National News Eiffelland (from 2009 until 31 July 2020)

[Rheinbund]

Vertraulich – Confidential – Confidentiel

Aussenministerium
Trier, Eiffelland

The Government of Eiffelland thanks the Imperial Government of Sikandara for ensuring that the oil supply as earlier agreed upon will be conducted at the same level as before the Yujiner Civil War. Indeed, we can only handle adequately in Cyclopeia when our oil imports are secured. Apart from that, a country simply cannot survive without a good supply of oil.

Rudolph Kögler, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Vice-Chancellor

 

[Rheinbund]

Elections in Eiffelland's northernmost province while conflict develops in Collectivist Union

While a conflict is developing in the Collectivist Union, political parties are preparing themselves for next Sunday's provincial elections in the Harz, Eiffelland's northernmost province. At this moment, these elections are also very important at national level. The first deed of a provincial parliament is to choose 20 new representants for the province in the Staatsrat. In this second national parliament, the current national coalition of Christiandemocrats and Market Liberals has a majority of only one seat. When it looses that seat, the national government will have to cooperate with the opposition to get its laws pass, or maybe even a new government will have to be formed. As a result, national politicians often campaigned together with the provincial politicians. Polls indicate losses for the pacifists, but also for the far right movement Volksunion.

 

[Rheinbund]

20APR2014

National coalition enlarges majority in Reichsrat
Christiandemocrats and Market Liberals win in the Harz; Communists, Pacifists and Far Rights lose

The results of yesterday's provincial elections in Eiffelland's northernmost province (Harz) are in. They are generally a confirmation of the popularity of the current coalition government both on national level and in the Harz, as shown below:

CDV (Christiandemocrats): From 30.66% (32 seats) to 34.62% (36 seats).
SPE (Sociodemocrats): From 20.14% (21 seats) to 20.20% (21 seats).
FDV (Market Liberals): From 20.10% (21 seats) to 21.16% (22 seats).
LDP (Socioliberals): From 5.75% (6 seats) to 5.77% (6 seats).
PRP (Pacifists): From 4.79% (5 seats) to 3.85% (4 seats).
PCL (Conservative Christians): From 8.62% (9 seats) to 8.66% (9 seats).
KPE (Communists): From 1.92% (2 seats) to 1.13% (1 seat).
VU (far right): From 3.83% (4 seats) to 1.11% (1 seat).
Other: From 4.20% (0 seats) to 3.60% (0 seats).

The Christiandemocrats and Market Liberals have already announced that they will continue their current coalition in the Harz.

Four years ago, both the PCL and the VU gained seats at the expense of the CDV in the Harz because of the legalisation of homosexual relationships. The Reichstag and the Reichsrat already approved that law in 1933, but King Heinrich refused to sign it. As a result, that law remained on the shelf until 1950, when King Heinrich abdicated and his son Albrecht took over. Soon after that, homosexuality was legalised in Eiffelland, to the dismay of many voters in the Harz, who switched fom the CDV to the Volksunion or the PCL. Now the PCL managed to keep its seats, but the VU lost 3 seats. Also the KPE lost one of its two seats, which can be the result of the uprising in the Collectivist Union. These elections also show again how religious the Harz is: 43% of the voters voted for a Christian party.

The most important outcome to the national coalition is an enlargement of the coalition's majority in the Reichsrat: The Pazifistische Reformpartei looses its only Harzer seat in the Reichsrat, and the Sociodemocrats loose a seat as well because of rest seat calculations. As a result, the majority of the national coalition in the Reichsrat is enlarged by two seats from 101 to 103 seats.

 

[Rheinbund]

Headlines

Coalition negotiations in Province Harz ended. CDV and FDV continue to govern.
Motorway Köln-Ingelheim-Trier-Weissenfels extended with third lane for each direction. Works finished.
Extension of motorway Weissenfels-Lörrach-Bremen with third lane started.
Dassau Flugzeugwerke announces start of development of long-distance jet plane.

 

[Rheinbund]

Eiffelland takes over chairmanship of International Commission for the Long Sea

After the Government of Galindia decided to leave the ICLS, the Eiffellandian representative Lorenz Moorsbach took over the chairmanship. The preliminary report of the ICLS on the cause of the accident with the ship with 150 Sikandari communist emigrants was harshly criticised by the governments of Both Auraria and Sikandara. As a result, the Galindian government decided to leave the ICLS. The Eiffellandian government indicated that "the ICLS still has an important role to fulfil, and it has not finished its task yet". The commission, currently consisting of representants from Eiffelland, Heroquoia, Volkova and since recently Großlausitz, will continue its task to investigate the causes of the sinking of the ship with Sikandari communist emigrants, the sinking of the three Sikandari merchant vessels 250 sea miles off the coast of Eiffelland, and the attacks against the Sikandari embassy in Solis, Auraria.
Upon a comment by the Carentanian Commissar for Foreign Affairs that each year hundreds of vessels would sink in the Long Sea, Moorsbach commented: "Commissar Dracar's suggestion would implicate that a ship is sinking in the Long Sea each day or every two days. With all due respect, the numbers suggested by Commissar Dracar are by far not correct when looking at the number of large commercial, passenger or military vessels sinking in the Long Sea each year. At least not during peace time. Luckily, the world's seamen are by far not that bad. The sinking of these four ships is definitely something that needs to be investigated."


