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Dear citizens of Germany-Austria,

Recently I have heard talk of what role Germany should play on the world stage. Some say we should join PEACE, others say we should stay completely neutral, and some say that we should create another option, an ESA (European Social Alliance).

I will admit that I was rather uninformed on this matter and I'm sure many of you are as well. So I contacted 3 leading members of the government of Belgium.
I chose Belgium because they are a neighboring neutral state that has expressed a serious interest in creating a union with the Netherlands or with joining an ESA, or perhaps even joining the German-Austrian union.

I chose 3 people to contact:
CreveRoeland (co-president of Belgium)
Palodigon (co-president of Belgium)
Habraka Abrivianius (Belgian minister of foreign affairs)
For those who aren't aware, Belgium has 2 co-presidents instead of the traditional single president.

CreveRoeland was the first to respond to my questions:

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About the union:
i'm in favour of a union with the Netherlands, if they leave PEACE.
I'm also in favour of a strong ESA 🙂
But we will not join germany, because that would mean that we are a small minority who speaks a different language.
PS: The belgian population will decide. I don't decide. We will organize a referendum in Belgium.

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Beyond that Roeland stated that he can't answer my questions at the moment (but will sometime in the future), saying that he is currently discussing the matter with the government of the Netherlands.

Then Palodigon responde😛

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Me and creveroeland are indeed co-presidents of Belgium. But we have different point of views on this situation. I am against a fusion and Roeland is completely pro. I suggest you talk with him about this matter. All I can say is we have no reason to sacrifice our independence.
I fully support the ESA. I already have a registered account on the ESA forums and I try to get involved into the discussions as much as possible.

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And then Habraka responde😛

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I am a fervent supporter of a strong, united European alliance, that can serve as a third power bloc to keep the armies of PEACE and ATLANTIS in check. That is why I took upon me the task of admin of the ESA forums as well.I am more then willing to grant you some of my time to give you an interview.

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I then sent Habraka my full barrage of questions (we were forced to send it in 5 parts to avoid the 2000 character limit):

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"So you like the idea of an ESA?"
Yes, I have been a dedicated supporter since it's public inception. Currently I am the administrator of the ESA forum.

"What about a union such as what Austria agreed to?"
When I first heard about the possibility of a German-Austrian union happening in game, I got very excited about the future of Europe as a whole. If something like the German-Austrian union could be achieved peacefully in the heart of Europe, it would set a precedent for other smaller, weaker nations to combine forces into a third powerbloc, independent of PEACE and ATLANTIS. It sounds very promising.

"Are there any conditions under which you would consider a union with Germany? The Netherlands?"
The main condition would be equal representation, and of course the use of one, universal anguage. I am personally striving for a union between The Netherlands and Belgium, modelled on the German-Austrian union, with the union not being part of PEACE nor ATLANTIS. I would even like to see a union between more European countries that have Germanic roots, imagen Austria, Belgium, Germany and The Netherlands all united under one flag, name and government. The same could be achieved with the Nordic countries, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, all united in a Scandinavian superpower. If those Germanic and Scandinavian supernations would ally in an alliance like ESA, it could very well mean the end of the bi-polarisation era of PEACE and ATLANTIS we all have grown to know today.

"Would you be open to having many nations unionized into a European Union?"
In theory, yes. But only if we drop all the red tape and bureaucracy that only slows down effective decision making like it's real life counterpart today. An European Union would need to be a sleek and well-oiled machine, that can react on events on a daily basis, instead of needing weeks to decide anything.

"You said you would be interested in joining a strong ESA. What qualifies as a "strong" ESA? Population? Military strength? Political stability?"
There are three main qualifications, all equally important. First of all, military strength. Without an army, potential enemies can just wals in and take everything we worked hard to build up for. second, a good and sturdy economy. What good is a huge and strong army, if it does not have the supplies of food, weapons, moving tickets and the likes to effectively wage war? Battles have been won or lost solely based on logistics and supplies, which is something to keep in mind. Third, we need people in charge that know what they are doing. Even if a country has thousands of Gold, and thousands of tanks, it can still lose a war if those resources are not used in an effective way. Look at ancient Rome, at one time it was the biggest, strongest and richest empire around, but poor political leadership and infighting in the latter years made the empire implode and be torn apart by savages.

