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This is a continuation of a series of articles detailing the political history of eAustria, with this entry beginning in May 2010. This article details the second part of what we are calling the “Croatia War Era” - a time where Austria fought for both military, and political, survival.

Previous entries:
The One Party Era (April 2009 - August 2009)
The Competitive Era Part I (September 2009 - November 2010)
The Competitive Era Part II (December 2009 - February 2010)
The Croatian War Era Part I (February 2010 - April 2010)



The Croatian War Era (February 2010 - May 2010)

Presidents: Borojevic von Bonjar - Oraizan - Hedera - bobbySAURON - stoneman - Rangeley
Defining political battles: Austrian Parties vs PTO Parties
Defining Issue: Croatian War and PTO
Defining traits: Powerful cabinet.

The Break-in

Unbeknownst to most players in Austria, a secret IRC chat room room existed with the descriptive title “#TOaustria.” From here, much coordination occurred for elections as well as congress laws, with the overall goal being spelled out in its name: to PTO Austria. Though some details of how it happened remain secret or unknown to this day, there would be a successful infiltration into this group by a dedicated citizen of Austria - Penegrin.

While most of the KU was supportive of Djani Ujkan Marich, Penegrin was one of the few who were suspicious of Djani from the start. Confronting him after the deletion of votes in the April election, he was more sure than ever. He made it a goal to find incriminating evidence - and on May 1st 2010, that led him, undercover, into “#TOaustria”, where notable members of the PTO were residing - along with Djani. Logs were quickly provided to other players in Austria, and spread through IRC, implicating Djani with the most concrete evidence yet.

As these began to circulate, word would get back to Djani that he had been found out, prompting a furious reaction. The PTO organizers went into rapid damage control mode: it could be claimed, they said, that Djani was only invited there as a negotiation, he was not really involved with them, and that he was banned from the chat due to an inability to come to an agreement.

This cover story, however, would have one key flaw: they were still being watched. A log of this entire conversation was made public too, meaning not only was Djani implicated in the first log, but his furious reaction and damage control after the first leak was revealed as well. Fearing the presidential race was lost, he would vow to steal as much as he could. Logs were widely distributed, and the word got out, notably through Metallon and PrinceOfAustria.



New Unity Candidate

There was now to be zero doubt - all concerns about Djani had been proven. The ASO, KU, and CPA all revoked their endorsement of Djani, and joined the ÖIP and AA in endorsing Rangeley for president. With no need for Gaganic to play the “bad cop” to Djani’s “good cop,” Gaganic and the “Free Austria” party would endorse Djani, who had the backing of his own Pro Patria Osterreich party. Djani would drop his public guise, admitting he was in the PTO.

The race would see the most votes cast in any presidential race, before or since, as both candidates topped 100 votes. Yet at no time in this race would Djani be able to take the lead - Rangeley, with the backing of the ÖIP, AA, KU, ASO, and CPA would be elected with 55.63% of the vote to Djani’s 40.07%.



Cabinet

With a wide variety of parties backing the new government, the cabinet was expanded to its biggest size yet, with the hope of bringing even more voices to the discussion table and solidifying the unity coalition. While universal agreement would be impossible in this larger cabinet, a seat at the table could bring greater understanding about why decisions were made. Less a consensus driven “war cabinet” than previous months due to its larger size, more a “team of rivals,” discussions would be heated throughout the month on a variety of issues, particularly with what were perceived as esoteric decisions by the new president.



South Korea

After the whirlwind of a few days which saw a presidential PTO foiled and the unity candidate successful, it still remained a fact that Austria’s congress was controlled by the PTO, which remained a sizable threat. President Rangeley felt this problem would likely be around for a while, and it was important for morale that Austria be involved in issues besides just fighting the PTO, which would be a long term struggle. He saw an opportunity when Japan - a nation in EDEN’s sphere - launched an invasion of South Korea, a neutral nation. With both being small nations, here was an area where Austria could make an impact on the battlefield.

Vowing support for South Korea, Austria deployed some of its best fighters, including Minister of Foreign Affairs Eisenhorn and Minister of Defense Prince of Austria, on May 6th 2010. Eisenhorn in particular would receive a battle hero medal for his heavy fighting.

The move, however, was, highly criticized by the CPA, and other nationalist elements - who felt South Korea wouldn’t be able to help Austria. One of the biggest critics was CPA president Kaiser Alex - then Minister of Justice - who took to the media, even before the decision was officially announced, to criticize the plan and voice support for Japan. This move would severely strain ties between him and President Rangeley, who nonetheless kept him in the cabinet.

Generally, however, it was a well received military deployment, as for the first time in a long while, Austria was in the position to give real help and not simply require it from others. After early gains by Japan, South Korea would reclaim the advantage and their lost regions, ending the war in a matter of weeks.



Battle for Congress

For all intents and purposes, the PTO had already emptied the treasury by the start of May - but they had an idea to make a bigger profit still. By donating gold back into the treasury, they could issue it as currency, withdraw it, then use this currency to buy gold in the monetary market, increasing their gains further - and then repeat this over and over.

