The Fate of Norway

[Bacharth]

[b]Röst Sverige News Broadcast[/b]
"Hello, and welcome to another broadcast from your nationally acclaimed news service, Röst Sverige. I am Georg Ekström, and sitting with me as always, is Azra Wallin."

Azra speaks up, "Our top story tonight is the economic collapse of Norway. After a short period of economic recession, the government in Oslo was unreachable, as reported by our Gothenburg correspondant. Merely hours ago, troops were sent in to prevent riots from breaking out, and the Kansler declared that they would announce a protectorate over their government while the process is taking place."

Georg continued, "So what does this mean for Sweden? For this, we go to our Oslo correspondant, Adriana Lind."

The broadcast switches to a woman standing in Memorial square, the place dedicated to the victims of Oslo's horrific nuclear attack. "Thank you, Stockholm. As you can see behind me, already Swedish troops are keeping watch in Oslo, and by order of Kalmar Military Command, the troops are armed only with pistols as to not alarm the citizens. As we speak, the troops are being sent to every major city in Norway, and even to Svalbard and the Faroes. This won't mean much for Sweden, however the people of Norway have some important opinions that Gothenburg needs to hear."

A nameless, older woman appears on the camera. "I think we should be left to our own devices. Norway has been independent for this long, and we should stay that way."

An older, bearded man appears, wearing an old military uniform, "The only reason why Norway-Sweden failed is the lack of integration between Norway and Sweden. I think we should go back to the old ways, kind of like what Uberstein Scandinavia and Norsvea was. One Scandinavian people. We're all brothers."

Adriana was back on screen, "Opinions do not fall along any specific lines. Only 45% of those under the age of 30 say that Norway should remain independent. 7% have no opinion, and 48% believe in reintegration. The numbers do not differ much for the working age or the retired age. However, there is militancy on both sides, and opinions are sure to change."

The screen goes back to the studio, with Georg and Azra. George is the first to speak, "For now, Gothenburg is still waiting on word from Berlin on how to proceed with a plebiscite. This has been Röst Sverige Europe News, I'm Georg Ekström, good night."

[Kaiser Martens]

The Germans also move and send our troops to different points of Norway, especially to the isolated Islands and to their northernmost borders so to prevent any issues with the farthermost territories. Surprisingly, most people seemed to behave orderly, only a few misfits seemed to want to try to exploit the anarchy, but often the own citizens had done short work of them, as improvised vigilante-policement.

Berlin and Stockholm had spoken. The territory, while right now a double-protectorate, would be subject to a plebiscite after some more days in order to give time for people to evaluate all of the different options.

Each piece of norway, in common terms, each "Province" would have a separate plebiscite. Each group of islands and every subdivision of Norway's Mainland. The options would be as follows, more than likely:

Integration into Sweden, probably renamed to Scandinavia,
Integration into the Germanic Union,
Independence (Regional)
Continued independence as Norway,
Outright tripartite merger,
Continued protectorateship (Regional or total)

The polls would take place later and other nations were allowed to send observers to verify that they were properly conducted.

[Bacharth]

Over the next few days, extreme supporters made their voices heard. Most prominent were the Norsvean Revivalists. Both Swedish and Norwegians organized in their respective cities, carrying the new flag of Norsvea, a simple red and gold Scandinavian cross. Although parading through the streets with a flag that is not Swedish is illegal, it was tolerated, due to the connotations. They chanted in the invented Norsvean language, which was closer to Danish than anything else, with bits of Swedish, Norwegian and Icelandic.

Of course, these parades did not go without incident. In Trøndheim, Hammerfest, and Gävle, three cities with strong anti-reintegration sentiments, Norsvean Revivalists were attacked, leading to the attackers arrested and the parades dispersed. Norwegian newspapers with anti-Swedish editorials ran stories like crazy after that.

[Kaiser Martens]

"We have been loosing land for too long, and for no good reason. I do not care what you do, at least get the islands. Promise them everything, anything. [i]As long as we can accomplish it.[/i] We have been waiting for a halfways-port till Iceland and the farthernmost north for too long."

The result of the polls would be somewhat as expected. Some parts still wished for independence, but they did not have sufficient resources to in any way be a nation, and having a number of tiny protectorates mixed in with annexations was going to do noone any good.

Sweden would annex Norway proper and the Norwiegan pieces of former Denmark. Germanic Union would annex the rest - the islands. For the Union, it was easy to get away with this, Faroe was drawn in due to Iceland's similarity, the rest of the Icelands hardly had any population, so it was easy to outright buy them. Sweden would face some pockets of opposition to Swedish Imperialism, but if the namechange to either Norsvea or Skandinavien took place, the skepticals may eventually begin to budge, over time, given that a large investment plan was held. After all, Sweden had been stable, while the Norske had not been.

The new flags are planted. The Germanic Peoples are further unified. New housings, new schools and hospitals, and as well underground factories would be built. The port at the Faroe would be modernized as well, and a submarine base would be built.

[i]"We have achieved a goal. Let us find new ones."[/i]

Ships begin to sail to the new Lands. The Triumvirate never thought that Germanic Union would eventually become one of those partially oceanic nations with many islands and oversea territories. But the Norns had their way.

[Bacharth]

In a joint press release in Oslo, made by Germanic Union representatives, Kansler von Gothenburg, and Statsminister Lundgren. The event was broadcast live on Röst Sverige.

"Good people of the former state of Norway, as you know, the delegates of the Germanic Union and Sweden have been organizing the polls, determining the fate of Norway. The poll results have been counted, and are as follows:

Mainland Norway and the Danish Islands have voted to integrate with Sweden.

The Faroe islands and Svalbard have voted to join the Germanic Union.

Now, those of you who are worried about a Swedish dominance over Norway do not need to fear. There will be no Norwegian integration into Sweden. In fact, the states of Sweden are from here on in considered regions. I hereby declare the former regions of Norway, Sweden and the Danish Islands to be integrated into the Republic of Norsvea, and the Germanic supralanguage of Norsvean will be the official language. In order to keep Stockholm as a financial center only, I am authorizing the Riksdag to move to Oslo, making it the Norsvean capital, as it had been in the past.

In an unrelated matter, we have sent two divisions of Norsvean peacekeeping troops to the Eggman Empire to learn the fate of Greenland. Our government has lost contact with Greenland, and we are rectifying the situation."