Eiffellandian Navy purchases second aircraft carrier

The Eiffellandian Navy announced in a press release that it purchased a second aircraft carrier. It will become a carrier able to carry 50 planes, like the Kaiser Lothar, Eiffelland's current aircraft carrier. The second aircraft carrier will be called the Kaiser Friedrich, named after the first Emperor of the Holy Germanic Empire from Eiffellandian descend. Eiffelland's currently only aircraft carrier, the Kaiser Lothar, named after the second Emperor of the Holy Germanic Empire from Eiffellandian descend, Lothar I, will remain the flag ship of the Eiffellandian Navy. Chancellor Graf von Seydewitz indicated in his weekly press conference that the missions to be performed by the aircraft carriers might differ substantially compared with the past: "Up to now, there were only short crises in which our aircraft carriers needed to respond. However, in the future, the missions to be carried out by an aircraft may have to take longer than currently the case. Then it may be needed that the aircraft carriers take shifts, i.e. one carrier relieves the other so that the other can undergo regular maintenance, bunker and so on."
The number of planes in service for the Navy will not be increased: "The Navy already has more planes than fit on our single aircraft carrier. It is not needed to invest in that."

 

[Rheinbund]

Eiffellandian companies close deal with Justizan government

In a joint press conference, the Eiffellandian companies Magirus-Deutz, Rathenau Gruppe, EKW, Heppendorf and Boehrig Ingelheim announced that they closed a deal with the Justizan government about investments in Justiza. Magirus-Deutz will be allowed to market agricultural machines in Justiza, EKW will start a joint-venture with a Justizan company to produce mopeds in Justiza, and the Rathenau Gruppe, Heppendorf and Boehrig Ingelheim will open factories for washing machines, simple laboratory equipment and medications in Justiza. The initial plan is to produce mainly for the Justizan market, and later on for other markets.


ICLS chairman reaffirms conclusions upon Carentanian criticism

ICLS chairman Lorenz Moorbach indicated in a press release that he dismissed the criticism on the ICLS report by the Carentanian Commissariat for Foreign Affairs. Not mentioning any Aurarian documents containing evidence for involvement of the Sikandari Navy that the Carentanian government referred to, he stated that "any documents suggesting that it would have been the Sikandari Navy that attacked the ships in question are by far not strong enough to be considered evidence, at least not before the court of a normally functioning constitutional state".
He also dismissed accusations that the ICLS would not have been interested in truth-finding: "We were. But truth-finding also means that we should not falsely accuse people or countries." He added later on that "truth-finding is not helped in whichever way if people or countries are convicted for a crime while being innocent", and that "the Carentanian government itself would have prevented us from finding the truth if it would have had any evidence pointing at whichever entity and would not have provided that evidence to us". Claims by the Carentanian government that the involvement of pirates would be "wild speculations" were also dismissed by Moorbach: "There are countries which are not interested in whom they sell their submarines to."


Eiffellandian government calls Carentanian Naval exercises "bad timing in a sensible situation"

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs issued in a press release that it considers the Carentanian naval excercises a case of "bad timing in a sensible situation". It also stated that "the current situation in the Long Sea is already tense", and that the Carentanian naval exercises were "by far not helpful in calming down the situation", that the Carentanian government "also has a responsibility in keeping the relations with the countries around the Long Sea stable", and that it expected that any Eiffellandian merchant vessel would not be hindered by the exercises.
[MENTION=1839]Justiza[/MENTION]

 

[Rheinbund]

