1635:The Dreeson Incident

Chapter 52

Magdeburg, March 1635

The election results were finally certified, for the nation as a whole and each of its provinces and imperial cities.

Nationally, so far as the popular vote was concerned, the Fourth of July Party had gotten forty-four percent of the vote; the Crown Loyalists, forty-eight percent; and the remaining eight percent had been divided between the various small parties.

So far as the provinces were concerned, there were not many surprises. As expected, the Fourth of July Party swept the province of Magdeburg and the State of Thuringia-Franconia. In the case of the SoTF, splitting the vote in alliance with the Ram movement.

The Crown Loyalists enjoyed equally lopsided victories in Hesse-Kassel, Brunswick, Westphalia, and the Upper Rhine.

They also won a majority in the Province of the Main and Pomerania, but the results were much closer. The Fourth of July Party won a similarly narrow victory in the Oberpfalz and a wider one in Mecklenburg.

Also as expected, the Fourth of July Party was very strong in the imperial cities. They won clear victories in four out of the seven: Magdeburg-that was another landslide-Luebeck, Hamburg and Frankfurt. They also won a majority in Strassburg, although just barely. The Crown Loyalists won the election in Augsburg and Ulm without any difficulty. No surprises there either. All of the imperial cities were actually small provinces, with a considerable amount of hinterland attached to the city itself. That was particularly true of Augsburg and Ulm, which meant the rural vote in those imperial cities was not really that much smaller, proportionately, than it was in most of the Germanies.

Although the popular vote was rather closely contested, the Crown Loyalist victory was much more pronounced in terms of seats won in the House of Commons. They would wind up with a clear majority of the seats. Not much of a majority-fifty-two percent-but enough so that they wouldn't need to form a coalition government with any of the small parties.

Again, that was no real surprise. The Fourth of July Party had a pronounced advantage in the cities and bigger towns, while the CLs enjoyed an offsetting strength in most of the rural areas. There were some exceptions, like Franconia and much of Mecklenburg, but not many. What that often meant, however, was that much of the FoJP victory in the cities was effectively wasted. It didn't matter whether a district was won by fifty-one percent or eighty-one percent, after all. Either way, it was still just one district.

So, often enough, the FoJP would win a single seat in a city by a landslide, only to see it offset by a much smaller margin of victory by the CLs in a rural district.

To some extent, the results were a reflection of the compromises that Mike Stearns had made with Gustav Adolf when the USE was created in the beginning, in the fall of 1633. The emperor had been able to force through a number of provisions that would obviously be to the advantage of the more conservative areas and sectors of the new nation.

Still, there was no point in complaining or crying foul. The fact remained that the Crown Loyalists had won more of the popular vote than the FoJP, even if they hadn't won an outright majority and even if the political structure of the USE favored them in terms of seats. They had every right under the democratic principles that Mike Stearns advocated and championed himself to replace him as the head of government with one of their own-and he said so in a short and gracious concession speech once the election results were finally announced. The speech was played live over the radio and reprinted in every newspaper in the nation.

"We were planning to stay longer, this time, Ronnie. Honestly, we were."

"Still, you are going. Without the children."

"I'm willing to plead. I'm willing to grovel." Jeff grinned, in a desperate sort of way. "Gretchen has to get back. It's a crisis now, but it could get a lot worse. There's plenty of blame being flung around, and some of it's landing where it doesn't belong. Spartacus is trying to be a voice of reason. Hell, he is a voice of reason. But.. ."

Jeff stopped and started over.

"Nobody knows who had Henry and Reverend Wiley killed. Or why. So if it was just that, it wouldn't be too hard for her to keep a handle on it. But the synagogue demonstration was worse, because it wasn't a one-time thing. There's been agitation for years and it hasn't stopped. Whoever is churning those pamphlets out is still churning them. Somebody's got to identify those guys and put a lid on it. Pretty permanently. And it's not being made easier when a lot of the Crown Loyalist partisans keep giving interviews saying that as soon as Wettin comes into office, he's going to roll back this reform and roll back that reform. Not always agreeing with one another either. It depends on what he promised to who, and when he did it."

"When are you going to take the children?"

"After the transfer of power, maybe. That's June. If the transfer goes smoothly. If it looks like Wettin can manage the guys who keep howling about 'backward, turn backward, o Time in thy flight.' If.. ."

"If you are not away in Gustavus Adolphus' great war on the eastern front. If you are not dead in his great and magnificent campaign. You are in the army. Which I have not forgotten. You could well be dead by then. If Gretchen has not been dragged down in this political crisis. If…"

Nicol reached out and put a hand on Veronica's shoulder.

"Tante," he said placatingly. "Tante, if those things should happen, then it is far better that the children should be here with you. With us. Not lost with them."

Veronica turned and left the room.

Francisco Nasi sat on the train. Reading, in spite of the rough roadbed that caused him to push his glasses up every few minutes.

While he was in Grantville, he would have to see McNally and get the frames adjusted. He made a note on a small pad.

Then he went back to reading. Ed Piazza was conscientious about sending all the information that the Grantville police had gathered. Magdeburg had some advantages, in the sense of being the center, for the time being, of his web of contacts. Sometimes, though, there was nothing quite as good as being on the scene oneself.