Elizabeth Íkrat awoke to find herself lying on the floor, face to the ice-cold wall, someone tapping, if lightly, her back with an irritating persistence. Her mouth was dry, her eyes hot and watery; her bones ached, and she wanted nothing more than to return to sleep. But the tapper would not stop - the tapper went on incessantly - and so sleep was, already, a lost cause; there was no point in even so much as closing her eyes.

Elizabeth Íkrat was thus forced to turn over, to move away from her lovely wall, and discover the young Colonel-Minister Kuldar Loime kneeling at her side, face pale and pained, shirtless.

"Put on a shirt," said Íkrat, voice low and raspy. "You look disgusting." He was not, in fact, disgusting - he was, after all, a young-ish military man who was as close to Western celebrity as was possible in Istkalen - but it was not appropriate, could not be condoned; and in any case, he was the most dangerous sort of thing in Istkalen, a likable reactionary, and so had to be reminded of his place as often as as possible to keep him in check, to prevent him from getting any real ideas.

"The Czechs have arrived," said Loime, tone measured. He seemed entirely unperturbed; a shame, really. But what else to expect from the type of man insane and resilient enough to be popular and power-hungry in Istkalen? Nothing, nothing at all...

"More reason to put on a shirt," Íkrat complained. "You were in one when we got here. Why did you take it off?"

"Get up," Loime said, reaction still, somehow, absent from his response. "You'll upset them if they find you here sleeping. Imagine, you write them an apology, invite them here so as to deliver it in person, and then they find you lying down in the corner of the room, half-asleep..."

"Imagine, they come here and find you shirtless."

"I'll put something on."

There was nothing left, then, for Íkrat to do but to sigh, rouse herself, and wander out to go and find the Czechs. She had not quite managed to make the Colonel bow, but she had gotten him to do something, or at least say that he was going to do something, and that was perhaps prostration enough - enough to keep him subdued a day more, enough to keep reaction at bay, at arm's length.

Surrounded by corruption, she muttered bitterly, allied with reaction, playing these strange, paranoid mind-games; she was dead, really, and carrying on as a corpse simply out of mechanical duty (ritual?)

But put it aside, she thought; yes, you are a corpse. Thinking is not your province; thinking is for the living. So go on, go on; going on is all that's left to you.

Four turns down hallways she barely recognized brought her to the Czechs - a strange man in stranger clothing, dignitaries in suits she did not recognize, and then, then, the dearest mother, the Paramount Leader, the President for Life - !

She screamed in anguish, looking up to the heavens as her knees trembled violently, in fear and awe and shame, before giving out entirely; she fell to the ground, prostrating herself before her superior, sobbing profusely. She perceived, dimly, Loime bursting through (in suit and tie again, praise be to God), stumbling, gasping, but it was of no matter, no matter in comparison to the terrible need to confess and to repent bursting so violently in her heart as the radiant light of the woman before her singed and scorched her slimy, fallen flesh....

"Forgive me!" she yelled, her voice shrill, already hoarse. "Oh, forgive me, forgive me, forgive me...."

I withdraw this amendment.

Iras Tilkanas
Councillor for the Republic of Istkalen

Republic

*Íkrat has headed off the internal threats to her rule - but is not yet out of hot water

Against all odds, Elizabeth Íkrat has managed to consolidate power and put an end to the disintegration of the country.

Under her direction, the Tabithist (formerly Arian) Church has surrendered much of its hard power in exchange for relaxed regulations on evangelism and public communications and guaranteed representation in certain national cultural organizations, releasing the ex-members it had abducted and held captive in an attempt to gain leverage over the government, dissolving the "intentional communities" it had founded to disrupt governance and foment terrorism in Kirelesile and the former German Territories, and surrendering what remaining arms it was allowed to retain under the October Accords it agreed to following the failure of its attempt to seize control of the Istkalenic state.

The paramilitary of the Agrarian Union, led by the still-obscure far-left firebrand Veia Veivet Iveva, and the increasingly restless "young officers" of the Istkalenic military, allegedly led by long-time ASPIS head Lauri Laakonen, ex-Colonel Kuldar Loime, and Colonel Kallentan Ésketemar, have, too, stood down in the violent campaign they, in a tenuous alliance, had led across the countryside to root out perceived corruption, material, moral, or otherwise, and re-establish what they saw as "18th of April revolutionary institutions" unfairly dissolved previously governments, such as the radical feminist Women's Committees and the levelling, redistributionist People's Courts. In exchange for a number of admittedly significant concessions - Veia Veivet Iveva and Lauri Laakonen have been made the country's co-presidents, succeeding interim Head of State Ursula Korhonen, the Agrarian Union paramilitary is to be integrated into the existing civilian police force, and the Women's Committees, though not People's Courts, are to be re-established with full powers across the country - they have agreed to recognize the legitimacy of the national government and the monopoly on power, and particularly violence, it is thus entitled to.

Even the Radical Democratic Party, which had used its positions in cabinet and in parliament, in addition to its paramilitary presence in Kirelesile, to intimidate the government into placing strict caps on non-Kitetois wealth and participation in the professions, has been forced to kneel before a newly bolstered and emboldened Íkrat, agreeing to surrender its arms and allotted ministerial portfolio, receiving in exchange only amnesty for those of its members guilty of inciting and participating in intercommunal violence.

Only the religiously-aligned Censorate remains out of purely civilian government; while its ability to directly influence and even govern parts of the country is now significantly diminished from its peak in mid-December, it retains its independence and hatred for Íkrat, with its President, Ursula Orlich, continuing to threaten to do, in her own words, "everything that is possible" to "permanently end liberal Western perversion in Istkalen" and "oust, condemn, and mercilessly punish Íkrat and all of her traitor-collaborators in the civil service." But even the Censorate must now continue its campaign against the cabinet and the parliament from a point of precarity - with Íkrat now re-empowered, her government can once again threaten and deliver on its threats, and thus place severe practical restrictions on the ability of the institution to execute its plans to abolish Istkalenic parliamentary democracy.

