Anti-NIMBY Law” (“NIMBY” an acronym meaning “Not in my backyard”). Another name of the law uses a Santonian near-equivalent term for “NIMBY”: Loi Anti-PUMA, “PUMA” being an acronym for “Peut-être utile, mais ailleurs” (“Maybe useful, but elsewhere”). The formal name of the law is Loi sur le développement harmonisé (“Law for Harmonized Development”) or Loi Micheland, after its main author, National Party deputy Gabriel-Firmin Micheland (N, 2^nd Hautes-Alpes).

Impetus
Impetus for Loi Anti-PUMA came after multiple development projects were stymied by the increasing gridlock for projects at the lower levels of government. Examples cited by Mr Micheland include the departmental government of the Haute-Saine blocking the Trans-Santonian Pipeline II project in 2015, local resistance to socialised housing projects in the Griffonné, resettlement and housing of refugees in the Coire and Côme metropolitan areas, and the department of the Capoterre blocking the Santonian National Railways from building railroads.

The initial version of the Loi Anti-PUMA tackled two major causes of delays for development projects: local permits and eminent domain.

Local Permits
Loi Anti-PUMA enables the national government to overrule local disapproval of the project by a simple majority vote in Parliament, giving limited, one-time powers to the Ministry involved to issue permits on behalf of the disapproving local government. For example, in the case of resistance to socialised housing projects in Beaucaire, Parliament may pass a law to empower the Ministry of Public Works (which is responsible for housing in Saintonge) to issue permits on behalf of the obstructing departmental government of the Capoterre. It applies only for that particular instance and for that particular project only.

“For the longest time, local authorities have stymied various projects that are meant for the common good,” complained Mr Micheland. “Our system had tried to listen to all stakeholders involved. It will still listen – the usual process for all projects will still be followed, wherein there will be public hearings about projects, consultations with local governments involved, and consensus-building on how the project will proceed. While it had historically worked well for a vast majority of projects, there are some local governments that had been captured by vested interests and put up unreasonable resistance to projects that will benefit everyone.”

“It is intended to be a ‘nuclear option’,” said National MP Finnkell Thorstvedt (N, 6^th Haine), a co-sponsor of the bill. “To force recalcitrant and obstructionist local governments to compromise and seek consensus.”

Eminent Domain
Loi Anti-PUMA strengthened eminent domain powers of the government, easing the obstacles to expropriating private property for public works projects and reducing the litigation that drag the process. Notably, Loi Anti-PUMA establishes Appropriation Courts (Tribunaux d’appropriation) as a specialised chamber of the Administrative Appeals Courts, which would serve as the court with primary jurisdiction for appropriation cases.

Debate
The Coalition parties of the Liberal and Radical parties rejected the proposal entirely. “This is an unacceptable encroachment on the powers of local governments,” said Liberal leader Paul-Lenthéric Baumann (L, 2^nd Lauter).

“Locals are best suited to determine whether a project is best for them or not,” said Radical leader Jules-Antoine Beaumarchais (R, 2^nd Simbruins). “Not the national government.”

Public Works Minister James-Bertéric Battiston (N, 4^th Basse-Bléone) and the National Party – which holds a supermajority in the National Assembly – supported Loi Anti-PUMA. The section regarding streamlining local permits was uncontroversial within the National Party, but it was the strengthening of eminent domain that attracted amendments to the original bill. Multiple National Party deputies introduced amendments to water down the eminent domain provisions.

Marc-Diethelm Gundéram (N, 2^nd Sûre) introduced an amendment allowing appeals to the decision of the Appropriation Courts to the en banc Administrative Appeals Courts and ultimately to the Council of State. The uncontroversial amendment was approved by the Parliamentary Committee of the Interior, 48-5, with two abstentions.

Also at the committee level, Fridolin Wandelaincourt (N, 1^st Argens) proposed an amendment that would further curtail the eminent domain powers to only allow expropriations once the plans are finalised, instead of during the initial planning stages. According to Mr Wandelaincourt, “this would reduce instances in which the state would expropriate property and not use it because it turns out to be unneeded.”

Mr Wandelaincourt’s amendment was more contentious, with fellow National MP Anne-Caroline Desgrandes (N, 5^th Saintes) saying that “it’s a chicken-and-egg situation. The amendment says that you can’t have the right-of-way if you don’t have a plan, but in reality, you can’t plan properly if you don’t have all of the right of way.”

A competing amendment was introduced by deputy Magnus d’Estreux de Beaugrenier (N, 1^st Saulx), which would compel the state to return to the previous owners any expropriated property that was unused by the project.

National Party deputies were divided into three camps, those in favour of the original wording, those in favour of the Wandelaincourt amendment, and those in favour of the Beaugrenier amendment. The two amendments failed to garner majorities in the committee last May, with the former being voted down by a 18-35 vote; the latter by a 16-37 vote. Both Mr Wandelaincourt and Mr Beaugrenier reintroduced their amendments in the plenary last June. Mr Wandelaincourt’s amendment failed in a vote of 129-291. Meanwhile, Mr Beaugrenier’s amendment was accepted by a bare majority of 217-203, with the support of 43 Coalition deputies being critical to the passage of the amendment.

“At least the victims of expropriation get something back,” lamented Coalition deputy Matthieu-Folcuin Troendle (L, 4^th Basses-Brômes) in explaining why the Coalition backed the Beaugrenier amendment, even though the Coalition will likely vote against the final bill. “The National Party supermajority has decided to strengthen governmental powers to seize private property and we cannot stop it; at least the victims of expropriation have a chance to get something in return.”

A third amendment was introduced in the plenary by deputy Thibault-Clovis Breteaudeau (N, 9^th Cenise), in which the use of eminent domain is going to be restricted “only for public works with direct public benefit.” Mr Breteaudeau’s amendment prohibits the state from using the eminent domain laws in order to expropriate property which it will then sell to private developers, as what several Coalition departments did during the Coalition government from 2015-2019. Mr Breteaudeau’s amendment passed 288-139.

Final Vote
Last August, the final National Assembly vote on the Loi Anti-PUMA, with the Gundéram, Beaugrenier, and Breteaudeau amendments, was 302-129. 298 National and four Green deputies voted in favour; eighty National, all 44 Coalition, and five non-inscrits voted against.

The National Party-controlled House of Lords voted 111-59 last Friday to send the bill to the King for Royal Assent, which was granted yesterday.

Challenge
The Coalition of the Liberal and Radical Parties immediately announced that they were going to challenge the Loi Anti-PUMA in the Constitutional Court. “This is an unacceptable intrusion into local governments,” said Mr Baumann. “This law is unconstitutional.”

translated by Kyle MacTaggart-de Flesselles
13 December 2022 - 1620h

by Anaïs-Thalys Fourmental
25 July 2023 ~ 1100h

The recent decision by the Santonian Constitutional Court to uphold the use of facial recognition and artificial intelligence tools in its surveillance apparatus is not surprising, but nonetheless fits a regular pattern. The lack of any public, political, or societal response reflects the country’s nonchalance about mass surveillance.

Unlike some other nations, Saintonge does not enshrine a constitutional right to privacy. One of the main progenitors of the concepts of right to life, liberty, and due process does not assume privacy as a human right. The 19^th century libertarian thinker Albert-Alain Alcindor believed that this stems from the communitarian ideals that the country was built upon.

The reader must not be misled into thinking that Saintonge does not protect privacy. Its basic laws can be interpreted to have a right to privacy. It even does better in protecting privacy in some aspects: for instance, Saintonge has some of the strictest data protection laws in the world, which protect internet users against predatory use of their online data by unscrupulous companies. Saintonge will protect your privacy against interference from everyone else… except the state.

Since the Santonian Revolution, the centralised state had been exceptionally powerful – and trusted. Over more than two centuries, Saintonge’s surveillance apparatus has increasingly gotten expanding powers. In 1939, Loi Thonnon guaranteed secrecy of telephone correspondence; but the same law allowed a judge to order a telephone wiretap in matters of crime. The Prime Minister can also do the same for national security reasons. In 2004, the Ministry of Communications required telecommunications companies to keep a minimum of three years of traffic and localisation data.

