WesWorld

(Little note here. I have looked for details about the iberian party system and I've found nothing. So I'm assuming a two-party system analoge to that of the english one, with a conservative and a liberal party.

Such a system was in place in the real spain for the last years of the XIX century and the first XX century ones (until Primo de Rivera's coup in 1923). I'll assume it's the one in place for Iberia too.)

(another thing: in spain there's no prime minister, but President of the Government. He's the spanish equivalent to a prime minister, the head of state being the king, the President is the head of the government. In Iberia, it is the same. I say it because I know most people find it strange that a kingdom has a president...lol)

NEWS:


January 1934:

-There is great political activity in the country for the incoming elections of March 1934. The head of the conservative party, Mr. Manuel Pío Escudé, will base his arguments on the very weak foreign policy shown by the current government in the past four years, and the serious state of obsolescence of the Iberian navy.

The Progressist party, on it's side, argues that theirs has been a great government with many advances on health care, social spending and economic growth, dismissing the Conservative Party's warning calls about the foreign policies as "alarmism" and "jingoism".


- The battleship "La Luna", head of it's class, is launched on Porto in the middle of a political show by the Laborist Party. In the meetings held during the celebrations of the launch, spokesman of the government party insisted that the launching of the three battleships of this class is great proof of the government's policy of renovating the navy, and again disregarded the Conservative Party's attitude as "alarmism".




February:

Snips from an electoral speech given by Mr Manuel Pío Escudé ,candidate for the Conservative Party, in a meeting during the election campaign:

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"We're witnessing how the Cleito Treaty is falling apart. The signs already seen during the treaty talks in Copenhavn were plain to see...but those are no longer signs...now they are facts.

The Treaty is dying. We're still bound by it, but it's bound to be dead anyway. What has the government done to try and save it?. What did the iberian delegation do at the Cowes meeting?. Did our government do the best to try and save the treaty? No!...all they did was sit in the meeting, say and do nothing.

But that would be good enough if we had been developing our forces in the meantime, to be ready for the day the treaty is over. Would be good enough if our navy was at its peak and our armed forces in good condition. But they aren't!...

For years the government has neglected the navy. Our capital ship allotment is covered by completelly outclassed light battlecruisers and old battleships. Our line of battle is the weakest of all of the main powers of the cleito treaty. Our light forces are obsolete. What has the government done to fix it?. NOTHING!.

Yeah, yeah...there are three battleships building. Colonial battleships, as they call them. What use do we have for "colonial battleships" if the true core of the fleet is at risk because of an obsolete battleline?...
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"The day may come, gentlemen, when the many nations that look at Iberia with hate, come to fight us."
"The day may come, when those who want our lands in the Americas to be theirs, jump all over us and try to steal them from us."
"The day may come when all iberians are called to arms again, after many peaceful years, to defend our nation, families, friends, from foreign agression."
"The day may come when we have to spill blood defending our home lands, being them in Europe or America, against those who can't stand a powerful Iberia."

"and in that day...we will die. We will die because we aren't ready for such a fight, for such a war. Our courage is intact...but the tools to defend what is ours, aren't adequate".

If that day comes, and nothing changes, we will fight with courage,as we have done so many times in our history... but this time we won't be able to stop the tide. We will see how the story repeats itself. It will be 1898 all over again...back then we couldn't stop it at the philippines even fighting until the end...it doesn't look much better now"

"that day may come, gentlemen, and the only way to avoid it is by making our enemies think twice about moving against us. By having a powerful defence force defend our nation's lands."

"but right now we're on the road to losing that deterrence power. Even with the Cleito Treaty standing, our forces are barely appropiate for defending our nation. And as we all know, the treaty is dying. And after the treaty has expired we won't be in a position to defend our overseas lands anymore."

"rest assured, Iberia will do anything in its hand to keep the treaty alive, and to renew it to stop the war we can see coming if the arms race we're witnessing around the world doesn't stop.

"But I'm afraid it's too late. Many signataries won't sign another treaty, for it's not in their interest to do so. The Cowes meeting clearly showed it".

"Yet we will try, we will do our best to renew the treaty or try to bring another one to life. Knowing it's a very difficult task to accomplish, we will still try to do it...but if we fail, if no arms limitation treaty is signed after the Cleito Treaty expires, we will have to get ourselves ready for what will come later."

