~State of the Union~
Chicco
Dear citizens of the Austro-German Union,
Today's 'conquest' of Tyrol marks the completion of our Union. As Austria's last (legitimate) President I would like to make a few comments to honor this great achievement.
An Austrian reversal of fortune
When I took office in Austria, the country could not have been in worse shape. Our land was depopulated, our companies deserted, our economy ruined. Our treasury had been looted and our currency devalued. Whoever wanted to buy a house had to travel abroad. (Not that anyone could earn enough gold to buy one anyway.) Even food was scarce and expensive. Our newspapers were boring. We had no army. We had no functional Congress. We had to live in constant fear of political take-overs.
How things have changed! Today we enjoy a strong currency, high salaries, and the availability of cheap food and other goods. We can get involved in a strong and active army. We can work in a busy Congress. Instead of a handful readers, our newspapers now draw a hundred. Everything has changed for the better, and we are deeply indebted to our German brethren for having welcomed us with open arms.
Nevertheless, there were more than a few bumps along the road to forging this Union, and I want to take the opportunity to shed some light on these matters. This is going to be a lengthy piece, and those not interested in the details should feel free to skip ahead.
The Hungarian affair
First, Austria, Germany, and Hungary signed a contract to provide training opportunities to the Hungarian armed forces. Why was this done? While the Union was being negotiated, I approached Hungary with the proposal of lending or selling our high-grain region, Lower Austria. Austria and Germany were essentially broke, and this seemed like a good way of raising much needed cash for our Union's treasury. However, Hungary rejected this proposal [1]. Later on I was happy about their decision because our Union should not be formed at the expense of a region that is at the very heart of Austria.
Soon after, the Hungarians approached us again about the possibility of utilizing our merger as a war game for their armed forces. I was none too happy about this because the prior negotiations had revealed the Hungarians as aloof and unreliable partners. However, around this time the Hungarian media had started making a big fuss about our "refusal" to sell Lower Austria to them. This was in itself a joke because it was the Hungarian president herself who had rejected my initial offer to sell or lend the region. The Hungarian media was peppered with threats of invading Austria or Germany. In fact, one article asked readers to vote if they thought Hungary should invade Austria and garnered over a thousand votes. All this warmongering had the effect of intimidating certain elements within the German leadership. For example, the German VP Justin Tyme felt it necessary to send me alarmed PMs forcing me to write this article [1,2].
To appease the Hungarians it was decided to sign the aforementioned contract permitting Hungary to use our phony battles as training grounds for their troops. This contract was extremely generous toward the Hungarian side because they only paid us 81 gold, when the cost of the whole exercise amounted to over 700 gold [3]. In fact, Austria had to spend over 100 gold to attack Bavaria, which was entirely unnecessary from our point of view. It only served to activate the German MPP with Hungary, thus allowing their soldiers to fight in all the subsequent battles.
The contract agreed on a timetable of a minimum of 3 days for the entire operation. On day 4 Hungary attacked Burgenland. Although this attack was permitted under the contract, it was also unnecessary. The German MPP with Hungary had been activated specifically to allow Hungarian troops to fight in the German-Austrian battles. There was no need, nor any advantage, in opening up another front. It has since been claimed that Hungary expected the entire operation to last several weeks, and that conquering Burgenland would have allowed them to repeatedly stage war games by launching phony resistance wars. However, the circumstances cast more than a little doubt on this explanation. First, at the time of the Hungarian attack Germany was already within shouting distance of Burgenland, being just hours away from conquering the neighboring regions. Second, only hours after conquering Burgenland, Hungary launched a protracted campaign against Romania, giving their soldiers plenty of opportunity to hone their skills.
It is therefore safe to assume that Hungary conquered the region with the intent of annexing it. It is worth noting that the Hungarian political establishment had come under plenty of public pressure for not dealing with us in an even more hostile and aggressive manner. The annexation of Burgenland was a convenient opportunity for them to pour oil on troubled waters and to shore up support for the impending presidential elections.
