New European UnionPlayer: NotAllah Communist Christian (as Mikajla Gordon)
Title: 3rd Grand Chancellor of the NEU
Advisors: Kickdok
New European Union Backstory, Written by and full credits to NotAllah Communist Christian:RADIANT DAWN OVER EUROPE[THE FIRST UNION 1957-2030]The years leading up to the collapse of the First Union were in a word complicated. Marked both by ever greater unity and disunity the former European Economic Community was by 2026 more powerful than it had ever been and, as the 3rd World War would show, nearing its greatest crises. In the years following Brexit despite the yearnings of many nationalists the EU did not collapse “under its own weight”, despite an ever growing number of issues caused by themselves of course. The economic allure of a united Europe was simply too great a prize for all but the maddest government to give up, so the nationalist leaders that managed to get into power pushed and prodded but never truly committed to a breakaway.
Until 2025 anyway.
Following the discovery that Earths oil and gas resources were nearing depletion far faster than any previous and resulting economic crash that followed the European Parliament proposed unprecedented economic cooperation across the continent called the “New Europe Economic Community, harkening back to the organizations roots. A program of total economic conversion to completely change the world as was at the time into a bright renewable future. Say what you will about its feasibility to it was not to be, the nationalists stonewalled it.
The economy continued to plummet and the public pressures from all sides of politics continued to mount, many politicians that were slowly fading into silence flared back into the public view preaching a thousand ideologies all calling for one way or another the destruction of the “Other”. That the “Other” seemed to encompass all life on Earth, real or otherwise, didn't seem to bother them or that their words worsened the situation they were proposing the “obvious” solutions to didn`t either.
Sadly it was far far to late by this point, the global economy tanked and nosedived before smashing though the floor as China intervened in the India-Pakistan Conflict. Along with every other major world power. For a few short weeks the world powers kept up the pretense of working together to “maintain peace in the region”, then someone fired the first shot between the “Peacekeepers”.
No one knows who fired first and likely it will never be known for the ensuing maelstrom consumed all three nations involved whole along with thousands upon thousands of troops from the various nations that participated in the “peacekeeping” effort. The shattered remnants of the formations that managed to pull out had a thousand and one stories about who fired first and why of course, but that’s a matter of scholarly curiosity. What followed is not.
Following the disastrous “Battle of the Sub Continent” and worsening economic situation a wave of unrest swept the world. The EU was not spared, in a month half a dozen nations began threatening to “pull a Brexit” including Red Jacks UK as riots and mini revolutions flared to life. Had the stock exchange not crashed in November it is doubtless the EU would have prevailed over these challenges, alas it was not to be.
The nations that had threatened to leave did, and the riots and mini revolts turned into full blown uprisings. For the first time in more than half a revolutionary and fascistic flags flew over buildings around Europe. Again perhaps this situation could have been salvaged but as always the Balkans came to the “rescue”.
Again it is unknown who fired first or why, a thousand conspiracy theories exist but in all like hood it was simply a matter of two patrols with itchy trigger fingers meeting each other at the worst possible moment. The popular post war Serbian movie depicts the moment as the accidental discharge of a firearm leading to a gun fight between two units on a disputed Danube island leading to an ever escalating series of confrontations and exchanges, though likely purely fiction despite the directors assertions.
Whatever the case, rather than a peaceful separation an absurd series of dominos fell that resulted in the first full scale divisions began crossing the borders of Secessionist nations.
By the time the nukes fell the EU existed only on paper, though to be fair that could also be said about its component nation stats.
And then the nukes fell and the situation got even worse.
[European Coalition 2026-2030]Ravaged by war and nuclear fallout the remaining “loyalist” nations essentially merged their militaries into one purely under the, nominal, authority of the European Parliament and the new position of the Grand Chancellor. This “European Coalition” would proceed to “reestablish peace” in the nations that had tried to leave, by now they simply no longer existed, though by that point the peace of the grave had mostly taken over.
In fact despite the great pride the European officer and enlisted classes takes in the “glory days” of WW3, where the EC forces swept through a devastated Europe bringing hope to all and smiting evil doers, by this point most of the “heavy” fighting in Europe was done. The combined remnants of a continents military were essentially mopping up scattered nationalist hold outs and enforcing martial law.
Only near the end of the War did the forces of the EC see the horror of the final “modern” war fought with oil when the Russians invaded all across their European borders. The desperate fighting amid collapsing supply lines had little resemblance to the “clean” plans of the prewar years. When the EC intervened on the side of Turkije and the various Caucasus powers opposing them the conflict grew even bloodier, as often as not both sides would take to robing the populace of what little they had left as over stretched supply lines shattered into nothing. Armies of trained soldiers turning into uniformed, if that, bandits, the war devolving from a conflict between nations to a simple struggle for survival.
Eventually both sides simply gave up the fight, the EC unable to keep committing such vast, for the time, resources to a seemingly unwinnable fight and maintaining morale on the home front.