"...war"

"Centuries ago a roman wise man,Vegetius, said something that we should keep in mind today...

si vis pacem...para bellum..."If you seek peace, prepare for war"

"That quote is a great advice... advice our government has neglected to aknowledge until now."

"And I tell you, my comrades, my friends, my brothers...if we do nothing starting TODAY...that day ,when we have to fight and die with insuficient tools to wage a war...WILL come!!!!. And then will be too late for us."
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"Our nation's future is in your hands. In your voice. In your vote. We're probably in the most important point of our recent history. Depending who you vote, our destiny will be decided."

" Vote for the liberals, and nothing will change. Our diplomats will witness the Cleito treaty dying with no treaty to succeed it, and do nothing. Our ministry of defence will see our aging armed forces getting even more obsolete... and do nothing.

And sooner or later, those who seek our nation to be humilliated will come for us...and then, our overseas provinces will be lost, our young boys killed and our nation will be a shadow of what has been until now."


"Vote for us, and our nation will have the tools required to act as a deterrent against those who hates us. We will do our best to bring a new arms limitation treaty to life. We will care about our armed forces, modernize them, re-live them, and strenghten them.

And if the day comes when we have to fight against those who would like to see Iberia on the dust, we will fight , and we will do it with the adequate tools to defend what is ours. And we will prevail!".

"I know what the Iberian citizens will do...They will vote for a strong Iberia!"




- The speech of Mr. Pío Escudé caused a great deal of concern in all the nation in both sides of the atlantic. In one side there was the Laborist Party, spokemans of whom insisted that Mr.Pío Escudé's attitude is a show of unfounded lack of responsability and warmongering. In a series of meetings celebrated in the main Iberian peninsula's cities the President attacked what he called "a disastrous way of running for an election" and "incredible show of bad faith" from the Conservative party , just to "win a couple of votes by selling their souls to the devil".

Public opinion is quite divided at the moment, and nothing is decided yet.


- At the end of February a series of public soundings in the Americas (Iberian provices in America) show a radical change of vote intentions. Most of the electoral polls show an immense growth of the Conservative party support amongst the population. In several interviews, published in the newspaper "Las Américas" (Iberian most sold newspaper in the Caribbean and Iberian center america) many interviewed citizens confirmed they felt "neglected" by the current government because "It's doing nothing to stop the growing public threats coming from the Mexicans and Argentinians" and, in case of a war they feel they would "stand alone" against a possible foreign agression.



-March:

-"Las Americas" news cause a big unrest in Iberia proper, as it seems the government is now in the losing side for re-election.

-In the middle of the campaign the whole policy of the Laborist PArty for the elections now change the focus, now directed to Foreign Issues. Promises of updating the navy and improve foreign relations with the south american powers to ensure peace are delivered ,but the loss of support between the population is sensible. The new promises are a big change from the previous week's speeches. After months where the Government said that they were doing enough, the promises being made now are taken by the electorate as a confirmation of a previous lie. And so, electoral polls show a non-stop free-fall intention of vote for the Laborist Party.


-During a meeting held at Cadiz (location of one of the biggest shipyards in the whole of Iberia), the president has to stop his speech because yells and whistles from the crow calling him to abandon the run for re-election.


- Mid March: electoral polls seem to point at a tremendous cataclism for the Laborist party. "El País" gives a 60%-40% (conservative-laborist) vote intention, while ABC gives a tremendous forecast of 86%-14%. "Las Americas" latest poll on voting intentions for the american provinces of Iberia are self explanatory: 92%-8%


- Electoral day: 28-March 1934
In a tense atmosphere the elections are held, both in Mainland Iberia and in the American provices. Due to the time difference between the mainland and the overseas provinces, and because counting takes quite a bit, results won't be known until the 9th of April.


-9-April-1934
Mr. Pío Escudé adresses the nation after the results of the election held the 28th march, promising to do his best to improve diplomatic relations with the south american powers, but at the same time update and bring the armed forces to date to defend against possible agression. Big celebrations are held by Conservative supporters across the country, especially in the overseas provinces.

The conservative party won with a 69.35% of the votes, against the 31.65% of the Laborist party. Most of the difference comes from the overseas provinces where the Conservative party won an amazing 89% of the votes.

As such the new President of Iberia will be Mr. Manuel Pío Escudé, who will come into power the 14th of april, after his oath of office, to be held in the Zarzuela Palace ,and his official appointment from King Alfonso XIII.



