National News Eiffelland (from 2009 until 31 July 2020)

[Polesia]

Office of the President of the Free State of Trivodnia

The Free State thanks Eiffelland for its continuing support in these dark times and also reiterates that it had no involvement in failed coup in Crotobaltislavonia, which by the day becomes increasingly obvious was a Kadikistani false flag operation to justify a presence beyond the Polesian.

 

[Rheinbund]

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Traumatized Princess finds comfort in the arms of a Prince … Royal marriage in sight?
Prince Ludwig and Queen Julian in love

In every family, there is a late-developer. Also in the Royal Family. The youngest son of the King has never been seen with a girl. Prince Ludwig, the angel-prince, with his light blonde hair, his sapphire‑blue eyes and his impeccable skin, without a single gram of fat anywhere on his body. 24 years old and still looking like 18. The love of many teenage girls since his 15th birthday. Decent, kind, calm, lacking the ability to become arrogant, and still not aware of how beautiful he is. Up to now, he has been blind for the effect he has on girls. No girl had the luck to be allowed to come close. Yes, he has many female friends, many of them hoping that he would melt for them, but no girl was chosen. Prince Ludwig left a trace of broken hearts behind, like Hänsel and Gretel pebbles and breadcrumbs. The question that many people, including his despairing parents, asked, was: Would he be gay? And indeed, there were many rumours that he was really gay. The Trierer gay-scene buzzes of rumours that he was frequently seen in various gay bars and gay discos when he was a teenager.
Now everything has changed. At last he has a girlfriend. The recently chosen Queen of Gunnland, no less! The young Gunnish girl, who lost her parents in a sudden plane-crash two years ago and was the victim of a brutal and cruel kidnapping 6 months ago, has found comfort in the arms of Eiffelland’s angel-prince. She started to study law at the Staatsuniversität Weissenfels in October, and that was where the two lovebirds met. In the canteen of the law faculty. They started to see each other more often, and finally Cupido’s arrows hit the mark. On one of the pictures, you can see the couple embracing each other at the airport of Weissenfels, when at that time still Princess Julian flew to Gunnland to be elected Queen. On the second picture, you can see the couple embracing each other at a Christmas concert given by several Weissenfelser fraternities; Prince Ludwig was one of the solo-singers at that concert; it is rumoured that he sang so well that Queen Julian melted for him even more.
Prince Ludwig is often seen at Schloss Klippenstein. The Gunnish Queen-Dowager, who also resides in Schloss Klippenstein, is overhappy to see her granddaughter happy in the arms of her angel-prince after having faced so much horror. Also the King and Queen of Eiffelland are overhappy to see that their son has finally found his love-for-life. Of course we at Schau! will keep you posted about Queen Julian’s and Prince Ludwig’s love.

 

[Gunnland]

The Stone Chair
The Crown of Gunnland

We do not comment on off-the-record media reports, and ask the press to respect Her Majesty's privacy.

Madeleine mD. MacNicholls
Spokeswoman

 

[Rheinbund]

Government asks approval from Parliament for sheltering Crotobaltislavonian refugees in Eiffelland

Both the Government and the chambers of Parliament are currently returning to Trier from the Christmas recess. Also the provincial governments and parliaments are returning. Traditionally, the Monday after a recess is used for catching up with things happening during the recess. Then on Tuesday there will be a plenary session. Chancellor Graf von Seydewitz indicated that he wants to take the opportunity to request approval for sheltering Crotobaltislavonian refugees in Eiffelland. Von Seydewitz: "The failed coup in Crotobaltislavonia is turning into a civil war. Furthermore, we received signs that minorities in the country are becoming more and more the victim of ethnic violence. Especially Jews are facing antisemitism. This has led to a stream of refugees to Trivodnia. That country cannot take the whole burden; somebody has to take a part of it. The SWR already took the step to take up refugees from Crotobaltislavonia. We have to take that step as well."
Upon the question how many refugees Eiffelland would have to take up, Von Seydewitz said: "For now, I would say that we take up 50,000 refugees. Maybe later this number can be increased."
The political leaders of several parties already reacted on this proposal. The Sociodemocrats, Socioliberals, Communists and Greens voiced their agreement with the proposal. Also the fraction leaders of the Christiandemocrats in the Staatstag and Staatsrat indicated that they agreed with the proposal. The fraction leaders of the Marketliberals have their concerns, however; they doubt if the country would socially be able to receive that many refugees, and if it would be possible to integrate those refugees in the Eiffellandian society: "We have to take into account that those refugees will never be able to return to Crotobaltislavonia, so they will have to learn German, follow educations, get jobs and get houses. Do we have the resources to handle this? Does society want to spend resources on this? We can spend money only once." The political leader of the Volksunion indicated that he was against this proposal.

