A Deeper Shade of Crimson
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Bernie Sanders sat in his diplomatic car, with the flag of the UNSR on both sides of the bonnet. The journey to the Abbey had been long, and the Foreign Minister's blood sugar had fallen, so, he ate some of his raisin bran. He felt much better after that.
Sanders had been on a whirlwind tour of Europe, from Vayinaod to now, Gallorum. He never thought just a few months ago he would be here on behalf of the newly re-formed UNSR. Beforehand, he was a low-level cabinet minister in the Nuwnociluosoaulaunk Dominion government, now he was one of the most important members of the cabinet of a mid-tier power.
And so, Sanders arrived. He was uneasy at the presence of the Queen, but he had been instructed to at least be open to comprises with the Gaulois. The Abbey was beautiful, but Sanders thought of the proletariat, likelily forced to work on this.
The delegations sat down. "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche." Sanders said dryly, noticing the brioche on the table. This is what Marie-Antoinette, the Queen-Consort is believed to have said during the 1919 Nicoleizian revolution, fuelling already rife rebellion in the country.
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Prime Minister Ayrault and the Queen watched as the Foreign Minister from the UNSR came over to the table. Prime Minister Ayrault coughed a bit under his breath when he saw the brioche and butter on the table along with various cheeses, fruits and a few bottles of wine.
"What?" asked the Queen.
"You must have been the one to send that spread with Parly and Admiral Casabianca," muttered the Prime Minister under his breath. He smiled as the Queen turned to him.
"Darling, I never said that just because we're being understated that we should change what we are," the Queen said in response. She was the first to lead to the Foreign Minister.
"Enchantee, Monsieur Sanders," the Queen responded.
The Prime Minister began to sweat when he heard the phrase come out of Minister Sanders' mouth. He knew exactly how inflammatory the remark was to the Nicolezians in 1919. He was, after all, a history teacher before he was a party apparatchik. The Queen smiled.
"No, there's plenty of other things we can provide should you find the spread too decadent. Please forgive, my work as the head of state has afforded me the ability to provide such a spread. After all, the Crown and its Possessions as as corporation donates all £12 billion in profit to tax in exchange for a stipend for working. So, I am perhaps a bit closer to the proletariat than one might imagine," Queen Margrethe said to the Nicolezian delegation.
"Foreign Minister, your credentials and reputation has spread across Europe as quickly as the influence of the Politburo," the Prime Minister said. "I am personally very impressed. It takes a lot of work to go from a regional government official to one of the most powerful people in Europe. The Government of Gallorum welcomes you as an equal partner. My predecessor, Elisabeth Baschet, had very strong opinions about communism but left the door open when she recognised you and directed the Foreign Ministry to recognise the UNSR as a legitimate nation."
The Queen paused as she brought a piece of the cured ham to her brioche, buttering one side of it before slicing a piece of brioche. She didn't want to think about Baschet. She was, after all, the Queen's favourite of her Prime Ministers. She liked her even more than Chirac, and that was really saying something.
"We'd like to cool off the hostilities some more. We'd like to respect the maritime boundaries between our nations and the international waters of La Manche by treating the international zone as a joint cooperative zone, meant to protect the shipping lane and answer distress calls equally. Will that work for your Politburo?"
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Sanders didn't enjoy the talk of money at the dinner table. He found it somewhat nauseating. As the saying goes, don't discuss politics, money or religion at the dinner table. Sanders wanted the last 2 eliminated, but couldn't avoid the politics at this dinner. "Our Politburo would love to see more lives being saved in La Manche and for it to be a free space for all our ships to travel. We won't be putting up patrols or do provocative military exercises in that space. I would like you to consider pledging that as well. Other than that, are there any more areas related to territory you'd like us to clear up so we can move on with our relationship?"
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The Queen said nothing again; she thought it better to see where the Prime Minister would go, not to bother with the politics. Technically, she would only warn and advise. But the Foreign Minister asked the Queen directly to be her representative at this meeting a few days ago.
'It would be GOOD, she said,' thought the Queen. 'It would show us being serious in negotiations, she said.'
"Yes, of course. We would like to recognise your right to territorial integrity on the island of Icholasen as its official government, and we'd like to open our embassy to the UNSR that we had with the previous, now exiled government," the Prime Minister said. "We would like to maintain peace with our friends across La Manche. In exchange, we would like to see the UNSR recognise our right to exist as well. We understand how a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy is probably kryptonite to a communist regime, but it would show that it at least does not want any hostilities."
The Prime Minister took a minute to pour himself a glass of white wine, a pinot gris from the Champigny region. The Queen clearly went into her good stuff, as the bottle was a vintage 1919. The Prime Minister paused when he thought of the numbers.
'1919!' he thought. 'She's a clever woman.'
"That is it for the territorial means. Unless of course you could think of a different territorial issue. We would like to move on to trade. Much like our Orthodox brethren to the south, we would like to see trade open up between our nations. The free movement of services and goods is essential for business to grow and for economies (capitalist, mixed or command) to prosper. I am interested to see how the free movement of people could work between our nations. Do you have any suggestions of any stipulations on free movement the UNSR might have?"
