Nanwe's Maps and Graphics Thread

[Nanwe]

As the revision of seats and more map-drawing has been interrupted by a shitload of work and post-work exhaustion until at least Wednesday, I'm gonna drop here the excel master file. Some MPs might have the wrong party affiliation (hard to tell when secondary sources disagree and I don't yet feel like checking the Hemeroteca Nacional website just yet). Quite a few nobility titles are very likely to be missing.

It has data for the majority size, the number of voters and of registered votes, as well as turnout. The second sheet has the ratios of MP per voter.

 

[Nanwe]

And so with that ...

The return of Antonio Cánovas del Castillo to the premiership following the 1891 election was to prove both short-lived and extremely problematic to the Conservatives.

Succeeding nearly five years of Liberal government, where Práxedes Mateo-Sagasta’s cabinet had accomplished most of the long-standing goals of mid-century Spanish progressive liberalism, from the adoption of universal (male) suffrage and juries to the definite abolition of slavery in Cuba, the brief Cánovas del Castillo cabinet should be noted for what it did not do – reverse these laws.

In Her speech opening the newly-elected Parliament in 1891, the Queen Regent set out Her Government’s priorities, primarily in social legislation. But perhaps the single most significant accomplishment of the short-lived Conservative cabinet was the introduction of the high protectionist tariffs that would turn Spain into one of the most closed-off economies in Europe.

The Conservatives’ stint in power was brief, marked by the struggle for control of the party’s ‘soul’ between the followers of Francisco Romero Robledo and those of Francisco Silvela.

Romero Robledo represented a more philosophically pragmatic conservatism, but also one far more willing – and indeed apt – at electoral manipulation and clientelism. Silvela, instead, represented a more Catholic, philosophically doctrinaire conservatism, but also a more reformist one, unwilling to accept the clientelist nature of the political system and whose key policy plank was a thorough reform of local government to put an end to the abuses of the main conduits of electoral manipulation - the mayor, the local judge and the governor.

When Cánovas formed his new cabinet after the 1891 election, Romero Robledo was appointed Overseas Minister. His entry into government and his clashes with Silvela led to the latter’s resignation in November 1891 from his post as Interior Minister.

A year later, in December 1892, a corruption scandal involving the Conservative Mayor of Madrid, Alberto Bosch y Fustegueras, and several city councillors belonging to Robledos’ faction exploded. On top of this, Bosch y Fustegueras' poor administration of the city had led to a colourful incident, the 'revuelta de las verduleras' (revolt of the (female) greengrocers).

As people close to Romero Robledo were involved, the government sought the support of Parliament to showcase the cabinet’s reputable behaviour in dealing with the affair. In the midst of the debate, Cánovas’ demands that Silvela do its duty “to support the boss” led to the latter’s faction voting against the government.

As a result, the Conservatives lost the vote. Cánovas interpreted the result as a loss of confidence, and so did the Queen Regent. She then proceeded to call Sagasta to form a new Government.

After taking power, Sagasta’s new Liberal government proceeded to pass two key decrees, one reforming the suffrage and electoral map in Puerto Rico to try (unsuccessfully) to prevent the Autonomist Party from abstaining in the election (27 December 1892) and another one dissolving the Congress and the elected part of the Senate to convoke an election (5 January 1893).

As was the usual procedure, Sagasta’s trusted Interior Minister, Venancio González Fernández ensured that the government obtained a parliamentary majority through the usual methods: appointment of Liberals as provincial governors, dismissal of opposition mayors, vote-buying and manipulation of vote bulletins and tallies, etc.

 

[Nanwe]

​

From the 4.1 Republic

Antoine Pinay (French pronunciation: [ɑ̃twan piˈnɛ]; 30 December 1891 – 13 December 1994) was a French conservative (modéré) politician who served as Prime Minister between 1952 and 1953 and again between 1966 and 1968. He also served as Minister of Finances during his own premiership as well as under Prime Ministers Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury and Pierre Pflimlin between 1957 and 1960. Pinay also served as Foreign Affairs Minister in the second Faure government (March-September 1954) and as Public Works, Transportation and Tourism Minister between 1950 and 1952. Simultaneously, Pinay served as mayor of Saint-Chamond between 1929 and 1944 and again from 1949 until 1970. From 1949 until 1970 he also served as president of the General Council of Loire, under a commonplace French practice known as cumul des mandats whereby national politicians often hold executive positions at the local and departmental level.

Despite having supported Marshall Petain's takeover in 1940, after the end of the World War II, Pinay would become one of the most important players on the French right. Pinay's regional accent, pragmatism and common sense attitude endeared him to many Frenchmen, making Pinay one of the most popular French politicians of the post-war era. An Atlanticist and Eurofederalist politician, Pinay's first government signed ratified the 1952 Bonn and Paris Treaties, creating the European Defence Forces and recognising West Germany's independence. Pinay also oversaw the process of decolonisation, by negotiating the terms of Moroccan and Tunisian independence as Foreign Affairs Minister in 1955 and Algerian independence in 1967. A fiscal conservative, during his first premiership, Pinay undertook a deflationary policy to contain the inflationary pressures caused by the Indochina War.

Pinay ran unsuccessfully for President of the Republic in 1953. In 1968, he would try to run again until allegations surfaced linking him to the ballets roses affair, although these were never proven and were quickly dismissed.