 

[Polesia]

Office of the President of the Free State of Trivodnia

Words cannot express the gratitude of the Trivodnian people for Eiffelland's continuing support for the Free State in these difficult times. The Ministry of the Interior will be in touch to discuss refugee sharing arrangements.

 

[Rheinbund]

12JAN2017
Staatstag and Staatsrat approve sheltering Crotobaltislavonian refugees in Eiffelland

It took several days of debating, but now the decision is there. Both the Staatstag and the Staatsrat approved the sheltering of Crotobaltislavonian refugees in Eiffelland. Basically, there was a vast majority in both chambers of parliament to shelter these refugees, but the FDV (market liberals), who are part of the coalition governing Eiffelland, had concerns about the plan. Because of these concerns, the Government decided to modify its original plan. The FDV indicated that the Crotobaltislavonian refugees will probably never be able to return to their home‑country. Maximilian Schrempf (fraction leader of the FDV): “We have to face the facts. These refugees will not return to their home-country. They simply can’t. Therefore, we have to prepare them for a permanent stay in Eiffelland. This means that we will not only offer them shelter in Eiffelland, but also language courses, other forms of education and Eiffellandian citizenship if they hand in their Crotobaltislavonian identity papers. There is, however, also another fact we have to take into account. Our resources are limited; we cannot be so generous to an unlimited amount of refugees. Therefore, we have to put a limit on the number of refugees we take up. That limit will be 50,000. We will be very generous to those 50,000, but that will be the limit of people we will take up from Crotobaltislavonia. Please also realise that this will not be the last refugee crisis of this year; we also need to have space and resources to handle the refugees of the next crises. Therefore, we place a cap on the number of refugees we take up. We call upon the international community to take up Crotobaltislavonian refugees as well; Trivodnia, Bergenheim and Eiffelland cannot handle this alone.”

 

[Rheinbund]

28JAN2018
Protest marches turn into riots

What many feared, happened. Today’s protest marches in Trier turned into massive riots. Thanks to a large police force, the initial riots did not last long, but were severe. Furthermore, during the day, the situation remained tense in Tiergarten, where the countermarch took place, resulting in several small riots breaking out. All those small riots were calmed down soon. Such small riots also broke out and were calmed down in Friedrichshain, where the far‑right protest march took place, but there the riots concentrated on one squat during the day. That resulted in a massive fight between far‑left radicals and far‑right radicals. It took the police several hours to end the riots there. At the end of the day, the police had arrested 300 people. A total of 130 people were injured, of which 20 severely injured. Two people died of heart attacks, one man died due to violence.
The police managed quite well to calm down the situation in Trier, but the question remains whether these riots could have been prevented or could have been less severe if Mayor Aschenbach and Minister Möller would have taken a less confronting attitude during their press conference last Wednesday.


29JAN2018
Elections in Emsland: Coalition looses massively, PCL and Volksunion triple their seats, national coalition looses majority in Staatsrat

Yesterday’s provincial elections in Emsland resulted in a massive shift of seats, but more importantly in the national coalition of CDV and FDV loosing its majority in the Staatsrat. This will have consequences to the new coalition to be formed after the national elections in April. Here are the results:

Party        Percentage in 2014    Seats in 2014    Percentage now    Seats now
SPE               31.94%                 32              34.24%           35
CDV               27.10%                 28              19.56%           20
FDV               20.33%                 21              14.67%           15
LDP                7.74%                  8               9.78%           10
Grün               4.84%                  5               6.89%            7
PCL                1.95%                  2               6.81%            7
Volksunion         1.93%                  2               4.89%            5
KPE                0.97%                  1               0.98%            1
Other              3.20%                  0               2.18%            0

The SPE in Emsland will have two coalition options to choose for: Continuing the current coalition with the CDV, or forming a new coalition with the LDP and Grün.

On the national level, the coalition will have to close compromises with the opposition during the last months until the national election.

Polls held before the elections already indicated that the PCL and the Volksunion would gain seats in these elections. People switching to the Volksunion cited the Government’s decision to shelter 50,000 Crotobaltislavonian refugees in Eiffelland, as well as the Government’s passive attitude towards the Christmas Coup. People switching to the PCL indicated that they considered it a Christian duty to shelter those refugees, but also indicated that they disagreed with the Government’s passive attitude towards the Christmas Coup. Strange enough, local issues played only a secondary role in these elections.

After the most recent change in the constitution, the next elections in Emsland will be in 2020.


