Dundorf

[Drax]

PRAGMATISTS IN DRF FORM NEW PARTY


Defense Minister Haefstaengl
 
ODERVELD - LEUCHTFEUER
 
Unterschloss, February19, 5646: The so called “Pragmatist” branch of Dudorfische Rote Front (DRF) met in the Verrtuckes Pferd Hotel in Unterschloss to decide whether to form a new separate party or disperse after the next election. Ursua Hoepner, a member of the Bundestag from Oderveld Bundeslander, had the necessary paperwork ready if the former was chosen.
 
The main point of discussion was whether forming a new party would create toxic relations with the DRF that would undermine the spread of Metzism.  This point was made by Defense Minister Otto “Putzi” Haefstangl who was very worried that people woulfd focus on their factional dispute rather than their message.
 
Most of those present believed that they could accomplish something by running for seats in the Bundestag as members of a Metzist party that would work with other parties as the DRF had been doing.
 
Ursula Hoepner was selected as party leader.  The party will be called Demoktratische Soziale Union (DSU). Putzi Haefstangl confirmed to ODERVELD – LEUCHTFEUER that he will run for his current seal in the Bundestag under the DSU label.
 

DSU's Ursula Hoepner

[Drax]

TLD SELECTS NEW LEADERSHIP


Outgoing TLD Leader Maximillian von Kluge
 
ODERVELD - LEUCHTFEUER
 
Dunburg, July 19, 5646: After losing seats and friendly but unsuccessful merger talks with Neue Dundorfische Zentrumspartei (NDZP), Team Liberaldemokraten (TLD) leaders met at its headquarters in Dunburg to discuss its future.
 
Former Defence Minister Maximillian von Kluge who has long headed TLD said he felt a new approach was necessary or at least new leadership so he would resign as party leader to make way for new ideas and new leadership.
 
Former President Friedrich Alvensleben wants to continue his party involvement, but does not want to be spokesperson or legislative leader of TLD.  What he wants to do is spend his effort on reinforcing connection with the  constituent donors and organizations that TLD represents.
 
No one believed that their platform or emphasis should be changed from pro business and traditional values although there was considerable discussion of appealing to younger voters who have tended to vote more left than right primarily because they did not respond well to pontification by the post menopausal and impotent on who was allowed to sleep with whom.  But that was only if they actually bothered to vote.
 
Friedrich v. Schirach and Gunther Krancke emerged as the actual candidates for formal leadership of TLD. While there were no noticeable ideological differences voiced, von Schirach  believed that vigorous assault on everything the governing coalition did domestically either as conceptually ruinous or ineptly executed would bring TLD to the forefront of the opposition as the voice of those who know we can do better.
 
Krancke emphasized clear identification with our stance on issues so that TLD is recognized the true voice of business, industry and economic growth.  He further felt a significant percentage of the younger voters who voted could be attracted by articulating pride in the Bundesrepublik with a growing economy, modern military, fair tax system, fair justice system  and, most important, the opportunity for each citizen to thrive.
 
Krancke was elected TLD Party Leader by a comfortable margin after which von Schirach was selected as Legislative Chief Whip.
 
Asked by ODERVELD – LEUCHTFEUER what he thought of the meeting, Alvensleben indicated the cloud of defeat was lifting.
 
 
Former President Friedrich Alvensleben

[TheNick]

NDZP Wins Federal Election, Incumbent Government Loses Majority
October 5646

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A voter voting.

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Dunburg - The second Berger federal cabinet has lost its majority: DSDP gets a disappointing second place after eight years of Chancellery, the Greens lost ground again, and the DRF collapsed under the weight of the intra-party secession carried by the former "Pragmatic" wing, which formed the new party DSU. On the other hand, the parties in the center-right of the spectrum saw important gains: NDZP regained the first position, with 29% of votes, and the liberals at TLD surged at 18% support. Still, a center-right government with JSU can't be formed due to lack of parliamentary support (303 seats vs 316 needed to elect the Chancellor), but almost certainly, after eight years of "Red-Red-Green" government, the next Federal Cabinet will move to the right. All the results can be consulted to the brand-new website put up by the Department of Election and Referenda of the Interior Ministry, at this link: dundorf-wahl.bundesregierung.dun

Other possibilites for a coalition government are a "Grand Coalition" (NDZP and DSDP) or centrist coalition with NDZP, the Greens and TLD; but no indications will come from Karlottenburg Schloss this time, as Federal President Juliane Offenbach commented this morning on DÖR 1 (Dundorfian Public Radio 1): 

Quite evidently, the people chose not to renew their confidence in the outgoing government and also sent the party that held the Chancellery in second place. My duty as the representative of all Dundorfians is to call Frau Erica Kleinfelder of the NDZP and appoint her as Chancellor-designate. She will, in that position, choose the best coalition suited to support her for the next four years. I thank Chancellor Jorg Berger for his commitment to Dundorf and for having been a great leader to the DSDP, I'm sure our party members appreciate what he did for us in the past years.

