1688 Normark political crisis

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1688 Normark political crisis
Date 21.XIII.1688 AN
Location Normark
Belligerents
Normark Einhornselskapet Normark Normark
Commanders and leaders
Sigrid Årud Ethan Setsman


The 1688 Normark political crisis was a political conflict in Normark between the left-leaning coalition government and the resurgent Einhornist faction.


Background

Following the heavy electoral defeat of the Einhorn Society, the Nationalist & Humanist Party, and the Reindeer Herder Alliance in the 1685 Nordisketing election, the Einhorn Society, led by Sigrid Årud, had arranged an electoral pact with the victors of the election whereby Sigrid Årud would retain her seat on the Council of Eliria and in return the Einhorn Society would provide supply and confidence for a government consisting of the Democratic Socialist Workers' Coalition, the Ayreonist Alliance, and the Free Juice and Bagels Party.

Årud thereby nominated, as her first act as speaker, FJBP chairman Ethan Setsman, to the position of Prime Minister. He was confirmed with the support of his coalition, the Bovic Brotherhood, and the Einhorn Society.

The manoeuvre had fragmented Normark politically, alienating the Norse Reform Party, which won a plurality of votes in the election and yet which found itself in opposition, while the N&H and the Reindeer Herders remained unable to make common cause with either the NRP or the Einhorn Society, and instead formed a third bloc of the disaffected.

The FJBP-led minority coalition struggled under these circumstances to assert its authority over Normark, where successive civilian governments had been obliged to work alongside the military authority of Keltia Command, which had been slow to relinquish its control over the nation - gained as a consequence of the war and still legitimated in the eyes of many by the ongoing threat of the Bassarids.

By 1688 the N&H and the Einhorn Society, now known as the Einhornselskapet, had managed to overcome the animosities of the 1685 election and arrived at an affiliation agreement which would see the N&H in Normark pledged to support the Einhornselskapet through resource and asset sharing, electoral pacts based on likelihood of victory in electoral districts where parties are both represented in return for a commitment to support the N&H in regards to Council of Eliria and to support the N&H candidate for Princely elections.

In the same year as this agreement was reached however the Nordlyset newspaper released a cache of government documents linking the Umeå hytte, an ESB owned clubhouse located in the countryside outside of Sårensby, to the disappearance of a number of prominent journalists, left-leaning politicians and intellectual figures during the premiership of Statsminister Sigrid Årud (1679–1685).

The revelations prompted a scandal, with the minority government under Ethan Setsman making the promise to conduct a "full and fearless" investigation into the activities of the previous administration whilst the Norse Reform Party and Democratic Party members of the Nordisketing called for the immediate suspension of Sigrid Årud and her resignation from the Speakership. In response to these demands the Einhornselskapet denounced the planned investigation and announced the immediate termination of the confidence and supply agreement which had supported the present governing coalition. These actions threatened to precipitate the collapse of the coalition government.

Collapse of the government

The oppositional Norse Reform Party issued a motion of no confidence in the government, which Speaker Sigrid Årud (Einhornselskapet), fast-tracked through the chamber, ensuring a vote on the same day (scheduled for 22:00, thus allowing for EHS and N&H representatives temporarily abroad to arrive to vote) in . Surprised by the fast events, Prime Minister Setsman, invited the leader of the NRP, Amund Sivertsen Ravn, to talks over lunch. Ravn obliged. The discussions were fruitful, and the two agreed.... TBC (dinner).