Flowers, Swords and France

"That is to say, in your opinion, most of the parliamentarians will not agree with my decision to replace the prime minister?"

In the meeting room of the Elysee Palace, in front of Charles and a large group of people, the current French President Louis Bonaparte gently asked his cousin. [Top][Point] Novel

Under the gaze of his cousin, Joseph Bonaparte felt a little uncomfortable, but he still answered with spirit.

"Yes, that's right. I have secretly communicated with some parliamentarians recently, but they don't agree with our decision."

"After all, there are some people who agree, right?" Louis Bonaparte said calmly.

"Yes, there are," Joseph Bonaparte smiled reluctantly, "but most of them are fence-sitters. If most people disagree with your decision, they dare not take the risk to express their opinions easily."

Then, as if he was overwhelmed by his cousin's gaze, he swept his eyes to Charles who was sitting beside him as if asking for help.

"Not only us, but other people are facing similar situations. For example, Charles seems to have encountered such difficulties?"

"Yes." Charles quickly recovered from his static state, "I have talked to several members of parliament and found that their attitudes are similar, but the degree is different."

"For example, Mr. Hugo?" Louis-Bonaparte's eyes turned to him.

"Well..." Charles nodded lightly, "I talked to him about this matter that time, and he clearly opposed my opinion. Judging from his attitude, it is unlikely to win his support."

"Humph. Well, I didn't expect to get his support. Anyway, that kind of person can only talk big and is only worthy of burying himself in a pile of books. It's useless to us." Under Charles's gaze, Louis-Bonaparte's mouth twitched slightly. Obviously, in his heart, he didn't take it seriously at all.

Seeing that he was a little unhappy, most people didn't dare to speak anymore, and the room immediately fell into a repressed silence.

Seeing that everyone was a little silent, Louis-Bonaparte frowned slightly. Then he suddenly laughed again.

"You don't have to worry so much. In my opinion, this is a good thing."

"Good thing?" Joseph Bonaparte was a little puzzled.

"Of course it's a good thing." Louis Bonaparte still sneered, "We have contacted so many people in private. It stands to reason that my idea is now a secret known to everyone, but no matter in the political or journalistic circles, there has been no commotion... Don't you think this is a good thing?"

"That's right." Joseph Bonaparte suddenly realized. "Even if it is during the parliamentary recess, it is impossible that no one will pay attention to this matter. Since there is no commotion..."

Indeed. Since so many people have been contacted, Louis Bonaparte's plan cannot be concealed. It is probably already spread in the political arena that always likes to spread rumors. So why is there still no commotion after it has been spread?

"Since there is no commotion, it means that the political world does not oppose his departure, even if it is their party members." The future emperor replied coldly. He used his party members as a balloon for trial, and then got a satisfactory result.

Then he doesn't need to worry about anything next.

"Don't be afraid, Mr. Barrow has many enemies in the party. As long as we win the favor of those enemies, we don't have to worry about the backlash of the entire Order Party if we replace him." Then, he slammed the table heavily. "I've said it before, the Order Party seems strong, but it's only strong on the surface. They are a group of incompetent people. We have plenty of ways to make them fall apart! I have decided that as soon as the parliament ends the recess, I will tell them that I will remove Mr. Barrow from the position of Prime Minister - of course, at the same time, in order to appease them, I will continue to let an Order Party member take over as Prime Minister. After all, we are not sure about launching a mutiny yet, so we can only use political means to wipe out the enemy's prestige first... Humph, they wait, it won't be long before we can ignore the red tape and talk to them directly with cannons!"

Like everyone else, Charles also listened respectfully to the leader's oracle, but his thoughts in his heart were subtly different from others.

After a revolution, the French defeated a dynasty, drove away a king, established a republic, and formulated the most democratic constitution in the world at that time. However, only four years later, the republic was over, and a restored empire rose from the ground. Isn't this a kind of irony? Or is it that any democratic system that is out of touch with reality will eventually go to corruption if it is not operated carefully?

It is indeed a proposition worth studying.

Louis Bonaparte's success in usurping power must be said to be a result of a mixture of personal ability and occasional luck. He was ambitious and skilled in power politics, but if there was no opportunity for revolution, he would not have become president, and even if there was no special political and legal environment at that time, even if he became president, he would not have been able to get what he wanted.

Even in modern times, the president and parliament are still important functional organs in the West or in the Western system. The power balance between them varies according to the national conditions of each country. Once the head of state (that is, the president) has the right to replace the head of the government (that is, the prime minister) in legal provisions, the prime minister will actually become responsible to the president (rather than the parliament), which will greatly increase the power of the president.

In the countries that implement the Western system in the 21st century, the parliament or the head of state, whoever holds the power to appoint the head of government, is the party with greater advantage in the power balance. Countries such as Germany and Israel belong to the former, while countries such as South Korea and Russia belong to the latter. Therefore, in these countries, the president is much stronger and can even override the parliament in many cases.

The Second Republic, which was first established in 1848, initially wanted to make the nascent country a parliamentary republic, but due to lack of experience and selfishness (the dominant party in the parliament at that time was inclined to the Orleans faction, hoping that the Orleans royal family would return to the country to serve as president after escaping the storm). There was no wise definition of the division of presidential powers, so that Louis Bonaparte could arbitrarily manipulate the replacement of the head of government in the honorary position of the president of the country. Isn't this a self-inflicted punishment?

Since the president can replace the prime minister at will. Then the next prime minister will only be responsible to the president. Once the army is only loyal to such a person, isn't it a natural thing to usurp power for a long time or even become emperor?