[Drax]

NDZP, GPP AND TLD TO JOIN IN GOVERNING COALITION
 
ODERVELD - LEUCHTFEUER
 
Bundestag, December 19, 5646: Neue Dundorfische Zentrumspartei (NDZP) got the most votes in the 5646 Bundestag election so Bundesprasident Juliane Offenbach called on the NDZP’s party leader, Erica Kleinfelder, to form a government as Buneskanzlerin if she could.
 
ODERVELD – LEUCHTFEUER has learned that Kleinfelder has reached agreement with Grune Partei fur den Planeten (GPP) and team Liberaldemokrateen (TLD).  The arrangement calls for GPP to have Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Finance and the Environment as well as the promise of NDZP it will continue to pursue a green policy.
 
NDZP and TLD agreed that TLD would hold the ministries of Interior  and Justice while NDZP will have Chancellor and Defence.
 
ODERVELD – LEUCHTFEUER has also learned that Kleinfelder wants to reestablish security ties with the Kingdom of Dorvik but whether there is support for that in the Bundestag is unknown as is whether any contact has been made diplomatically.


Bundeskanzlerin Kleinfelder

[Drax]

FOREIGN MINISTERS OF KUNDRATI AND DUNDORF TO MEET
 
ODERVELD - LEUCHTFEUER
 
Chancelry, August 19, 5648: After a briefing on the progress of introducing the Soteria Aerial Defense System by Defence Minister Wolfgang Prawiius, Chancellor Erica Kleinfelder was asked by ODERVELD – LEUCHTFEUER if there would be a meeting with Kundrati officials, and Kleinfelder responded:
 

Kundrati Foreign Minister Vladislav Adamek will be meeting very soon with Foreign Minister Albert Albrecht at the Foreign Office.
 
As you know our embassy and theirs have been closed for some time.  The primary topic of discussion will be the desirability of reopening our embassy and their embassy and technical requirements, conceivable impediments, time frame and protocol.
 
There may be some related issues that arise and we expect there could be other subjects raised as well.  Foreign Minister Adamek will be a guest of the Foreign Minister, and yes, this a friendly visit.

 
Chancelry

[Drax]

DIAMOND MINES WILL CONTINUE TO BE PUBLICLY OWNED
 
ODERVELD - LEUCHTFEUER
 
Chancelry, August 20, 5648:  In an interview with Erica Kleinfelder, the Bundeskanzlerin, ODERVELD – LEUCHTFEUER asked if the rumors were true that our diamond mines would be privatized so the wealth could be shared, and she replied:
 

It is true that there are quite a few members of the Bundestag who want that to happen and some investment banking interests are hoping it will and speaking out in support of the idea as sound policy.
 
Marcks Feiereisen Enterprises is at the heart of international marketing of our diamonds for industrial use and as jewelry.  Probably rivals DHL as our commercial giant. Marcks Feiereisen is not wanting to get into mining.
 
Steigerwald Group is our single largest diamond cutting  operation and Muselbergen Tol and Sterben has long been our largest machine tool maker using diamonds. They too are very profitable but do not to do the mining themselves.
 
So do the advocates want to bring in foreign diamond miners? Or recruit silver miners? Maybe, but what they really want to do is start strip mining our diamond deposits. This is a lot cheaper than the underground mining that is done by Nationales Bergbaukonlomerat, our state owned mining conglomerate, which generally makes a slight profit.
 
Our state owned facility is protecting our environment by having diamond mining in the Bundesrepublik exclusively done as underground mining.  If there were private corporations willing to takeover our underground miming or any portion of it we likely would allow it provided we could reclaim it if they went belly up.
 
But it is those who want to introduce strip mining who are pretending they are capitalist ideologues who are pushing this, and we are not going to buy it.

[TheNick]

Green Party Launches Idea for "National Public Administration School"
July 5652

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Joanna Puehl, the Green Party's spokesperson for Educational affairs.

