Chapter 663: Paul's Merger (Part II)
The Bulgarian government's attack on the opposition caused an uproar in the country, but because the newspapers and radio stations were strictly controlled by the government, the turmoil was overwhelmingly in favor of the government in the country.
A number of newspapers have published comments criticizing the opposition's plot to carry out an armed insurrection. The most fierce critics have all spoken out against the merger before, and it seems that their attitude has changed quite quickly.
As for the truth of the matter, it doesn't matter, because the government gets the results it wants.
As for the people's attitude towards the opposition parties in the past, there has been a great change, and if they had understood it before, they are now disgusted with it. Because the Bulgarian economy is good at the moment, everyone wants to live a stable life. No one wants to go back to the way they were, and it makes sense that the opposition would be abandoned by it.
Unlike domestic voices, which are one-sided, foreign voices are also one-sided. However, on the contrary, the foreign media are basically critical of Bulgaria's efforts to wipe out the opposition parties.
They say this is a step backwards for Bulgarian democracy, a reversal of history. Ferakov, who led the capture, was the executioner, and Krstev, the main messenger behind it, was a political snake who was destroying the political fabric of Bulgaria.
But can the voice of foreign public opinion influence Bulgaria?
Yes and no. It can affect because how many people will believe the truth abroad, because they think they have the truth. No, that's because these people are in the minority and simply cannot exert influence on the situation in Bulgaria.
So the voices of the foreign media are irrelevant to Bulgaria.
Compared to the many waves in Bulgaria, Romania is much better. The attitude of the Romanian people towards the merger of the two countries is much more open. For them, because of the strength of the Romanian state, it was more appropriate to annex it than to annex it.
However, despite the optimism of the public about the merger of the two countries, the government still does not dare to relax.
Prime Minister Mihalakai immediately arranged for various officials to strictly control Romanian public opinion and steer it in a direction conducive to merger.
Public opinion, which is monitored by the government, is also one-sidedly singing the praises of the merger, with the Romanian daily newspaper, the largest newspaper in Romania, commenting on the merger.
The merger of Romania with Bulgaria would be beneficial to both countries. Among them, Bulgaria was able to reap the dividends of Romania's development, and was able to use its position in the kingdom after the merger to provide centripetal force for the Bulgarian community in Macedonia and Thrace, which was conducive to its prospect of Greater Bulgaria.
As for Romania, it can also reap the benefits, first of all, by expanding its strategic depth. It is well known that most of Romanian territory is plain, especially when facing the Soviet Union to the east, and the terrain is dominated by plains. Romania, lacking strategic depth turnover, simply cannot tolerate any mistakes, which is very unfavorable to the Romanian division. And now that the Bulgarian mountains have been acquired, Romania has more room for manoeuvre when dealing with the Soviet threat.
In addition, Bulgaria is located at the crossroads of the Balkan Peninsula. Romania holds this crossroads and will be more comfortable with influencing in the Balkans.
And after the merger of the two countries, Romania will be one step away from the Mediterranean. In the future we have reason to believe that Romanian warships will receive their own ports in the Mediterranean. I am optimistic that Romania will extend its influence deep into the Mediterranean.
This report caused an uproar in Romania. This is not so much a concern about the undisguised and naked ambitions for the Mediterranean, but a cheer for Romania finally wanting to set its sights on the Mediterranean.
As Romania's national power gradually approached that of France, the country has long hoped that Romania would show its strength in the world. However, due to Romania's position, they have always had high expectations for hedging out of the Black Sea.
After Eder ascended to the Bulgarian throne, many people in the country began to think about the Black Sea straits. They believed that as long as the time came, there would be no problem at all with the capture of Istanbul by Bulgaria.
However, contrary to popular optimism, the Romanian government has not had an accurate positioning for Istanbul.
To say that Romania doesn't want it, yes, I want to dream of it. But the position is not so easy to take. Not to mention the attitude of Britain, France and other countries, the strength of Turkey alone makes Romania hesitate. Don't look at Turkey's domestic economy is much lower than Romania's, but its population of more than 20 million is a big problem. Moreover, Turkey is mostly mountainous, and it is easy to form a war of attrition when fighting Turkey, and it is not worth Romania to do this for the sake of an Istanbul.
This topic has been taken away from the past, and now as the time approaches, the attitude towards merger within the two countries is becoming more and more distinct. In terms of public opinion, there is a beautiful imagination of the future after the merger.
When the final vote was held, in addition to the two governments, Eder, as the co-monarch, stood up and personally called for the people to vote on the merger.
Eder's appeal was immediate, and the people of both countries had a deep respect for the wise monarch, and of course Bulgaria could be a little worse, but in Romania, Eder's words definitely worked.
So in the end, a whopping 87.4 per cent in Romania were in favour of merger, while in Bulgaria 67.9 per cent were in favour of merger. After the results of the votes of the two countries were announced, they attracted even more cheers.
The combined kingdom will also be corrected to the United Kingdom of Bulgaria and Romania, abbreviated as the Kingdom of Paul. The two governments will also be merged into a single government, with Mihalakhai remaining the prime minister and Bulgarian Prime Minister Kerstev in the newly created post of deputy prime minister. Don't think that this position is a disadvantage to Kerstoff, his power is not much lower than that of the Prime Minister.
In addition to the government, the parliament will also be merged, and in order to equalize the seats of the parliament with the people, Bulgaria has previously begun to reduce the number of parliamentarians, and now with the merger of the two countries, 35 Bulgarian parliamentarians will form a new parliament with 158 Romanian parliamentarians.
On the military side, it's even simpler. Bulgaria's current army, which is less than 30,000, will be directly reorganized into six divisions, together with the armed police. Its equipment and number were on par with other divisions.
In addition, in order to cope with the fact that the Bulgarian army was too involved in politics, the merged military reorganized it. If you want to participate in politics, you must take off your military uniform, and if you don't want to take off your military uniform, you must quit all political groups, and at the same time, it is strictly forbidden to discuss politics in the military. After this set, the original political nature of the Bulgarian army was completely eliminated, and the essence of the army was restored.
The merger of Romania with Bulgaria affected not only the two kingdoms, but also other countries.