My fault in all this lies in having signed the contract with Hungary, and in not having challenged the unnecessary and suspicious clause allowing Hungary to attack and conquer Burgenland. I accept responsibility for the loss of this region and I apologize to all citizens for this grave error in judgment.
At the time both Hungary and Austria were in the PEACE alliance, and I therefore asked PEACE to intervene and condemn the Hungarian annexation of Burgenland. Regretfully, my requests were met with a blend of disinterest and hostility [4]. In the end the then-secretary general Arthk conceded in private communication that Hungary had violated the PEACE charter, but that the charter stipulates no penalties for such infractions [1]. I was, and still am, fairly stunned by this. This essentially means that the PEACE alliance will protect you against invasion by countries outside of the alliance, but lets PEACE countries cannibalize each other with impunity. Although Germany-Austria is not a small country, by no means can we match the power and resources of the game's biggest nations (yet). Such considerations were a crucial factor in the recent decision to ditch PEACE and instead commit ourselves under the protective umbrella of the powerful ATLANTIS alliance. In contrast to PEACE, the ATLANTIS alliance has clear-cut rules that must be respected or else. For example, the recent failure of the USA to notify alliance members about their invasion of Mexico was swiftly punished with a fee of 900 gold.
I ask you: do you want to join an alliance that consigns you to the mercy of powerful and imperialistic neighbors or one where all members are treated equal?
Tyrolean trepidations
In connection with rumors about our entry into ATLANTIS, a PEACE proxy by the name of Metallon caused a stir in our media, falsely claiming that Austrians are unhappy about our Union and attacking me over its legitimacy. In one article he asked disgruntled Austrians to befriend his organization. Despite having his PEACE cronies vote this article up to the very top of our media for two full days, as of today his organization boasts a rather pitiful total of 2 friends. With all the legitimacy that 2 disgruntled citizens provide, he then staged a take-over of the Austrian Congress in Tyrol with assistance from PEACE's Italy [5]. We tried to counter this take-over using Bundeswehr troops but could not match the 60+ voters PEACE had dispatched to the region. As a result, it was decided to switch to plan B and attack the region, thereby completing our Union [6].
The scale of the take-over in Tyrol is a smoking gun proving the involvement of PEACE or at least one of its major members (Italy). A plausible (but speculative) explanation is that taking control of Tyrol's Congress and the Presidency would have allowed Metallon to sign MPPs with powerful PEACE members. This could have then set the stage for a seemingly legitimate proxy war against Germany-Austria, followed by the installation of a convenient puppet regime in the 'liberated' Austrian regions. All this was planned and executed while Germany was still negotiating with PEACE.
I ask you: do you want to join an alliance that respects contracts or one that concocts phony excuses to undermine and destroy our legitimate Union?
A peaceful PEACE?
No methods are too low or too cheap for PEACE to score a point. Recently, they even had me banned for calling someone a "jerk", while one of their own gets away with calling me an "a**hole" [7]. In the meantime, Italy has kindly communicated informal threats to attack our formerly Austrian regions should we have the audacity not to join their alliance. And to round it all off, Hungary's Quicksilver (ex-President, puppet master, and spin meister extraordinaire) has publicly disclosed plans to divert their 9,000 or so men away from smashing their heads into the Romanian wall toward an easier target: our Union. Congratulations, PEACE. In the space of a mere month you have proven against reasonable doubt that "PEACE" is nothing but a grotesque misnomer.
Despite all this we gave PEACE a fair chance to recruit us into their alliance. We proposed them to draft a contract making the return of Burgenland conditional on our entry into PEACE. To avoid getting cheated again, we demanded contractual penalties drawn on the Hungarian treasury in case they failed to return the region. Not only were we turned down, but we were told that unless we joined PEACE we would never see that region again. Only after joining PEACE could there be negotiations about a possible return of Burgenland. In other words, PEACE officials used the Burgenland affair as blackmail against us in order to force us into the alliance.
I ask you: do you want to join an alliance that is based on mutual respect or one based on threats, intimidation, and blackmail?
