1636： The Saxon Uprising ARC - By Eric Flint Page 0,173
bit crookedly. “My own preference would be your wife, actually. But I suppose that’s impractical.”
Mike’s smile was not crooked at all. “Leaving aside the fact that the Germanies are not ready for a Jewess as prime minister, Becky would have a fit if anyone proposed it. She doesn’t like being in the limelight.”
He finished his own coffee. “And it wouldn’t be a good idea anyway—although I agree with you that she’d be superb in the office. The problem is that prince business again. Too many people—both those overly fearful as well as those overly rambunctious—would assume that she was simply my surrogate.”
He shook his head. “No, it’s got to be either Matthias or Ed.”
“Of the two, my own recommendation would be Piazza.”
“Privately, I agree. I’m curious though, Gustav. What’s your reasoning?”
“Two factors are critical, I think. The first is that I believe the nation would find it a bit reassuring to have an up-timer in the position of prime minister. In a peculiar sort of way, you provide the same sort of…call it ‘distance,’ that a royal family provides. You came from so far away that people think—not entirely foolishly, either—that you are a bit removed from the petty factionalism of everyday politics.”
Mike thought about it. “There’s possibly some truth to that. I agree that people tend to react to us that way. At least a bit. And your second reason?”
“Strigel is from Magdeburg province, Piazza from Thuringia-Franconia. The second is the one that more closely reflects the nation as a whole. I think he’d bring a wider experience to the position than Strigel would. Between the two of us, I also think he’s more capable. But that speaks more to Piazza’s strengths than to any real weakness on Strigel’s part. I’d certainly be comfortable enough with Strigel as prime minister.”
Mike’s private assessment was the same, but he saw no purpose in stating it aloud.
“To go back to the beginning, Gustav, ask me for something else.”
“A compromise, then. Something—it has to be of real substance, Michael—that your party will be willing to cede to the Crown Loyalists. Or whoever winds up being your principal opponent in the election. I suspect the Crown Loyalists are on the verge of collapse as a single and unitary party.”
“They were never really that to begin with. Yes, I think you’re right. I think Amalie Elisabeth will now be the most influential figure in a new conservative movement. She won’t run for prime minister herself, of course. First, because she’s not about to relinquish her title; and second, because she’s a woman. The nation wouldn’t be much more willing to accept a gentile female prime minister than a Jewess, I think. Wilhelm will probably run again, more or less on her behalf.”
He considered the emperor’s request. Not for long, though. This didn’t really come as a big surprise.
“I am not willing to compromise on the citizenship issue, Gustav. I’d rather lose the election than retreat from our basic principles there. I would be willing, though—and I believe I can persuade the FoJP to agree—to compromise on the question of the established church.”
“The nature of the compromise being…?”
“Each province can decide for itself whether it wants an established church. But I would insist that the legal options would have to include complete separation of church and state. Without that, the Committees of Correspondence would dig in their heels.”
Gustav picked up the pot. “More coffee?”
“Please.” Mike extended his cup.
They used the brief time needed to prepare the beverages to ponder the matter silently. Or rather, the emperor did.
After he took his first sip, he set down the cup and said: “Agreed. With your permission, I will privately let the key parties on the other side know where you are prepared to compromise, and where you are not.”
Mike had lifted his cup to his lips but paused just before taking a sip. “Satisfy my own curiosity, if you would. Who are these ‘key parties,’ as you see it?”
“Wilhelm and the landgravine, of course. Also Duke George of Brunswick. Just because he’s in the siege lines around Poznan doesn’t mean he’s not a central figure in the nation’s political life. No one of any importance in Brunswick will do anything without George’s approval.”
“Who else?”
The emperor named half a dozen prominent figures. All of them were in what could be called the moderate wing of the Crown Loyalist party—and not one of them had come to Berlin in response to Oxenstierna’s summons.
“Finally…” Gustav Adolf hesitated. “I think also Ernst Wettin.”