***​

Paul Coste-Floret (French pronunciation: [pɔl kɔst.flɔʁˈɛ]; 9 April 1911 - 27 August 1979) was a French politician who served as President of France between 1961 and 1968. Coste-Floret was a member of the Resistance during World War II and prepared the Allied landings in Northern Africa in 1944. After the war, Coste-Floret was one of the founding members of the Popular Republic Movement, a centrist and Christian democratic political party. Coste-Floret served as Minister of Overseas France under 5 successive governments between 1947 and 1949, again briefly in 1950 and lastly between 1958 and 1960 under Prime Ministers Pierre Pflimlin and François Mitterrand. Coste-Floret also served briefly as Minister of War in the second Ramadier government, and as Minister of Information in the first Faure government. Coste-Floret also served as deputy from Hérault from 1946 until 1961 and simultaneously as mayor of Lamalou-les-Bains between 1953 and 1959 and as mayor of Lodève from 1959 until 1961.

Coste-Floret played a key role in granting Vietnam's independence in 1949 within the framework of the French Community, through the signature of the Halong Bay Agreements of 1948 with Bao-Dai. As rapporteur of the Universal Suffrage Commission, Coste-Floret endorsed Gaston Defferre's loi-cadre, which he would enact and develop as Overseas Minister after 1958. Coste-Floret was also of the members who drew up the constitutional amendments of 1958, which reinforced the powers of the Prime Minister over the legislature as a way to limit executive instability.

Coste-Floret's twin brother, Alfred Coste-Floret, was also an MRP parliamentarian representing Haute-Garonne and mayor of Bagnères-de-Luchon from 1947 until 1971.

 

[Nanwe]

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The 2013 Paris municipal elections were held on 28 April 2013 to elect the 90 members of the Council of Paris together with the 364 members of the councils of the 20 boroughs (arrondissements) of Paris. The elections to the Council of Paris used a proportional representation party-list where the boroughs were grouped into 10 electoral sectors that contain from one to 4 arrondissements.

The election was carried by the Rally of Republican Lefts list (RGR), an electoral coalition formed by the Radical-Socialist Party and the UDSR. The RGR won 28 seats, becoming the largest party in the Council of Paris but short of the 46-seat majority. After the election, the RGR formed a majority together with the Greens and the social-democratic SFIO. As a result, Bertrand Delanoë was re-elected Mayor of Paris for a second consecutive term.

The election saw a major right-wing surge thanks to the profile of the CNI's mayoral candidate, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, former Minister of the Environment and daughter of former Paris mayor, François Kosciusko-Morizet (1989-1993) and grand-daughter of president of the Seine General Council, Jacques Kosciusko-Morizet (1964-1967). The CNI list saw a 3.5% increase in votes, translating into a net gain of 6 seats, especially at the expense of the Centre Républicain, which saw its municipal representation reduced to one seat.

***

Results:

Rally of Republican Lefts (RGR, PRS-UDSR): 28 seats, 24,22%
National Centre of Independents (CNI): 24 seats, 23,45%
French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO): 13 seats, 13,98%
Alternative Left (GA): 10 seats, 11,42%
The Greens (Verts): 8 seats, 9,53%
Popular Republican Movement (MRP): 6 seats, 9,04%
Republican Centre (CR): 1 seat, 4,66%

 

[Nanwe]

Democratic Left (French: Gauche démocratique) is a parliamentary group in the Council of the Republic, the French parliament's upper house. Democratic Left is the joint group of the Radical-Socialist Party, the centrist UDSR and the Rally of Republican Lefts, together with various overseas independents, like Christiane Taubira's Walwari. Democratic Left is the oldest still-running group in the upper house, dating back to 1892, in the Third Republic's Senate, as the parliamentary group of the Senate. The Democratic Left also holds the distinction of being the largest parliamentary group in the French upper houses for the longest period of time, from 1919 until 1981 with the brief exception of the provisional upper house that existed between 1946 and 1948.

Democratic Left, despite being formed by three parties with disparate ideologies, espouses a social-liberal and progressive policy line, in tune by-and-large with that of the dominant party of the group, the Radical-Socialist Party. Historically, the group is more rooted in the traditional strongholds of the Radical Party such as south-west France as well as the Eure department, as well as the overseas departments and territories. As a result, the group performs better in the elections to the Class A seats. Currently, the group is the third-largest in the Council of the Republic with 55 seats. It is led since 2012 by Jacques Mézard.

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Gaston Monnerville (French pronunciation: [ɡas.tɔ̃ mɔ.nɛʁ.vil]; 2 January 1897 - 7 November 1991) was a French centrist politician who served as President of the Council of the Republic, the French legislature's upper house, between 1947 and 1968. Monnerville was also the senator for French Guiana (French: Guyane française) between 1946 and 1948 and from 1948 until 1972 as a senator for Lot. From 1950 until 1970 he was simultaneously the president of the General Council of the Lot department.

Monnerville was the first black person to be appointed to a European cabinet, being named Undersecretary of State for the Colonies in the third and fourth Chautemps governments (1937-1938) during the Third Republic. In 1948, after the death of Auguste Champetier de Ribes, he was voted President of the Council of the Republic, a post which he renewed every year until his voluntary retirement in 1968. During this twenty year period, he was the second highest authority of the French Republic.

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Pierre Garet (French pronunciation: [pjɛʁ ɡa.ʁɛ]; 7 September 1905 - 10 December 1972) was a French conservative politician who served as President of the Council of the Republic, the French legislature's upper house, between 1968 until his death in 1972. Between 1945 until 1961, Garet was a deputy for the Somme department and from 1961 until his death, he was a senator for the same department. Originally a member of the Christian democratic MRP, he switched to the conservative-liberal National Centre of Independents party before the 1951 elections.

During his time as a deputy and later senator, Garet specialised in housing issues, helping draft several bills dealing with the post-WWII housing shortage crisis. For this reason, he was appointed Minister of Reconstruction and Housing in the Bourges-Manoury and Pflimlin governments (1955-1960). He also served as Minister of Labour and Social Security in the first Pinay government (1952-1953). After his premature death in December 1972, he was briefly replaced both as Somme senator and president of the Council of the Republic by Ernest Remplin, his substitute senator (suppléant).