But Íkrat is by no means out of danger. Though she has managed to put an end to any serious institutional threat to her power, she has done so, again, only by making enormous compromises that may ultimately do more to undermine the state than even her earlier intransigence did. By granting the Tabithists free reign to propagandize to the population at large, they have put the country at genuine risk - especially considering the growing reaction against the rapid cultural liberalization of the occupation and Rikkalek years - of a future fundamentalist uprising, one which would put the Lirisian foundation, increasingly Western-liberal nature, and by extension stabliity of the modern Istkalenic state in question. The integration of the unruly, highly ideological, and mob-like paramilitaries of Veia Veivet Iveva, too, already threatens to place the continued rule of law in question, and may serve, if Íkrat ever again falls out with Iveva and her followers, as a dangerous fount of revolution. This is not to speak of the legitimization of the "young officers," a group which descends from the NSC, remains deeply enamored with the idea of military rule, and now have effectively been told that mutiny remains possible and enormously promising as an avenue for change - nor of the lack of consequences faced by the provocateurs and thugs of the RDP, who now remain free to continue to stoke ethnic tensions and division in Istkalen.

Perhaps more importantly, virtually all of these cessions and concessions are deeply unpopular with the Istkalenic people. Though the resulting stability has managed to create statistically significant improvements in public approval for the Íkrat government - where its support once was as low as 13-17%, it now appears to stand in the low to mid twenties, from 21-25% - there is significant evidence to show that they have also led to an even further collapse in public trust around it. In mid-December, before these agreements, distrust, while high, was also unusually weak - though roughly 90% of Istkaleners indicated a lack of trust in the sitting ministry, only 5% of their number insisted that theirs was strong. Now, however, though distrust remains in the low 90s, its strength has exponentially increased; a supermajority of those claiming a lack of trust insisted that theirs was strong in polling organization Kalitmulen's January poll. If Istkalenic opinion was capricious before, only God might be capable or properly describing what it might be now, under such extraordinary conditions - and even then it may very well be that He is incapable of rising to the task. In any case, with suspicion now so intense, even the slightest of mistakes might now lead to the Íkrat government losing virtually all of its credibility. With so many alternative centers of power having survived the crisis, such an event would almost certainly be catastrophic for the continued survival of the Republic.

Republic

The chaos is unacceptable. Íkrat and her government must resign

Veia Veivet Iveva and her mobs, now fully integrated into the organization of the Agrarian Union, run rampant across the countryside, kidnapping and imprisoning hundreds of politicians, bureaucrats, and community leaders in their effort to purge the country of what they see as "corruption" and "cosmpolitanism."

The thugs of the Arian Church - though, with its recent formal rejection of Arius and his doctrine, it hardly deserves the name anymore - abduct, en masse, the women, men, and children who have managed to escape its violent, medieval clutches to the so-called "intentional communities" it has established across the country with the full protection of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and the full-throated backing of the Farmer-Green Alliance.

The Ministry of Justice, led by professed ethnonationalist Gertrude Istikas, works to dispossess and displace ethnic minorities, persecute and imprison their leaders, and redistribute the resulting gains to rural Kitetois, leaving tens, if not at this point hundreds, of thousands penniless and homeless, forced to march hundreds of miles away from their actual homes to impoverished, if even existent, villages in the most isolated possible regions of the Urals and far north.

The Censorate has seized control of supply and distribution networks across the country in order to extort ordinary Istkalenic people and force a return to feudal order, compelling millions of people across the country to labor under cleric-"judges" in positions not far removed from serfdom in a deluded and deranged attempt to restore the world of Liris.

The Istkalenic people themselves, where it was still possible for them to, voiced their desire for peace and republican order at all cost, decisively rejecting, in the local and regional elections of 1 November, the political forces whose negligence had led to this extraordinary civil collapse in favor of those with the will to restore the authority of the state and its law by any means necessary.

Yet Prime Minister Elizabeth Íkrat looks upon at all this carnage, all this suffering, and proclaims - even as the people she represents practically demand her removal and the armed forces begin to act of their own accord to control the escalating chaos - that her hands are tied.

It is not often that the editorial board of Republic makes endorsements. We have sought, throughout the years, to keep our public image as neutral as possible in order to ensure the continued survival of both the extraordinary project we have the honor of directing and of the Republic from which it takes its name. But the current situation is untenable and inexcusable to such an extreme degree that neutrality - and the silence it implies - has become impossible. The continued survival of both state and civil society in question, action - action with all tools at hand, action with all possible force, action through all avenues possible - is now absolute exigence, one it would be not merely treason but also absolute self-destruction to ignore.

We therefore call upon Elizabeth Íkrat and her government to resign and give way to a government of experts, led by the country's security forces. We see no other possible solution to the crisis: the current cabinet has lost all credibility and, even in the highly unlikely case of a change in course, has no hope of regaining control over the situation, while no other civilian force, whether it be party or union, commands enough support to be able to rise to the immense task of re-establishing any semblance of order.

We further demand the complete neutralization of anti-democratic forces in the country. Religious traditionalists, whether they be the Lirisians of the Censorate or the Christians of the "Arian" Church, must no longer be allowed any space in public life; the state must make a concerted attempt to completely and permanently destroy their ability to organize and perpetuate their message by any means necessary. Those who agitate against the Republic and the concord of nationalities, too, must no longer be allowed free reign; the state and civil society must be lustrated of their presence. The preservation of basic rights, virtue, and peace must take absolute precedence, now and in the future, over the liberal concerns that lead too often to illiberalism.

We nevertheless insist upon the preservation of constitutional order. It is in no one's interest to see a repeat of the disastrous NSC model; not merely would it delay a return to normalcy, it also would almost certainly provoke further conflict, including within the ranks of the armed forces themselves, and risk outright civil war. Civilian authority, as represented by the National Assembly and, above all, acting Head of State Ursula Korhonen, must continue to hold ultimate control over state throughout the entirety of this extraordinary period. It is of the utmost importance, if a peaceful, just, and democratic settlement is ever to be reached, that the continuity of state be preserved and institutions remain as intact and undisturbed as possible.