29JAN2018
Organiser of yesterday’s far‑right protest march sued, barred from leaving the country

When Anton Hammelsprung, the Bergenheimer organisator of yesterday’s far‑right march in Trier, wanted to travel back, he was barred from leaving the country by the customs. The reason was that he had been sued by a group of Trierer pub and club owners, who wanted to claim loss of revenues because they had to close earlier in the night from 27 to 28 January. Hammelsprung’s lawyer called the writ by these pub and club owners a “childish action” which would have “no chance before court”. He also said that it was Hammelsprung’s “democratic right to organise a protest march”, and that the pub and club owners should have sued the Government instead of Hammelsprung.

 

[Rheinbund]

29JAN2018
Christiandemocrats also loose in Rügen

Not as massively as in Emsland, but the Christiandemocrats also lost in Rügen, while the Market‑liberals managed to keep their seats. These are the results for the elections in Rügen:

                                                        2014               current
                                                 ————————————————————————————————————————
Political party                                  Seats (% of votes)    Seats (% of votes)
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Christlich-Demokratische Partei Rügens (CDPR)        40 (39.11%)           37 (35.87%)
Sozial-Demokratische Partei Rügens (SDPR)            19 (18.58%)           19 (18.72%)
Christliche Konstitutionspartei Rügens (CKPR)        10  (9.78%)           12 (11.78%)
Frei-Demokratische Partei Rügens (FDPR)              12 (11.73%)           12 (11.58%)
Liberal-Demokratische Partei Rügens (LDPR)           11 (10.76%)           11 (10.76%)
Grün                                                  2  (1.92%)            4  (1.92%)
Mittelstandspartei Rügens (MPR)                       2  (2.00%)            3  (2.92%)
Kommunistische Partei Eiffellands (KPE)               4  (3.91%)            2  (1.95%)
Other                                                 0  (2.22%)            0  (2.51%)

Unlike in Emsland, the KPE suffered a defeat: It lost half of its seats. The polls indicate that the KPE mainly lost votes to Grün; the situation in Crotobaltislavonia is cited as the main reason to switch. Because the CDPR is not linked to the CDV of Continental Eiffelland, there were less voters who blamed the Rügener Christiandemocrats for the decision to take up Crotobaltislavonian refugees and for not intervening in Crotobaltislavonia. However, this was one of the reasons cited by people who switched from the CDPR to the CKPR and the MPR.
The ruling coalition of the CDPR and the FDPR looses its majority. When it wants to govern further, it will have to find a third partner. However, both the LDPR and the CKPR indicated that they did not want to give a coalition that was rejected by the voters a majority again. This means that the CDPR and the SDPR will start coalition negotiations.


01FEB2018
Hammelsprung wins lawsuit, returns to Bergenheim

Today the judge decided in favour of Anton Hammelsprung in the lawsuit started by several Trierer pub and club owners. This means that he is free to go back to Bergenheim. The judge sentenced the pub and club owners to the costs of the process, meaning that they have to cover the costs of Hammelsprung’s barrister as well. Also the costs of his longer stay in Trier have to be paid by the pub and club owners, as well as the income loss over five days. All in all, the pub and club owners will have to pay 5000 Eiffelland Mark.


OOC: For the election results in Rügen, I had to write that post as well, but didn’t have the time to do so.

 

[Rheinbund]

09FEB2018 22:00
Zweites Eiffelländisches Fernsehen
Brennpunkt

Sandra Tischler: “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this program. Today we are going to discuss with the Chancellor about the Christmas Coup and the events thereafter. The Government has been in the middle of a lot of critics since the Christmas Coup in Crotobaltislavonia. On the one hand, there were accusations from Rurikgrad Pact countries that the Trier Concord would have initiated the coup, on the other hand there were critics that the Trier Concord did not step in when Kadikistani troops appeared in Crotobaltislavonia. Then there was the Government’s decision to take up 50,000 refugees from Crotobaltislavonia, which also led to critics, and even violent demonstrations in Trier. Herr Kanzler, welcome to the studio.”

Chancellor Von Seydewitz: “Thank you.”

ST: “Normally Christmas is a very peaceful time in the year, but Christmas 2017 was not, because of the coup in Crotobaltislavonia. Did it catch you by surprise in the same way as it did us?”

CvT: “Well, Crotobaltislavonia is not known for its stability, but the coup did catch us by surprise. Of course, there are some factions that want to take over the power, but we didn’t consider any of those factions powerful enough for igniting a coup. So in that sense, we were caught by surprise.”

ST: “So when you were caught by surprise, this would suggest that the accusations from the Rurikgrad Pact that the Trier Concord would have initiated or supported the coup are false.”

CvT: “They are definitely false. I can assure you that the Trier Concord was definitely not involved. Eiffelland, the Southern Tiburan Empire and Retalia were not involved on their own behalves, either. I can assure you that. Of course I cannot guarantee that no individual Eiffellandians, Pelasgians or Retalians were involved, but they were definitely not involved on behalf of the Trier Concord or the individual member countries of the Trier Concord.”