Discovering Atlantis in turbulent waters
The decision between PEACE and ATLANTIS was therefore not an outgrowth of Chicco vs. PEACE, as some have alleged. The driving force was not even our conflict with Hungary. Rather, the decision between PEACE and ATLANTIS was a decision between intimidation and respect. It was a decision between anarchy and the rule of law. It was a decision between vassalage and sovereignty. It was a decision between opportunism and principle [8].
Today, every German, every Austrian can be proud of having taken a bold and principled decision. Proud of not having gone down the slippery slope toward serfdom in exchange for an illusion of security. However, let there be no doubt: principle comes at great sacrifice. We are at now at high risk of invasion by our belligerent and imperialistic PEACE neighbors. Nevertheless, together with our new partners I am confident we will rise to this challenge. And although I predict we will experience disappointments and setbacks along the way, we shall emerge a stronger and more perfect Union.
~Chicco
A proud citizen of the Union~
Footnotes:
[1] If need be I can provide copies of the relevant PMs proving this.
[2] I should add that the two principal German negotiators, Isy and DKN, kept complete cool.
[3] 200+ g for the declaration of war, 100+ g to attack Bavaria, 400+ g to attack 8 Austrian regions.
[4] Admittedly, one PEACE official by the name of bimba made a few feeble but constructive attempts at mediating between us and Hungary.
[5] Check the Austrian Congressmen's friendlists if you don't believe they are Italian.
[6] Tyrol had not been previously 'conquered' in order to keep the phony war between Germany and Austria alive. If Hungary had returned Burgenland, this would have allowed us to attack that region without having to issue another costly declaration of war.
[7] Look for the Napolitan lesson.
[8] N.B. My intention is not to paint ATLANTIS as a saint. The point is: they don't pretend to be one, they know what a contract is, and they adhere to certain principles as regards their internal affairs.
Comments
Hi there Chicco!
I think the best thing a boogey man can do is to wish good luck to the people of your country. Maybe we will go to war against each other someday but I promise I will try to keep the raping and child-eating at the necessary minimum.
I would have appreciated a 'thank you' to our trolls who helped to fuel your propaganda, but I don't want to hijack this article by drawing attention from the most important massage of your article:
faith in the future of AGU.
I hope time will prove that this decision was the good one.
I hope no one will take it as anything but a friendly advise: proceed with caution, because when a country becomes the military playground of the big alliances her residents pay the prizes. We'v learnt it the hard way, and I do not wish you the same. 🙂
Long live the Union!
Prizma Jeno
noone .. err... boogey man
Hi Chicco. From present state, you were the one who TOd Austria, taking them from PEACE to Atlantis. If it was a real union, you wouldn't have been the main supporter of joining Atlanti, beacause you must know that know both Hungary and Italy can invade Austria easily, and your new allies won't be able to defend you, because none of your MPPs would activate. It only depends on our leaders. This attack wouldn't be unmoral at all, as Austria was a PEACE member.
Voted and subscribed!
PEACE started hostile actions aftet Germany declared itself enemy of PEACE. Normal consequences of your actions 🙂
Germany was dealing with Atlantis in the same time it was "peace & love" with PEACE because Germany needed it.
Have fun now 🙂
voted
"I ask you: do you want to join an alliance that is based on mutual respect or one based on threats, intimidation, and blackmail?"
I'd ofc chose the first one, PEACEgc.
"Unfortunately, you have been removed by Quicksilver from her friends list."
Haha.
In one article he asked disgruntled Austrians to befriend his organization. Despite having his PEACE cronies vote this article up to the very top of our media for two full days
************
Chicco you were in Austria you know Austrians were mostly silent, and rarely speak, i had around 10 friends on that SO, 2 removed itslef as they dissagreed with me, 6 i deleted as protection after people started to bombard me with insult... and the 2 others dont care.
During the past few months Germany played two-faced games towards both alliances, pulling the maximum profit possible. Slowly but surely Germany has been cornerd herself, so the choice had to be made. At least it is a clear cut situation now and no one can blame PEACE anymore for further actions.
Chicco,
I tried to urge you before to be more constructive in finding peaceful coexistence between Germany and Hungary. I tried to draw your attention that if you would go to the Hungarian press and say that it was a mistake on your side to get into the Burgenland clause of the Anschluss contract which you said in the German press may heal relations.