26JUN1955

Some of them are still in the armed forces. Others are fulfilling their society services in hospitals, in nursing-homes or for local governments. But this week the new first-year students of the academic year 1955-1956 were queueing up at the universities to subscribe for their studies next year. It will be the first step towards yet another new phase in their lives. The coming five years, they will become part of the students community of the university city of their choice.
But this year is a special year. First of all, Prince Ludwig will start his university studies in history, art history and law. He subscribed to the Staatsuniversität Weissenfels, like his brothers, father (the King), grandfather (the Emeritus-King) and many other family members before. He went to the subscription together with the son of the Count of Luckenwalde, with whom he is currently serving at the Aachen, one of Eiffelland's cruisers, and with whom he befriended during his services. As his family members before, Prince Ludwig decided to queue up like everyone else.
Another prominent student who joined the freshmen is the Crown Prince of Großlausitz, Prince Benedikt. He will follow an internship at one of Eiffelland's large companies. Contrary to the descendants of Eiffelland's noble and other prominent families, who usually study in Weissenfels, he decided to subscribe himself at the Staatsuniversität Trier to be close to both the location of his internship and his supervisor at the university. Also he queued up like everyone else. It was announced that Prince Benedikt will take the opportunity to see the country and visit Nichtstein as well.

 

[Rheinbund]

Severe train accident near Trier

This evening at 21:09, the intercity Bad Hersfeld-Trier collided with a local train at the rail route between Bad Hersfeld and Trier at about 30 km from Trier. As it looks now, the intercity drove at full speed when it collided with the local train. This led to an enormous havoc at the place of the accident. The Mayor of the community where the accident took place already declared the state of emergency because of the accident. The army built up a field hospital at the location to conduct the triage and to operate the really urgent cases. Less urgent cases are transported to hospitals in the neighbourhood as well as university hospitals in Trier. Estimations about the number of casualties cannot be made yet, because the cleaning up operation is still ongoing.

 

[Serenierre]

Grand Council for Diplomatic Affairs

The hearts of the Sikandari people are heavy with sorrow upon hearing of this most awful tragedy. The Chancellor sends his condolences on behalf of the Empire. The flag of Sikandara shall be flown at half mast at our embassy in Trier.

 

[Rheinbund]

Number of casualties of train accident assessed to be 132

The mayor of the municipality of Stendal, where last Sunday's train accident happened, announced that a total of 132 people lost their lives during last Sunday's train accident. He also mentioned the 230 people who survived the accident but got injured. The investigations at the crash site are continuing. The main question is why the driver of the stop train ignored the red sign on his route. Due to severe damage to the rails, it will take at least one more week before trains can drive over this route again. The Eiffellandian railway company announced that it will continue the solution in which autobuses take up the line from Trier to Bad Hersfeld until the rails have been repaired.
Meanwhile, letters of condolences are sent to both the Government and the parliament. The Government indicated that no letter would be left unanswered.

 

[Holy Frankish Empire]

Grand Ducal Government

The people of Bourgogne offer their deepest condolences to the families of those touched by this great disaster. We hope that their deaths are not in vain and this tragedy leads to more safety guidelines.

 

[Furlanìe]

Joint statement from the senate and the president of the republic

the justinian governament wishes to express his grief for this sad moment in the eiffellandian history.
May it be a matter of will or incompetence, we hope to see whoever is responsible brought to justice soon.

 

[Rheinbund]

Kanzleramt
Trier, Eiffelland

We thank the governments of Sikandara, Burgundy and Justiza for their sympathy. Tomorrow (20 July 1955) will be a day of national mourning in Eiffelland. Meanwhile, we are investigating the accident to find out what actually happened and how we can prevent it from happening again.

Matthias Graf von Seydewitz, Chancellor

 

[Rheinbund]

Eiffellandian universities, Rathenau Gruppe and Karl Seiff GmbH. bundle space research in Eiffelländisches Weltraumforschungsinstitut

At this moment, each general university in Eiffelland has its planetary and its observatory. All of those planetaries are projection planetaries as built by the Eiffellandian company Karl Seiff GmbH, but some universities still have the mechanic planetaries they started with. Especially the mechanic planetary of the Universität der Stadt Trier is an extremely beautiful one. As a result, astronomic research is performed in almost every university city in Eiffelland.
During the years, the universities started to informally cooperate w.r.t. their space research. That already led to fruitful ideas. Later on, the lens manufacturing company Karl Seiff GmbH. and the rocketry division of the Rathenau Gruppe joined this informal cooperation. Today the universities, the Rathenau Gruppe and Karl Seiff GmbH. announced that they will officially bundle their space research in the Eiffelländisches Weltraumforschungsinstitut (Eiffellandian space investigation institute), abbreviated as the EWFI. The main seat of the EWFI will be in Trier. Furthermore, some very large visual telescopes will be located on top of the mountains in the North of Eiffelland, near Innsbruck, and some radiotelescopes will be built on the plains of the province Obereiffel.
The EWFI also announced that there are plans to cooperate with the Burgundian space agency. In the future, Burgundian astronomers might do research in Eiffelland, and Eiffellandian astronomers in Bourgogne. Or the Burgundian and Eiffellandian astronomers will all focus their telescopes on a certain location in space, or they will develop telescopes together, or even a rocket to make space travel possible.