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Dunburg - The Green Party has approved an update to their party platform regarding public education and research, the update was called for since the party would like to shift their political base to a more highly educated and younger electorate, and thus they wanted new policies to present to these voters in the federal election next year. One of those policies regards the creation of a new public university, focused solely on political science and public administration: a school that educate, trains and recruits the future civil servants and public executives of the Dundorfian federal Government and the five State governments.

Currently, any person with a title higher than high school, can apply for a job as a public employee in the Federal Government after they pass a basic test of knowledge, while at the State level they are hired by the State Government; in both cases leaving the door open to potential incompetence in the first case or worse, nepotism or favouritism in the second case. The idea is that a school dedicated solely to train and recruit the civil servants, the new public workforce will be more competent, efficient and less prone to scandals. To keep this carreer option open to everyone, the proposal says the new school must be public and with accessible tuition for all. The National Association of Higher-Education Students has expressed support for this proposal, as did the Teachers and Professors' Union of Dundorf, while the DSDP said they would join the Greens in voting in favor of the bill. We received no word yet from the NDZP, TLD and DRF/DSU.

But not everyone is happy: other universities are saying that their political science departments will be 'severely affected' by the creation of this new school, while Minister-President Thomas Heiss, of the JSU (Julstochian Social Union), criticized Ms. Puelh's proposal as 'radically federalist and socialist':

This bill will once more strip State governments of their constitutionally recognized powers, and will impose Dunburg Green standards for Julstoch, and Julstochians don't want them. Not to mention that the State University of Lutzenkamp, currently the top politics department in the nation, would be very damaged by this new Federal competition. This is a bill which is essentially radically federalist and socialist, and we're ready to sue the Federal Government if it becomes law.

[Drax]

TLD REACTION TO GREEN’S EDUCATION PROPOSAL
 
ODERVELD - LEUCHTFEUER

Dunburg, September 19, 5649: ODERVELD – LEUCHTFEUER asked Interior Minister Gunther Krancke, leader of  Team Liberaldemokraten (TLD) in the governing coalition, what he thought of the Green’s proposal for a public university for training future civil servants, and he responded:
 

Team Liberaldemokraten (TLD) will treat the proposal with respect and certainly not reject it out of hand since it is coming from a fellow party in the governing coalition.  With that said most of TLD would share at least two of the concerns of JSU.
 
The first is will applicants from it be given preference over established universities.  The problem will not come from the qualifying examination but from management selection from those qualified which normally comes after an interview and examination of credentials. Believe our concern here could be addressed by no automatic bonus for an applicant coming from such a school.
 
The other is whether the Bundesrepublik should establish such a school rather than have private interests or Bundeslanders or subdivisions thereof create it. We do share the JSU concern on this score. 
 
TLD is aware there are military academies run by the Bundeswehr.  And seem to do a good and necessary job.  There are problems with using this analogy. It is not established that incompetence or corruption are so rife that other concerns should be cast aside in a crisis atmosphere.  It is not established that political science and public administration is necessarily the best curriculum; indeed, there is a vocal faction of the diplomatic corps that believes strong language skills and broad historical knowledge are the best background.
 
Be that as it may we think considering a graduate level school of the nature proposed for selectees might be a very attractive variation on the GPP proposal.

 
Interior Minister Krancke
 
 
NDZP RESPONDS TO GPP PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION SCHOOL PROPOSAL
 
ODERVELD - LEUCHTFEUER
 
Chancelry, September 19, 5649: ODERVELD – LEUCHTFEUER asked Chancellor Erica Kleinfelder what was the Neue Dundorfische Zentrumspartei (NDZP) feeling about the Green’s proposal for a public administration university funded and established by the Bundesrepublik itself.  Kleinfelder responded:
 

Nothing wrong with the idea in and of itself.  If a Bundeslander or municipality were creating it or if it were to be a private institution believe there would certainly be no problem and NDZP would welcome it. Since it is proposed to be a creation of the Government itself, the responsible question is are appropriations therefor justified?
 
Would it reduce incompetence and corruption? Corruption – I don’t see it. Incompetence? Are our current civil servants deficient?  Some certainly are.  Incompetent managers once aboard select more incompetent employees than otherwise. Would this be a better curriculum than what our better universities are currently providing? We know students from certain schools do better on the exams and seem to do better on the interviews possibly because of the relative prestige of their credentials from those universities.  So fundamental question is would this provide a better background?  This what we will look at; whether it is really needed.
 