 

[Nanwe]

[WIP]

The French Section of the Worker's Internationale (French: Section française de l'International ouvrière, SFIO) is a French centre-left social-democratic party. The party was founded in the 1905 Globe Congress in Paris as a merger between the French Socialist Party and the Socialist Party of France in order to create the French section of the Second Internationale.

From the onset until the 1920 Tours Congress, the party was divided between a social-democratic faction, first led by Jean Jaurès and later Léon Blum and Paul Faure, and an orthodox Marxist faction that would abandon the party to found the SFIC, becoming the French Communist Party (PCF) in 1921. The SFIO supported from the outside the governments of the Cartel des Gauches led by Radical Edouard Herriot (1924-1926 and 1932). Following the 6 February 1934 crisis, the SFIO would form a Popular Front together with the Radical Party, socialist splinters like the USR and the Communist Party. In the 1936 election, which was won by the Popular Front, the SFIO became the largest party both in terms of seats and votes, allowing Léon Blum to form the first socialist-led government. Despite the success of the Matignon Accords, the first Blum government would fall over the question of intervention in the Spanish Civil War and conflicts with the Radical-held Senate.

During the Second World War, SFIO played a small role in the Resistance compared to the other two mass parties of the Fourth Republic, the Communists or the MRP. Instead, many of its members would play more technical or political roles as opposed to battle ones during the fight against Vichy France and the German occupation. After 1945, SFIO undertook a process of renewal as a result of which three-fourths of all parliamentarians in 1946 had never been elected before. After the war, SFIO ministers laid down the basis of the French welfare state, by introducing universal, compulsive social security and undertaking the nationalisation of key sections of the French economy.

Between 1945 and 1966, the SFIO remained the second-largest party on the left, behind the French Communist Party. In 1946, the humanist socialist faction of Guy Mollet prevailed over the social democratic line favoured by Daniel Mayer and Léon Blum. Mollet would remain the party's general secretary until his resignation in 1965, being replaced by Gaston Defferre (1965-1969). During this period, the party would govern together with the Radical-Socialists and other minor centrist and left-wing forces in the so-called Republican Front coalition. After the ousting of Defferre in the 1969 Toulouse Congress, the party selected Alain Savary as its new secretary. Savary was the SFIO secretary between 1969 and 1975 when he was replaced by Pierre Mauroy (1975-1983). Mauroy was succeeded by Michel Rocard (1983-1990) and Lionel Jospin (1990-1999).

The current French Prime Minister, xx is a member of SFIO, which is the current largest party in the French National Assembly and the third largest in the Council of the Republic. The party is a member of the European Socialist Federation, the Progressive Alliance and the Socialist International.

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Guy Mollet (French pronunciation: [ɡi mɔlɛ]; 31 December 1905 – 3 October 1975) was a French socialist politician who served as Prime Minister in 1956 and as a General Secretary of the French social-democratic party SFIO between 1946 and 1965. Mollet also served as Deputy Prime Minister under Henri Queille (1951), Pierre Mendès France (1956-1957) and between 1957 and 1960 under Prime Ministers Maurice Bourges Maunoury and Pierre Pflimlin. From 1945 until his death in 1975, Mollet represented the second constituency of Pas-de-Calais in the National Assembly and was consecutively re-elected mayor of Arras.

Mollet, the son of a weaver and a concierge, joined the SFIO in 1922 and was elected parliamentarian for the first time in 1946. During World War II, he was a member of the Organisation civile et militaire, from where he participated in the liberation of Normandy. For his actions, he received the Croix de Guerre, the Medal of the Resistance and the Legion of Honour. After the war, Mollet quickly became one of the main leaders of the Socialist party, a member of the party's left which supported an approachment to the PCF and was against Blum's and Mayer's social democratic tendencies. He would be narrowly elected Secretary General in 1946 by a margin of two votes over Mayer in a rebuke against the party's previous political line.

Mollet's brief premiership in 1956 was marked by an impressive rate of welfare state expansion, including the introduction of the third week of paid vacations, a national solidarity fund and the introduction of a comprehensive old age and handicapped persons' pension system, thanks to the support of the other parties of the Republican Front and the Communists. A well-known Atlanticist and pro-European, his government would sign the Strasbourg Treaty, establishing the European Political Community. The Radical and Communist opposition to Mollet's European policy caused the fall of Mollet's government.

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Christian Pineau (French pronunciation: [kʁis.tjɑ̃ pino]; 14 October 1904 – 5 April 1995) was a French social democratic politician who served as French Prime Minister between 1961 and 1963. Pineau had previously served as Public Works (1946-48, 1948-50), Finances (1948) and Foreign Affairs Minister in the Mollet, Lecourt, Bourges Maunoury, Pflimlin and first Mitterrand governments (1956, 1957-1961). Pineau was a member of the National Assembly for the Sarthe department from 1946 until 1971.

Before World War II, Pineau had worked for the Banque de France and later the Paris - Low Countries Bank. During this time, Pineau was very active in the socialist CGT union's bank workers federation, becoming its federal secretary in 1937. Pineau was one of the founding members of Libération-Nord, one of the main Resistance networks in German-occupied northern France. In 1943, Pineau was arrested by the Gestapo and was sent to the concentration camp of Buchenwald where he remained until 1945. For his actions during the war, Pineau was a recipient of the Order of the Liberation.