Our project was founded with and for the Republic, and as journalists we are bound to both their defenses; it is for this purpose and no other that we make our appeal. Our record is clear: we are not the type to our own personal convictions and biases motivate us to such drastic action. Our entreaties and demands, radical as we know them to be, come solely out of our concern for our country.

We hope, above all, that we will be heard, and action taken, before it is too late.

Nation name: Republic of Istkalen
Artist: Choir of the "Arian Apostolic Church"
Song: Ever Burn
Link to youtube: LINK
Vote deliverer with their image linked: "Reszelport Jezebel-Swift"
Link to your flag: FLAG

Republic

Polling 20/11 - 30/11
conducted by Kaitmulen, 3.041 respondents

Party Preference
Social Democratic Party (far-left, in opposition): 28,5%
Agrarian Union (syncretic, in opposition): 14,1%
Republican Labor Party (formerly Republican Syndicalist, syncretic/left, in opposition): 12,2%
Farmer-Green Alliance (center to far-right*, in government): 10,1%
National Republican Party (center to center-left, in government): 9,8%
Democratic Movement (center to center-right, in government): 9,5%
Statebuilding Party (center to center-left, in government): 8,3%
Radical Democratic Party (center to center-right, in government): 6,1%
Communist Party (left, in government): 0,9% -
Union Party (far-right, in opposition): 0,2%

*party nominally centrist, but collaborates w/ far-right "Arian church" and other radical sects

Government Approval
approve: 15,4%
disapprove: 80,1%

Councillor Preference
(candidates with >5% support + incumbent)
Veia Veivet Iveva (Agrarian Union, eurosceptic): 19,4%
Ilinek Varastel (unaffiliated far-right, europhilic): 18,1%
Milrakas Ikoszer (Democratic Movement, eurosceptic): 14,8%
Merte Maksile (Farmer-Green Alliance, europhilic): 12,5%
Kalju Ilves (Statebuilding Party, europhilic): 10,6%
Iras Tilkanas (Communist Party, europhilic, incumbent): 0,2%

Councillor Approval
approve: 1,2%
disapprove: 96,7%

if voting for coalitions as constituted in November of 2022:

Labor (syncretic): 45,1%
Agrarian Union (syncretic): 30.2%
Social Democrats (center-left to left-wing): 14,1%
Union (far-right): 6,8%
Liberation (far-left): 3,8%

Results - Indirect Elections to the National Assembly

Indirectly elected seats before election
63 - Agrarian Union
45 - National Republican Party
42 - Statebuilding Party
40 - Union
23 - Social Democratic Party
15 - Radical Democratic Party
10 - Farmer-Green Alliance
7 - Democratic Movement

Indirectly elected seats after election

49 - Agrarian Union
39 - Statebuilding Party
36 - Democratic Movement
31 - Communist Party
29 - Republican Labor Party
25 - Farmer-Green Alliance
17 - Social Democratic Party
12 - National Republican Party
7 - Radical Democratic Party

Composition of the new National Assembly

82 - National Republican Party
69 - Agrarian Union
64 - Social Democratic Party
63 - Statebuilding Party
59 - Democratic Movement
41 - Republican Labor Party
41 - Communist Party
35 - Farmer-Green Alliance
21 - Union Party
20 - Radical Democratic Party

Government: 300
Opposition: 195

Results - Regional People's Committees and Presidents/Mayors

PEOPLE'S COMMITTEE OF KIRELESILE - 260 seats

Social Democratic Party: 140 seats
National Republican Party: 38 seats
Farmer-Green Alliance: 33 seats
Agrarian Union: 19 seats
Democratic Movement: 16 seats
Statebuilding Party: 14 seats

KIRELESILE MAYOR

Inge Meier (Social Democratic Party): 52,1% --> ELECTED IN FIRST ROUND
Kaisa Malk (National Republican Party): 18,9%
Kalju Ilves (Statebuilding Party, endorsed by Democratic Movement): 15,3%
Liros Ikomar (Radical Democratic Party, endorsed by Farmer-Green Alliance): 7,5%
Simonetta Sommaruga (Istkalenic Communist Party, endorsed by Agrarian Union, incumbent): 2,2%

PEOPLE'S COMMITTEE OF THE OSTRETÉ PLAINS - 75 seats

Statebuilding Party: 25 seats
Union Party: 24 seats
Democratic Movement: 12 seats
Agrarian Union: 10 seats
Farmer-Green Alliance: 4 seats

PRESIDENT OF THE OSTRETÉ PLAINS

Ayros Tiraki (Union Party): 29,1% --> proceeds to second round
Ilinek Isteral (Statebuilding Party): 28,9% --> proceeds to second round
Ikelin Kalmet (Democratic Movement, endorsed by Agrarian Union): 25,5%
Elizabeth an Keraves (Farmer-Green Alliance): 10,3%
Dileser Émmarek (Radical Democratic Party): 6,2%

Ilinek Isteral (Statebuilding Party): 50,04% --> ELECTED
Ayros Tiraki (Union Party): 49,96%

PEOPLE'S COMMITTEE OF THE KERISTEN PLAINS - 100 seats

Agrarian Union: 31 seats
Radical Democratic Party: 25 seats
Democratic Movement: 18 seats
Farmer-Green Alliance: 17 seats
Statebuilding Party: 9 seats

PRESIDENT OF THE KERISTEN PLAINS

Kelastet Neras (Agrarian Union, endorsed by Democratic Movement, Farmer-Green Alliance, Statebuilding Party): 94,6% --> ELECTED IN FIRST ROUND
Menassas Kerek (Radical Democratic Party): 5,4%

PEOPLE'S COMMITTEE OF THE SOUTHWEST AND SOUTHERN URALS - 50 seats

Farmer-Green Alliance: 29 seats
Republican Syndicalist Party: 10 seats
Communist Party: 6 seats
Democratic Movement: 5 seats