14th of April:
Shortly after leaving the Zarzuela, Mr. Pío Escudé adressed the nation again, giving the names of those who will be part of the new Iberian government. He has also given the first news on a much bigger defence bugdet and infrastructure inversions to the remainder of the year. He also announced the creation of a new Ministry, that of the navy, responsible of the update of this very important part of the spanish armed forces.


(Notes: for the following government I'll use imaginary people for most of the ministries, but for the Defence and Navy Ministries I'll use real historic persons -of course adapted to Wesworld's history. If you know a bit about the Spanish Civil War some names will be familiar to you. I've also used José Calvo Sotelo, who was minister of Economy during the dictatorsihp of Primo de Rivera as the new Economy minister)

IBERIAN GOVERNMENT-

Head of State: (King) Rey Alfonso XIII de Borbón y Habsburgo

President: Manuel Pío Escudé.

Vice-president and Minister of Foreign Issues: J. María Bravo y Manzanedo

Minister of Economy: José Calvo Sotelo

Minister of Internal Issues: Juan Prats Peral

Minister of Education: Joâo Borba da Costa

Minister of Defence/Infrastructures: Gral. Gonzalo Queipo de Llano

Minister of the navy: Antonio Royo-Villanova

Ministry of Justice: Miguel Conçeiçao Souza

Ministry of Industry: Juan de Vega Gutierrez

Ministry of Agriculture: Jose Luís Requena Lopez



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more will follow tomorrow.

Raises eyebrow....

Atlantis is watching events in Iberia VERY closely and while no mention of Atlantis was made in Escudé's speaches it still stirs things up a tad.

This reminds me, I'm overdue for elections myself, given the waning of the Cleito treaty and the failure of the San Francisco talks I'd say the current government would be in hot water as well.

Nice stuff RAM, buisiness is picking up!

Nice RAM,

I like this line

Quoted

"and in that day...we will die. We will die because we aren't ready for such a fight, for such a war. Our courage is intact...but the tools to defend what is ours, aren't adequate".

makes for a much more interesting game.

Thanks, RAM.

...and I'm sure as he did at the helm of the Netherlands driving rocky nuts, he'll do the same to me!

Quoted

Originally posted by thesmilingassassin
Atlantis is watching events in Iberia VERY closely and while no mention of Atlantis was made in Escudé's speaches it still stirs things up a tad.

You can get paranoid...or not . Because it its one of both situations:

Paranoid reason): "the less we talk about them, the best for us."


Non-Paranoid reason): Mr. Pío Escudé doesn't want Atlantis to get too much alarmed. His concerns are based mostly on the hostile american nations only and doesn't hold a grudge nor wants any problems with Atlantis... so he simply doesn't include atlantis in the list of nations which can pose a problem for Iberia in the future.


Now pick your choice

Quoted

Originally posted by Kaiser Kirk
Nice RAM,

I like this line

Quoted

"and in that day...we will die. We will die because we aren't ready for such a fight, for such a war. Our courage is intact...but the tools to defend what is ours, aren't adequate".

Glad you like it...after al that sums up the whole story of real life's Spain's history since the XVII century until 1898...

Quoted

Originally posted by thesmilingassassin
...and I'm sure as he did at the helm of the Netherlands driving rocky nuts, he'll do the same to me!

And to the Philippines, where Presidente de la Vega erupted after learning of Señor Escudé's speech, and again when he won...

Germany sends it's congratulations to the new government upon it's election.

Quoted

Originally posted by RAM
You can get paranoid...or not . Because it its one of both situations:

Paranoid reason): "the less we talk about them, the best for us."

Non-Paranoid reason): Mr. Pío Escudé doesn't want Atlantis to get too much alarmed. His concerns are based mostly on the hostile american nations only and doesn't hold a grudge nor wants any problems with Atlantis... so he simply doesn't include atlantis in the list of nations which can pose a problem for Iberia in the future.

Now pick your choice

*Whistles inocently*

Given the recent unrest in Italy the main pragmatist in the AANM is somewhat silent so Atlantis can let its paranoia wane.

Doesn't stop the rest of the free Spanish and Portuguese speaking world from being paranoid.

Heh, true enough, and he's just given you the fuel for the fire it seems!

Mexico will be keeping a very close eye on Iberia. That speech has cause quite an uproar.

You're not the only one worried about a possible Reconquista.