Biometric data such as fingerprints, facial scans, and iris scans are now being kept by the Institut royal de la statistique et des études économiques (IRSEE, Royal Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies) as part of its population roll – a database of all the people in Saintonge. One is even legally required to report a change in address so the IRSEE can change their database. (You can also change your gender with them now too.) The fact that Saintonge keeps a population roll means that you can never be forgotten by the state.

No wonder that it was Santonians who helped pioneer tools of surveillance. In the 1870s, Albert-Ildephonse Bertillon, a Saintes police officer, applied anthropometry to create an identification system for people. La bertillonage utilised the newly-discovered photography, standardised it (the so-called “mug shot”), and used it to identify criminals. This was supplanted by fingerprinting, where a standardised system was created by Édouard-Henri Delenclos in 1898.

After the assassination of Prime Minister Zeus-Achille de Saint-Maxent in 1876, the Royal Santonian Police kept a massive file called the Fichier central de la sécurité nationale or “National Security Central File”, where information about more than a million people, including extremists, certain foreigners, and criminals, was kept. The file expanded greatly during the Fascist War, when the country sought to contain ‘harmful extremists’ (i.e. fascists) from entering the country. The file still exists today, and is one of the few government databases that cannot be publicly accessed via a freedom of information request. The last sentence exemplifies why Saintonge has been traditionally comfortable with mass surveillance: security and freedom of information.

In Saintonge, the tradeoff has always been mass surveillance = more security. In fact, instead of “privacy”, it was “security” that was enshrined in Article 2 of the Santonian Declaration of the Rights of Persons and of the Citizen. While the subsequent Article 2 item “resistance against oppression” could be used to guard against mass surveillance, in practice, the Santonian state had never used mass surveillance blatantly enough to be seen as oppressing its people à la authoritarian states. The state has been very careful not to appear as abusing its widespread surveillance power. Instead, it is being framed as part of security and policing.

It cannot be denied that Saintonge is one of the safest countries in the world, with an extremely low crime rate. It is also one of the most surveilled countries in the world, with video surveillance cameras everywhere. Citizens can be summoned to the Traffic Court on mere video evidence of running a red light. Police routinely reference the extensive video evidence on hand for investigating crimes.

The orderly society prized by the country’s communitarian ideals allows the state to justify the surveillance apparatus in terms of security. In the eyes of the Santonian public, the country’s low crime rate, lack of extremist and terrorist outfits, and tight screening of immigrants had largely justified Saintonge’s massive surveillance apparatus throughout the years.

There is also more openness and transparency when it comes to the Santonian state. The country’s freedom of information laws are wide enough that one can actually request someone else’s annual income tax filing via a freedom of information request (one would have to justify in court though). This openness lulls Santonians into thinking that they will know what the state is up to. But unlike Twitcher or Facegram or chercher, you cannot request what data the Santonian state has on you.

There is no political will, from all sides, to rein in the surveillance apparatus, for fear that they will be deemed ‘soft on crime’. The National Party-leaning union Santonian Fraternal Order of Police resists the idea of dismantling the system. The Coalition parties also support the system, because the business community supports it. Any politician brave enough to stand against it will be turfed out by voters. Another frequent comeback whenever someone campaigns to roll back surveillance is “you shouldn’t fear anything if you aren’t doing anything wrong.”

Indeed, because of the fertile ground for development of surveillance systems in Saintonge, the country has become a leading provider in such technology. Metrid, a Santonian tech company partly financed through the Santonian National Fund, specialises in biometrics and identification. Saintonge’s defence industries have also dabbled in surveillance technologies, including Cameron, a leading provider of video surveillance equipment and closed-circuit television (CCTV) systems. Cameron is a joint venture started by the national aerospace company Compagnie aérospatiale saintongeaise and the camera maker Xenon.

This modus vivendi will likely persist into the foreseeable future, unless the Santonians change their attitude on the centuries-long tradeoff. There is so much potential for abuse in the system that, if and when that time comes, hopefully the Santonians won’t be like boiling frogs.

Anaïs-Thalys Fourmental is a privacy activist at the non-governmental organization La Quadrature du Monde.

translated by Kyle MacTaggart-de Flesselles
23 July 2022 - 1630h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Saintonge


by Faustine-Blanche Faubladier in Novale
29 July 2023 - 1123h

NOVALE (Basses-Alpes) – Tables of young men and women crouch over computer screens and laptops in a dark room. It could’ve looked like your usual tech company, except that the people are clad in military uniforms. This was the Cyberguard Training Centre in the southeastern Santonian city of Novale.

“We’re the nerds with guns,” proudly proclaims Commandant Martin-Brice Bachellerie, the unit’s head. “We’ve reclaimed that epithet.”

During ordinary days, Comm. Bachellerie is an officer at the Second Battlegroup of the Royal Santonian Cyber Army. The Cyber Army is the second-newest branch of Royal Santonian Armed Forces, having been created in 2001.

Cybergroups
The Cyber Army runs contrary to the stereotype of scrawny reclusive ‘nerds’ in front of a computer. “We do undergo basic military training and pass it,” said Comm. Bachellerie. “We can shoot guns and physically fight. But that’s not our specialty. Our specialty is cyberwarfare. It’s no different from being a tanker in an armoured division in the army, or being a sailor in the navy. A sailor in the navy can fight and shoot guns, but his specialty is manning the ships.”

In the recent years, the increasing complexity in warfare and defence had prompted Royal Santonian Armed Forces to create specialised units and even branches (Royal Santonian Cyber Army and Royal Santonian Space Force) to fill the niches. The Santonian National Guard (Garde nationale), the rapidly mobilisable component of the armed forces’ reserves, has followed suit. It has also trickled down to the Territorial Militia itself, which is the mass mobilisation component of the reserves.

In the department of the Basses-Alpes, the Royal Santonian Cyber Army has seven Cyberguard battalions (the National Guard equivalent units for the Cyber Army), and sixteen Cybergroups (the Territorial Militia equivalent unit). The departments of the Basses-Alpes, the Hautes-Alpes, and the Simbruins, being near the centre of the Santonian tech industry, have disproportionately more Cyberguard units than what would be expected from their population. This reflects the abundance of recruits in the area who have the technical know-how for the Cyberguard.

That day, Comm. Bachellerie is training cyberguardsmen as reserve officers. Reserve officers will be the commanders for the cybergroups in case of a total mobilisation.

“This is the closest they could get to formal military service,” said Comm. Bachellerie. “They first trained and served in the National Service, signed up and got accepted for the cyberguard, and now they are selected to be a reserve officer. But they actually are civilians. Being a reserve officer means that you will command units only during mass mobilisation; otherwise, they are simply a part of the National Guard.”

Twenty-four-year-old Audric from Sainte-Amélie (Basses-Alpes), is a founding partner of a startup in Novale. Straight from high school, Audric went to university, deferring National Service until after graduation (allowed under Santonian law). He finished computer science at the Royal Institute of Electrical Engineering, Hydraulics, Electronics, Computer Science and Telecommunications. But Audric still had to fulfil his National Service obligations. “Back then, for me it was just some sort of cumbersome requirement I just wanted to get over with,” Audric admitted. “I thought it was just days of endless marching around during hot days while carrying rifles and heavy gear. I never thought I could actually use my degree and my skills to serve my country.”

Audric was enticed to apply to the Cyberguard when recruiters spoke to their National Service class before they finished their tour. “They said that Saintonge was in need of people with my skills to defend the country in case of emergency. So I applied to the National Guard. I enjoyed it so much that I applied to be a Reserve Officer!”

Thibault, 39, works as the IT administrator for the departmental council of the Basses-Alpes. “I went in for my third tour – the second retraining – in the National Service. That’s when I found out that the Cyberguard is open and expanding.”

The Cyberguard is largely trained in the functions of the Cyber Army. “Cyberwarfare is a catch-all phrase,” said Comm. Bachellerie. “It includes espionage, sabotage, propaganda, manipulation, and defending against these attacks.”

“We do some trolling,” Audric said with a laugh. “Hacking too. We’re like white-hat hackers.”

“On a more serious note, our aim is to protect Saintonge’s cyber infrastructure against attacks,” Thibault offered. “People don’t realise how much of the modern world depends on cyber infrastructure: the electrical grid, hospital systems, banking, telecommunications, transportation, etc. We have to defend it and be able to counterattack.”