After the war, Pineau ran for parliament in 1946, as a member of the socialist SFIO, becoming a close ally of Secretary General Guy Mollet. Thanks to this personal closeness and similar attitudes to German re-armament and European integration, he became the parliamentary group's leader in 1954, replacing Charles Lussy. During his tenure as Public Works' Minister, Pineau's key achievements were the reorganisation of the French Merchant Navy and the creation of Air France. In 1952, Pineau was offered the opportunity to form a government by President Vincent Auriol which he rejected. Again in 1955, he would be offered the opportunity, but the National Assembly rejected his government. Instead, Antoine Pinay formed his first government.

As Foreign Minister first and then as Prime Minister, Christian Pineau sought an Atlanticist foreign policy and simultaneously an engagement with Moscow and especially Bonn, setting the stage for the Franco-German friendship. Domestically, Pineau's term would be dominated by attempts to rein in the balance of payments' deficit, seeking a peaceful outcome to the Algerian Rebellion and further universalisation of the French social security system.

Pineau retired from politics in 1971, focusing instead on the promotion of house care of ill pensioners together with the Socialist Agricultural Mutual Benefit Association.

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Gaston Defferre (French pronunciation: [ɡas.tɔ̃ də.fɛʁ], 14 September 1910 – 7 May 1986) was a French social democratic politician who served as Mayor of Marseille between 1944 and 1946 and again from 1953 until his death in 1986. Defferre also served as Minister of the Merchant Navy (1950-51), as Minister of Overseas France (1956-1958, 1960-61) and as Minister of the Interior in the Pineau and Lecanuet governments. During his time in office, Defferre passed the decolonisation law that bears his name in 1956 and during his time as Interior Minister, he oversaw the abolishment of the death penalty and the first steps towards decentralisation with the recognition of the regions as official public entities.

Defferre was the son of Protestant middle-class parents from Hérault, and he moved to Dakar to work with his father until 1931. After his return to France, Defferre worked as a lawyer in Marseille, affiliating with the socialist party in 1933. During World War II, Defferre was a member of the clandestine Socialist Party and of the Brutus network, which he led from 1943 until the end of the war. In 1945, he was elected deputy for Bouches-du-Rhône's first constituency, covering Marseille. During his period as parliamentarian and minister, Defferre's action was characterised by his very liberal positions on decolonisation, opposing the Indochina War as early as 1949.

First appointed mayor of Marseille in 1944, he would retain the posts until 1946 when the Communist Jean Cristofol was elected mayor. In 1953, at the helm of a broad, centrist coalition consisting of the Radicals, Christian Democrats, conservatives and socialists, Defferre became mayor after defeating both Gaullists and the Communist lists. During his long period as mayor, Defferre had to adapt to the great demographic expansion of the city as a result of immigration, particularly from pied-noirs, as well as with the considerable presence of the Italian mafia in the city, the so-called 'French Connection'.

 

[Nanwe]

OTL:
The Czechoslovak election of 1946 was one of the only two free elections held in the post-WWII period in what would become Soviet-occupied Europe. Unlike the Hungarian 1946 elections, where the Soviet Army remained in place and therefore played a role in influencing the electoral results (not that it did much good for the Hungarian Communists), Czechoslovakia had no foreign military presence to influence the outcome.

However, the conditions of the vote were a bit authoritarian. In 1946, and following the Benes decrees, the over two million German-speakers and half a million Hungarian-speakers who had not proven their loyalty to Czechoslovakia in the 1935-1945 period were to be expelled from the country. Needless to say, they did not get a vote on that or a vote in the election for that matter. Only Czechs, Slovaks and other Slavs were allowed to vote. Furthermore, as a part of the Kosice Government Programme of 1945 [1], only the parties that belonged to the National Front were allowed to run in the election. Unlike later in the Communist era, the parties had strong differences of opinion on most topics. This meant that the Republican Party, the most important centre-right party of the interwar period was not allowed to compete, its voters divided between the People's Party (CSL) and the National Socialists (CSNS), the two most right-wing members of the coalition in the Czech lands.

The most important party in the National Front, especially after the election, was the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, which paradoxically only run in the Czech portion of the country. The Communists controlled the Interior Ministry, indirectly the Defence one and the ministries that were in charge of the resettlement of ethnic Czech and Slovaks in the former German-speaking areas of the Sudetenland. This explains their strength in those parts of the country. Its Slovak cousin, the Communist Party of Slovakia (KSS) was very weak, however. Slovakia had suffered the most from the Soviet offensive and the Soviets did not behave nor were welcomed as liberators, as it did happen in the Czech parts of the country. That combined with the ability of the Slovak Democratic Party to rally anti-Communists and autonomist against them meant that the KSS was only useful as a tool for the Communists to win extra cabinet seats.

The largest of the non-communist parties was the Czechoslovak National Socialist Party (CSNS), the party of Benes and Masaryk, a sort of Fabian-esque bourgeois socialist, socially liberal party that was also quite nationalistic. The CSNS had been one of the most important parties of the interwar period and they become the second most-voted party, although far away from the Communists. The CSNS was particularly strong in the cities, coming first in Brno and Ostrava and nearly coming first in Prague itself. The party was the go-to option for most right-wing Czechs in Bohemia, as the territory lacked the active Catholicism that was a fundamental factor in voting for the Czechoslovak People's Party.

The Czechoslovak People's Party (CSL), or the Populists was (and is) a Christian Democratic party (more in the Italian DC or French MRP vein than the German CDU) that benefitted from its strong roots in historically religious and rural Moravia, but also from an influx of former Republican voters. Because of this, it was the third largest party in parliament. The CSL's Slovak counterpart was the Freedom Party (SS), created in 1945 as a Christian democratic alternative to the Democratic Party that only achieved 3 seats, totally overshadowed by the Democrats.