 

[Rheinbund]

Investigation report on train accident presented

Today the commission investigating the train accident that took place at the railroad between Trier and Bad Hersfeld on 13 July presented its conclusions during a press conference at the Ministry for Transport and Public Works. The president of the commission started with a brief description of the accident: “On Sunday 13 July, the Intercity Bad Hersfeld-Trier was scheduled to depart at 19:35 from Bad Hersfeld Hauptbahnhof to arrive at Trier Hauptbahnhof at 21:25. Unfortunately, this train departed from Bad Hersfeld with a 15 minutes delay due to a technical problem in the engine. The engine driver tried to reduce the delay by driving faster than usual. In that way, he managed to reduce the delay by five minutes.”
“At 20:25, the local train Wittenberg departed on schedule from the train station Stendal. It was bound to arrive at the train station of Mahlwinkel at 21:10, normally 10 minutes after the intercity Bad Hersfeld-Trier would have passed Mahlwinkel. But not this time. When an intercity and a local train have to use a rail section at the same time, the intercity gets priority. That was also the case on 13 July. As a result, the sign had been set to red for the local train. However, despite that red sign, the local train drove further, and was actually slowing down for the arrival at Station Mahlwinkel. At the moment of the impact, the local train drove 40 km/h.”
“Unfortunately, we cannot ask the driver of the intercity for his point of view any more, because he died upon impact. Fact is, however, that he did see the local train driving in front of him. It is also a fact that he tried to stop the train. At the moment he started to brake, he drove 160 km/h, which is 30 km/h faster than permitted. He collided with the local train at a speed of 100 km/h.”
“I already mentioned that the local train was driving on the rail section despite a red sign. The driver of this train survived the accident. He indicated that he had not seen the red sign. We checked the sign in question. Indeed, at a certain position of the sun, this sign is difficult to interpret.”
“The most important cause of this accident is the fact that the driver of the local train missed a sign, probably due to the sun shining into it. Our first recommendation is to install a system that automaticly stops the train when it passes a red sign without slowing down.”

A total of 100 people died and 108 people were injured during the train accident. Six of the severely injured people died in hospital. The Public Prosecution Department is currently deliberating whether the driver of the local train should be proceeded against.

 

[Holy Frankish Empire]

It is hoped that this horrid event brings new safety protocols and saves lives in the future.

-Burgundian Union of Railworkers

 

[Rheinbund]

Verkehrsministerium
Trier, Eiffelland

The recommendation of the commission regarding a system that automaticly stops a train passing a red sign without slowing down will be implemented. We are looking at several systems for that. Furthermore, we are checking all signs to make sure that they are visible, and we are also checking out under which circumstances they are more difficult to interpret.

 

[Rheinbund]

Headlines

Rathenau Gruppe will develop a system that automaticly stops trains for red signs, in cooperation with Magirus-Deutz and the Eiffelländische Rechsbahn.
In response to a decision from the Caldeonian government to make procedures to request visas easier for Eiffellandian citizens, the procedures to request visas for Eiffelland will also be made easier to Caledonian citizens.
Campaigns for provincial elections in Sauerland started.
Dassau Flugzeugwerke will test new fighter plane next year. New transport plane to be presented soon.

 

[Remuria]

Headlines

Foreign Ministry has confirmed that the recent visa facilitation agreements will not impact Nichtsteiner citizens travelling to Caledonia, neither will it have an impact on Caledonians visiting Nichtstein. "The free movement between Eiffelland and Nichtstein is restricted to the mutual citizens of both countries only and does not apply even to foreign permanent residents. We still issue separate visas and the negotiations on establishing a single visa area are ongoing between the two governments," a press statement read.

 

[Rheinbund]

University introductions begin

It is tradition in Eiffelland that the Academic Year starts on the 1st of October. The same will happen this year. But before the Academic Year starts, the university cities welcome the new first-year students. First there will be a week of festivities and information fairs organised by the universities, then there will be a week for the fraternities, and finally the faculties will organise a week for the new first-year students. The weeks preceding the opening of the new Academic Year are filled with parties for the students. Especially the week organised by the universities is one big party, during which the new first-year students get to know the city where they will spend the next five years of their lives. By tradition, there is a large party on the last day of the university introduction, attended by almost all the first-year students as well as the older students involved in organising the introduction week. Most of the times, this party is organised by all the universities in each city together. The three universities in Trier, for instance, organise a party for 10,000 people at the Messegelände. Something comparable will happen in all the other university cities, where stadiums and sport palaces will be filled with partying students.