Space Guard
Saintonge’s newest armed forces branch, the Space Force, is now also getting into action. The Space Force has erected six National Guard battalions for the Space Force. There are now Spaceguard battalions recruited from the national guardsmen in the Basses-Alpes (2), the Hautes-Alpes (1), the city of Saintes (1), and the Tech (1). Recruiting in southeastern Saintonge was logical – the technology sector is dominant there, and Saintonge’s space infrastructure is located in Alexandrie, department of the Basses-Alpes.

“Spaceguards are trained to protect Saintonge’s space infrastructure,” said Comm. Timothée-Sébastien Lacoursière, commandant of the 112^th Spaceguard Battalion, based in Alexandrie. “Satellites, rockets, launching sites, and the like.”

Air Guard
Even the Air Force has joined in the modernisation. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) such as the popular drones, have the potential for use in combat. While the Royal Santonian Air Force has used UAVs for decades, their popularity and potential skyrocketed in recent years. Drones are now being used for multiple civilian applications, from aerial videography to search-and-rescue operations.

The Royal Santonian Air Force first started a dedicated “drone squadron” in 2011, and soon expanded it to the National Guard units.

“National Guardsmen in the Air Force cannot be all pilots, as the cost of pilot training is high,” said Comm. Marc-Christian Faurisson of the 113^th Air National Guard Squadron. “We take in those that have piloting experience or who are interested in pursuing further training. But those that do not have experience, they can be drone controllers, as the barriers to entry are lower.”

Many drone enthusiasts had joined the Air National Guard Squadrons, swelling their ranks. There are now 269 Air National Guard drone squadrons, more than half of the 410 existing Air National Guard squadrons. Each department now has one usual Air National Guard squadron and one drone squadron.


“It’s the same as controlling a commercial drone,” remarked Thorold, 29, a wedding-and-events videographer from Novale. “I already use drones for my work in shooting videos and taking pictures, it’s somewhat similar. Reconnaissance, yes. Armed drones, though, are somewhat different.”

The reconnaissance value of the drones has been recognised that it has been incorporated in the integrated Army-Air Force battle structure. In Saintonge, Army units would have Air Force units embedded in it, to call for air support, air strikes, and now – stronger reconnaissance power. The same was trickled down to the National Guard Units.

Over in the mountains near Clavenne, the 113^th Basses-Alpes Air National Guard trained with multiple National Guard units that are also undergoing training. That day, Platoon 2, Company ‘A’ of the 113^th Basses-Alpes Air National Guard was embedded in Company ‘B’ of the 111^th Basses-Alpes Alpine Army National Guard Battalion. This particular Army National Guard unit is an equivalent of a Mountain (Alpine) Division. The Air National Guard platoon wowed the guardsmen of the 111^th in a wargame, wherein one side did not have drones.

“They just smoked the enemies out!” exclaimed the commanding officer of Company ‘B’, Captain Isidore Bécret.

It was a demonstration as to how devastatingly effective drone reconnaissance was. Even the ‘enemy’ artillery was neutralised. Casualties were 95% among the ‘enemy’ ranks.

“I didn’t like that,” complained Sous-Lieutenant Gabriel-Joshua Monjaret, who led the ‘enemy’ during the wargames. Monjaret himself was a ‘casualty’ during the wargame. “Drones give so much advantage to the ones who have them… and I am glad Saintonge has them.”

The guardsmen of the 111^th did not need any more convincing that drones were an asset they should welcome in their troop.

“The Air Force is expanding these drone reserves? Good for us!” Capt Bécret commented.

Senior services
It appears that the junior services – the Air Force, the Cyber Army, and the Space Force – are following the footsteps of the senior services of the Royal Santonian Armed Forces in terms of specialisation. The Army National Guard has long specialised in the various types of units. Army National Guard units are either trained as Airborne (paratroopers and air combat), Alpine (mountain infantry), Armored (tanks), Marine (naval infantry, beach defence), or Mechanised (standard mobile infantry) Brigades. Each department, depending on its geography, can have a combination of any of these. The Basses-Alpes, being a mountainous coastal department, has the following Army National Guard Brigades: one airborne, one alpine, two marine, and one mechanised national guard brigades.

Army National Guard brigades also get to train with their equipment, some modern ones, but mostly old ones held in reserve. For instance, while the Army’s Marine Divisions now mostly use the VBMR Griffon, Marine National Guard units still use the VACI Grenouille, which are older equipment that Saintonge still has in stockpile after decommissioning.

Naval National Guard units also use older ships for training; the Garde Navale des Basses-Alpes, the Navy’s National Guard Unit in the department, makes use of the (formally decommissioned, but not stricken) frigate Sire de Mauvoisin and the patrol boats Greffoir, Faucille, and Hoyau.

This is in contrast to the junior services, which aims to introduce the latest in warfare technology – drones, hacking tools, rocketry – to the National Guard. “We’re not jealous,” said Army Colonel Brice-Christophe Ingrand ARST, châtelain des Basses-Alpes, commander of the National Guard and Territorial Militia in the department. “We have to make do with the resources that we have – old equipment, new equipment – if and when the time comes to defend our country. We just have to be trained to use them.”

translated by Kyle MacTaggart-de Flesselles
29 July 2023 - 1720h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Saintonge


by Charles-Ivan Roux du Toit in Sancoins
13 August 2023 - 1025h
SANCOINS (Cenise) – Saintonge’s “300-Ship Navy” is starting to take shape. Defence Minister Marc-Maëlmon de Liescoët, a retired admiral, made the announcement yesterday as he broke the champagne over the bow of Pouilles (S501), during the submarine’s ceremonial ship launch at the Chantiers royaux de Sancoins.

The defence minister was referencing the 2014 Ministry of Defence White Paper “300-Ship Navy”, which envisions a Royal Santonian Navy with 300 ships “sufficient to defend the country against a seaborne attack and invasion” and “sufficient to maintain peace in the high seas”.

New Submarines
Pouilles is the lead submarine of its class of nuclear-powered ballistic submarines. Named after the loyal provinces of Saintonge, five more are in the pipeline, with Bavière (S602) and Domnonée (S603) already under construction at the Chantiers royaux de Sancoins at 85% and 40% completion, respectively. Artois (S604), Béthagne (S605) and Comminges (S606) will follow.

The Pouilles-class of ballistic submarines had been an on-and-off project for the Royal Santonian Navy. It was first proposed in 1971 during the premiership of Louis-Aaron Duhamel (National) as part of the force de dissuasion (deterrent force). Presumably, Saintonge having the capacity to launch weapons of mass destruction from sea, in addition to air and land, will deter enemies from attacking Saintonge.

The project was shelved by the scrimping Coalition government of Charles-Martin Perrier des Jarlais (1975-1985). It was briefly revived under the National government of Prime Minister Arnaud-Gauthier Laënnec in 1994, which commissioned a study on its costs and benefits. The study rendered an equivocal assessment, as ballistic submarines are mainly for offensive abilities. The subsequent government of Philippe Colet (National) allowed the Royal Santonian Navy to continue developing and designing the ballistic submarines, but quietly and effectively mothballed it by diverting the money for its construction into other priorities within the Navy.

Santonians’ interest and support on the ballistic submarines rose again when the Coalition government of Jean-Louis Hauteclocque de Champtoceaux (JLHC) publicly terminated the project in 2015, which led to a vocal protest from Admiral de Liescoët, then the chief of the Royal Santonian Navy. It was partly the reason why after his retirement in 2016, Admiral de Liescoët chose to run as a deputy for the opposition National Party in the subsequent elections.

After the National Party won the 2019 elections, the now-Defence Minister de Liescoët resurrected the plan, with Pouilles laid down in January 2020. “Having long-range counter-attacking capability is essential,” he said at the time. “The best defence is a good offence. Any enemy who wants to bring war to our nation’s soil must taste it on their soil too.”

New Frigates
Meanwhile, the Chantiers de la Domnonée in Drest was tasked with building the nation’s new class of frigates, the Thibault-class, named after Santonian kings. These ships have a displacement of 4,500 tonnes, lighter than the multipurpose Corb-class of frigates and its variant, the anti-submarine Plaisance-class. The Corb-class of ships was jointly developed with Predice. The Corb-class was deemed expensive for littoral and exclusive economic zone (EEZ) patrol, hence the need for lighter and cheaper intermediate-sized frigates.