ST: “But those accusations cannot emerge from themselves. They must be based on something.”

CvT: “To be very honest, I would really not know where they could be based on. I have the very strong impression that they are based on nothing. Please also take note of the fact that the Rurikgrad Pact never presented any evidence of the involvement of the Trier Concord in the coup in Crotobaltislavonia. When you accuse somebody of something, you will have to show proof or evidence. The Rurikgrad Pact does not do so. But that is already a known strategy of the Rurikgrad Pact: A lie told often enough will be perceived as the truth, so they will continue to say that the Trier Concord initiated the coup in Crotobaltislavonia and just say ‘ach, come on, everybody already knows that you did it’ when asked for evidence for their claims. A strategy that does not hold in the courtroom but unfortunately can work very well outside the courtroom. In this way, you can achieve a lot without the facts on your side.”

ST: “That sounds horrible, Herr Kanzler.”

CvT: “It is horrible, Frau Tischler. In this way you can rewrite history and even base government policies on a lie.”

ST: “But to be very honest, how sure can I be that you won’t apply the same tactics?”

CvT: “Hahahaha! Good question! I can tell you that I will have the evidence available for everything I present as a certainty, and I will always make it clear if I do not have 100% certainty about something. Furthermore, the exact reason why this country has journalists is to control the Government and check the things we present as facts. And I must say that the Eiffellandian journalists generally take up that role very well.”

ST: “Thank you for the compliment, Herr Kanzler. However, back to our topic. Crotobaltislavonia and the Rurikgrad Pact. Would it have been possible for the Trier Concord to step in?”

CvT: “Well, there are several complicating factors here. The first one is the fact that none of the member states of the Trier Concord border Crotobaltislavonia. We would have to send in the troops either through Carinthia‑Harkány or through Bergenheim. I can assure you that those countries would certainly not have liked it if we would have passed through them without asking for permission. And I can also assure that it would have taken too much time to get the permission. The Kadikistani placed the world for accomplished facts in an extremely fast way. Of course we could have attacked Kadikistan itself, but that would have ignited a devastating war. Furthermore, we would have had no argument to justify such an attack. It was not a member‑country of the Trier Concord that was under attack. Furthermore, what the Kadikistani did, was not a hostile invasion according to international law. The Kadikistani were asked by the Government of Crotobaltislavonia to step in. The fact that Farrago is a brutal and ruthless dictator does not change that. It would have been different if the Kadikistani troops would have invaded Crotobaltislavonia to put Farrago in charge, but that was not what happened. Basically, there was no way that we could have intervened.”

ST: “Kadikistan does not border Crotobaltislavonia, either. There are indications that Elben and Gunnland permitted the Kadikistani to move their troops through those countries. What can you say about that?”

CvT: “In the case of Gunnland, the evidence is not that clear. There is evidence though that Elben permitted Kadikistan to send its troops to Crotobaltislavonia over Elbenese soil in exchange for the release of several missionaries. I myself consider this a very unwise move. It is good that Elben got those missionaries free, but it was an extremely bad decision to grant Kadikistani troops right of passage over Elbenese soil. Now the Kadikistani had the opportunity to create a Marxist‑Leninovist state in the heart of Gallo-Germania. The Government of Elben should have realised that Kadikistan is a serious threat to its sovereignty; now it has such a serious threat on its southern borders as well. Furthermore, you can’t help out a dictator like Farrago if you try to uphold certain standards of civilisation.”

ST: “It is clear that the Trier Concord was not able to intervene, but do you think that Elben, Gunnland, Carinthia‑Harkány should have intervened?”

CvT: “It depends. Deposing a dictator is one thing, but then you will need to have a replacement at your disposal who is popular enough among the population. Otherwise, you will have to occupy the country to prevent it from falling into civil war. Furthermore, if the dictator you depose was popular, despite being cruel, the people will not consider you a liberator but an invader. Then you will have to stay in the country and cope with hostile people for decades, against high costs.”

ST: “So you would never invade a country to depose its head of state?”

CvT: “In any case not if I cannot deal with the aftermath of such a move.”

ST: “I understand. What is the strategy of the Rurikgrad Pact according to you?”

CvT: “Its goal is clear: World-dominance. At least there are many indications that Kadikistan still upholds that ambition. The end goal of Kadikistan is to spread Marxism‑Leninovism over the planet, at least according to the principles the country is based on.”

ST: “Then it seems that the Rurikgrad Pact is quite dangerous.”