The Democratic Party (DS) was the electoral juggernaut of Slovak politics at this time. Created by the merger of the non-communist members of the Slovak National Council, the Slovak anti-fascist resistance, the party essentially brought together the two most important political tendencies of interwar Slovakia, Christian Democratic autonomism-to-nationalism (Hlinka's Slovak People's Party) and agrarianism. The anti-communist nature of the party, combined with its calls for regional autonomy (as opposed to the KSS' preference for rule from Prague) won the party an unexpectedly high amount of votes, 64%. The party did, however, contain numerous politicians with ties to the Tiso regime, which was very effectively exploited by the Communist-controlled police and newspapers to weaken it little by little, applying salami tactics.

Next up was the Czechoslovak Social Democracy (CSSD). The Social Democrats had managed to be, during the interwar period, the most significant left-wing party in the country had been reduced to the status of being the smallest of the large parties of the National Front, with many of its voters departing for the Communists. To further that, the party was internally wrecked by divisions between the pro-Communist left-wing of the party (many times more radical than even the KSC) led by Zdenek Fierlinger [2], who served as Prime Minister between 1945 and until the election; and the party's anti-Communist right-wing, led by Vaclav Majer [3]. To top this all off, the party's Slovak branch, already weaker than the KSC in the interwar period, merged with the Communists during the war. Those few Social Democrats that refused to formed the Labour Party (SP), which would merge in 1947 with the Social Democrats to become the party's Slovak branch.

As it turned out, 1946 was the last free election in the country until 1990. The Communists came out as the strongest by far party in terms of seats and votes, although they fell short of their goal of obtaining a majority of both, at least in the Czech portion of the country. They came closer to that number than any party since the independence of the country in 1918. The period between 1946 and 1947 was relatively calm, as the Constituent National Assembly slowly drafted a new constitution, the economy was nationalised (by 1948, 60% of all industry was state-owned) and relations between the parties were good. However, the Communists which controlled directly or indirectly the country's most vital ministries were turning the police into a Communist party branch, and same with the state security service. The military was controlled by a Communist-friendly General who served as Minister of Defence, and the party was very powerful in the trade union movement.

By late 1947 and into 1948, as tensions in the coalition rose over the evident Communist attempts at appropriating the state security apparatus to their benefit, and the place of Czechoslovakia between the West and the Soviet Union combined with constitutional conflicts over the future status of Slovakia were breaking up the coalition.

At the same time, as it turned out, Communist sympathisers in the police forces had begun a fear campaign against non-Communist politicians, sending mail bombs and so on. On February 1948, the cabinet voted a¡for firing from the police these 6 policemen, but the Communist minister (and premier) refused to carry out the order, causing a constitutional crisis. As a result, the non-Communist ministers resigned hoping that President Benes would ask Communist Premier Gottwald to resign and replace him with a non-Communist premier. The Communists, however, organised massive demonstrations and strikes that gathered over 2 million people. Combined with the Defence Minister's unwillingness to mobilise the Army against them - and the Communist sympathies of the police forces - forced Benes to allow Gottwald to form an all-Communist cabinet, essentially putting an end to the democratic experience and bringing forward a 41-year single-party regime.

[1] An agreement between the Communist Parties, the People's Party, the National Socialists, the Social Democrats and the national Slovak resistance parties (Democratic Party & Freedom Party) and the Labour Party, a social democratic party created in Slovakia by the right-wing social democrats who refused to merge with the Slovak Communist Party in 1945. The Programme called for the expropriation of German- and Hungarian-owned industries and lands, to be nationalised and for the nationalisation of the 'commanding heights' of the economy, among other measures.
[2] Known after 1948 as Doctor Quislinguer, Fierlinger had been the Czechoslovak Ambassador to Moscow during WWII and was rumoured to be an NKVD operative. He was amongst the strongest proponents of the merger between the Communists and the Social Democrats.
[3] By late 1947, the anti-communists had come to dominate the party, replacing Fierlinger as party leader with Bohumil Lausman, a centrist social democrat (in terms of neither being on the right nor the left wing of the party). The left-wing Social Democrats, Fierlinger included, however, remained in the cabinet. And would play an important role in guaranteeing the Communist success in the 1948 coup.

 

[Nanwe]

WIP List

Kings of Spain
1902-1906: Alfonso XIII (House of Borbon)
1906-0000: Alfonso XIV (House of Borbon)
1906-1918: Maria Cristina (House of Habsburg-Lorraine)

Presidents of the Council of Ministers of Spain
1906: Segismundo Moret (Liberal)
1906: Jose Lopez Dominguez (Liberal)
1906: Segismundo Moret (Liberal)
1906-1907: Antonio Aguilar y Correa, Marquess of Vega de Armijo (Liberal)
1907-1914: Antonio Maura (Conservative)
1907 (Conservative majority) def. Segismundo Moret (Liberal),
1911 (Conservative majority) def. Jose Canalejas (Liberal),
1914-1918: Jose Canalejas (Liberal)
1914 (Liberal majority) def. Antonio Maura (Conservative),
1918-1919: Eduardo Dato (Conservative)
1918 (Conservative majority) def. Jose Canalejas (Liberal),
1919-1920: Antonio Maura (Conservative)
1920-1924: Jose Canalejas (Liberal)
1920 (Liberal majority) def. Antonio Maura (Conservative),
1924-1925: Jose Sanchez-Guerra (Conservative)
1924 (Conservative minority with Lliga supply and confidence) def. Jose Canalejas (Liberal),
1925: Gabino Bugallal, Count of Bugallal (Conservative)
1925-1927: Eduardo Dato (Conservative)
1927-1929: Manuel Garcia-Prieto (Liberal)
1927 (Liberal-Socialist-Reformist coalition) def. Eduardo Dato (Conservative),
1929-1933: Niceto Alcala-Zamora (Liberal)
1931 (Liberal-Socialist-Reformist coalition) def. Jose Sanchez Guerra (Conservative),
1933-1937: Miguel Maura (Conservative)
1933 (Conservative-Social People’s-Lliga coalition) def. Indalecio Prieto (Spanish Socialist Worker’s), Niceto Alcala-Zamora (Liberal), Jose Calvo-Sotelo (Social People’s), Francesc Cambo (Lliga), Melquiades Alvarez (Reformist)
1937-1941: Indalecio Prieto (Spanish Socialist Worker’s)
1937 (Socialist-Liberal-Democratic coalition, then Socialist-Liberal-Democratic-Conservative-Lliga coalition) def. Miguel Maura (Conservative),
1941-1946: Diego Martinez Barrio (Liberal Democratic)
1941 (Socialist-Liberal-Democratic-Conservative-Lliga coalition) def.
1945 (Socialist-Liberal-Democratic coalition) def.
1946-0000: Indalecio Prieto (Spanish Socialist Worker’s)