Instead you went to the Hungarian press saying: death to enemies of Atlantis! And "I have long hated Hungary before" Also you are participating in the war against PEACE yourself. If you are a simple citizen it is ok. But you are Defense minister of Germany. Are you passive members of Atlantis or not?
You behave at the moment as a war monger, and hurting other feelings does not do any good to peacuful coexistence. I guess it is your aim. But I would like to see that Germans reading this article also see it.
I hope that we will get back to the status of having MPPs with Germany.
"Instead you went to the Hungarian press saying: death to enemies of Atlantis! And 'I have long hated Hungary before'"
Link!
Long hated Hungary before: http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/the-road-to-hell-763320/1/20
Unless you do not delete your comment
Regarding the "death to enemies of Atlantis". I did not find by now sorry. You have a line "death to enemies of EGU" in the German press, which sounds reasonably better. 🙂(Isy's article)
What about constructive ideas?
It doesn't say "I have long hated Hungary before", Batyek. I think you need to apologize for misciting me. All there is on that post is a confirmation of Quicksilver's notion that the free world hates Hungary. Strictly speaking, she would then also be guilty of hating Hungary as I'm sure she counts herself among the free world.
Very well and throughly written article. In fact one of the first article i see in eR that is providing footnotes, haha.
Impressively underlines your point of view and the attempts by some people in here to now justify their immoral actions are embarassing.
Thank you for pointing that out aswell.
"What about constructive ideas?"
Not invading us would be awfully constructive, IMO. Returning Burgenland would be awfully constructive, too.
I think you are directing this plea at the wrong person.
Come on Chicco,
You are not simply stating that the free world is hating Hungary for the TOs that were tried yesterday,which is said by Quick. You say that the free world including implicit yourself, hated Hungary for a long time. How long may I ask? Two weeke that passed since the Burgenland accident or since you have joined the game?
And yes as you are the military leader of Germany, so you are the one that may pull the trigger. And I see that you are pulling it. Writing to Hungarian media that you long hated us is embarrassing as we were trying to unify our country before. Are you hating us for that, too?
don't bother with him people...
Chicco has obvious double standards: one for him and one for the world. He can not resist an argument and even so he himself admitted some time ago, that he was part of the problem, if you are the one who points that out the rules of physics suddenly bend in every direction, all the words start to spin, and suddenly it becomes impossible to even imagine that he may ever, ever, say anything wrong or act childish....
If any other troll say stupid things = eHungary preparing for war...
If he does = please let me be a human being, sorry for having thoughts, you are trying to oppress me... etc, etc, bal bla bla
If Metallon dares to disagree, its noway a valid argument, he must be a 'puppet of PEACE', Chicco is arguing, Metallon spreads mindless propaganda...
Sorry for this, but today I'v realized who is Chicco reminds me of, and why are those two persons hate each other so much 😃
Starkad Rorlikson: who try to justify its immoral actions? pls... jump off the high horse
Long live the Union!
@Prizma Jeno
The comment you quoted was mainly refferring to what bisiacco, Metallon and RainbowX posted. I dont think I am naturally better than anyone else, but if someone starts being two faced, twisting words or even worse, lying....then I will try to point that out.
@Batyek: The problem is that you are misciting an utterly impersonal remark as a personal one. Especially with some verbs, and "hate" is one of them, that can seriously distort the meaning. And I believe this to be exactly such case.
Also, it is convention to use quotation marks only with literal word-by-word citations, and you clearly failed to do adhere to this.
This is the last time I haved posted on the matter.
Dear readers,
Please see my link below and decide for yourself!
"This is the last time I haved posted on the matter." or "I rest my case" or "I no longer care"
nicely, is always good to be the one said "the strong words" at the end and then put "I have finished" just to clarify that "for him the matter is finished an no arguments can change it"
So typical, I have seen this on Peace forums few times, Chicco likes to have the last word, the strong word and to show off how much he does not care....