CvT: “At this moment, the Rurikgrad Pact is the strongest military alliance on the planet. It is not strong enough to dominate the world, however. Furthermore, it knows that it won’t win a war against a combined force of the Gallogermanian countries outside the Rurikgrad Pact, the Nordic countries, Engellex and the Southern Tiburan Empire. Such a war would mean the end of the world, by the way, and the Rurikgrad Pact knows this. So if the Rurikgrad Pact wants to achieve world domination, it has to apply a different strategy. And that is what it currently does. It will not start a full‑blown invasion, but it will do whatever it can to win the countries for its cause one-by‑one.”

ST: “What is it that we can do against the Rurikgrad pact?”

CvT: “First of all, we have to make sure that we have strong armed forces as a deterrent, so that attacking us will come at a very high price. Furthermore, we have to make sure that as many Eiffellandians as possible can live at least a comfortable life. Only then the people will not run to the Communist Party or the Volksunion. By the way, I think that Eiffelland is on the right track w.r.t. that. Our armed forces are very well able to defend ourselves, and economically we are doing well. We have low unemployment rates, and most companies are healthy. Thanks to our Social Market Economy, we have a stable and robust economy that can hold an economic crisis. And we have a system that is easy to adapt to changing insights and situations.”

ST: “Last year Eiffellandian companies invested quite a lot of money in Trivodnia. Now that the Trivodnian economy received a hit, they are likely to lose some money there. Last year the government promoted investments in Trivodnia with quite some emphasis. What is your thought about this now?”

CvT: “I do realise that Eiffellandian investments in Trivodnia lost quite a lot of their value. However, I still think we should have placed those investments. Maybe on the short term we are losing money, but on the longer term Eiffelland will benefit from stability along the Kadikistani border. Of course you cannot completely foresee what will happen in ten years, but it is easier than it seems to influence the future with decisions you take today, and often it is easy to forecast what happens if you do something, or decide not to do it.”

ST: “You are talking quite a lot about the dangers of the Rurikgrad Pact, and you place quite some emphasis on containing Kadikistan. Couldn’t it be, however, that Kadikistan feels as threatened by the Trier Concord as the Trier Concord feels threatened by the Rurikgrad Pact? Furthermore, I can imagine that a country as large as Kadikistan claims a certain sphere of influence for itself, and considers the countries bordering Kadikistan part of its sphere of influence. Therefore, it considers each move by the Trier Concord an attempt to increase its sphere of influence.”

CvT: “I don’t think we should think in terms of sphere of influence here. I think we should point at the freedom of each country to choose its friends. Trivodnia should not be obliged to consider Kadikistan its friend just because it borders that country. And that is what Trivodnia did. It voluntarily contacted the Trier Concord and Bourgogne for help. I’m awfully sorry, but then we cannot say as a country or treaty organisation ‘sorry, but you border Kadikistan, so you belong to Kadikistan’s sphere of influence’ to Trivodnia. Maybe now Kadikistan has the feeling that we extended our sphere of influence to Trivodnia, but in fact we did not. And eh, Trivodnia is acting independently from us, given their reply on our remark concerning calling new snap‑elections. So who is talking about spheres of influence here? In any case, let it be clear that I will be happier with a Kadikistan acting responsibly on the international stage than with a Kadikistan wiped off the map. I will not be happy when Kadikistan’s sovereignty is violated without reason, either. Border wise we should stick to the status quo. All this together is also a reason why Eiffelland sticks to the Status Quo Treaty applicable to the Kalahari Sea.”

ST: “Two weeks ago there was the March on Trier. One of the reasons to organise it was the Government’s decision to shelter 50,000 refugees from Crotobaltislavonia. That was also the weekend of the provincial elections in Emsland, where your party and the FDV lost a lot of seats. It could be that a lot of your voters do not agree with this move.”

CvT: “Well, actually it was a mixture of reasons. Indeed, the decision to shelter those refugees was a factor, but also the fact that we did not respond to the Christmas Coup played a role. Apparently, we have to explain better why we offered shelter to those refugees, and why we did not intervene in Crotobaltislavonia. For Crotobaltislavonia, I already explained the issue: We did not intervene because the Kadikistani had settled the situation before we would have received approval to pass through Bergenheim and Carinthia‑Harkány. For the refugees, please realise that a humanitarian disaster is emerging in Trivodnia, because a lot of Crotobaltislavonians are fleeing their country because of anti-Jewish violence and the way the Farrago‑regime is acting against people it deems enemies of the regime. And also because of the enforcement of Marxism‑Leninovism in that country. Trivodnia is not able to take care of all those refugees, and chasing them back to Crotobaltislavonia or letting them starve to death is not an option. Gallo‑Germania has to act here to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in Trivodnia. That is why we offered shelter to refugees.”

ST: “But now there are quite a lot of people in Eiffelland who are afraid of Crotobaltislavonians bringing their internal problems to Eiffelland. They are also afraid that those refugees will take over jobs from Eiffellandians. 50,000 refugees are a lot of people; housing them will lead to frictions.”