The Royal Santonian Navy has shifted from building the Corb-class frigates to the Thibault-class frigates. Predice had acquired two of Saintonge’s Corb-class frigates straight from the shipyard during the height of its war with New Aleman. These two ships, which were to be called Bouche-du-Rhâne (F622) and Scyotte (F623), would not be replaced in the near future. Instead, its replacement would be an entire class of intermediate-sized frigates. Thibault I le Révolutionnaire (F101) and Timothée I le Fidèle (F102) are fitting out at the Drest shipyard, with a target launch date by the end of the year. Six more are under construction in the Drest and Plaisance shipyards, with a planned twenty total.

New Patrol Vessels
The biggest contributor to reaching the target of a 300-ship navy would be offshore and coastal patrol vessels. The Royal Santonian Navy has instituted a new classification of patrol boats. The 2,300-tonne Saint-Brice-class are called “Heavy Offshore Patrol Boats” (Patrouilleur lourd d’outre-mer), while the old 1,250-tonne Amiral de Pontcallec-class are called “Light Offshore Patrol Boats” (Patrouilleur léger d’outre-mer).

The Royal Santonian Navy is also shifting to building larger patrol boats in order to more effectively police the seas. Saintonge is building a new Drest-class of patrol boats, with a displacement of 1,300 tonnes. Drest is a light offshore patrol boat, intended to be the categorical replacement of the Amiral de Pontcallec-class and the functional replacement of the Brandérion-class. Three of the ships were already built by the Chantiers béthonnes and the Chantiers de l’Est: Drest (C701), Lohan (C702), and Damphreux (C703). The Royal Santonian Navy will be replacing the Brandérion-class with the Drest-class one-to-one; the navy will retire the old one when the new one is ready. Indeed, the new ship named Brandérion (C704) is slated to be christened in October, after which, the old Brandérion (P801) will be renamed and transferred to the reserves.

Another new class of coastal patrol boats was launched, intended to augment the swift boats that perform coast guard and customs duties. The 700-tonne Balsamine-class was intended to be the categorical replacement of the 373-tonne Brandérion-class. The Balsamine-class would be bulkier and more flexible. When the JLHC government froze the Drest-class project in 2015, the Balsamine-class was intended to be both the categorical and functional replacement of the aging Brandérion-class.

When the Courseaux government resurrected the Drest class, it did not cancel or reduce its plans for the Balsamine-class. Seventy-five ships are ordered, which is the bulk of the ships going towards the target of a 300-ship navy.

“The Balsamine-class is also worth its money, being cheaper and faster to build than the Drest-class,” said Mr de Liescoët in 2020. “We are resurrecting the Drest-class because there is a niche and need for a ship twice as heavy as the Balsamine.”

The Balsamine-class is named after flora of Saintonge, with Balsamine (P901), Pêche (P902), Tournesol (P903), and Primevère (P904) already launched. The next six ships Fumeterre (P905), Pervenche (P906), Immortelle (P907), Fritillaire (P908), Laurier (P909), and Mélisse (P910) are sitting at the shipyards in Terracine and Béthanie at various stages of completion.

In what was probably indicative of public support for shipbuilding and maintaining the navy, the JLHC government attracted criticism with Pêche (P902) (“Peach”). Launched in 2022, it was laid down in 2018, during the tenure of JLHC’s defence minister Ludovic Couvier (Liberal). Though the name being entirely coincidental, the name attracted the electronics company with the same name, which offered to sponsor the entire cost of building the ship. Couvier and JLHC enthusiastically accepted the proposal, although the Royal Santonian Navy successfully resisted the idea of painting the ship with the company’s trademark peach colour. The Santonian public fumed, and the JLHC government was relentlessly ridiculed online and offline. A group of retired admirals led by Mr de Liescoët wrote in an open letter in L’Indépendant: “Is this what this Coalition government has reduced our once-proud navy to? Begging for money to build ships?” In the 2019 election, Mr Couvier was defeated for re-election in his Trappes-based seat.

Future Ships
The current five existing patrol ship classes is expected to become just three when the Amiral de Pontcallec-class and Brandérion-class patrol ships are retired. If all the future planned ships were built, this would bring the Royal Santonian Navy to a total of 286 ships, excluding the swift boats and auxiliary ships. In addition, Saintonge is planning for a heavy offshore patrol boat that can be converted into a combat variant, as a bridge between the Royal Santonian Navy’s surface combat ships and its patrol ships.

With its shipbuilding programme, analysts are sensing a shift in the Royal Santonian Navy’s operational doctrine. The Royal Santonian Navy had been traditionally focused on defending littoral zones, EEZ waters, and the nearby North Meterran and Ember Seas, hence its relative lack of high seas ships, long-range ships, and dedicated naval aviation equipment, for a navy its size. Its naval aviation equipment are almost always navalised versions of existing air force helicopters.

Defence analyst Timothée Huguenard of the University of Saintes pointed out that “Saintonge is building icebreakers, ballistic missile submarines, and amphibious assault ships and their associated escorts – all of these allow force projection. This is consistent with Saintonge adding offensive capabilities to its already formidable defensive capabilities.”

translated by Kyle MacTaggart-de Flesselles
13 August 2023 - 1420h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Top Stories


by Anneliese Kromschröder-Beauguitte in Deva
25 August 2023 - 1726h

DEVA (Oklusia) – Santonian Foreign Minister Marcelline Tréhet and Oklusi interim Foreign Minister Garbiñe Txurrigera addressed Severoszlavian State Chancellor Kolya Antonsyn’s appeal for the Severoszlavian Courantists to return home.

The Santonian Foreign Minister was visiting the Oklusi capital to meet with her counterpart to discuss the progress of Oklusia's democracy-building and the constitution project. At the public press conference earlier today, Saintonge’s and Oklusia’s foreign ministers were asked about Antonsyn’s appeal.

“Severoszlavia must change first,” Ms Tréhet quipped. “It would have to show concrete steps and progress towards liberalisation and democratisation.”

Between 1998-2010, 3 million Severoszlavian Courantists fled the country to escape state-sanctioned persecution, leading to a brain drain and an economic depression. Half of the refugees ended up in Oklusia, where the apartheid Szlavic-supremacist government welcomed them with open arms despite being Courantists. They were classified as Okluski, the Szlavic ruling class at on top of the Oklusi hierarachy. The Okluski elite thought that the massive Severoszlavian immigration would be useful to Szlavicise the country; the refugees also brought with them knowledge and wealth to improve the Oklusi economy.

The intake of 1.5 million refugees backfired spectacularly on the Draconist Okluski ruling class as the Courantist Okluski began to outnumber them. The refugees also put a strain on the small country as its population ballooned. It was a significant contributor to the fall of the apartheid government as the Courantist Okluski began to side with the oppressed Messianist native Eukluzi ethnic group.

“Severoszlavian refugees and their descendants have been instrumental in developing this country and in ending apartheid,” said Ms Txurrigera, an ethnic Eukluzi. “They have been integrated into our society for years now. Our Courantist Okluski brothers had been with us through thick and thin, through the repressive apartheid, the years of anarchy, and now, in rebuilding Oklusia.”

Saintonge, for its part, accepted nearly half a million refugees during the same thirteen-year period, having been encumbered at the same time with Prydanian refugees who only had Saintonge as their way out.

“We will not be forcing the Severoszlavians to return home,” added Ms Tréhet. “Saintonge and Oklusia are their adopted homes. If they will go back to Severoszlavia, it will be through their own free choice.”

“Severoszlavia has a lot to do in attracting the former refugees,” agreed Ms Txurrigera. “While the announcements are a great start, I believe that many former refugees will be looking for durable change in Severoszlavia before moving again.”

Ms Tréhet pointed out to the compensation efforts of the Prydanian government as an example. “The Severoszlavian government must demonstrate its sincerity. It must atone and compensate because it is the right thing to do, not simply because it wants people to come back.”

translated by Thibault-Luke Burlbaugh
25 August - 2230h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Sports


by Janine-Marie Vauléon in Saintes
26 August 2023 - 1620h
SAINTES – the Ministry of Culture and Sport released the data for total allocation of grants for sports for the fiscal year 2022-2023. The Santonian national government handed out £3,330.8 million in grants and subsidies to the various sports via their recognised sports federations. This figure does not take into account the subsidies and grants from local governments.

