Editorial: the NNS is losing its ground

Yesterday’s agreement between the Northern left-wing parties to form a single, united socialist bloc came as a shock to many in the Capital. Indeed, while the leaders of the Left Alliance and Bakinn had been planning a merger for quite some time now, it was only yesterday evening, when the decision was finally taken, that the NNS and the government’s officials were told about it. Even the Left Alliance’s “ambassador” in Alios, former party leader and Enkâkourak Léon Galieri, claims the merger was news to him.

It appears the Guild’s folk did not appreciate the secrecy. No prominent NNS official has made any comments, and according to Galieri, there has been no communication between the NNS and the Left Alliance’s leadership since yesterday. Not a congratulatory message, not even a passive-agressive monosyllabic response. Has joy left the NNS speechless, or is there something else going on behind scenes?

The Left and the Guild are still part of the same “coalition”, though the extent to which the Treaty of Kotavari‘s Valtirian National Party (VDM) is a coalition are unknown even to most NNS or AR members. The two parties (three, at the time of the treaty’s creation) vow to represent each other in their respective areas, but there is no further specification what “representation” means to the VDM. And maybe, this was on purpose.

The main drive behind the creation of the treaty of Kotavari was to “unite” the Sabioveronese left into a strong alliance of like-minded parties (which appears to be a common trend in Valtirian politics). However, it’s possible that more than an ideological commitment, Shounn Virny’s decision to make a deal with the Northern leftists was to keep them close.

The National Artists’ Guild was founded by Left Alliance and Bakinn members, but why? Ideologically, the NNS follows the same platform as the two older parties. One could argue the NNS was created to convey a stronger image of political uniformity in the face of a large transition. Haronos hit hard on Sabioveronese politics and the heavyweights of the left needed to put on their big boy pants in order to stop Unity from taking over. And they did.

The North, however, was a different story.

Alios and the Parliament hold no real power over the Northern regions, everyone knows this. Bertrand Rivière and Ulla Müller knew this on August 17, 2015 as they drafted the new Constitution of the Kingdom. “Autonomous regions”, they are called; something close to the biggest political understatment in Sabia and Verona’s history. The entire Congress of Salisse was well aware of the consequences of Haronos in the geopolitical dynamics of the Kingdom, but everyone went along with it because there was no alternative. There was no plan B. It had to be done.

The NNS was born out of that frustration, that general feeling of not being able to control everything as the left once could, in the glorious days of Napoléon Bleuberrie and the mythical Sahoedang, in the peaceful days of Stefanovic and Galieri. There was no way the left would allow another Rivière to take over. The National Artists’ Guild was born out of fear and a primal instinct of survival.

But the fear is starting to fade.

Unity has become a liberal party by all practical means, with the promises of same-sex adoption and reduction of military spending of Andrew Blackhorse and his entourage of heirs-presumptive; Qian An and Franxêska Bagos. The Sabioveronese right has been tamed centrist, and there are no more Hans Starlynns and Righteous Faith Leagues to haunt the Guilders at night or in the Parliament House. The ideologies of the Kingdom are being polarized into the minimalist utopia of “reds” and “blues” of 2012 Sabia and Verona. And the Valtirian people miss that. They are tired of coalitions and parties and political colors. They dream of a simple society, for they are simple folk.

There is no room for a National Artists’ Guild in those dreams.

But there is a room for a Left Alliance and a Unity Party. There is a room for their straightforward messages and their evidently contrasting colors and their red and blue flags. Where does pink stand in that? The answer is simple: it doesn’t. And the Guilders know that very well. The NNS is losing its ground. Their boogieman, their biggest fears, no longer come in the shape of a far-right, Sirocco-loving lunatic in Caenia. The personification of the Guild’s worst nightmare now has a clear color: red. Its name is Left Alliance, and the 4 thousand miles separating them are getting shorter by the day.

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