When the cornerstone of constitutionalism cannot be firmly rooted in the country, under the manipulation of human selfishness, the final destination of the democratic system can only be abnormal **.

While Charles was still immersed in this "transcendent" speculation, this small conspiracy party in the Elysee Palace had come to an end.

…………

"Charles, thank you..." During the dinner, Joseph Bonaparte walked to Charles' side and greeted him with some trepidation.

"It doesn't matter. The difficulties you face are obvious to everyone. It's my duty to speak for you." Charles replied with a smile.

"Don't come and go, Charles. I told you not to be so polite to me." Joseph Bonaparte deliberately frowned. "We are good friends. Aren't we?"

"Uh... okay." Charles smiled awkwardly, "If you insist."

"Hey! That's it!" Joseph Bonaparte clapped his hands gently, "Charles, sometimes you are too reserved. Do you have time recently? Let's go to the suburbs to play together?"

"Well..." Charles pondered for a moment, shook his head gently, and looked at the other party apologetically, "Sorry. I have a lot of things in my department recently, and I may not be able to get away."

"Oh. So, then next time." Joseph Bonaparte sighed regretfully, "Charles, it's a good thing to be enthusiastic about public affairs, but it's unnecessary to work too hard. You are just a young man..."

Then, he carefully looked at the people around him, and after confirming that no one was paying special attention to them, he moved closer to Charles, "Have you noticed that his attitude towards me has become colder and colder recently? Charles, you followed the president on a tour before, did you hear any rumors?"

This "he", Charles knew who he was referring to without saying.

His heart suddenly jumped.

The face of Joseph Bonaparte in front of him suddenly became more and more unpleasant.

However, even if he was unhappy, he still had to deal with it carefully.

"I didn't pay much attention to this." Charles held back his impatience and answered in a calm tone. "Mr. President usually doesn't tell us these things."

"You saw it today. The president treated me like this!" Joseph Bonaparte's face was full of clouds. "Not only today, the president has been a little distant to me recently... Humph, it must be that bastard Morny, who speaks bad about us in front of him every day. Sooner or later, we will deal with him!"

We?

The original text is in the six # 9 @book/bar!

He didn't care at all. Charles sneered in his heart.

However, he knew the ins and outs of this matter.

Because Louis Bonaparte had no son, Joseph always regarded his father King Jerome and himself as the natural heirs of the family. However, among the Bonapartists, many people did not recognize his status at all, and the leader of this group was Morny.

In this case, it was natural that Morny and him did not get along very well.

One was Louis-Bonaparte's half-brother, and the other was that the internal struggle of the Bonaparte family had intensified before the usurpation of power was completed, and the Bonapartists were also divided into two factions, and they often attacked each other.

Charles usually did not participate in this struggle, hoping to maintain the image of an impartial "railway fanatic who was not keen on politics". However, although he wanted to stay out of it, his position made it impossible for him not to participate in this struggle at all.

Although I can stay out of it for the time being, where should I be when I have to participate in the future? Such a question suddenly popped up in Charles' mind.

"Charle, this Morny is also very rude to you, isn't he? Don't forget that in that meeting, he was the one who deliberately wanted to refute your face!" Joseph seemed to be a little angry and aggrieved. -Bonaparte continued, "With the favor of Mr. President, he is becoming more and more arrogant now, and he doesn't take us people seriously at all. He seems to think that we can't fight back! In any case, One day..."

As if he did not notice Charles's contemplation, Joseph Bonaparte continued to complain next to Charles, but he suddenly stopped and looked in one direction and remained silent.

Charles also felt something bad, and quickly looked up in the direction he was looking, and then found that the person they were talking about - the future Duke de Morny - was walking over expressionlessly.

"Two gentlemen, what were you talking about just now?" he asked seemingly gently, but there was no warmth in his voice.

"Oh, we are talking about some common topics among young people." With a ** smile, Joseph Bonaparte answered directly, exuding a "Yes, we are just scolding you in private, what do you want?" "Aura.

Ciel frowned slightly.

Joseph Bonaparte deliberately wanted to confirm his "Jerome faction" position in front of this man.

"Oh, then it's a pity. I'm already at this age and I can't experience the fun of you young people. It's a pity." Morny replied coldly, then turned to look at Charles, "Mr. de Treville , Have you forgotten? Mr. President is still waiting for you."

"Of course I still remember it, but Mr. Bonaparte just came to talk to me about something, so..."

"That Mr. Bonaparte is the president, and you should serve him first." Morny interrupted him directly. "Mr. President will be finishing dinner soon. I don't think you want to ask him to wait for you, right?"

Then, he ignored Joseph Bonaparte's angry gaze and turned away directly.

"Look, this guy is so arrogant!" Facing Morny's leaving figure, Joseph Bonaparte couldn't help complaining again, "He's just an illegitimate child, and he actually dares to talk to us like this! "

Yes, he is the son of Prince Jerome and Princess Württemberg, so he is certainly qualified to look down on an illegitimate child.

But Ciel was still deep in thought.

"That Mr. Bonaparte is the president, you should serve him first." He was thinking carefully about the other party's words.

In other words, in his eyes, I still belong to the "saveable" category, as long as I stay away from Joseph Bonaparte?

After a moment, Ciel came up with the answer.

So was this what he meant, or what Louis Bonaparte meant? A new problem followed one after another.

"Well, this guy is really weird," he replied in a low voice. (To be continued...)