 

[Nanwe]

Finally.

 

[Nanwe]

Wallonia 2014. These are to be the last elections with these constituencies, as in 2017, ECOLO and the PTB challenged the electoral constituencies before the Constitutional Court arguing that they hindered the representativity of the Wallonian Parliament. They won. As a result, the Wallonian Parliament passed a new electoral map merging the constituencies of the Luxembourg province and reworking those of the Hainaut province. However, the new division only passed with the support of PS, MR and cdH. ECOLO and PTB remain opposed to the new map.

Also, the longer the constituency's name, the smaller the number of deputies it elected.

 

[Nanwe]

Huge image here: https://www.deviantart.com/nanwe01/art/Yugoslavia-in-1991-783039381

This map shows the ethnic majority group and their share of the population in each municipality of Yugoslavia according to the 1991 census. I believe that the numbers of Kosovo are more of an estimation than a proper census due to the political difficulties involved in the Serbian Socialist Republic's census-making in the autonomous republic.

Notice: The ethnic geography of Bosnia and Herzegovina or the presence of a large Serb minority in Croatia (12% of the national pop.). The lower percentages in Istria is not due to Italians (except in two municipalities' cases) but rather due to many people identifying not as Croat but as 'regional identity'.

'Grad' [city]' is an odd thing of Socialist Yugoslavia, where the larger cities in the country were split into various municipalities but still also had some common major 'city' government that included a good chunk of their metropolitan areas. This set up only continues to exist in the case of Grad Beograd (aka. Belgrade).

Another thing that is very evident from this map is that Croatia and Slovenia, post-independence, divided their Titoist-era municipalities into smaller ones. In the Croat case, many many smaller ones.

I've posted it in DeviantArt, which means soon I'll have the ethnic hatred brigade coming to criticise this and that.

 

[Nanwe]

And now, the per capita wealth of each municipality in which the national Yugoslav GDP per capita equals 100.

The regional economic disparities by the end of the 1980s were very considerable. In terms of numbers, the Ljubljana number GDP per capita index was 260, in Rijeka, 213. The poorest large cities were Pristina in the AP Kosovo at 70 and Titograd (Podgorica, Montenegro) at 87.

Also, the Austro-Hungarian/Venetian-Ottoman boundaries of the past are easy to spot.

 

[Nanwe]

The electoral constituencies of the alt-election of 1991 in Yugoslavia (part of an AH project I'm just starting). These are the constituencies to the Federal Chamber (lower house) of the Federal Assembly of Yugoslavia. It is formed by 300 deputies elected from 32 constituencies through closed-list proportional representation, employing the D'Hont method. The threshold would be 3% with an exception for minority lists (e.g. Vlachs in Zajecar, Muslims in Kraljevo).

All republics with the exception of Montenegro are divided into several constituencies, from 2 in Slovenia to 9 in Serbia proper (14 if you add the APs). No constituency elected less than 4 members nor more than 14, the average size was 9.38 MPs per constituency, the median was 9. One MP per 78,558 citizens (no electoral register to work with).

Republic of Serbia: 124 seats (41.33%)
- Serbia Proper: 74 seats (24.67%)
- AP Kosovo: 25 seats (8.33%)
- AP Vojvodina: 25 seats (8.33%)
Republic of Croatia: 61 seats (20.33%)
Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina: 56 seats (18.67%)
Republic of Macedonia: 26 seats (8.67%)
Republic of Slovenia: 25 seats (8.33 %)
Republic of Montenegro: 8 seats (2.67%)

​

 

[Nanwe]

Back to our regularly scheduled Belgian madness. The Brussels Parliament 2014 election. Due to one of those funny quirks of Belgium, as a bilingual region, Brussels has to have an evenly-balanced executive even though the disparity between the number of Francophones and Dutch-speakers in the city and the Brussels Parliament is so huge.

This means that out of 17 Dutch-speaking MPs, there are 2 (out of 4 ministers + 1 Minister-President) that are Dutch speakers. Compare this to the 2 Francophone ministers (+1 Minister-President) out of 72 Francophone MPs.

 

[Nanwe]

This is the map for the 2014 election of the German-speaking Community Parliament. The election was fought between two Christian democratic parties, the CSP (the German-speaking branch of the Francophone cdH) and the unaffiliated ProDG. Typical German-speaking microstate stuff. After the election, ProDG formed a government with SP (German-speaking branch of the PS) and the liberal PFF (the German-speaking branch of the MR and only Belgian liberal party to retain the party's pre-split name). The ProDG has one minister (plus the Minister-President) and the SP and the PFF have one minister each as well.

