The Numerous Parties Contesting the Nordic Union Election of 1867:
The Kingdom of Sweden and Grand Principality of Finland:
Hats: Having occupied the Chancery Presidency uninterrupted for nearly twenty years, though the last six in a composition government with the Caps. Their leader is the ever serious Hugo Hubert Ribbing, and he and his party has greatly managed to capitalize on the pan-Scandinavian sentiment. It’s looking though for the Hats as they enter the first Nordic Union Election, though, as the franchise has both been expanded, and there are now a greater proportion of Swedish countryside seats than ever before, where Hats tend to fare poorly. Nonetheless, Herr Ribbing (who is running for the Älvsborg County burgher seat) is not gloomy, he is campaigning like no leader of a political party in Sweden has ever campaigned before, travelling the country, holding speeches, issuing a national manifesto, answer questions from electors. Many newspaper editors and members of polite society have expressed disgust and even ridicule over what they perceive as Ribbing’s “blatantly American” actions, but that does not seem to deter him one bit. It remains to be seen if it will pay off.
Caps (Sweden and Finland): Despite having served now for six years as State Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Caps grand old leader Arvid Nordenskiöld has failed to get too much credit for his work in the Kalmar Conferences which has brought about Unification, and what a shame that is, for he is otherwise generally held to be a skilled diplomat and talented administrator. A nobleman, Arvid Nordenskiöld is a representative peer in the House of Knights for Nyland and Tavastland, having been duly elected by his fellow noblemen when they assembled in Helsinki back in April. Nordenskiöld thinks that Ribbing’s electioneering is silly, and is confident that the electors will agree with him on that. He has declared that he will received journalists at his estate in Mäntsälä, where he also intends to spend the election night in peace and quiet.
Unionist Caps: A breakout from the Cap Party who have much liked the composition government with the Hats, and would have preferred to see it continue. They have a good relationship with Swedish Chancery President H. H. Ribbing, and intend to support him in the first Unionsdag for Imperial Nordic Chancery President. Their members do kind of resemble a bunch of opportunists. Their most important leader is the former Mayor of Gothenburg, perhaps the most notorious machine politician and clientele politician in all of Scandinavia Vilhelm De Silentz, and its hardly a coincident that what with the new imperial capital being in Gothenburg, Gothenburger politicians (traditionally overwhelmingly Cap), would like a seat at the table. And then there are people like Baron Fredrik Åkerhielm, who are known to have challenged the sanctity of free trade, long held to be dogma in the Cap Party. They have even managed to get some candidates to run in Norway. They are a good ally for the Hats to have, as they look like they can win in places where Hats and Norwegian Unionists would never be able to pull it off.
Skepticals: The party that Geijer built up out of the ashes of the old Swedish Crown Party is finding themselves in an awkward situation, having adopted a well, skeptical attitude to union with Denmark and Norway. They are only running a handful of constituencies in Sweden for the Unionsdag at all. However, don’t for a second assume that the Skepticals are a dying breed. There is a deep and potent Skeptical undercurrent, and it will blossom up again if an issue is ever found for them to seize on.
Maalaistenliitto (Finnish Agrarians): A break-away faction of the Caps in Finland, who feel that the Caps are too dominated by the interest of the Swedish-speaking elite, the issue that broke the camel’s back being the extreme disparity in government-funded schools with Swedish as its language of instruction and Finnish as its language of instruction. Populists with a bit of a radical streak, they are becoming increasingly a nuisance to the Caps, who once could safely rely on a base in rural Finland.
The Kingdom of Norway:
Caps (Norway): The Norwegian branch of the Cap party has been in power constantly since 1826, always winning elections to the Storting in landslides. They have long been fiercely jealous of their home rule, and the union with Sweden has for a long time been mostly a theoretical matter, existing only on paper. The Norwegians were thus the most difficult delegation to pacify at Kalmar, and when they were done, they ended up holding a plebicite on the matter, which fortunately the Yes side won with 67-33%. Their alliance with the Swedish Caps is however rather tense, as campaigning that would be termed “American-style” in Sweden and Finland is far more prevalent in Norway, and the Norwegian Cap leadership have taken great issue with what they feel are the Swedes not even trying to win. Curiously, most leaders of the Norwegian Caps have decided not to run for union office, most notably Norway’s First Minister, the ever popular Gulbrand Gulbrandsen, who has decided to stay in Christiania and continue to lead Norway’s regional government.
Norwegian Unionists: The sister party of the Hats in Norway, they do not run under the Hat banner, as the label is still rather toxic in Norway, sometimes derisively called "The Swedish Party". They are popular in and around the Christiania area, and in Bergen, but otherwise not particularly popular at all, in fact, in some parts hated as puppets of the Swedes. Them never getting into government at all means that there is essentially no friction between them and the Hats, and their leader Per Wedel-Jarlsberg has a more than amicable relationship with H. H. Ribbing, aided in no small part of course by the prospect that if Ribbing becomes the first Imperial Chancery President, Wedel-Jarlsberg is more than guaranteed to have a cabinet position and ministerial portfolio.
Uavhengighetsmennene: The so-called "Independence Men" who have not allowed themselves to be reconciled with anything less than unconditional Norwegian independence.