CvT: “Please realise that we are not going to house them all in one region. We will spread them over the country. We are not going to house 10,000 refugees in a village with 200 inhabitants. We will spread the refugees over the larger cities, and we will take care of their integration in the society. Part of their integration will be learning German. We will also ensure that they will get educations, so that they can take care of themselves. Furthermore, there is freedom of religion in Eiffelland; the fact that many Crotobaltislavonians will erect their own churches should not be a problem in a country where Tiburan Catholics, Protestants and Pelasgians have their own churches, Jews have their synagogues, Muslims have their mosques, Touzenese have their temples and Buddhists also have their temples.”

ST: “You say that you will give the refugees education. In the end, it is your intention to let them have jobs for their income. People are fearing that the refugees will take their jobs, however.”

CvT: “It will definitely not happen that an employer will fire all his people without migration background in order to employ refugees. Indeed, in the future, more people will apply for jobs. It could also be, however, that additional jobs will be created because of the emergence of the refugees. Better said, it could be that the number of jobs to apply for will increase. In any case, we will also keep track of that.”

ST: “Four years ago, the society service was shortened from three to two years. As a result, there were twice as many young people applying for jobs at lower, middle and higher non‑university level in 2016 than normal, and that will also happen in 2021 and 2022 for people applying for university jobs. This means that there is already an increased pressure on the jobs market; furthermore, the refugees will enter the job market in 2022 as well, during the last part of the peak of university graduates applying for jobs. How are we going to handle that?”

CvT: “Well, the peak of school graduates applying for jobs in 2016 has been managed by the economy. We will do everything we can to make sure, that the situation will be the same in 2021 and 2022. But please also realise that the peak of Crotobaltislavonian job applicants will be spread over a longer period of time. Some of them will need less than four years of education, some more. Please also take into account that some of them are still in the school age. They will first have to finish school; in some cases even primary school. They will definitely not enter the job market in four years. And they will also have to do society service.”

ST: “Really?”

CvT: “Yes. They will all get Eiffellandian citizenship. That comes with rights, but also with duties. We won’t ask somebody aged 40 to serve society service, but the children will have to do so when they reach the age for that.”

ST: “But why do the refugees get Eiffellandian citizenship?”

CvT: “We can be sure that these people will not be able to return to Crotobaltislavonia. When they do, they will almost certainly end in a prison or work camp. And those facilities are a lot worse there than their counterparts in Eiffelland. It could also be that they lost their Crotobaltislavonian citizenship, so that they are stateless now. Because they cannot return, we make them Eiffellandian citizens.”

ST: “Herr Kanzler, we thank you for this talk.”

CvT: “You are welcome.”

ST: “Ladies and gentlemen, we are at the end of this program. I wish you a good night and a good weekend.”

 

[Rheinbund]

10FEB2018

Headlines Stephanitic Winter Games: Andreas Grüniger surprisingly grabs gold on speed skating; Margot Beisner wins bronze on downhill.

 

[Rheinbund]

Carnival in Eiffelland

It is that time of the year again that the normally precise, formal and quiet Eiffellandians stop being precise, formal and quiet. It is the Carnival weekend, a weekend filled with partying, disguising, and making fun of the authorities and the bosses. But all according to traditions. It is Prince Carnival with his Council of Eleven who leads the festivities. Traditionally the Sunday is the day of the street parades. Carnival carts made by many carnival associations parade through the city centres, and sometimes also through the villages. Especially in the cities, the carnival associations pay a lot of attention to that.
Carnival is celebrated all over Eiffelland, but the province Rheinland is the place where it is celebrated the most intensely. This province is also the place that determines the typical Carnival traditions; the rest of Eiffelland does what the Rheinland does. You could argue that three days a year Köln is the capital of Eiffelland instead of Trier. That feeling is even greater with a Chancellor from Köln.
Of course government officials from Eiffelland, but also from abroad, are wanted subjects for the carts. This year the supposed love‑affair between Prince Ludwig and Queen Julian from Gunnland is a theme widely used. Prince Ludwig wearing a kilt and kissing Princess Julian, while many young girls and guys are crying while looking at the couple. But also Prince Ludwig in kilt with Queen Julian embracing him, while he is looking at some guys (sometimes even shirtless guys). And sometimes Prince Ludwig wearing a kilt kissing a guy while Queen Julian looks at the scene in despair. Every time Prince Ludwig has wings on his back, referring to his nickname “angel-prince”. A Kölner carnival association was very creative: It shows Prince Ludwig in kilt flying away with Queen Julian.
Another topic that became subject of many carnival carts is the conclave. Especially the long duration of the conclave is parodied. One cart shows the Cardinals playing cards instead of electing a Pope. Another cart shows the Cardinals in various ways. Especially the Cardinals Taft and Stewart are shown very often, Taft is mostly shown as a man who considers himself holier than God, Stewart is shown during a book burning.
But that is not all. Also the Christmas Coup is a topic widely used. One cart shows the Elbenese Head of Government bowing for Kadikistani tanks and waving them into the direction of Crotobaltislavonia. Another cart shows Farrago first igniting the revolution and then torturing the revolutionaries. A third cart shows Farrago sucking out Crotobaltislavonia through a straw. A fourth cart shows Kadikistani soldiers oppressing Crotobaltislavonians while several governmental leaders are standing around the scene doing nothing. And there are many more carts with Crotobaltislavonia as subject.
All in all, this year’s street parades can be considered a success.