With oil reserves plummeting and number of refuges growing by the day the EC had time for one final operation. No one likes to talk about the intervention into Israel Palestine, the horrors of the Samson Option or short lived hyper nationalist Junta and Final Jihad. The only thing the NEU likes mentioning is the platform for humanitarian efforts it gives them. Lets leave it at that.
[New European Union/Eurasian Union]Following the end of the war the remaining national leaders convened one final time in Rome, the Second Treaty of Rome 2030 established the new Eurasian Union. For the first time in its history Europe was the sole province of a single nation state. After all, it was hardly like the shell shocked surviving population wanted anything to do with the horrors of war ever again, and in their minds for good or ill that was what “sovereign” nation states lead to.
FINAL DAYS OF THE FIRST UNIONDespite the popular opinion and historical view the the NEU is simply a continuation of the old First Union this is sadly not the case. By 2026 the great dream of peacefully united Europe were dead and the organization that had shepherded as well. Even strained internally by various nations power plays and the growing nationalist back lash the First Union had held on far far longer than its many detractors had said it would, but WW3 proved a crucible many nations simply were not equipped to handle, chief among them the ones of Europe.
Used a standard of living unimaginable in ages past the citizens of the so called "First World" proved inadept in handling the sudden total collapse of the system they had know all their lives. Politicians as was in their nature took advantage of the growing panic in the days leading up the Third World War, nations that had enjoyed EU membership for decades if not generations suddenly finding themselves torn over the EUs "mishandling" of the crisis. That their ideas of "handling" this crises could be surmised as nothing short of robbery on a national scale seemed lost on their supporters, more worried about the suddenly real prospect of starving to death as food supply chains collapsed.
The EUs death warrant was signed before the first nation broke away after Red November as Romania announced a complete halt to the export of oil and the US "quietly" began preparations to end NATO. This final shock to the in all truth already dying European economy signaled the end in the decent into madness. It would be impossible to summarize the sheer all consuming panic and rioting that followed so I shan't bother. The only saving grace of the conflicts of everything from oil to food and water was that the majority of the combatant nations were to busy trying to maintaining martial law to truly put their all into fighting each other, sparing the continent the true horrors of war till the Russians launched their offensive.
COALITION OF EUROPEAN NATIONSFollowing the 2nd Battle of Paris and the withdrawal of US troops from Europe the situation of various EU "loyalist" militaries could be surmised as highly sub optimal, pressured on all sides by rioters, secessionist "rogue" nation states and Russian political pressure on Eastern Europe and the complete collapse of the global economy the various national militaries were lossing ground. Most of all what was costing the "loyalists" ground was their own lack of Unity, united only on paper in reality the various nations were only barely more coapprative with each other than their enemies were, it seemed that Europe was destined to go the way of Asia or Africa a multide of warlords or rump nation states fit only to be playground for greater powers.
Desmond Russo only Grand Chancellor of the European Union and Honorary First Grand Chancellor of the New Eurasian Union proved up to saving it. The half Irish half Sicilian former general proved up the task of "convincing" the various national leaders to relinquish ever greater power to the European Parliament and thought them the Office of the Grand Chancellor. Culminating in the official dissolution of all national millaties and their unification into a single European one.
By this point however the First Union was well and truly gone, most of the national leaders that Russo had to "convince" were hardly what the Pre-War world would consider democratic as elections were postponed, interrupted by civil war or outright impossible as nations outright began to collapse under the strain of having to shift their economies so radically in so little time during such a chaotic era. The power and wealth of Europe's nations built on the exploitation of resources that longer existed or nations that could not be efficiently reached was nearly gone by the time the EU was officially declared defunct and the emergency provisional "Coalition of Sovereign European Nations" was declare, now known popularly as the European Coalition.
A SHARP BRUSH WITH AUTHORITANISMCalling the European Coalition democratic would be a lie, honestly calling a nation state would't be strictly true, but for the seemingly endless years of 3rd World War it was all the battered peoples of Europe had. The promise of a better tommrov when today is so dark is a powerful and addictive drug. Had Russo survived the War it was likely he never would have given up the power he'd swiped despite many EC lovers screamed shouts otherwise. In the end it was sheer dumb luck that averted this, Desmond tripped on the stairs and broke his neck in the fall.
Of course history books proclaim it a tragedy and make no mention of any implied potential for dictatorship which is perhaps for the best. Considering the Russian invasion followed mere days later it is little surprise that the conspiracies that the Russians were responsible are legion, but so far all proof points to a very unlucky accident.
AND A SHAKY CLINGING TO DEMOCRACYFollowing Russos death and the sudden windfall of political control given to the heavily battered European Parliament, meant more to rubberstamp Russos agenda, during the opening days of the Russian offensives and the first major nuclear exchanges it is a shock that the EC survived at all in all honesty. Shaken heavily the EC Parliament composed of freshly elected representatives from all over Europe suddenly found themselves the masters of their own fate and that of their Nation during the first major European conflict in generations.
Somehow it remained as popular even during the war, the current Third and previous Second Grand Chancellors were both part of the so called "War Parliament", rather shocking as it oversaw the absolute nightmare of the East European and Caucasus Fronts. The drug of hope proving mighty indeed, that and the image of Europe being lead by a Parliament even as other nations gave way to single leaders was a potent one.