PRESIDENT OF THE SOUTHWEST AND SOUTHERN URALS

Suzanne Cronenberg (Farmer-Green Alliance): 64,3% --> ELECTED IN FIRST ROUND
Marianne Seguy (Republican Syndicalist Party): 18,2%
Laurenz Tüchler (Communist Party): 10,5%
Intaras Lastek (Democratic Movement, nominally member of People's): 7,0%

PEOPLE'S COMMITTEE OF THE NORTHWEST - 40 seats

Agrarian Union: 40 seats

PRESIDENT OF THE NORTHWEST

Esketal Indretek (Agrarian Union): 100% --> ELECTED IN FIRST ROUND

PEOPLE'S COMMITTEE OF THE NORTHERN URALS - 80 seats

Republican Syndicalist Party: 61 seats
National Republican Party: 14 seats
Communist Party: 3 seats
Democratic Movement: 2 seats

PRESIDENT OF THE NORTHERN URALS

Andrus Liiv (Republican Syndicalist Party): 63,4% --> ELECTED IN FIRST ROUND
Riina Kruus (National Republican Party): 21,9%
Altay Sancar (Communist Party): 9,4%
Hendrik Kõiv (Democratic Movement, endorsed by Agrarian Union, Farmer-Green Alliance): 5,6%

PEOPLE'S COMMITTEE OF THE OLD NORTH - 35 seats

Agrarian Union: 15 seats
Democratic Movement: 10 seats
Statebuilding Party: 6 seats
National Republican Party: 4 seats

PRESIDENT OF THE OLD NORTH

Gertrude Lirital (Democratic Movement): 38,5% --> proceeds to second round
Kondres Uklertal (Statebuilding Party): 35,1% --> proceeds to second round
Lawrence Ketist (National Republican Party): 18,9%
Andres Kask (Agrarian Union): 7,5%

Kondres Uklertal (Statebuilding Party): 53,8% --> ELECTED
Gertrude Lirital (Democratic Movement): 46,2%

Republic

Írenet Isteresskemar (re)founds Democratic Movement

Months of mud-flinging and petty infighting in the Farmer-Green Alliance are now, it seems, to come to an end: Minister of Foreign Affairs Írenet Isteresskemar, long at loggerheads, in spite of her nominal departure from politics, with liberal party leader and former Minister of the Interior Liris Vesek, has announced that she will be taking the hard-right nationalist faction around her figure out of the party to found a new political force of her own - the Democratic Movement.

"We have had enough," said Ísteresskemar at the rally where she made the decision public, "of the weakness of Liris Vesek. At every turn, she, with her so-called liberal sensibilities, has tried to make us bow down before the onslaught of decadence and degradation that face us - every type of degeneracy she has condoned and sought to make acceptable, too fearful to stand up against any of it, inviting, through her acquiescence, into our country the demons that have consumed the West."

"It has thus," she continued, "come time for us to depart. No longer can the patriots, the sober and hard-working people of our good Istkalen, stand behind this ineffectual idiot. No -we must take matters into our own hands, and forge for ourselves, once again, a movement, a strong movement, founded in the rustic, pure values that we know have kept our families and country alike healthy through the years. Is it thus, with conviction in the power of the traditions and the real people of my beloved country, then, that I return to politics and announce the foundation of the Democratic Movement: a new party that will stand forever and truly resolutely in the defense of the Istkalenic people."

The Democratic Movement will begin its existence with 30 deputies in the National Assembly and roughly half of the Farmer-Green Alliance's local affiliates. Most political experts expect it to command the support of roughly 5-10% of the population, with a ceiling of perhaps up to 20% and a floor, at lowest, at 3%, taking right-wing conservatives away from not merely the Farmer-Greens, but also adjacent parties, from the Populists to the Republican Syndicalists, for whom this political contingent is a fairly major constituency but who nevertheless have made no clear attempts to appeal to it.

For the time being, in spite of the strong, anti-Western line it appears to be taking, the Movement is expected to remain in government without major concessions; Ísteresskemar is known to value her current post as Minister of Foreign Affairs highly, having enjoyed almost full control over the country's foreign policy for what is now almost three years, and is thus thought to be unlikely to abandon her position unless actively forced to.

No figures within the main body of the Farmer-Green Alliance have yet reacted to Ísteresskemar's split, nor are any expected to - though the conflict in the party was an open secret, Vesek and her liberal allies have consistently maintained that Ísteresskemar has been an extra-political figure since her resignation from the party in April, and are not expected to abandon this line.

National Republicans adopt "statist" economic policy

The National Republican Party, party leader Katharina Beck, following a vote of the party congress, has announced, will be running on a "statist" economic policy at the next national election.

"We are," she said to a crowd of thousands in Kirelesile's Revolution Square, "the party of the republic - the party of duty, the party of order, the party of virtue. This identity, these values - we must hold to them with ardor, in every sphere, if we are to remain honest and true."

"I have sought," she continued, "to lead this party out of the abyss, out of the endless compromises and confusions that led it to abandon its foundations in favor of corruption and compradorism and back to these values so high. And already, after just a few months, have we accomplished so much together. We have done away with the old system of machines and local affiliates in favor of a central, unified party organization that plays by the rules. We have swept away the rigid adherence to an ossified, imported conservatism that subordinated the people to clerics and rent-seekers. We have moved away from the dual doctrines of cultural Westernization and political authoritarianism in order to reaffirm the principle whose defence we were created for - the unquestionable supremacy of an indigenous and republican order."

"Now, it comes time to make the final sweep - and make the final sweep we will do. On one last front does our party remain marked by the degradations of the years of opportunism: we continue to support the cancerous individualism of the economic sphere that grows and eats away at our society, through which every man and woman alike somehow finds himself, herself, entitled without duty, through which every man and woman somehow finds himself, herself, liberated of their bonds to society, through which every man and woman is somehow enabled to take from the whole without commensurately giving back. I do not have to speak of it exactly, nor do I have any intention of ever putting its filthy name in my mouth; we know what it is and of the ruin it has wrought, the collapse it has brought to every conceivable corner of our Istkalen."