The Queen resumed her meal slowly. She seemed to sip her wine, a sauvignon blanc also from 1919, in politeness that masked displeasure. The Queen had to hold her tongue. It was important to her Government to not comment or do anything that could ruin this crucial meeting.
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"Yes." Said Sanders. "An embassy is a great idea. We're sorry the last ambassador had so little time to prepare his exit. We, like you, have parliaments. They're just elected in a different way, my friend." Sanders smiled, showing all his teeth. Sanders remarked the age of the vintage. Had it really been 101 years? He remembered the 50th anniversary of the original revolution.
"A lot of cooperatives have been asking me for a trade deal, they would like to see free trade across La Manche as much as you would. We would, of course, like to make sure you are ethically treating your workers. We will reserve the right to reject certain products that we believe are causing harm to workers. For example, if there is a strike in Gallorum that we believe is valid, we will no longer accept that company's products or services until the strike is over and the issue is rectified. We'd also like to see more democratisation of the Gaulois workplace, in the form of elected members on boards. I'm sure you can share in our hope that the workers of the world will be united against wage theft." Sanders said. He knew this was a somewhat visceral spiel, but he had legitimate concerns. It was a capitalist economy after all -- the workers had limited control over the companies they worked for.
"As for freedom of movement, we would like to reopen our borders gradually. The Politburo is reopening our borders in six months. Is that an appropriate timetable for you?"
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"Oh, you are preaching to, if not the choir, then the persons listening to the choir rehearse. We are still a social democratic government. Yes, we believe in market economics, but we also want strong protections for workers. Democratisation of the work place and strengthening collective bargaining rights for unions is at the cornerstone of our Government. You have no need to fear there. We respect any nation's procedures on the acceptance of goods, and will respect your decision to decline goods from a company that enters industrial dispute with its workers. Our Labour Minister, Michel Sapin, is in very good standing in all of the major unions across Gallorum," the Prime Minister said.
'I can't believe they think that we would rule the companies like the Christian Democrats. Chriac and Sarkozy must have truly scared these people shitless in the 80s. Then again, if the last social democratic leader was Mitterand before Baschet...' thought the Prime Minister. He thoughtfully waited for a moment before continuing.
"National control of borders is, again, something we respect is the right of government to control. We will respect the wishes of the Politburo to gradually open borders," Mr. Ayrault said to Mr. Sanders.
The Queen noticed that Mr. Sanders mentioned that there were to be elections in the UNSR. "Oh, well I hope your party does well. Is there really much competition from any other parties?" asked the Queen.
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"I'm glad we have come to an agreement on workers' rights. Just don't get voted out." Sanders smiled. "And, thank you for respecting our border rights. I'd also like to propose a conference where your business leaders can meet the elected leaders of Nicoleizian cooperatives, so that they can discuss collaboration in a number of aspects."
Sanders laughed politely at the Queen's remark. "The Communists don't really run in elections. People elect representatives for their cooperatives - or company in your language - so there's no parties per se. In their communes, they elect a candidate with a distinct platform on local issues, not just for a party. Our people can petition and plebiscite their representative as much as they like. It's a different system to yours, for sure, but I think just as democratic."
"I'd also like to discuss arms control, we're willing to make serious reductions to our armed forces. It turns our communism is quite expensive..." Sanders said.
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"Unfortunately, our arms are up to us. We will certainly not increase our nuclear arsenal, as we find it more than enough to be able to blow ourselves up a few hundred times over. As for the rest of the arms..." the Prime Minister said to Foreign Minister Sanders. "We reserve the right to defend ourselves as we see fit as do you. We would like to set a hard cap in our nuclear capability, though, at 200 missiles. You see, there are other powers in the European Union. It is a dangerous world that we live in now, and one can't be too careful in dealing with other nations. I do recall the two large powers in the distant south could blot out the sun with their air might and challenge both of us together in their naval superiority campaigns. So we would not want to reduce much of anything else but rather put a pause on it or track it in line with population growth milestones."
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"That is very wise. In a pinch, I'm sure we'll make good allies." Sanders said.
"What about that conference for our nations' businesses/cooperatives? It would be opportunity for them to get together and discuss future endeavours."
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"We can agree to that! We'd would like to see an exchange of ideas and perhaps a discussion of workplace democratisation and workers' rights thrown into the conference. It's truly a cornerstone of this government," the Prime Minister said to the Nicolezian Foreign Minister.
The Queen managed to find a topic she would like to touch on.
"Education is very important in Gallorum, but we also understand that public education has a social order connotation that would be...incongruent...with the UNSR. We would like to see, however, exchanges in vocational education to train up our young people to be strong, skilled master craftsmen in their field," the Queen suggested. "Would that be of interest in the future?"
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"Absolutely, education is very important to us. There are so many ways we can collaborate on education. After our elections to the Politburo, we will have a Minister of Education who can then talk to their counterpart. I do, however, believe that the 5 non-elected members of the Politburo would definitely like to see higher education cooperation. I'm sure students recently repatriated wouldn't mind continuing their courses next semester. It would be nice to continue the trend of higher education cooperation."
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"That would be most ideal," replied the Prime Minister. "Is there anything else you'd like to get to at our meeting so far?"