This plan was begun on May 9th, with all of the stolen money from Austria being returned to the treasury. The issue currency law would proceed and head towards passage, as expected. But here, the PTO’s plan would hit an unexpected snag.

The government realized that the PTO had left open an opportunity, based on fortunate timing: a donation law was already in progress, which would not expire until 3 minutes after the issue currency law passed. This left a 3 minute gap where the newly issued money was sitting in the treasury, but unable to be donated yet (until the previous donation law ended.) By proposing to purchase a defense system (an old feature where you could upgrade the defenses of individual regions) for exactly the amount of currency in the treasury during the gap, this money could be placed into a sort of limbo: the law would not pass because the PTO still held a majority, but the money could not be donated for these 24 hours as it was already being held for this law.

Likewise, gold had already been deposited by the PTO for the next round of issuing currency. To tie up this gold, a peace proposal was made in which Austria offered this amount of gold. This forced the PTO into donating only smaller amounts of foreign currency. Meanwhile, around 550 in gold (and equivalent currency) was now tied up in the treasury, with coordinated actions from the President and loyal congress members.

PTO Reacts

The PTO was not happy to see this development. They issued threats that unless the money was allowed to be stolen again, taxes would be raised to maximum levels in order to damage the country. If the government allowed it to be stolen, the PTOers promised to leave, saying this choice was in “Austria’s hands.” The offer was flatly rejected by President Rangeley, as well as the premise: how they chose to behave was in their hands, not Austria’s. The parliamentary techniques continued. As the PTO followed through with their tax proposals, Minister of Finance Fragreg led the governmental effort to help any citizen who needed help dealing with the higher taxes, while the Ministry of Labor under Penegrin continued to provide government aid in the job market.

Their threat having failed to change the situation, the PTO implemented a new strategy with parliamentarian tricks of their own, on May 13th. Defense systems could, at most, be purchased for 99,999 currency. If there was more currency than 99,999 in the treasury, it could no longer be placed into limbo by a law, and would be available to be donated out. Thus even more gold was sent into the treasury by the PTO in hopes that they could flood the treasury and proceed as before; by now roughly 1,200 in total had been sent.

With roughly 170,000 ATS now in the treasury, the Austrian government implemented a new tact as well: coordinating with Slovenia on May 14th, several regions were retreated to them (at this point in time, a percentage of the treasury was lost to a conqueror). This enabled about 130,000 currency (equivalent to 650 gold) to be removed from the treasury and placed into friendly Slovenian hands. Slovenia was given enough to cover the cost of the battles and more, while 80,000 of this currency was returned to the official Austrian Bank. The rest of the gold and currency remained in parliamentary limbo.



Military

The original cause for the war, Croatia’s desire to pass through Austria, had not gone away. On May 20th, Poland and Croatia would launch a renewed attempt both to gain passage, and wipe Austria in the process for the May 25th congressional election. During this time in eHistory, being wiped during a congressional election would mean automatic citizenship: anyone who applied would be granted it. It would seem that the stakes were continually escalating - a wipe would be devastating and place the country’s future into totally uncertain hands.

Yet with close cooperation with Slovenia, Germany, and Hungary, Poland and Croatia would be once again blocked, unable to advance. Timely RW’s secured Austria from a wipe, as by a margin of minutes a region returned to the map before the formerly last region fell. Austria would even be able to help Germany and Slovenia conduct some swaps of their own, enabling Germany to rent key regions to Slovenia - which in turn would help solidify their strategic position for the coming months, changing the dynamics of the region.



Congress Retaken

After the failed military push, the PTO would be dealt more setbacks. Prior to the May 25th congressional election, several PTO congress members were banned, reducing their numbers into a minority position, and ending their ability to donate even foreign currencies. Others would jump ship at this time, including Djani: only a few players even ran from their parties for the congress race. After a tumultuous month, legitimate Austrian parties regained control of congress, with the KU, ASO, ÖIP, AA, and CPA forming the new top 5, where they would remain for months to come.

Although information on the exact exchange rates can only be estimated, when all was said and done, of the ~1,200 gold placed into the treasury by the PTO, they would only withdraw back about 50. While some would be lost in battles, others given to Slovenia, in total roughly ~800 was secured by Austria, about 400 more than was actually stolen from the nation in April. In all attempts, Croatia would fail to pass through Austria.

This time in Austria’s history saw the trend of increased representation by real life Austrians greatly continue - Schwrzwolf, Luis Grindl, Harzakc, LarsUlrich87, spachti, Havok Fault, and wolfwien would be a few of many to start their time here in a time of great conflict, joining what had already been growing numbers.

After a month of infiltration, parliamentary tricks, and strategic maneuvers, the central challenges that defined the Croatian War Era had come to an end. Austria was ready to move on from the unity coalitions, back into a more competitive political environment - though one that looked very different than the one before the war, as a new political alliance aimed to the reigns.



Next: The Alliance Era