 

[Nanwe]

Last but not least... The 2014 Flemish Parliament election.

 

[Nanwe]

Any preferences for one of the logos?

 

[Nanwe]

[PS: I swear this is not my attempt at doing the latest American Dominion thing, but it draws from that. I was thinking of using SNTV as the electoral system because why not]

Political Parties in Columbia

Like in several other Anglophone countries (but markedly not the United Kingdom), the Columbian political cleavage is not clear-cut based on class. While the socio-economic, left-right axis matters a great deal, demographics are extremely important. And more than demographics, almost history matters as much, at least on the right: The losers of the Federalist Rebellion vs. its winners. West of the Ohio River, the People's Party is the main centre-right force, east of it, the National Progressive Party.

Columbia's old industrial working classes - mostly gone nowadays as a concept - were made up of recent arrivals, ethnic Columbians (Hiberno- and Italo-Columbians primarily), alienated from the Mayflower families [1] that dominated the NPP, who voted Labor. As a result, to this day, Labor draws primarily from the working class (now formed by recent arrivals) and 'white ethnic' Columbians who tend to be solidly middle-class. In western Columbia, where the PEC [2] Trinity and the number of Anglo-Columbians was reduced, politics evolved differently. Labor exists, and it's powerful in the main cities and in the mining valleys of the Appalachia, but there is a strong, Christian left, drawing from evangelical traditions and which drew support from Germano-Columbians and especially Nordic Columbians.

All this has contributed to the country's fractious politics, especially with the rise of the new left parties. Amidst all this, Columbian parties are not known for their ability to control their members, resulting in strong factionalism and parliamentary instability.

National Progressive Party: The party of the traditional upper classes of the country, economically centre-right and socially moderate (liberal-conservative or conservative liberal in European parlance), it is strong in rural New England, the Maritime Provinces, Upstate New York (OOC: Need a proper TTL name for this) and Pennsylvania. It also draws support from middle- and upper-middle urban people from eastern Columbia, and the well-off west of the Ohio River.

Laborers' Party (Labor): Labor is the party of the trade unions, ethnic Columbians and the urban working class. It is the only major party that is able to draw significant support from both east and west Columbia. In eastern Columbia too, the party also receives the votes of the rural left.

Independents' League: A result of Columbia's long-standing love for independent, centrist candidates, the League is openly non-ideological and proudly unwhipped. As a result, it is home to a plethora of political views, but its support in suburbs and exurbs, as well as from the Jewish community means that most of the League's affiliated MPs are centrists or liberals.

People's Party: The party of the western right. Unlike the more secular NPP, the People's Party has stronger ties to religious organisations, drawing significant support from evangelical Christians. As a result, it's economically centrist but socially the most conservative party. It is also a supporter of stronger provincial autonomy, in the spirit of the Federalist Rebellion. Ethnically-speaking, it draws support from the rural middle class and in the cities from conservative Germano-Columbians and also a good chunk of the Anglo-Columbian and Scots vote.

Farmers’ Union: The Union is the smallest of the major parties, as it represents a weakening brand of politics - Rural left-wing radicalism. Heavily tied to the land reform and cooperative movement that was very strong during the first half of the 20th century, the party has constantly lost support over time and now it exists almost more a vehicle for Nordic Columbians and left-leaning Germano-Columbians. Its left-wing stance combined with ties with evangelical Christianity has made it the main voice of Afro-Columbians in major cities like Chicago or Richmond (OTL Detroit-Windsor).

Green Party: Founded in the 1970s, it's explicitly a brand of post-ethnic, post-materialist politics. A niche party, it is mostly supported by students and very left-wing people, given the party's eco-socialist stances.

Green Liberal Party: Created in 2011 as a splinter from the Green Party, the GLP brings together ecological politics with free-trade support and liberal economics. As a result, it draws its votes from yuppies. This means that while small, it is over-represented in major cities like New York, Philadelphia or Boston.

[1] Trying something different as a terminology for WASP.
[2] Presbyterian-Episcopalian-Congregationalist, again trying out terminology other than 'WASP'.

 

[Nanwe]

WIP. Suggestions for WASPy Northeast Republicans and ethnically German/Irish-/Italian-American lefty politicians would be appreciated.

