Bloc Patriots in Control?
First Minister Footguns
Written by upc
Edited by Kuramia, Maowi
First Minister Footguns
Written by upc
Edited by Kuramia, Maowi
The Communist Bloc (TCB), already reeling from weeks of unsuccessful attempts to regain control of Solidarity from Defender & Independent forces, faced another major blow to their foreign presence this week. A series of leaks, taken from a Cabinet level channel in TCB's Discord server on October 4th, show Air Marshal, Speaker, and First Minister candidate Mlakhavia outlining a plan to withhold People's Revolutionary Air Force (PRAF) pilers from operations led by The Black Hawks (TBH) and Lone Wolves United (LWU) if both regions refused to terminate their relations with Carcassonne and Community due to their participation in the Solidarity counterinvasion. TBH closed their embassies with both Carcassonne and Community on October 12th, though a senior official from the region has stated that the embassy closures were unrelated to any coercion from TCB. As of the time of writing, LWU has retained their embassy with Community.
These messages were originally leaked by New Astri, who was running against Mlakhavia for First Minister, in an attempt to paint her in a negative light ahead of the election. New Astri shared the Cabinet logs in a public NationStates channel in TCB's Discord server, and from here Quebecshire of The League & Concord posted them to the gameplay forum. New Astri has since withdrawn from the race, leaving Mlakhavia as the sole First Minister candidate.
Unsurprisingly, the response to these leaks in gameplay was largely split across ideological lines. Pauline Bonaparte, Minister-President of Carcassonne, commented that "Carcassonne is confident that the relationships [they] have formed with [their] allies are resistant to the pressures of foreign powers, real or imagined." Members of TCB and their allies did not seem particularly concerned with the leaks. Wascoitan, a resident of TCB and Osiris, said that "the 'leaking' was done with the permission of sleet and the first minister and iota would not have done so without such permission." Further leaks from TCB, again shared by Quebecshire, indicate that while this was technically true, neither Mlakhavia nor UFROE, the current First Minister, were aware of the contents of the messages that Iota intended to leak. Mlakhavia herself also took to the gameplay forum in her own defense, saying "God forbid I make a subpar suggestion, phrased worse, while drunk, and abide by the conclusions the CoM arrive at."
Mlakhavia is no stranger to major foreign affairs incidents. Only two months ago, she was forced to publicly apologize for ordering PRAF pilers into Greater Sahara following a request from the Brotherhood of Malice (BoM), despite the region not meeting the PRAF's targeting criteria. With Iota's withdrawal from the race for First Minister, Mlakhavia's ascension to the position is now certain. What is less certain is whether or not Mlakhavia is able to effectively guide the Bloc through these troubled times.