Headlines Stephanitic Winter Games:
Achim Lorig and Hedy Pall win bronze in figure skating, Bernd Raich wins silver on slalomskiing, women’s ice hockey team defeated by Caledonian team.

 

[Rheinbund]

Carnival in Eiffelland

Also today the carnival festivities continued. The evenings were filled with Sessionen or Sitzungen, which can be described best as four hours of cabaret, acrobatics and music. Again the Christmas Coup was a widely (ab)used topic for the jokes, but also the organisers of the March on Trier were joked about. One of the artists used Prince Ludwig as his topic: “What do you think? Shall we see Prince Ludwig in a kilt soon? He will have to as the Prince‑Consort of the Queen of Gunnland. But then the most important question. Will he wear pants under his kilt? According to the tradition, he shouldn’t, but given his obsession with his personal hygiene, he will probably change kilts four times a day when he has to wear them without pants.”
Another joke was about Cardinal Taft: "Cardinal Stewart, Cardinal Espinoza and Cardinal taft arrive at the Port of Heaven. Saint Peter tells them: »God wants to personnally talk to you before he decides if you can stay or not.« Cardinal Espinoza is the first one to enter God's office. It lasts one hour, two hours, three hours, and then Espinoza comes out, deadly pale. He says: »Whow, God was very angry at me, but I may stay.« Then Cardinal Stewart enters God's office. It lasts one hour, two hours, five hours, ten hours, and then Stewart comes out, deadly pale. He says: »Whow, God was very angry at me, but I may stay.« Then it is Cardinal Taft's turn. He gets into God's office. It lasts one hour, two hours, four hours, ten hours, fifteen hours, and then God comes out, deadly pale. He says: »Whow, Cardinal Taft was very angry at me, but I may stay.«"

Tomorrow will be the last day of Carnival. At Midnight sharp, the festivities will end. Shortly before Midnight, a strawman will be set on fire on central places in each city, symbolising the purge of all sins committed during the Carnival days. Then the party will stop. On Ash Wednesday, everybody will go to Church to get ashes and the lenten season will start.

 

[Rheinbund]

12FEB2018
Headlines Stephanitic Winter Games
Edith Riesch obtains bronze in speed skating; Heidi Beiser, Arno Bunt and Michaela Roffe miss podium.

13FEB2018
Headlines Stephanitic Winter Games
Alexander Schönfelder wins silver in Men's luge; Stephan Wenzel and the Women's Curling Team miss podium.

 

[Rheinbund]

14FEB2018
Headlines Stephanitic Wintergames

Eiffelland misses podium in Men’s Curling and Mixed Curling. Eiffelland obtained 6 medals up to now: 1 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze. Caledonia takes the lead in terms of medal count, followed by Kadikistan and then Eiffelland. Kadikistan and Gunnland obtained the highest number of gold medals (3).

 

[Rheinbund]

17FEB2018
Headlines Stephanitic Wintergames

Brigitte Schild wins gold in Women's Slalom; Olga Nadig wins silver in Women's Luge; Toni Schranz wins gold in Men's Cross-Country Skiing.

 

[Rheinbund]

Elections in Obereiffel: Dramatic losses for CDV and FDV.

The elections in the province Obereiffel resulted in a dramatic loss of seats for the national coalition parties CDV (Christiandemocratic) and FDV (Market Liberal). The winners are the conservative Christian Partei für das Christliche Leben (PCL) (plus 5 seats) and the Volksunion (plus 3 seats). Also the environmentalist party Grün and the social‑liberal LDP gained a seat each. The SPE gained a few votes, but that did not result in a seat gain.

These are the results of the elections, compared with the results of the previous elections.