"I notice that there has been a poll on [the Belgian national] forum in which the vote was very in favor of joining another country. Do you thing that is a fair assessment of the people's feelings toward a union? In other words: Do you know what the people are likely to think about all this yet?"
There is a growing movement active in Belgium at the moment, that realises this game does not support smaller nations. In order to survive and be able to fully take advantage of all game functions, you need to be in a larger nation, preferably with high productivity raw material regions. Belgium, like so many other, small nations, is stuck in a downward spiral of inactivity and corruption. The only way to change that, is a union with one of the neighbouring countries.

"Why and how has Belgium avoided joining PEACE or ATLANTIS?"
That is quite simple really, neither PEACE nor ATLANTIS care about Belgium. We only have three medium Grain regions, and there is no strategic advantage of controlling these regions. I can assure you, if Belgium would have a high productivity Iron or Diamond region, neutrality would be very hard to maintain.

"Do you think that a 3rd alliance group such as the ESA would balance power?"
I sincerely hope so. Bi-polarisation is bad, everyone who read 1984 knows that you need at least three superpowers to keep the world balanced 😉.

"How do you think PEACE and ATLANTIS will react if a small ESA begins to form?"
I honestly think many people in both PEACE and ATLANTIS countries do realise that a third powerbloc could spice things up in the world, and it would be a refreshing change to the current polarisation of international conflict. Some people state that if ESA would start to emerge as a new alliance on par with PEACE/ATLANTIS, the two latter would team up to eradicate the ESA while it is young. I doubt that is going to happen, given the current heated rivalry between PEACE and ATLANTIS.

"Do you think it is possible for countries like Germany and Belgium to remain neutral during this world war?"
The real question is, do we want to remain neutral? War is good, war keeps the economy going, without war, what is the point of playing? I think countries like Germany and Belgium should get involved in this war, not by taking a side with either PEACE or ATLANTIS, but by carving out it's own space in Europe, and fighting for it's own goals and independence. We should not be slaves and cannonfodder to almighty PEACE and ATLANTIS, let them fear us for what we can achieve.

"Is it true that you are considering a union with the Netherlands? What benefits made you consider creating a union or ESA? Were you in any way inspired by the German-Austrian Union? Were you reacting to the threat of invasion?"
It is very much true. A union with the Netherlands would safeguard us much better against political take-over's, it would strengthen our economy, military and political systems, and most importantly, we all speak the same language. We are one people, so it is only logical to live in one country, have one flag, and live under the same institutions. Without the German-Austrian union taking place, we would most likely never have acted upon the idea though. There has been talk about a Belgian-Dutch union for ages, but it was never deemed realistically possible, until Austria and Germany showed us how to do it.

"If a Belgium-Netherlands union occurs and is strongly supported by your people, would you be interested in a union of that union with Germany-Austria?"
Yes! I fully endorse a union between Austria, Belgium, Germany and The Netherlands, under the German banner. At this moment in time, it could very well mean the beginning of a new era in Europe, and The New World as artificial alliances like PEACE and ATLANTIS start losing their meaning and significance, whilst unions based on language, cultural and geographic simularities start taking more realistic forms.

"If the people reject the idea of a union, or even a small vocal minority rejects it. Would that end all talks on the matter?"
Certainly not. If a union is in the best interest of the people, even if they do not realise it right away, the leaders should enforce it in the best intrest of the citizens. In my opinion, democracy has the tendency to listen to the people with the loudest voice. Unfortunately, the ones with the loudest voice, are generally not the people with full understanding of all advantages or disadvantages of a decision. It is better to leave important choices up to the people that are fully aware of what they are doing, instead of letting hundreds of people with no knowledge on the particular subject decide on what course of action to take.

"What do you believe the likely response from the Belgian people will be?"
The Belgian people slowly starts realising there is something fundamentally wrong with the direction this country is taking. More and more people start to realise we cannot keep on going like this forever, and now is the time to take our destinty in our own hands and decide what to do with our lives, before someone else steps in and decide in our place.

"You mentioned an ESA forum, may I have a link?"
Certainly: http://esa.phpbbhosts.co.uk/index.php?sid=ed22165c866ef455399ec7a00197ed6a

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Thank you for reading all that, and I hope you are much better informed about the ESA and possible unions in Europe. And I really hope that you see that we do have options.

-Elisa Vorimberg

I would also like to give a special thanks to Habraka Abrivianius for taking time out of his(her?) day to fully answer all my questions. You have done Germany and Belgium a great service.