The 2022-2023 figure represents a 7.4%, or a £117.2 million, decrease from the funding from fiscal year 2021-2022. This comes as Saintonge was tightening its belt as it reeled from the costs of accepting Predicean refugees.

Deputy Minister for Sport Maximilien de Brincat (N, 4th Basses-Alpes) said that the government will be looking to restore some of that funding for the next fiscal year, now that the Predice – New Aleman War is over.

Football
Saintonge’s most popular sport, football, continued to have the largest budget at £1,529.4 million, of which 27.66% came from government subsidies and support. The £423 million granted to the Santonian Football Federation (Fédération saintongeaise de football, FSF) is the largest chunk of the government’s subsidy budget, at 13%.

The government’s grants to the FSF became a thorn on the federation’s side as the FSF waged a lonely war against the National government’s reintroduction of the Argentin laws. Mr de Brincat and Culture and Sports Minister Alexandre-Stachys de Beaucroissant, a former professional footballer himself, threatened to cut off the grants to the FSF. The pressure from the government and public eventually forced the ouster of FSF President Caroline Cercel-Radenne, who is also being accused of corruption.


Developing other team sports
Aside from football, other major team sports – ice hockey, handegg, volleyball, basketball, baseball, rugby, and handball – received significant funding from the government under its “National Sports Development” (Développement national du sport, DevNS) program. The DevNS program aims to increase the popularity of that sport, increase the participation in that sport, and promote that sport to a higher level.

One of the sports high on the DevNS list is ice hockey, previously a niche sport in Saintonge. The Royal Santonian Ice Hockey Federation (Fédération royale saintongeaise de hockey sur glace, FRSHG) was given the second largest share of subsidies (£375.52 million), which accounted for 64% of FRSHG’s budget. Ice hockey has exploded in popularity in recent years, and is now the third most popular sport in Saintonge after football and volleyball. Saintonge has also improved on the sport, as evidenced by the Santonian National team winning against more seasoned teams in friendlies.

FRSHG is investing in the Santonian National Ice Hockey Team Development Program (Programme pour le développement de l’équipe nationale saintongeaise de hockey sur glace, PDENS-HG), which aims to fund training centres for promising young talent and to set up teams and leagues where they can play. This is similar to the FSF’s National Team Development Program, which funds similar initiatives, most notably, the much-vaunted Blondefontaine Football Academy in Saintes.

Most other sports under the DevNS program also were running similar development programs, which entailed the government to subsidise the bulk of the federation’s funding. By proportion of their federation’s budget, subsidies provided majority of the funding for the federations for handball (78%), rugby (73%), handegg (67%), and ice hockey (64%) – which are less-established team sports in Saintonge. These four sports, along with basketball (40%), baseball & softball (40%), and volleyball (31%) also run team development programs. These seven sports, plus football, account for almost half (49%) of the Santonian government’s sports subsidy budget.

The other sport with a significant development program is aquatic sports (which includes swimming). With £205.97 million in grants and subsidies, representing one third of the Santonian Swimming Federation (Fédération saintongeaise de natation, FSN) budget, this is the fourth-largest subsidy among sports, after football, ice hockey, and handegg. This has already borne fruit, as Santonian swimmers brought home the largest medal haul from all sports in the 2020 Odinspyl games.

Women’s sports
Many of the sports federations also use the subsidies and grants in order to promote and fund women’s sports. This goal is compatible with the DevNS objectives, and the majority of federations used those funding to benefit women’s sports.

While some women’s sports organisations are pushing for “equal pay”, the sports federations argued that it is currently financially unsustainable to support equal pay as most women’s sports do not bring an equal income as men’s sports.

“We have to subsidise women’s sports, that we agree with wholeheartedly,” said Fédération saintongeaise de basketball (FSBkB) president Victor-Ouën Banième. “But because unfortunately women’s sports do not bring in the same income as men’s sports, we cannot provide equal pay – for now – without bringing down the pay for the men.”

Banième added that the money from the government is being directed to increase the popularity of women’s sports, which in the long run could bring more income – and eventually higher pay – for female athletes. “Currently, aside from using it to develop the sport, some of the subsidies actually go to female athletes’ salaries too, and also to top up prize monies.”

When reached for comment, 24 out of the 36 sports federations who responded said that they indeed use the government grants to top-up female athletes’ salaries – particularly if they are on the respective national teams.

Mr de Brincat: “To those thinking that sports are sexist against women: just look at volleyball.”

Indeed, volleyball stands out as one of the major outliers when it comes to spending the subsidies on women’s sports. The Fédération saintongeaise de volley-ball (FSVB) spent 83.8% of its subsidies on men’s volleyball.

“Women’s volleyball is way, way more popular than men’s volleyball,” explained FSVB president Ermengarde Grangier. “Women’s volleyball brings a lot more income than men’s volleyball, and so we have to subsidise men’s volleyball. It’s a similar situation to other sports, only that it’s the reverse. Male volleyballers are actually paid less than female volleyballers. It’s not really a sexism thing as some people think it is.”

Other sports where the men’s sports received a majority of subsidies include gymnastics and ice skating, both traditionally seen as women’s sports in Saintonge.

Male-dominated handegg, though, poured almost 70% of its subsidies on men’s sports. Fédération saintongeaise de main d'oeuf (FSMO) president Jourdain-Alexandre Marchessault said: “We are focusing on growing handegg in general first, and then we will proceed to developing the women’s sport. This is a small, specialised sport from Goyanes, and our sport’s trajectory is hopefully something similar to ice hockey: grow the sport in general first, and then focus on the sectors and groups that are lagging. That said, FSMO spent £60 million of its subsidies on women’s handegg last year.” The £60 million figure is higher than the total subsidy given to the national federation for handball.

FSMO said that some of this money was spent on researching how to make this contact sport safer for women, including changes in rules, and equipment tailored specifically for women. “We hope to get women’s handegg off the ground soon,” added Marchesseault. “We’re starting with development programs first before you can watch women’s handegg on television. Otherwise, who will play?”

translation by Hunter Kidlington de Collobrières
27 August 2023 - 1120h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Sports


by Gabriel-Kyle Gigandet in Saintes
07 September 2023 - 1022h
SAINTES – The world of ice hockey in Saintonge just got larger with the largest expansion of the professional league system. The Royal Santonian Ice Hockey Federation (Fédération royale saintongeaise de hockey sur glace, FRSHG) has formally announced a long-rumoured plan to add more teams to Santonian men’s ice hockey’s three-tiered system – and even it got the observers surprised at the scale.

Current tiers and teams
Saintonge’s professional league system, or ice hockey pyramid, consists of three professional leagues of twelve teams each: the top-tier Ligue des Jarlais, the second-tier Deuxième Ligue, and the third-tier Troisième Ligue. After each hockey season:

• Two to three teams are relegated from the Ligue des Jarlais to the Deuxième Ligue;
• Two to three teams are promoted from the Deuxième Ligue to the Ligue des Jarlais;
• Two to three teams are relegated from the Deuxième Ligue to the Troisième Ligue; and
• Two to three teams are promoted from the Troisième Ligue to the Deuxième Ligue.

There is no relegation from the Troisième Ligue, as the next tier, the Championnat national semi-professionel, is a league for semi-professional teams, backup teams, and farm teams.

New Teams
Speculation about the expansion of the Santonian ice hockey system had been ongoing for years as some semi-professional teams, investors and communities, and other organisations, expressed their intent to go professional. FRSHG voted to expand in-principle last December 2021, but the number and method of expansion was to be determined. Meanwhile, FRSHG accepted proposals and applications for expansion teams.

FRSHG received 67 applications for joining the professional leagues, but the governing body for Santonian ice hockey put all of these on hold – until the proposals had been studied and the future of the league system finalized.

Vote
In yesterday’s vote, the FRSHG board determined the system for the expansion of the hockey leagues. Two major proposals were entertained: adding another tier, a fourth-level league between the Troisième Ligue and the Championnat national semi-professionel, or simply increasing the number of teams current leagues.