                          2018                   2014
                   ———————————————————    ———————————————————
Political party    Percentage    Seats    Percentage    Seats
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
SPE                  26.31%        27       26.23%        27
CDV                  22.25%        23       28.17%        29
FDV                  14.85%        15       18.45%        19
LDP                  13.76%        14       12.62%        13
Grün                  8.76%         9        7.76%         8
PCL                   5.93%         6        1.00%         1
VU                    4.91%         5        1.93%         2
KPE                   1.01%         1        1.01%         1
Other                 2.22%         0        2.83%         0

The coalition governing Obereiffel consisted of the CDV, FDV and LDP. These parties still have a majority in the provincial parliament, so they could continue together. The opposition parties pointed at some problems with this scenario, however. First of all, the two parties who lost the elections would enter the government again. Furthermore, the coalition that has been governing Obereiffel for eight years went from a comfortable majority of 11 seats to a slight majority of 2 seats, which could be interpreted as a sign that a lot of voters want to see a new coalition in Obereiffel. And finally, the KPE pointed at the fact that the leftwing parties SPE, LDP, Grün and KPE have a majority together; continuing the current coalition would lead to a centre‑right government facing a centre‑left parliament. This is an interesting point of view, although it is questionable whether the LDP is a leftwing party; if, then centre‑left, and then very close to the centre. The LDP indicated several times, however, that it is not willing to form a coalition with the KPE or a minority coalition which depends on support by the KPE.
Other possible coalition combinations are the following ones:
1. SPE‑CDV‑LDP. From a programmatic point of view, this coalition would be the easiest one to close. It would contain two of the parties of the old coalition, however, and the party that lost the most seats. On the other hand, given the programmatic position of the CDV (in the middle of the political spectrum, although centre‑right), it will be difficult to form a coalition without this party.
2. SPE-CDV-Grün. This coalition would substantially differ from the old coalition. It would contain only one party of the old coalition, but exactly not the only coalition party that gained a seat. Furthermore, there are quite some programmatic differences between the CDV and Grün.
3. SPE‑LDP‑Grün‑PCL. This would be the first four‑party coalition in Eiffelland. The main problem with this coalition is, however, a large programmatic difference in ethical topics between the PCL on the one hand and the SPE, LDP and Grün on the other hand. For instance, the PCL wants to stop information programmes about homosexuality, but the SPE, LDP and Grün will never agree with that.

The first thing the new parliament will do, is debating about the election results. This debate must lead to a decision about which political parties will negotiate about a coalition.


19FEB2018
Headlines Stephanitic Wintergames

Hubert Mirkovic wins silver in Men’s Snowboarding; Eiffelland place third in medal count, behind Caledonia and Kadikistan.

 

[Rheinbund]

Political leader of CDV-Obereiffel resigns
SPE, CDV and LDP will negotiate for the next government in Obereiffel

"Despite the fact that we enjoyed the cooperation with the CDV and the FDV during the last eight years, and despite the fact that the current coalition kept its majority in parliament, we have to conclude that the current parliament leans more to the left than to the right, and that continuing a centre-right coalition under that circumstance would be against the election results. The LDP considers a centre-left coalition more in line with the election results." With those words, the political leader of the LDP in Obereiffel, Julia Leverkühn, ended the centre-right coalition under Prime-Minister Jens Warger (CDV), who indicated earlier in the debate that he would "take responsibility for the defeat of the CDV" and leave politics in Obereiffel after he would have been succeeded by the new Prime-Minister.
During the debate, it became clear that coalition negotiations between the SPE, the CDV and the LDP would be most likely to succeed. Therefore, these three political parties will start to negotiate from tomorrow morning onwards. Lorenz Köhler, son of the previous Chancellor Horst Köhler (who disappeared eight years ago), and political leader of the SPE in Obereiffel, will negotiate on behalf of the SPE. He is presumed to succeed Jens Warger as Prime-Minister of Obereiffel. Karl Karstens, the new fraction leader of the CDV in Obereiffel and possibly Warger's successor as political leader of the CDV, will negotiate on behalf of the CDV. Julia Leverkühn will negotiate on behalf of the LDP.

 

[Serenierre]

Government of Serenierre
We can only hope that the new government in Eiffelland moves to approach the Retalian Sea question from a fairer vantage point and will come to realise that the Nichtsteiner position is illegitimate in the eyes of nations all across the region.

 

[Rheinbund]

Aussenministerium
Trier, Eiffelland

It may be good to point at the fact that the elections in question were not national elections, but elections in the province Obereiffel for the provincial parliament. The national elections will take place in April.

Rudolph Kögler, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Vice-Chancellor

 

[Rheinbund]

21FEB2018
Headlines Stephanitic wintergames

Ice hockey team defeats East Gouw Marken with 4-3, meets Bourgogne in semifinals; Sandra Wallser wins bronze in Women's Biathlon; Achim Lorig wins bronze in Men's Figure Skating; Eiffelland takes the lead in the medal count.