"It is thus with happiness and pride that I announce that, through all our efforts combined, our party at long last has abandoned its misguided affirmation of this toxic state of affairs in favor of a line far truer to its past, its values, and far better for the people to whom it will always be loyal: we are abandoning total individualism, which always rots and destroys, in favor of of an economic republic just as we have a political republic, where the individual will is subordinated to the needs of the whole: duty, order, and virtue over the libertinian excess to which we have for too long given ourselves - a statist approach to the economic issue, in which expectation, coordination, and planning, organized and promoted by the republican organs of the popular will corporate, will take precedence over the chaos of the clashing individual wills which parasitically suck to dominate, to weaken, and then to, invariably, kill."

While it is clearly Beck's intention to cast the change in policy as a return to form, it is, in reality, an extreme break with tradition. The National Republican Party was founded in part in explicit rejection of statist, centralizing economic policy, with one of the central planks of its original manifesto being the restoration of the traditional craft economy, founded on the individual, through the radical redistribution of property and the re-establishment of the guilds. Moreover, it pursued, in the 26 years it ruled the country as the only legal party, avenues of policy often radical and damaging in nature to this end, even against the mounting evidence pointing towards profound failure. So attached, in fact, is it to the idea of an economy of independent producers that it is widely seen by academics as the originator of the concept in its modern form.

But though Beck may be being dishonest with regards to her justifications, she is being shrewd in both pushing the party away from its traditions and shrouding her push in tradition. As economic inequality and dysfunction both grow, Istkaleners - especially young Istkaleners, un-and-underemployed at markedly higher rates than the rest of the Istkalenic population - have grown increasingly and now exponentially more dissatisfied with the general structure of the country's economy, and just as more curious about new alternatives. With alternatives having been uniformly represented by ultra-radical political forces - the ultra-capitalist, ultra-liberal Social Democrats and the ultra-clerical, ultra-traditionalist Union most of all - however, this curiosity, present as it may be, has failed to fully manifest itself. By both moving itself fully out of the camp of national economic orthodoxy while still presenting a relatively conservative image, the National Republicans may be able to capitalize on this unanswered dissatisfaction.

Republic

Censorate reform fails

Elizabeth Íkrat's gambit has failed: by an overwhelming majority, 57 to 43 percent, Istkaleners have voted to retain the Istkalenic Censorate in its present form.

Responsible for maintaining the "moral and political" integrity of the Republic, the Censorate - one of the main descendants of the medieval Lirisian monastic order, a secretive, para-statal institution whose internal workings remain generally opaque to the public - held, and now will continue to hold, broad authority to veto legislation, impeach officials, and establish restrictions on the conduct of state dignitaries with virtually no oversight or checks on power. Deeply reactionary in its political inclination, Íkrat and many others belonging to the democratic sector of Istkalenic politics had come to see it as the primary impediment to Westernization and the establishment of a stable, parliamentary democracy - an understanding that it was only too happy to confirm, pronouncing, in what was in effect its response, its wholesale rejection of "foreign politics," proposing a rigidly authoritarian system of government in which its highest dignitaries would hold ultimate, virtually total power over the affairs of state, and devising increasingly bizarre "moral regulations" for politicians - one went as far as to prohibit bathing and showering - meant to give it a legal pretext to remove democratically-aligned officials from office.

Íkrat and her allies, believing that the Censorate had, through these increasingly erratic actions, delegitimized itself in the eyes of the public, had sought to use the people to remove this threat most dire to their ideological project and continued power. But with prices rising, visible corruption mounting, and - perhaps most importantly of all - the Minister of Finance, Indras Irakemar having attempted to force through unpopular welfare cuts and a framework for incorporation - it became an impossibility. Democracy being so tied to their government, their government being so tied to this building social and political malaise - and the Censorate, the traditional defender of clean government and the traditional, welfarist, étatist, guild and corvée-based economy, so well placed to serve as foil - they simply could not defend their political project.

The Censorate has taken the vote as both a general rejection of Western democracy and a green light for its own plans for the Istkalenic state; its President, Ursula Orlich, made a statement shortly after the finalization of the vote count in which she made clear the body would begin to act more directly to "reform" Istkalenic government and place limits on the country's nascent democracy.

"The people," she said, "have rejected the fragmentation, the corruption, the decadence offered them by the compradors who usurp the government. Yet again, they have shunned the excess of the West and affirmed our national tradition: duty, not rights, order, not libertinianism, sobriety, not drunkenness. No longer can Elizabeth Íkrat and her friends, feasting off the hard work of the country they seek every day to defraud and to sell off to the highest bidder, point to them to justify their butcheries and depravities; they and the diseased ideologies they have imported in their desperate attempt to sicken this nation and its people most superior have been cast out to wither and die. And wither and die they will - we will make sure of that. There will be no talk of democracy once we are done. Parties, parliament, politics - there will be no more of any of that, after us The words of Liris shall prevail, and through our judicious reforms, clean and national government will prevail forever in this country."

Íkrat herself is due to address the nation tomorrow morning; what she intends to say is as of yet entirely unknown. Head of State Ilmaras Kalessed, for her part, although strongly supportive of the referendum effort, from beginning to end, has indicated not merely that she will not speak on the issue, but that she will make no public appearances, addresses, or even statements until she leaves office. No other politicians of the democratic sector have made any comment on whether or not they will comment on the issue.

Republic

Kalessed resigns

Ilmaras Kalessed, Head of State of the Republic of Istkalen, has announced her intention to resign her post on 9 October, citing "health issues."

"I am," she said at the surprise presser where she revealed her decision to the public, "an old woman. 77 years I have to my name, 47 of which I have spent in the active defense of the values of this country, of our Republic, whether as a partisan of the Agrarian Union, a dissident, independent, writing out her indignation from prison, or, yes, as I am now, a Head of State. I regret none of it. There is no higher calling than that of the cause of our Istkalen, no better way to spend the decades given by the divine to each and every one of us, and I wish I had the capacity to continue."