Arguing with Chicco is pointless, I have tried it, no way to reach agreement unless you say "master Chicco is right for everything and every others are bad and they have guilt and we should blame them ONLY"
Never ever he said "Maybe I have not done the right thing either but bla bla bla...." these words will cause him pain I guess 🙂
The decision between PEACE and ATLANTIS was therefore not an outgrowth of Chicco vs. PEACE, as some have alleged. LOL😁
hop! this article is being watched by an imperialistic org
please put your hands in the air while we search for radioactive Serious Business
hang on...
hang on...
right! everyone's infected. back to quarantine, boys!
But to be honest, I appreciate the words said for me in your article, although this does not change a thing and what was done is done. I hope you got the irony in my previous reply 🙂
I appreciate also your "way" to apologize for the contract (Hungary still believes in it).
As I said on the forums "the contract should have been shown at the beginning. (PEACE wasn't notified). And you all to admit that each side assumed and interpreted the words as it suits them. I proposed 3 weeks ago, to start a trial against Hungary violating it.(which Peace GC could not start because it is not a side).
Peace GC Charter may not have consequences if a member attacks another member, which I honestly told you is shit, but each Representative has the right to call for discussion and vote over any matter. The Council has the right to vote over the arguments(which I also told you).
You instead, made a personal war with Quicksilver (she did not do any better as well) and ignored my efforts to put you in one table and cut the communication by personal messages or in the media.
It was Austria and Hungary who went into personal contract, personal relations and then personal war and at the end - PEACE is to be blamed.
Austria has and always will have my respect, which i never said and never will for Germany and I'm ashamed of my self fighting in those RW in Sweden.
I wish you all good luck 🙂
About your rights in Peace GC forum - I asked zocky to write you that I am taking your access as there was an announcement from 6th of March (which you may see even now with your own eyes)about the March governments. In which I asked everybody to state their representatives - nobody from Austria did, go and check is still there and is open. You had access by the date zocky have sent you the message, around 10th-12th March 🙂.
After that, to You and Isy was given access as Germany-Austria ambassadors. Your topic, with the lot of arguments, started on the 28th February has been posted in a special, area called Germany-Austria. Your last post is on 7th of March 🙂
About Mediation...hmm I was (and still am) only administrating the forum and you have the honour to even read your article 😛 PEACE GC may failed to give a mediator but Austria and Hungary failed to put PEACE GC into all this matter from the very beginning. Really, you entered into personal war asking too extreme methods when you should just have given time. You started berserk on the 4th of March, Quicksilver started behaving arrogant, and your last post was on the 7th...don't you think you should have waited a bit more for the new governments and see what could be done 🙂
Chicco really, people are different, I don't like the behavior of many but I learned that with a bit more patience and time, things change.
I am truly sorry I resigned and did not helped but as you said - is all over 🙂
It's funny how Chicco tries to blame others for his screw ups.
You are such a biased propagandist that it makes me sick, really.
Back then you were demanding that PEACE would expel Hungary, and I replied that we wouldn't do that cause it would be unethical to leave an ally to fight alone against the oppression of Romania, and I did try to urge you all to a more peaceful understanding, I even tried to set up a meeting with me moderating it. Its sad I didn't have the time back then, and that was why I didn't apply for SG again.
The answer I had from you was something in the lines of the insult, and cursing the alliance without any solid reasons for that.
You have chosen the warpath when you blurred the conversations with hatred and insults, you brought this up here. Now I see PEACE mad at you for making Germany betray PEACE (remember who helped Germany on Operation Burning Spirit? Would Germany have their regions if PEACE didn't help? Of course not!) you made some Austrians angry for not letting them having their own country, even some German people are mad at your administration for causing all this issue.
Mate, everybody in PEACE feels betrayed, when I was SG I clearly told Isy that there was no pressure on them to join anything, they could be neutral and it was fine for us, since we considered you our friends at that time.
Mark my words, if Germany was attacked by Sweden while it was neutral, I have no doubts that PEACE countries would help without any kind of condition. Now you betrayed us, and you will bear with the consequences.
Cause yeah, your actions have consequences.
