If there is one issue that has dominated the Aurian national consciousness over the past few weeks, it is the status of Milintica under the governance of President Neina Arana. The outraged response by Arana and her government in response to the comments of former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Alek Redner has caused quite the stir in Aurian political circles, adding more fuel onto what appears to be a rapidly growing fire within the Union of Caxcanan States.
After a week of hushed discussion and closed-door meetings with Members of Parliament, the Arquette coalition government was successful in its motion to remove Redner from his official post. However, despite a large margin voting to approve the motion, this move has left a bad taste in the mouths of many politicians and citizens alike. In response to comments made by President Arana and her Minister of Decolonization and Depatriarchalization Chicoātl, Kuren Paulus Roš, an independent member of the Masterial who tends to vote in lockstep with the Aurian Reason faction, called for the removal of Milintica from the UCS in a speech on the Masterial floor.
“In our most precious Union, we have an unhinged ruler who considers her near-suicidal security policies ‘gracing’ the region with her presence, who says that they should have supported a full communist revolution in our Kingdom, and who, like a petulant child, is threatening to leave unless she gets her way. I beg Her Majesty’s government to either let her or force her to own up to her words and get out of this alliance. If she is willing to sacrifice her own people’s freedom for her unchecked pride and unhinged mentality, we should not tie ourselves to her as she jumps off the ship,” said Roš during today’s alloted time for general discourse. In an attempt to show that words were not simply empty threats, Roš also announced that he will be introducing legislation for Milintica’s UCS expulsion later this week, creating yet another landmine that the Arquette administration will have to defuse.
But it is not just the current government that Arana’s statements have caused issues for. The United Aurian Commune, representing almost a fifth of the Representariat, has been recently split over the issue of the UCS’s future. Alain Bonnet, the party’s leader, has established that under a UCS government, Auria would at least remain a member of the defense provisions of the alliance. “While the Union is yet another incarnation of international capitalist avarice, we would all be fools to ignore the safety that a defensive pact provides for the region. As such, while I disagree with some motivations for the alliance, I believe that the UCS is necessary to ensure that Auria is free from the Xiomeran-controlled plutocracy that we suffered under during the Orange Period.”
However, recently, Lana Priede and ten of her fellow UAC Members of the Representariat announced their desire to leave the UCS entirely, citing Arana’s actions as their motivation for the announcement. “Our sister in Milintica has sounded the horn, and we must answer. We cannot survive in an institution that is capitalist and oppressive to the core. It is time to throw off the chains,” Priede told a room full of reporters. These eleven UAC politicians have labeled themselves “Lei Mjur” (“The Wall” in Auria’s dialect of Eirian), while Bonnet’s group of thirteen has been likewise labeled “Lei Pant” (“The Bridge”). It is unclear as of yet how much these two groups disagree and if this major party split will be temporary or permanent. But what is clear is the fact that the election of Neina Arana to the Milintican Presidency has had incredible effects on Auria and likely will continue to do so in the coming months.