"But these 47 years of work, these 77 years of life - they have, as they are bound to do, worn me down. I am no longer the quick, agile woman I was in my youth; my age, the stresses I have endured through the years, have caused my body and mind alike to revolt against me. I ache, through the day, through the night, and see and think and hear and feel as though in a perpetual fog, everything indistinct, muddled. I have tried to fight my way through it, to overcome, as has always been my way. But it has become increasingly clear to me, as the struggle thickens, worsens, that the fight is ending. What I was given at birth no longer serves the purpose in life I have found; I have fallen apart, and what once were my capacities are now simply no more. To go on, with an impossible war increasingly farcical, with delusion and what would be sure to be increasingly escalating feats of pageantry - a great collage of lies spiraling outwards, all to mislead the Istkalenic people, to make them believe that headlessness is headedness, that heedlessness is heedful, that black is white and white is black."

"This I could not consent to. It would be against my nature, against the people, against all good and the dictates set down by the divine. It has therefore become an absolute necessity, moral and physical, that I tender my resignation. I do so with shame, with sadness - but nevertheless with firm conviction, the firmest in my life so full with firm conviction, that it is what is right for the Istkalenic people. I will remain in my position until the legislature can elect a new Head of State, on the 9th of October, in order to prevent disorder in the interim - one final act of service for my nation dear."

The announcement was received by almost all with shock. Kalessed was widely seen as the guarantor of the Republic, the only political figure with popularity and influence enough to maintain the democracy established with the overthrow of the NSC - and the question of her departure widely discussed, likewise, being the question of the survival of her Republic, entirely unthinkable.

But the unthinkable - in spite of what seem to be even Kalessed's own concerns of a seizure of power on the part of any of the many anti-republican forces embedded in the Istkalenic state - has, with her decision, become thinkable, close, even, to certainty. And it may now be time to begin ringing the funeral bells for long-belabored, shortlived Istkalenic democracy.

Summer had turned sour, the air too thick, too hot, the sun burning. The calm of June had been more than made up for by the sticky hell that August, in but seven days, had proven itself to be; for the peace they had felt, for the peace they had deluded themselves into believing they would feel to the end of summer, they would pay a thousandfold.

It was not weather for a summit, at the very least, thought Elizabeth Íkrat as she leaned against the wall, the only source of cool anywhere around, even in the relative, air-conditioned respite of the old Imperial Palace. You simply could not think in such weather; the dull heat numbed your mind, made it slow down, left you nothing more than a sprawled out husk of a person, staring out, gasping like an idiot. Not even "like an," really - you were, in the moment, in fact, an idiot, gasping, staring, whatever. That was the effect it had on you.

No, not weather for a summit at all - and rude, too, perhaps, to have held it now, to have forced dear Mother Reiserová - why, oh, why, had she ever thought of her as anything else? - to come to this country and expose to themselves to this seeping, insidious malaise. But what was done was done; she had made the invitation, they had accepted, and whatever further price had to be paid for that, she and dearest Istkalen would pay.

She sighed, glancing briefly at her foreign minister, standing there, ramrod straight, unmoving, eyes fixed into the distance, waiting, dutifully.

Patriot, muttered Íkrat. What a damned patriot, there, stalwart in the heat. This was the show Írenet Isteresskemar always put on, for foreign dignitaries and colleagues alike, to play the role of the perfect servant of the holy nation, the dutiful, uncorruptible woman firm as iron, there on high not to usurp, nor to embezzle, nor to moralize, but only and always only to do the work appointed her, as it had to be done - with mechanical efficiency and precision and perfection.

Compensation, Íkrat supposed, for all the gifts constantly showered on her, the diamonds and pearls and caviar and thick stacks of EMUs that flowed out from the offices of her crony ambassadors into hers, to be quickly hoarded in some vault of disgusting excess Isteresskemar believed to be her own little, secret indiscretion but which everyone in Kirelesile knew all too well of.

Not even to sell, thought Íkrat with a little quiet chuckle, but just to keep, stuffed away, for vanity, for pride.

But that was simply the way things in Istkalen had become. Anyone in government with the slightest of connections to any part of the outside world, whether it was to some Kirelesile patron or to, yes, the foreign markets, could now be guaranteed to be corrupt to the bone. Everything had loosened; everything was now acceptable. Even someone like the Colonel Kuldar Loime, the new Minister of the Interior, now dozing off in a wicker chair in the corner but, normally, as violently principled as men in Istkalen could come, upon the slightest bit of exposure to the world outside the veritable monastery that government was would immediately start engaging in the most excessively decadent debauchery one could imagine. She had given him - and Irakemar too, although her morals had always been too modern and loose - an allowance, she remembered, to spend in Europolis, and he had used it all on caviar, ice cream, and other such ridiculous luxuries.

Everything and everyone was corruptible, had little cracks that quickly became big cracks - all, as it was said in the churches, fallen. All slowly rotting away, hidden behind the deteriorating mask of the old.

And the heat, she supposed, their last punishment; or, as in the words of Liris, the state of the country matching the state of its rulers.

And now it was the moral coming here, the moral she had believed immoral when, out of power, she had seen Istkalenic power as moral (black as white, white as black, mind so addled to see everything in inverse), to see and to judge.

Íkrat pushed herself of the wall and walked to join Isteresskemar, looking forward, waiting for Mother Reiserová's verdict to come down on her and all the rest of corruption. The end, she thought, here - only, now, to face and to embrace it.