There is an issue that will come up as well should adopting the proposal be likely.  Will students from such a school be given preference in hiring? Obviously some will be looked on favorably by some doing the hiring and unfavorably by others. It has always been so and prejudice has never been entirely eliminated by any structure governmental or otherwise. We can only do our best to be fair and make the system fair.  But an official preference for their graduates?  Think NDZP would be very inclined to oppose that.

Chancellor Kleinfelder 
 
 
KUNDRATI AND DUNDORFISHE EMBASSIES WILL BE REOPENED
 
ODERVELD - LEUCHTFEUER
 
Chancelry, September 20, 5649:  Chancellor Erica Kleinfelder has announced that Kundrati Foreign Minister Vladislav Adamek and  Foreign Minister Albert Albrecht have had extensive discussions at the Foreign Office, and have agreed to reopen the Kundrati Embassy in our capital and the Dundorfische Embassy in theirs. This will be occurring almost immediately as technical and logistical requirements are completed.
 
Besides opening the Embassies again, the talks dealt with three other possible areas of interaction raised during the discussions.
 
It is expected further exploratory conversations will continue at the Embassy level.


Chancelry

[Drax]

DSU SUPPORTS GPP CIVIL SERVICE UNIVERSITY PROPOSAL AS DOES DRF
 
ODERVELD - LEUCHTFEUER
 
Unterschloss, November 19, 5649: Asked by ODERVELD – LEUCHTFEUER whether Demoktratische Soziale Union (DSU) would support the Grune Partei fur den Planeten (GPP) bill for creating a national public university for public administration, DSU’s head Ursula Hoepner replied:
 

Yes and enthusiastically. And not just because we favor nationalizing all education in the Bundesrepublik. It is a great chance for a national institution to establish a standard of excellence for our civil servants.  A great chance.  And we commend the GPP for bringing it forward; they have our support.
 
Will say we are not so much concerned about the level of incompetence and corruption among civil servants as we are happy to see an opportunity to improve our expectations and improve the understanding of the civil servants of those expectations.
 
But to answer your question, yes, the DSU will support the GPP bill.

 
ODERVELD – LEUCHTFEUER also contacted Dundorfische Rote Front (DRF) chief Karl-Heinrich Muller and asked the same question. Muller responded:
 

DRF will support the GPP bill with two caveats.  The first is that there is no reducing the number of positions in the civil service that do not require a college education just because of this institution. 
 
The second is we really want to insure that the working people are not excluded in favor of the ruling class and their lackeys, the running dogs of capitalism, by whatever means are necessary.
 
And along that line, expenses for admittees must be affordable; and, if that is not possible, subsidies be made available for those attending who are in the oligarchy.
 
With those caveats, DRF supports the GPP bill.

DSU's Ursula Hoepner

[TheNick]

Foreign Minister Travels to Luthori
February 5650

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Foreign Minister Albert Albrecht in Fort Williams

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Fort Williams, Luthori - Foreign Minister Albert Albrecht (GPP) has landed in Luthori's capital city, Fort Williams, and today will attend a meeting with his counterpart, Secretary John Pottle, that was scheduled from some time and a result of the new rapprochement of the Dundorfian Federal Government and Their Majesties' Government in Luthori. Previously, the relations between the two countries became colder after Dundorf chose to avoid the use of military force with concern to Kundrati, a move decided by the then DSDP-led federal government, which labeled it as "pacifist". 

Minister Albrecht, today representing a centrist Grand-Coalition government, has come to Luthori with a few things in his mind: rapprochement, trade expansion and cultural exchanges. Trade has always been one area of great pride for Dundorfian foreign policy in the past, a tool that allowed our country to grow economically and maintain good relations with many nations. Mr. Albrecht, said a Foreign Ministry source, wants to "build on that": currently, trade between the two is mainly composed by cars, mining products and alimentary products, and the Minister will surely want  to discuss what products and economic sectors they could both add to their trade balance. 

On education, Mr. Albrecht is pursuing a policy area that is dear to his party, the Greens, and the President: higher education. The proposal is to create a program of exchange for University-level students between the two countries, something that some in the Green Party believe should be expanded, one day, to the whole continent. Minister Albrecht will also reassure the Luthorian government that IDI, our nation's international school, will remain open in the country. According to informed sources, the Luthorian Secretary is expected to push the issue of security and the military, but no details are emerging as of now, this informations will probably become publicly available after the meeting. According to his schedule, at the end of his stay in Fort Williams, Minister Albrecht will return to Dundorf and will have talks with the Chancellor and with the President, in order to discuss the way forward for Dundorfian foreign policy. But one thing is approaching: October, and with it, the next Federal Election.