THE END AND THE AFTERMATHFollowing the cessation of hostilities with Putin's Russia the EC found itself in a bizarre position, desperate wartime programs had left the seeds of industry that would begin to rebuild the shattered European economy. Combined with the shocking popularity of the EC armed forces, whose relentless protection of civilian shelters and food production facilities saved tens of millions of lives it shocking that unlike so many others the EC Parliament gave up its powers in 2037 in conjunction with the discovery Trans Newtonian Minerals.
In the 2038 Unity Referendum the vote against breaking up the EC into nation states was shockingly overwhelming, many former national leaders finding themselves out of a job as their former citizenry all but threatened to riot if the new European Flag was lowered, Europe didn`t want the nations that had fairly or not been blamed for the horrors' of the 3rd World War, it wanted the one nation that had saved them from it. Later that year the Constitutional Convention for the Second Union of Europe would open, by the end of the year the first elections were over the Second Parliament and Grand Chancellor were inaugurated along with the Federation of Nations.
For now Europe is and will remain a democracy.
POLITICS OF THE NEU
DURING AND BEFORE THE FIRESTORMThe NEU is in everyway a continued expression of hopes for peace and prosperity of the old EU, during the war the lives of civilans were prioritized over everything. (FOOD AND SHELTER FOCUS) During the battles with Russia entire operations were launched whose sole objective was to secure food supplies and building materials for civilian shelters, both for refuge columns on the front and back deeper in EC territory, and themselves in the finals days of the War. In fact the greatest strategic challenge the EC was in fact refuges, forced away by other nations and warlords titanic columns of humanity gravited towards Europe. Caught in a death struggle to the east the EC didn`t really have choice but to let them in, the milltary was needed where it was and that wasnt guarding against "invasions" of desperate civilians. After the War, and during it really, the EC would claim this policy was one of humanitarian ideals but had the EC not managed to secure so many farms and shelters it was likely EC weapons would have been turned on these desperate souls like so many others leaving the nation much much weaker for it.
(Open Borders)AFTER THE FIRESTORMFollowing the end of the War the EC and then NEU Parliaments were faced with a horrific economic situation, their resources scoured by nuclear war and then strained beyond capacity by the human waves displaced by war it is a shock that Europe didn`t experience a second tidal wave of unrest. Perhaps the desire for more conflict was simply burned out, suffocated by the day to day drudgery of this new world and its struggle for survival. Whatever the case in the days following the founding of the NEU, FoN and discovery of TNMs saw a titanic economic revitalization effort as one thing Europe would now likely never lack in comparison to its rivals was sheer manpower. Priorizing industrial output over all else the remaining conventional heavy industry was turned en masse towards the creation of a new economy, a TNM economy. Factory after factory built and new model construction and farming tools churned out in mind numbing quantity as the remaining research establishment was turned to refining the primitive first generation TN tools into something better.
(Construction Factory Focus, Industrial Technology Focus)The rise of socialism after the catastrophic failure of the pre war economic model was not hard to predict, what was how it manifested in Europe. Rather than great workers revolutions toppling corrupt authority and establishing Utopia it was more that the NEU would begin an economic policy that could be best surmised as "Democracy at the Ballot, Democracy at Work". What resulted from a hundred and one economic initiatives during and after the war is a mixture of public and private that while it would undoubtedly have caused a pre War American citizen to scream commie was not as simple as that. The economy wasn`t the preview of the government but neither did vast multinational corporations dominate as they had before, rare was the product that had no goverment intervention but rare was the one that had no private participation.
(Mixed Economy)3rd Chancellor of the NEUFollowing the near brush with authoritarianism that was Russo the founders of the NEU were quite worried for the possiblity of a strong charismatic figure rallying support during a crisis. One of the results was the strict single five year term limit possible for a Grand Chancellor, to many issues had cropped up with democratic leaders running for reelection while also running their nation. Thus despite the popularity of the 2nd Grand Chancellor which in any other system would have lead to sweeping electoral victory and a second term the 2041 election was a fierce contest that they were free to all but ignore as they guided the NEU.
Emerging from the pit of mud slinging that was the nations first real election during peacetime Mikajla Gordon finds herself as her nations second leader, the older woman retiring from a fruitful carrier managing construction projects into one last hurrah before her sixties hit. The childless widow in her fiftees having proven more appealing than the raft of former generals, politicians and other assorted contenders due to the simple reason no one could ever disagree with what she said or make any attack that didn`t end with them looking worse for having harrased "Europes Grandma". Firmly pragmatic she avoided swearing herself to any party till the last days of her election with her victory all but assured, and even then not swearing to a single one but rather a coalition of parties know as the "Better Morning Coalition"
Blessed with a relatively peaceful first year in office The Grandma, as she ended up nicknamed for her propensity to mother her staff, though never called that to her face has proven the steady hand calmly leading everyone out of the dark days that all hoped she would be. Now she is faced with the real challanges as space and its promise of resources needed to keep the new economy going beckon along with the minefield that are other nations.