Initially, the FRSHG were in favour of adding a fourth tier to accommodate as many teams as possible. FRSHG President Kurt-Heinz Kühnhackl said in an interview that he was personally in favour of a fourth tier, but admitted that there are more logistical, financial, and institutional challenges to setting up a new league. The Troisième Ligue was set up in 1993 and nearly failed if not for the Santonian government financially rescuing FRSHG.

“I understand that there is historical context in not wanting to setup a new tier,” said Kühnhackl. “But I believe that times are different now than in 1993. Ice hockey is experiencing a surge in popularity.”

Surge in popularity
Ice hockey is indeed increasing in popularity in Saintonge. The perception of the sport has swung wildly in the country. Previously the country’s sixth- or seventh-most popular team sport, it was regarded as a sport for the wealthy, as the equipment was expensive and the venues costly to build and maintain.

In the 2000s and 2010s came the massive influx of Prydanian refugees, where ice hockey is a national sport. Ice hockey went from being a sport of the rich, to the sport of the ‘immigrants’ or ‘newcomers’. It became the target of xenophobia and a poster child of the ‘replacement theory’. This is despite the sport being in Saintonge for almost a century already and the captain of the national team being an ethnic Santonian.

It appears that this viewpoint was limited to the politicians of a certain flavour, as the sport made huge inroads into traditionally football-loving Saintonge. Teams sprouted up throughout Saintonge as even ethnic Santonians started joining amateur and semi-professional ice hockey outfits. In the recent years, FRSHG had to restructure the semi-professional and amateur tiers frequently to accommodate new teams and leagues.

“It is inevitable that the professional leagues are going to change too,” said Marc-Jonathan Argentin, a former ice hockey player and the newly-appointed Ministry of Culture & Sport representative in the FRSHG board.

Hockey players weigh in
Precisely what change is going to be implemented was debated in the recent months. Over the holidays, alongside the resolution to condemn the Radical Party, the union of professional ice hockey players Association des joueurs professionnels de hockey sur glace (AJPHG) conducted an advisory referendum on the organisation’s stance.

“Either way, players were in favour of expansion,” said Lukáš Kindl (Corsaires de Plaisance). “It’s more jobs and positions. What’s not to like?”

The experience of the Troisième Ligue loomed large in the balloting, and in the end, AJPHG voted to support the second option of simply increasing the number of teams per league.

“It will be more games for sure, but at least we would have more job security,” commented Gabriel-James Graehling (Confédérés de Germandie). “There is less possibility of a new league folding.”

“Most players considered that there will be more games per season if the number of teams per league is increased,” said Marc-Pacôme Pierrevelcin (Pithons de Quercy). “But for us players, the matter is moot because our collective bargaining agreement states that we are entitled to a share of income from games. We might have more people coming in, but there will be more income because there are more games.”

Many players from the Troisième Ligue teams turned out massively in favour. According to Graehling, captain of Confédérés de Germandie; and Morgan Couture, assistant captain of Boucaniers d'Aunis, “players from the Troisième Ligue voted very much in favour of the second option.”

Expansion Vote
With influential AJPHG supporting the second option of expanding the nuber of teams per league, the full FRSHG council voted by a majority 33-17 to endorse the second option. Both of the Ligue des Jarlais representatives in the council dissented; the top league had been vocal in opposing the second option as “it would make the championship harder to earn when you are against more teams.” Conversely, both Kindl and Pierrevelcin, the AJPHG representatives, voted in favour, despite both of their teams playing in the Ligue des Jarlais. The representatives for the women’s ice hockey leagues were also supportive of the second option, as “we believe that if FRSHG would do league-building, it should be focused for the women’s game.”

The second option entailed adding twelve new teams to the Troisième Ligue, doubling its size. The new teams will be added for the 2024-2025 season, with an expansion and dispersal draft to be held in June 2024. All of the twelve successful applications were also announced yesterday, and all but two are previously semi-professional teams. All teams were deemed to have the requisite the facilities and capital to turn professional.



Promotion and Relegation
The system for promotion and relegation will be tweaked for the next two seasons, to equalise the number of teams in all three leagues at 16 each. The 2023-2024 season will be undisturbed, with teams playing all other teams four times (twice at home and twice away) – a 44-game season.

In the 2024-2025 season, twelve teams will be added to the Troisième Ligue, where teams will play each other thrice, giving a 69-game season. The next year, eight teams from the Troisième Ligue will be promoted, with no relegation from the Deuxième Ligue.

Thus, for the 2025-2026 season, the Troisième Ligue will be left with sixteen teams. Teams in the Troisième Ligue will also revert to playing all the other teams four times, giving a 60 game season. Meanwhile, the now-twenty teams in the Deuxième Ligue will also play all other teams three times, resulting in a 57-game season. Afterwards, the top four teams will be promoted to the Ligue des Jarlais, with no relegation from the Ligue des Jarlais.

This eventually will result in the three leagues all having sixteen teams each. With each team playing each other team four times, all three leagues will be having sixty-game seasons in the future. The system of promotion and relegation will return to the usual 2-3 teams transferring between levels.

translation by Hunter Kidlington de Collobrières
07 September 2023 - 1425h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Sports


by Gabriel-Kyle Gigandet in Saintes
07 September 2023 - 1153h
SAINTES – The Royal Santonian Ice Hockey Federation (Fédération royale saintongeaise de hockey sur glace, FRSHG) has embarked on a massive expansion of the Santonian ice hockey scene. FRSHG is adding twelve new teams to the Santonian top professional ice hockey leagues.

These are the twelve new teams to join the Santonian professional leagues, in no particular order:

Espérance SC Loudun (Loudun, Doire) – the ice-hockey division of the Espérance Sports Club Loudun, which plays in the Championnat national semi-professionel. The multi-sports club is more well-known for its football team, which plays in football’s Première Ligue.

---

ADS Beaujolais (Roanne, Seudre) – the ice-hockey division of the multi-sport Association Ducale Sportive Beaujolais will be turning professional. ADS Beaujolais was the last team to get in, mostly because the market was considered too tight as Roanne is in the same department as the Troisième Ligue team AS Aurigny. However, ADS Beaujolais expects support to come from neighbouring departments to the west and south, which were formerly part of the province of Beaujolais. A rivalry may also be expected to form between ADS Beaujolais and AS Aurigny.

---

CHG de Niortais (Niort, Besbre) – another Loine valley team, Club de Hockey sur Glace de Niortais is an amateur ice hockey team created in 2009 that plays in the seventh tier of Santonian ice hockey. One of the two non-semi-professional teams that will turn professional, CHG de Niortais is the brainchild of Harold-Pierre Havard, a former professional ice hockey player, Royal Santonian Air Force pilot, and the club’s main investor. The team has a brand-new league-ready ice hockey arena that was initially planned when Havard was turning the team semi-pro. The plans for the Arena Tim Ortonnes, sponsored by the doughnut-and-coffee company, was tweaked when FRSHG announced plans to expand the professional leagues.

---

Beauceron CHG (Beauséjour, Rhue) – founded in 2013 with the support of the local government, Beauceron CHG was created to cater to the influx of Prydanian refugees and newly-interested Santonians. The 2023 winners of the Western Division of the fifth-tier Championnat régional d’Ouest, the team has won promotion to the Championnat national semi-professionel for the 2023-2024 season.

---

Pingouins de Provins (Provins, Puy-d’Or) – the only team that used to be in the Troisième Ligue, Pingouins de Provins dropped out in 1995 due to financial difficulties and turned semi-pro instead. After several changes in management and with investments and support from local government and civic organisations, Pingouins de Provins will be making a comeback in the professional league.

---

Vagues de Vitrolles (Vitrolles, Baltée) – previously the semi-professional affiliate of Ours de Bâle, Vagues de Vitrolles decided to turn professional and were one of the first applicants to FRSHG in 2021. While technically community-owned, many of its owners are connected to the casinos, entertainment establishments, and businesses in the Côte des Vagues – Saintonge’s “Sin Coast”, the only place where legalised organised gambling is permitted in the country. This meant that Vagues de Vitrolles has considerable financial power and business incentives to attract professional sports teams. Indeed, Vagues de Vitrolles will be playing in the multipurpose TINA Arena located at the outskirts of the Bande de Vitrolles (“Vitrolles Strip”) spanning the communes of Vitrolles and Le Paradis.