The Kingdom of Denmark:
Radikale Højre: As popular as they ever have been, Denmark’s party of government is entering the first Nordic Union Election with great ambition as they are fielding candidates in every single last Danish constituency, and also a few of the northern Slesvig constituencies. Their leader, and Denmark’s Conseil President since 1857, Nicolas Andersen is himself running for a seat in the Nordic Unionsdag, standing for the Odense burgher seat. It is a mathematical impossibility that his party will end up with a majority of seats, or even a plurality of seats, but no doubt they are going to get a reasonable chunk of seats, and either Nordenskiöld of the Caps or Ribbing of the Hats will have to make some sort of substantial deal with Herr Andersen if they wish to become the first imperial Chancery President.
Venstre: They had a brief fling in government in the 1840s, but are now but a mere rump in the Danehof. These Danish liberals don’t even have an organized leadership any longer. Voices have been raised that they should seek some form of cooperation with the Swedish and Norwegian Caps, but these calls have been all but entirely unanswered.
Gamle Højre: Both Gamle and Radikale Højre have emerged from the split of the old Højre party of Lensgreve Moltke who led Denmark through the War of Copenhagen Interpretation. As Ventre have been marginalized towards the left in Danish politics, so Gamle Højre has been marginalized to the right. A mere rump these days, they no longer have a proper leader, though there are some noteworthy agitators among them, most notably Lensgreve Niels Preben Bille-Brahe, who has been sharply critical of Nicolas Andersen and actually voted against Union with Sweden and Norway. This is however a bit of a radical stance, and most politicians identified with Gamle Højre were supportive of Union.
The Duchies of Slesvig, Holsten, and Lauenborg:
Die Landmannpartei: One of the major parties in the Duchies, the Landmannpartei is composed mainly of wealthy German-speaking landowners. However, do not let their language fool you into thinking that they are some sort of German nationalists. These are the elites that have long been the bureaucratic and administrative class in the Duchies, the kind of people who have benefited from being an unofficial part of Denmark, and who generally have been against any liberal constitutional measures. When the Prussians invaded back in ‘48, these were the most loyal of loyalists. Back in the day, they were essentially the German sister-party of Danish Højre. Now that Højre has split, well, these people still want to protect their interests, and what better way to do so than to enter into an alliance with a proven winner? Though decidedly more right-wing, they have an amicable relationship with Radikale Højre, and where Nicolas Andersen takes Radikale Højre, there’s no doubt that the Landmannpartei will follow.
Die Deutsche Fortschrittspartei: The German radicals these are, who has pushed the strongest for the a liberal constitution for the Duchies and who are for separation for Denmark (and now the North entire). Though in some aspects it is quite clear what they want, land reform, a greatly expanded suffrage, free trade, etc. on the one big existential questions it’s still left quite in the open. Some sort of liberal United Germany appears to be the ideal, presumably, but good luck trying to convince the governments in Vienna or Berlin of such a notion.
Die Unionliberalen: The Duchies are not without liberal-minded unionists, but they are few, poorly organized, and mainly concentrated in and around the cities.
Die Deutsche Volkspartei: German right-wingers who probably, if given the opportunity, would not be against annexation by Prussia at all.
Die Antisemiten: The Anti-Semitic Party is running on a platform of radical reform of the banking system, greater infrastructure spending, greater autonomy for the Duchies, the complete expulsion of all Jews from the Nordic countries, a reduction of duties on sugar and textiles, and the introduction of a tax on unused land to fund public pensions. They have however stated their desire to be a constructive partner and are open to negotiation and compromise on all the aforementioned points.
The Duchy of Pomerania:
Die Verfassungspartei: Pomerania, long without representation in the Swedish Riksdag, got its own legislative assembly, the Landtag, following the Napoleonic Wars, and here, the Verfassungspartei have long been the natural governing party. Historically advocating a strong defense, close ties with Sweden, and general opposition to reform, they have often been seen as close to the Hats (though they did in fairness get along well with the Caps when Björnstjerna was Chancery President).
Die Freisinnige: The Caps’ sister “party” in Pomerania. Historically have been less successful than the Verfassungspartei. Now they also have to deal with the Radikalen.
Die Deutschen Brüder: Pomeranian. Not really a properly organized political party as such, they are more generally just a collection of people who have long favoured closer connection with Prussia, up to and including annexation. Their name is what the Germans called the Teutonic Knights, but also just means “the German Brothers”, and in Swedish-language publications, they are referred to as “tyskbröderna” or “tyska brödraskapet”. Whether or not this was a name they took for themselves to evoke chivalric imagery or something that their opponents gave them to imply that they are stuck in the past is an open question.
Die Radikale Partei von Pommern: More radical liberals, who have not been quite keen on being part of the Nordic Empire. The party furthermore consists of a large number of Prussians with radical ideas who have gone into self-imposed (or otherwise) exile into Pomerania, and run for the Landtag to use their mandate to propose political reform back in the Kingdom of Prussia that still doesn’t have a parliamentary assembly. Perhaps most notorious is Arnold Wolff-Pfeiffer, who was a radical Berliner newspaper editor for many years, before he migrated to Stralsund and became a member of the legislative assembly. He is most (in)famous for a seven hour filibuster he once made during the final debate in the 1863 budget, which had nothing to do with the budget, but everything to do with him reading out a desired program of reform he wanted the Prussian government to enact, including a model constitution for that country. Herr Wolff-Pheffier has decided to stand for the burgher seat of Greifswald in the first Nordic Union Election. There can be no doubt that he intends to solely use his seat, if he wins it (God forbid), to argue for further internal reform in the Kingdom of Prussia.
There is of course also a fair number of independents running, but I have no intention to go inte each and every one of those...