First Secretaries of the Columbian Republic

1950-1954: Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. (National Progressive)
1950 (NPP minority) def.
1954-1958: Gerhard M. Williams (Labor)
1954 (Labor-Farmers' Union coalition) def. Prescott Bush (National Progressive), John G. Diefenbaker (People's), xx (Independents' League), Elmer A. Benson (Farmers' Union), xx (Democratic), xx (Communist), Arnold Petersen (Socialist Labor)
1958-1962: Hubert H. Humphrey (Labor)
1958 (Labor-Farmers' Union coalition) def. Irving Ives (National Progressive), John G. Diefenbaker (People's), xx (Independents' League), Elmer A. Benson (Farmers' Union), xx (Democratic), xx (Communist), Arnold Petersen (Socialist Labor)
1962-1975: William W. Scranton (National Progressive) [4]
1962 (NPP-PP coalition) def. Hubert Humphrey (Labor), John G. Diefenbaker (People's), xx (Independents' League), Elmer A. Benson (Farmer's Union), xx (Democratic), xx (Communist), Arnold Petersen (Socialist Labor)
1966 (NPP minority) def. Hubert Humphrey (Labor), John G. Diefenbaker (People's), xx (Independents' League), xx (Farmer's Union), xx (Democratic), Arnold Petersen (Socialist Labor)
1970 (NPP-PP coalition) def. Edward J. McCormack Jr. (Labor), xx (People's), xx (Independents' League), xx (Farmer's Union), xx (Democratic), xx (Socialist Labor)
1974 (NPP-PP coalition) def. Edward J. McCormack Jr. (Labor), Gerald Ford Jr. (People's), xx (Independents' League), xx (Farmer's Union), xx (Democratic), xx (Socialist Labor)
1975-1979: William M. Milliken (National Progressive)
1978 (NPP-PP coalition) def. Brendan T. Byrne (Labor), Gerald Ford Jr. (People's), xx (Independents' League), xx (Farmer's Union), xx (Democratic), xx (Socialist Labor)
1979-1982: Gerald R. Ford Jr. (People's)
1982-1986: Mario Cuomo (Labor)
1982 (Labor majority) def. Alfonse M. D'Amato (National Progressive), xx (Independents'' League), Gerald Ford Jr. (People's), xx (Farmers' Union), xx (Democratic), xx (Socialist Labor)
1986-1988: George H. W. Bush (National Progressive)
1986 (NPP minority with PP support) def. Mario Cuomo (Labor), xx (Independents' League), William G. Davis (People's), xx (Farmers' Union), xx (Green), xx (Socialist Labor)
1988-1990: Michael Dukakis (Labor)
1988 (Labor minority) def. George H. W. Bush (National Progressive), xx ()
1990-1993: Robert K. Rae (Labor)
1990 (Labor minority) def. Henry J. Heinz III (National Progressive), xx ()
1993-1994: Michael Dukakis (Labor)
1994-1996: William Weld (National Progressive)
1994 (NPP-PP coalition) def. Michael Dukakis (Labor), xx (),
1996-1998: Henry J. Heinz III (National Progressive)
1998-2002: Robert K. Rae (Labor)
1998 (Labor minority) def. Henry J. Heinz III (National Progressive), xx (Independents' League), xx (People's), xx (Green), xx (Farmers' Union), xx (Socialist Labor)
2002-2006: Henry D. Chafee (National Progressive) [7]
2002 (NPP minority) def. Robert K. Rae (Labor), xx (People's)
2006-2008: Scott A. Brison (National Progressive)
2006 (NPP minority) def. Robert P. Casey Jr. (Labor), xx (People's)
2008-2011: Charles D. Baker Jr. (National Progressive)
2010 (NPP minority) def. Robert P. Casey Jr. (Labor), xx (People's)
2011-2013: Scott A. Brison (National Progressive)
2013-2014: Charles D. Baker Jr. (National Progressive)
2014-0000: Sherrod C. Brown (Labor)
2014 (Labor minority) def. Charles D. Baker (National Progressive), John R. Kasich (People's), xx (Independents' League), xx (Green), xx (Farmers' Union), xx (Green Liberals), xx (Socialist Labor)
2018 (Labor minority) def. Philip B. Scott (National Progressive), xx ()

[4] The 'Scranton Fever' took over the NPP in 1960 and the country after 1962. The Scranton name was one that was sure to appeal to the NPP sensibilities - a long line of wealthy industrialists who dedicated themselves to the sort of noblesse oblige attitude that was expected of their kind - Scranton had also made a name for himself as an able, centrist administrator at the district level, where he had governed in close cooperation with all social partners and was generally popular. After being shut out of power for almost a decade, the NPP wanted a fresh attractive face, of someone who could appeal to the party's New Englander base but also out west and in the cities. In his favour also stood his good relations with prominent People's Party leadership members, like his fraternity friend, Gerald Ford Jr. Scranton's youthful energy, consensual behaviour and good manners turned him into the ideal candidate for the party. The Scranton years are still fondly remembered as a time of economic growth and middle class prosperity - investments in education, infrastructure and the promotion and investment of the country's industrial network were all key aspects of his governing style, together with a cautiously progressive social agenda. However Scranton would be lucky to decide to retire in 1975, right before the beginning of the late-1970s economic crisis that his successor would have to deal with...

[7] OTL Lincoln Chaffee. Decided to rename him as I have my doubts about Lincoln being a common name in Columbia.

 

[Nanwe]

As some of you might remember, I have had an ongoing battle to map out the 1990 and 1992 Czechoslovak elections. Recently, I had a breakthrough as both the Czech and Slovak Statistical offices got back to me with the data of the federal elections at the okres level, allowing me to finish the visual part of the map. There remains a problem, as they do not have online data of the seat distribution per constituency. And I have tried to reverse engineer the results based off the electoral system they used but I have not yet managed to obtain the exact same results that the official results say.

This is the Lower Chamber in 1990. The House of the People was formed by 150 members, assigned to each republic on the basis of population (101 MPs from Czechia, 49 from Slovakia in 1990). These were then subdivided according to the respective electoral constituencies (also used for republic and SN elections). The Czech Republic used a 3% threshold whereas Slovakia used a 5% one.

Bratislava was assigned 4 seats, West Slovakia had 16 seats, Central Slovakia had 15 seats and Eastern Slovakia had 14 ones. This does not mean they actually elected that many MPs, as leftover seats and votes (that did not reach the quota) passed to the second scrutiny where they'd be distributed.

And the upper chamber, the 'House of Nations'. The House of Nations was formed by 150 members, 75 for each federal republic. These were then subdivided according to the respective electoral constituencies (also used for republic and SL elections). The Czech Republic used a 3% threshold whereas Slovakia used a 5% one.

Bratislava was assigned 6 seats, West Slovakia had 25 seats, Central Slovakia had 23 seats and Eastern Slovakia had 21 ones. This does not mean they actually elected that many MPs, as leftover seats and votes (that did not reach the quota) passed to the second scrutiny where they'd be distributed.

Czech National Council

Slovak National Council