---

Taureaux de Trappes (Trappes, Sambre) – a semi-professional team that used to be the farm team of the Deuxième Ligue team Grêles de Grésivaudan, the bulls of Trappes will be making the leap to professional tiers.

---

Brûleurs de Bronn (Bronn, Ill) – another semi-professional ex-farm team, this time of Ligue des Jarlais’ Odinspylique de Ratisbonne, the Bronn Burners had gotten investments from the Baron of Bronn, the departmental governments of the Ill and the Vôges, and the city council of Bronn.

---

Seigneurs de Surgères (Surgères, Saine-et-Loine) – the only one with a significant amount of church funding, Seigneurs de Surgères started as an amateur club set up by the La-Transfiguration-du-Seigneur parish in the city of Surgères in 2006, geared to Prydanian youth refugees. The Diocese of Bicêtre recognised the endeavour and made it a diocesan programme, providing and soliciting funding for the team. Seigneurs de Surgères were the victors of the Championnat amateur du nord in 2011, 2012, and 2014, and won the amateur championship in 2012 and 2014. The team turned semi-professional in 2015 and experienced a meteoric rise, reaching the Championnat national semi-professionel in 2020.

---

Lions de Loine (Castillon, Loine) – the perennial fourth-tier team, Lions de Loine was the semi-pro affiliate of Pithons de Quercy, Éperviers de Lavaur, and Dragons de Théiphalie. Players trained in Lions de Loine were instrumental in propelling both Pithons de Quercy (Pierrevelcin, Thibault-Magnus Montagard, Sepp Stockschlaeder) and Dragons de Théiphalie (Cédric Bréheret, Tristan-Luc Cailleteau, Baldr Finn Karlsbakk) to the top as flight both teams won promotion in 2023. Lions de Loine has experience in moulding professional players which may translate to success in the top leagues.

---

Réquins de Saint-Océan (Saint-Océan, Cenise) – the other non-semi-pro team to make the cut, Réquins de Saint-Océan started as a side project of nine tech entrepreneurs: Thibault-Caël Kegelin (heir to Interflix), Marc-Gilbert de Saint-Martin (founder of chercher and Smail), Adam-Isambard Brulatour de Géffosses (founder of PaySafe), Matthias-Turstin Scheppers, Thibault-Arthur Claeys (founders of Facegram), Brice-Raphaël Clévenot (founder of Viédeo), Jason Lemonnier (founder of ReCord), Finn Kjerstein and Jacob Ordronneau (founders of Beeper). Originally organised as a charity to provide Prydanian refugees and lower-income Santonians with sporting opportunities, Réquins de Saint-Océan initially played in the amateur leagues. With its supporters having deep pockets, Réquins de Saint-Océan was able to afford facilities enabling it to become a regular winner in its amateur division, the Championnat amateur de Béthagne-Domnonée. (Réquins de Saint-Océan plays in the Bethanian league, instead of the Saintes-based Northern league, where Seigneurs de Surgères reigns supreme.) FRSHG recognised the opportunity of having a financially-stable organisation making investments in a professional team and chose it over other Bethanian applicants to turn professional.

---

Conquérants de Coni (Coni, Monce-et-Briance) – formerly the semi-professional “B” team of Avalanche Piémontaise, the Avalanche organisation decided to spin off its backup team as Conquérants de Coni. The city of Coni and its department of Monce-et-Briance had been urging the Avalanche, based in the Alpine city of Verceil (Hautes-Alpes) to move to the much-larger city of Coni. However, since the Avalanche was community-owned, with the city of Verceil and department of Hautes-Alpes being part-owners, the team would not move. However, in an agreement signed in September 2022, the cities of Coni and Verceil, and the departments of Monce-et-Briance and Hautes-Alpes, signed an agreement making the Conquérants de Coni to be an independent organisation, enabling the team to apply in the expansion. The name Conquérants de Coni was decided via a fan vote in the city and department in December 2022.

A dispersal and expansion draft is set next year, with the rules to be set by FRSG later this year.

translation by Hunter Kidlington de Collobrières
07 September 2023 - 1522h

OOC: This is a response to this. For @Paxiosolange


L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Top Stories


by Héloïse-Anne Pinel in Saintes
31 January 2024 - 1922h

SAINTES – Santonian Prime Minister Matthieu-Gauvain Lamblin announced in an emergency press conference that Saintonge would be sending aid to Ultramont after a strong earthquake devastated northern Ultramont.

Earthquake
A strong earthquake, with its epicentre located in the mountains between the départements of Abyssia and Deux-Rivières, rattled the Aurorian nation. Damage was reported from the Gabréal metropolitan area and power outages has been reported.

While the full extent of the damage was still unknown as of the announcement and even as of press time, the Santonian government quickly identified and mobilised resources to offer to the Aurorian nation. Prime Minister Lamblin: “Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Ultramont in this difficult time. Saintonge will always be here to help people in need, especially our brethren in Ultramont.”

Aid Offer
Saintonge would be one of the first countries to offer aid to Ultramont. As of press time, the latest update from the Santonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the initial offer to Ultramont would be:

• Twenty-four search-and-rescue and medical teams from the Santonian Civil Defence Service (Service saintongeaise de defense civile, SSDC), the country’s integrated fire, ambulance, and rescue services. The personnel and the equipment would come from SSDC units from the City of Saintes, and the departments of Corb (Plaisance), Simbruins (Côme), Basses-Alpes (Novale), Sarine (Bâle), Haine (Coire), Bouches-du-Rhâne (Nyon), Rance (Béthanie), Lisle, Doire, and Saine-et-Loine. Included in the count are two urban search-and-rescue teams from Saintes, and four mountain search-and-rescue SSDC units from the alpine departments of the Dyle, the Vauperté, the Aubrac, and the Haute-Loine. These four mountain search-and-rescue teams will also be bringing rescue helicopters for the hard-to-reach isolated areas.
• Three technical assistance and support SSDC teams to coordinate disaster response.
• An initial £90 million in humanitarian aid, almost entirely in-kind from the pre-positioned SSDC stocks and foodstocks from the Price Stabilisation Programme. These not only includes food, water, medicine, clothing, blankets, tolietries, but also portable power generators, water purifiers, and satellite communications equipment. These will be sent by air.
• Two field hospitals from the 321st Medical Battalion and 71st Medical Battalion of the Royal Santonian Army. Saintonge would also offer engineering teams from the 321st and 71st Engineer Battalions of the Royal Santonian Army. More supplies will be airlifted by the 1st and 9th Air Transport Squadrons of the Royal Santonian Air Force.
• Saintonge would also offer to send Squadron 7A, one of the four naval squadrons of the Royal Santonian Navy dedicated to humanitarian missions. Squadron 7A is a seven-ship squadron helmed by the hospital ship Saint-Raphaël (H203). Squadron 7A includes its escort ships, the frigates Ravennes (F602) and Aulne (F615), and the supply ships Coran (A314) and Tambre (A311). Squadron 7A would also escort a freighter and a tanker to bring food, fuel, and additional humanitarian aid to the area.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had also reached out to Ultramontese ambassador to ask if there was any other specific need that Saintonge could provide.

Private Sector Mobilisation
The private sector also mobilised the Santonian public, with appeals on Twitcher and Facegram increasing in popularity in a few hours. Donation drives were set up by the Santonian National Church, which urged people to donate food, water, and clothing at collection points in the thousands of churches and parishes throughout the country.

The Royal Santonian Red Heart Society (Société royale saintongeaise de la Coeur-Rouge, SRSCR) announced a national blood drive and according to SRSCR national director for blood donation services Dr. Jesse Barriquand, “the response to our appeal was massive that our waiting list for blood donors already extends up to March.” Dr. Barriquand says that it is coordinating with local hospitals to accommodate the eager blood donors. “We see the people of Ultramont as our close kin, this is the reason why the Santonian public’s outpouring of support has been overwhelming.”

translated by Thibault-Luke Burlbaugh
31 January 2024 - 2242h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Local


by Christian-Marc Broussard in Saintes
13 March 2022 - 1420h
SAINTES – the Royal Elections Institute (IRE, Institut royal des elections) has released the final redistricting map for the National Assembly districts (called electoral circumscriptions or circonscriptions) of the city of Saintes. The new map will be effective for the next parliamentary elections, which will take place no later than May 2024.