I welcome this effort to streamline payment processing in our Europe. Nevertheless, I am opposed to the sanction it would effectively give to the trade of certain highly speculative securities, as well as the powerful sanctions it would allow this Council - often, as I'm sure we all know, temperamental - to pass with a simple majority. On a more procedural note, I would also prefer that it use the constitution's majority definitions - 55% - rather than its own. I therefore propose the following amendments:

AMENDMENT I

replace all mentions of 55% + 1 and/or 50% + 1 with "simple majority"

AMENDMENT II

Article I: EuroPay
...
VI. Where possible new technologies such as blockchain and cryptocurrency shall be available to use on the Europay network

AMENDMENT III

Article II: Governance and Compliance
...
IV. The European Council by a vote of 55% + 1 may sanction countries including EU member states by blocking their banks access to the EuroPay network

Iras Tilkanas
Councillor for the Republic of Istkalen

Republic

Korhonen's coup

The conservative experiment of Esketal Indretek has come, at short last, to ignominious end: deputy leader and President of the National Assembly Ursula Korhonen has seized control of the Agrarian Union's parliamentary faction.

Motivated by a desire to stop the rightward movement of the organization and return it to the socialist and “anti-imperialist” principles on which it was founded, Korhonen secretly convinced and whipped its deputies into holding a sudden vote to remove the Indreskist leadership and replace it with a left-wing slate of her own, albeit one almost identical to that which was in place upon the first meeting of parliament.

Korhonen has characterized her own actions as a "coup," though "necessary for the political survival of the agrarian movement," calling them "authoritarian...quasi legal" and "desperate measures" she had restorted to only after alleged extensive negotiations with Indretek made in an attempt to more peacefully moderate his efforts to turn the historically reformist Union into a conservative, "patron"-aligned movement had failed.

"I will say it plainly: I am a usurper," she said at a press conference held shortly after the purge of the Indrestekists from factional leadership. "But I usurp the power of a wrecker, a criminal - the power of a man who wanted to use our country's most honest institution, the only institution of and for the real producing class of this nation, its farmers and craftsmen, for and of its very soul, to allow the compradors and criminals, the whole of that parasitical, foreign elite, to suck the people dry. It has pained me to do so, but it remains - for the sake of our dear, weeping country - necessary."

The parliamentary faction has moved to readopt the platform of 2022, distinctly left-wing and progressive, calling for the return of natural resources to the commons, the creation of a universal employment guarantee and minimum "social" wage, and the readoption of hardline "non-alignment" and anti-imperialism in foreign affairs.

Indretek himself has attempted to protest the seizure of power, publishing a statement calling Korhonen "a Reitzmo-Vardic pig" to his personal blog; his allies, however, have abandoned him en masse: almost all have suggested that Indretek is, varyingly, insane or corrupt and pledged their full support to Korhonen, asking their surrogates and supporters to do the same.

While leadership of the Union's actual political organization remains in the control of the Indretekists, most, then, expect the vast majority of local affiliates, already disenchanted with a political direction that has left them irrelevant and unpopular and now almost certainly to follow the anti-Indretek direction that effectively the whole of the party’s leadership, current and former, has set, to pledge their loyalty to Korhonen.

The jettisoning of the conservatives and return to leftist reformism appears to confirm rumors that a rift between the historically-aligned socialists and patronists had formed in the Agrarian Union in the aftermath of the departure of most of its party-affiliates and the implosion in popular support that followed; the vast majority of Istkaleners, however, including many within the Union itself, believe that the entire affair has been an act of theater meant to rehabilitate the organization, now almost completely discredited as a political force. Any change in level of support is therefore highly unlikely; bleeding to the Radical Democrats, Statebuilders, and particularly Farmer-Greens is expected to continue unabated.

"We much appreciate that Spain is so willing to be a strong partner in these increasingly trying times. The shipping arrangement you've mentioned would be perfect for us, as well."

"With regards to Telum: Istkalenic foreign policy remains non-aligned. Our focus, for the time being, is on obtaining security guarantees from our independent partners and neighbors: Czech Slavia, and perhaps even Vayinaod. While we are interested in reinforced cooperation, economic and military, with the Telum bloc, we do not think that membership would be ideal or realistic for us."

"The agreement on trade remains in place - I would actually like the broach the question of whether an expansion, ideally to full, free trade for all but the agricultural sector, is possible."

"As for rare-earth metals, while we are willing to provide an additional supply to Spain, we will not do so without discussing the issue with the other signatories of the Treaty of Yokohama.:"

"It's lovely," said Íkrat, flicking the fan open with a little laugh before gently folding it closed. "Yes, very lovely."

"The Inimican base is doing quite well," she said later, in response to Feijóo. "They are well-supplied, from what I understand, there have, thankfully, been no incidents with regards to the local population - my country is, after all, my country, its reputation is not unearned - and the controversies around it have long since died down. We have settled into rather a comfortable relationship, which is good for Istkalen's autonomy in the post-Svarnan intervention era - and certainly in the post-Krexit era that might come, for what Simon Bridges might do in the absence of any European Council to restrain his government, is, in my eyes, a great unknown, an uncertainty, something that only harder power and harder security guarantees, like the base, can give us insurance against."

"The same uncertainty is what gives me so much pause about the Duchian election. We both know that Key is - well, he is someone who will do whatever, give concessions to this or that organization or party, to remain as Prime Minister. There's simply no other realistic way to keep a party that has been in government for forty-odd years ruling. If it seems that public sentiment in the UD is pointing towards something like the abrogation of the Caspian Treaty, or, more dangerously, in a reality with a nuclear Reitzmag outside of the EU, fullthroated support for whatever plans Bridges may have for the region, he will simply go along with it for the sake of holding on to power and popularity. That is the danger: that some group which would like to destabilize the Caspian and Eastern Europe gains some amount of support, scares the perpetually anxious Key, and causes him to adopt the most radical possible version of their opinions."

"Simply put, an era of regime-change, an era of treaty-breaking, and an era of a weak EU approaches, and that deeply concerns me."

"This brings me to what I wanted to discuss with you. We live, as you've just said, as your minister Mordaunt said, in a world that has become increasingly defined by lies - and yes, I agree, we must try to combat them - and therefore a world where the international order that protects us may soon come crashing down. In the face of this threat, now almost an inevitability, my government has made its focus security - on ensuring that Istkalen remains safe against international instability. I therefore wanted, in particular, to see whether or not Spain was open to increased military coordination with us - joint exercises, for example, or allowing us to purchase new arms and other military products from your companies more easily. Preparation, modernization - these are simply absolute necessities in this new era."