You will live with the proper consequences now. Don't say we didn't warn you.
Cheers, backstabbers. Have fun with the last moments of your precious union.
great article chicco. I know you are certainly a hothead sometimes, but i really respect you for trying to backup what you are saying. voted 🙂
Giovanni Marinelli
Threats and more threats.
Thanks for proving over and over that we chose the right friends, and not the eMafia.
If only we had never talked to you in the first place.
Giovanni is boring. He posts the same garbage on every thread. Dude, be bit more creative and vary your message a bit. Also, I think he thinks he's really cool because he's a level 20. Wow, you have really achieved something in life. Level 20 in a browser game. That's something to tell to your children someday. They will be awed!
Arthk is mad. Brrrrr. Mark his words!
I agree in all senses with this article. It may be that some foreigners and a few vigilantes disagree with this; but from the perspective of the eAustrian people this is all legitimate and correct.
Moreover, I was against joining an alliance at all and if we had I'd have voted peace, but after hearing the facts Atlantis sounds like a much better option than the imperialists.
I believe that most of the negative comments here only exist because from the point of view of the eHungarians this was just a little ploy to grab some extra living space, and that the crushing of the eAustrian's lives and lively hoods is a minor detail.
Thank you again, Chicco.
@Robert Knotsworth intresting post. Do you really beleive that? I can tell you with absolute certainty that the vast vast majority of HUngarians were completely uninterested in Austria. Up until the second you joined ATLANTIS. There was no plot, the most sinister thing I can say is that there was widespread disinterest. No one cared. The Burgenland thing was just a big misunderstanding, the country was focused on Romania and getting its original territories back. Yes, they took Burgenland, but it was mainly because of your bad timing. And sure, since we felt slighted we kept it, too irritate you. But mostly we didn't care, we had other fish to fry.
Seriously, the reason I watch the German media was the shocking degree to which you guys were obsessed with Burgenland, and on the other side the vast majority of Hungarians didn't even know we had it.
So here is the result of your obsession. You now have the full and undivided attention of Hungary and the rest of PEACE. Now the Romanian front is forgotten (by the average player) and job one is "liberate" Austria. Whatever that may mean to various players.
In any case I had a great time watching it all play out. We re all biased so I don't expect anyone to see things from my perspective (I'm just a spectator anyway) but even as a spectator I can't certainly say that except for the few of us Hungarians who made comments from time to time, Burgenland was just a side show for Hungary. Good Luck.
@German Army: where did I bragged about my level? Can you point me where I have said "I'm level 20 and you're a nobody so space off" 😮
If there's a thing I haven't done on eRepublik, is making differences between new players and old players.
But hey, everyone has it's opinion and you are free to state yours.
@Robert Knotsworth
"Moreover, I was against joining an alliance at all and if we had I'd have voted peace, but after hearing the facts Atlantis sounds like a much better option than the imperialists
eAustria was a member of PEACE GC from its creation till very few days ago, ask chicco he'll tell you 😉
"than the Imperialists" - brrr, what bad boys, not like the mighty USA who decide to jump on Mexico with the excuse "we attacked you and have conquered some of your territories to rescue you from the few POLISH people who came to takeover your congress (after they stole the money 😃) And we will continue conquering you....wait wait, let me find a reason....hmmm, for the lulz, just for fun - Uncle Sam"
I can write few more cases like in Spain, operation French toast, Romania vs Russia, but I guess the excuse here will be --> " at least we don't hide it, while PEACE GC always brags that is defensive alliance"
Well, let me tell ya, if the option to defend your members is to make an attack and that makes you imperialist, than yes, we are not only a defensive alliance anymore 🙂
@Rob: You have a keen sense for verisimilitude.
@Giov: Sometimes things are written between the lines.
@bimba: I don't know why but regardless of what you write, I still like you. Anyway, today we lost the first region, and PEACE lost its innocence.
boo hoo I forced you to be diplomatic with Hungary
Justin who?
You are right, Prizma. I just wanted to write something that sounded good. PEACE is, and presumably always has been, an international terrorist organization. (That's my newest catch phrase.)