The IRE is a nonpartisan constitutional body tasked with drawing district lines for the city of Saintes and Saintonge’s 89 departments. The IRE adheres to a set of rules when drawing circonscriptions. For instance, as much as possible, political subdivisions must remain within the same circonscription; intendancies, parishes/communes, arrondissements, and boroughs (in that increasing order of priority) must not be divided between circonscriptions. For the purpose of accommodating this, a circonscription may deviate by as much as 5% from the average population of a department’s circonscription.

Number of seats unchanged, map revamped
The below-average population growth of the city of Saintes proper meant that the capital retained its 30 seats, as most of the population growth in the Saintes metropolitan area occurred in the suburbs in the adjacent departments. This leaves Saintes with an average population of 300,042 people per circonscription.

The unchanged number of circonscriptions masks the population shifts within the capital. The inner boroughs of the right-bank such as the Rive Droite, Porte-des-Pouilles, Bièvres, and Giremoutiers have underwent rapid gentrification and commercialisation in the recent years, lowering their populations. Many outer right-bank boroughs, especially in the upper-class 19^th and 20^th arrondissements, resisted further development and defended their greenbelts.

In contrast, the left bank, home to many of the working class and the middle class, remained open to development, especially to housing projects. The completion of a sprawling seaview public housing estate in the borough of Saint-Clément (10^th arrondissement) almost doubled its population, pushing the population of the old Saintes-4 circonscription beyond the 5% threshold. Also almost doubling its population is the former circonscription of Saintes-10, spurred by the development of the boroughs of Châteauroux, Blondefontaine, Charlevoix, and Villeperdue.

All of the four boroughs covered by the old Saintes-12 circonscription increased in population by a quarter or more, making the old Saintes-12 the second most populated Saintes electoral district with 377,328 people. Saintes-12’s boroughs of Caulaincourt, Saint-Sylvain, Saint-Jourdain, and Sainte-Honorine-sur-Loine were all sites of new public housing within the city of Saintes, where many refugees (mostly from Prydania) were also resettled. This district is also now represented by a former refugee.

Refugees also fuelled the population growth of the 13^th arrondissement boroughs of Saint-Alban-sur-Orge (where Saintes’ main refugee processing centre is located) and Saint-Fromond (where many of the housing for refugees are located).

The overall shift in population meant that Left-Bank Saintes gained one circonscription at the expense of Right-Bank Saintes. In addition, Saintes-1, the only circonscription that spans both Left-Bank and Right-Bank Saintes, added more boroughs from the left bank to compensate for the population loss in the right bank. The map is also a lot cleaner with fewer circonscriptions spanning three or more arrondissements.

Seat Breakdown
Here is the breakdown of boroughs (their arrondissements in parentheses) included in each circonscription.


Notable Changes
Saintes-2 no longer crosses arrondissement lines and now encompasses the entire 9^th arrondissement.

Saintes-8 is one of the left-bank districts that underwent most changes, retaining only three of its former six boroughs. It transformed Saintes-8 from a district based in the inner 12^th and 13^th arrondissements to one that is entirely based in the 13^th arrondissement, centred on the westward axis of the Boulevard du Ciel.

Saintes-9 had even more radical change. Previously encompassing six boroughs in three arrondissements, it has now also become entirely based in the 13^th arrondissement, retaining only two of its former six boroughs. This moved deputy Isabelle Bonnet-Priault (National) out of her district, as she lives in the borough of Tarare (3^rd arrondissement).

The growth of the borough of Saint-Gilles-près-Saintes (14^th arrondissement) meant that the former Saintes-11 circonscription had exceeded the population threshold. Saintes-11 lost all of its 3^rd arrondissement boroughs except Champfleur, while adding the borough of Charlevoix (14^th arrondissement) from the overpopulated Saintes-10.

Saintes-15, formerly a right-bank circonscription, has been shifted entirely to the left-bank, encompassing most the of the 3^rd arrondissement and the borough of Saint-Guillaume in the 14^th arrondissement. Ms Bonnet-Priault is expected to run in this new seat that now includes her home.

The movement of Saintes-15 from the right-bank to the left-bank triggered a massive reorganisation and renumbering of right-bank circonscriptions. The only district not to change territory-wise and number-wise is Saintes-19, which covers the southwestern boroughs of Saintes across the Saine River facing Royan.

The increase in student population of the University of Saintes meant that Tourbillon (17^th arrondissement) now has enough population to merit a circonscription of its own, renumbered Saintes-17. Meanwhile the circonscriptions of Saintes-20 onwards are composites of older districts, radically configuring the electoral map of Right-Bank Saintes.

For instance, the new Saintes-26 takes in boroughs from four arrondissements from three old districts, so that this circonscription will encompass most of the Outremont area. This moves current Saintes-26 deputy Anne-Monique Ribault (National) out of her district, as she lives in the borough of Gadencourt. Gadencourt is now included in the reconfigured Saintes-25, built around the eastward axis of Boulevard de Saintonge.

A battle royale might be in the offing in the new Saintes-24 district. Controversial deputy Jean-Étienne Genêt’s (Radical) home borough of Montlhéry was moved into the district of current Saintes-24 deputy Charles-Mathurin Morisson (Liberal), who lives in Maurepas. Mr Morisson does not have the advantage though. Of the reconfigured Saintes-24, only 43% are his old constituents; 57% are Mr Genêt’s old constituents. If both Mr Morisson and Mr Genêt run in the same circonscription, Saintes-24 could be exciting in the next election.

translated by Kyle MacTaggart-de Flesselles
13 March 2022 - 1700h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Politics


by Luc-Martin Jasseron in Saintes
10 September 2021 - 1250h
SAINTES – the Santonian Royal Elections Institute (Institut royal des élections, IRE) had announced that for the upcoming 2024 parliamentary elections, Santonian electoral circumscriptions will have unique, distinct geographic-based names, in addition to their usual generic department name and district number. For example, moving forward, the district that used to be referred by the name “First Electoral Circumscription of Saintes” (a.k.a. "Saintes-1") will now also be called “Saintes-Centre” because it encompasses the historic centre of Saintes; the district previously known as “Fourth Electoral Circumscription of the Rhue” will now be also known as “Beauséjour” after the main city in the district.

Breaking with tradition
Each Santonian electoral circumscription elects one member (deputy, député) of the National Assembly. By convention, the presiding officer of the National Assembly do not refer to deputies by name because of the idea that deputies do not represent themselves, they represent their constituents. Since the inception of the National Assembly, deputies are referred by the department they represent.

This is a legacy of the fact that before the passage of the Fifth Amendment to the Santonian Constitution in 1900, deputies are elected by proportional vote in each department; thus, deputies theoretically represent the entire department.

Despite the shift to single-member districts, the practice in the National Assembly remained the same. Thus, the deputy for the “Fourth Electoral Circumscription of the Rhue” will be addressed as “the deputy from the Rhue”, so will be the other deputies from the other districts in the Rhue.

Confusion
Confusion can ensue when multiple deputies from the same department are debating or angling to talk. Presiders of the National Assembly had different ways to get around it. Ghislain-Quentin Ghesquières (National) took to adding the district number when calling deputies, calling them out by the unwieldy “Xth electoral circumscription of department”. Charles-Guy Vandeplanque (Liberal) took a shorter route in 1975, simply calling out the department and the district number; for example, “Saine-et-Loine Dix”. Current National Assembly President Sophie-Anne Laliberté (National) simply points to the deputy she is referring to while calling the department.

Chaos and hilarity ensued earlier this year when six Saintes deputies tried to speak during the time that two other Saintes deputies were heatedly debating a proposal on water management in Saintes metropolitan area. The then-presider of the debate, Deputy National Assembly President Joseph-Jacob Tranchant (National, Côle-4) then called a deputy for Saintes to speak, which resulted in eight deputies trying to speak. Mr Tranchant resorted to calling them by name, in a departure from convention.

Change
The IRE was reportedly studying a proposal to give electoral circumscriptions unique, more descriptive names when the event happened. Starting in the election that will take place no later than May 2024, electoral districts will both have the systematic name (“Saintes-1”) and a descriptive name (“Saintes-Centre”) and will be used alongside each other.

translation by Kyle MacTaggart-de Flesselles
10 September 2021 - 1626h