May we move to final voting?

Iras Tilkanas
Councillor for the Republic of Istkalen

The darkness had crept in, bit by bit, until it had surrounded them whole. And it felt, to Elizabeth Íkrat, that she had begun the war she was fighting against it - against reaction, against misery, against death - too late, that it had already, long ago, won and conquered all, that all her struggle had been and would be for nothing, that she would soon have to kneel before the shadows, as she had before Liiv, as she had before Loime, renounce what remained of her goodness and life, and fall into Hell.

She shifted in her seat, sighing, looking out of the car window at the Málaga streets rushing past. Spain, she thought, was such a bright country, When she had first gotten off her plane, she had been stunned by the heat and the light, the sheer intensity of the sun, how it had seared and burned at her flesh. She had known what the weather was going to be like, had known that it was going to be hot and sunny - far, far more than either Kirelesile or Líresile, both almost perpetually rainy, windy, cold, could ever get - and yet, still, it came to her as a surprise.

"A divine surprise," she muttered, and though the words were sarcastic, she felt as though there was an odd truth to them. Light and warmth were good, were divine, and darkness and cold, their absences, were not, were their opposite, were what ought to be seen as the hellish. And wasn't it the doctrine, in any case, of some church - she couldn't remember which - that it was divine light that burned the sinners? The doctrine of her own country's courts, too, told her that flesh, everything material, was inherently of evil, and therefore necessarily was destroyed when brought near real goodness.

She was flesh - she had burned - she would therefore fall. Yes, it was too late; perhaps it had always been too late. Perhaps her project would have been doomed no matter when she had begun it; perhaps even it, too, had sprouted from the same seeds of evil as the rest of the darkness had. After all, wasn't it, too, made of flesh, like the world, like the courts, like Liiv, like Loime, like - her?

She pressed her hand to the window, feeling the heat, the slight pain, and leaned back, closing her eyes, letting go.

Time. She felt the car rocketing to a stop, and knew she had to rouse herself. She groaned, slightly, rubbing at her face, running her hands down her clothes, half to straighten them, half just as familiar motion to relax herself.

And from the cool darkness of the car she climbed into the Spanish light, blinking as her eyes adjusted, looking up to the sky, at the buildings all around.

Now it was for reality - to make all the compromises (as she had) that paved the road to personal hell, to die by a thousand cuts. Necessary evils, unfortunate sacrifices - pretty words all the way down to the lake of fire and sulfur.

Sun, sting her, heat, burn her; fitting, she thought, necessary, that such a day be so hot.

But no point, now, in moralizing. Morals were for those who could believe in a world of Forms, of some pure goodness existing outside of this plane of reality - and she was not one of them. She had dipped her hands, as all flesh is wont to do, in darkness, and it would never come off; it was inescapable, in and necessary for everything, and it could only ever be for her to try and hope to be and do otherwise, in futile but virtuous struggle.

That was it, she supposed, that was her war and its why (but would it never be something more?).

She walked into the cooler Museum, marveling at the collection, before greeting the President of Spain.

"It's an honor," she said, smiling, "to be able to meet you. Now - an odd thing to start off on, but I feel it's important, I'd have to sit through this summit feeling vaguely ashamed otherwise - I hope you don't have the wrong idea of who I am, given what I've said about one of your country's past, less competent, more...authoritarian leaders. Please understand that I am holding together a coalition at home from far-left to far-right, that that requires saying, on occasion...strange things....but my apologies. I am talking a bit too much, I think, too, but I'm told that's my way, please excuse me for it."

She dug through her purse for a box, managing to get ahold of it before opening - revealing a little metal bird - and holding it out to Feijóo. "My government wanted to give this to you, as a little token of our country's ties - it's a mechanical sparrow, our national animal. If you wind it up and let it run" - she began to turn, slowly, a key poking out of its back - "it flutters its wings and chirps a little song, see." Indeed, as soon as she let go of the key, the sparrow's wings began to move up and down, though weakly, a few notes escaping its beak before it wound down. When it had finished, Íkrat closed the box and set it down on the table before them, before sighing.

"Things are quite volatile," she said, with a certain caution, "as you might know, in Eastern Europe. Krexit, the election in the Duchies - we, and I'm sure your government as well, have many concerns. But I'd like to hear yours first, if you may."

I ultimately think it is necessary to ensure that, in cases where a nation has been involved in conflict, where its ability to maintain responsibility at pressure-points may therefore be at question, the approval of at least one of the permanent members is obtained. To be clear, however, I am not unsympathetic to an exemption for nations that have issued a declaration of war on a nation which has already declared war on them - I am simply concerned that such a measure may be used by the less-than-scrupulous to escape from responsibility for their own provocations.

And this is a very real problem, given the history of our Union. Ours is a Europe where a country claiming that attempts to contest its unilateral annexations are provocative is one of the less egregious cases of reassigning blame; even a newspaper publishing two entirely unrelated articles next to each other was once cited as provocation. I think, given this, anyone would share my fears.

Nevertheless, I will amend my previous amendment, albeit with severe misgivings, to the following - I will update the original text, as well:

THE FOLLOWING IS NOT A NEW AMENDMENT. IT IS A REVISION TO THE ALREADY-PROPOSED AMENDMENT I, REFLECTED IN THE ORIGINAL PROPOSAL.

3. Nations who have made a declaration of war on a nation or nations which have not yet both declared war and entered active conflict at the time of the counter-declaration with them in the five years preceding their application are not only to be permitted to develop or trade in nuclear warheads or nuclear missile launchers, except in the case of a motion specifically exempting the applying nation alone having previously passed the European Council with at least a simple majority of fifty-five percent. by unamimous vote of the ENAA

Iras Tilkanas
Councillor for the Republic of Istkalen