The Christian Social Party (2)
There were plenty of reasons to target me. Maybe I looked like a red to them. Or perhaps they simply despised the sight of a lowborn Jew with no title whispering in the ear of a naive Archduke and climbing his way to success. Good grief—me, a Judeo-Bolshevik!
There were certainly reasons enough. Both the Archduke and I had enemies in spades. If one were to systematically eliminate the countless conflicts of interest and power struggles involving the nobility, populist politicians, the anti-Archduke faction, and so on, the culprit became clear. The faction leading the charge against me was Karl Lueger's Christian Social Party.
After keeping a close eye on their movements, every single thread of hostility wound back to Lueger. That made things much simpler. Our territories overlap.
Historically, Stalin detested Trotsky far more than any capitalist pig. Sunni extremists despised Shia Muslims more than they did Christians. You could tolerate an infidel if the circumstances aligned, but a heretic? Never. That was the crux of the issue.
Right now, the Christian Social Party's greatest enemy—contrary to their public rhetoric about the Jews—was me. We were fighting over the same pie. Lueger's party was constantly leveraging church networks and urban development projects to court the poor and the working class. Meanwhile, I wanted to dismantle anti-Semitism and expand my influence among the working class, small business owners, and the middle class. We were bitter rivals destined to clash on a narrow bridge.
It was much like how the Nazis viewed the German Communist Party, rather than Britain, America, or France, as their most existential threat. And didn't those same Nazis, after brutally suppressing the communists at home, ultimately get their capital trampled and their regime utterly obliterated by an even larger communist power? Of course, calling me a communist was a bit of a stretch, but the dynamic was the same.
This is a declaration of war. A conflict I must see through to the bitter end. The aristocrats were insufferable, but they were a dying breed; once World War I concluded, their power would be sliced in half anyway. Therefore, Lueger and his cronies were the ones I had to defeat first, and they were the ones I would have to keep fighting until the very end.
Actually, no. Even after dismantling the Christian Social Party, I couldn't rule out the possibility of having to face a second, mutated iteration of them: the Nazis. Whether National Socialism would even rise in this timeline was anyone's guess. Ugh, my head hurts. Surely they weren't tormenting me this relentlessly just because I was Jewish, right? If that was the sole reason, I was going to feel incredibly foolish for overanalyzing their political strategy.
Regardless, what was my next move? "Doraemon! No, I mean, Your Imperial Highness!"
"Ah, Shtal. Shall I deliver a few speeches declaring that vulgar, classless anti-Semite an enemy of Austria?"
"Would that... actually work?"
"Shtal and I are of one mind. From this moment forth, any assault on Shtal shall be deemed a personal affront to me. How does that sound?"
"Wait... hold on a second."
As I had noted before, Karl Lueger was a political beast who had clawed his way up through an Austrian establishment notoriously hostile to commoners. There was absolutely no way he had launched this offensive without knowing Archduke Franz Ferdinand was backing me. If the heir to the throne threw himself into this fray...
"No, Your Highness. It would be best if you stayed out of this."
"What on earth do you mean? Thanks to you, Sophie's popularity has soared. As a man, I must repay my debts."
"In that case, do you happen to know any high-ranking nobles or wealthy capitalists who could pressure them into backing down?"
"Well... er... I can certainly give you all the speeches you want."
"Then it is fine. I appreciate the sentiment, though."
The Archduke possessed immense popularity, but he still lacked a proper political faction. His personal influence had skyrocketed, yes, but he did not have a single reliable, organized group to carry out his will. He was in a position remarkably similar to Leon Trotsky before his rise—immensely famous, yet politically isolated. Was his entire faction just me and Dr. Sigmund Freud? If there was any other group aligned with him, it was a mere handful of reform-minded junior officers in the Imperial Navy.
Honestly, at this rate, it wouldn't be a stretch to say the Archduke belonged to the Shtal faction rather than me belonging to the Archduke faction. How does he expect to survive this cutthroat political arena? In any case, if Franz Ferdinand tried to intervene, his only weapon was his personal imperial authority. And that would almost certainly backfire.
"The Archduke and Shtal are one and the same?"
"We elected the Christian Social Party with our own hands, and now the imperial family is trying to oppress us again!"
"That red Shtal has sold out to the crown! He's a traitor!"
It was precisely to avoid this scenario that I had carefully branded the Archduke as a champion of reform, keeping him positioned as a patron and partner rather than the active director of our enterprises. If he stepped directly onto the front lines to declare his absolute support for me, it would alienate the liberals and republicans whose backing I would eventually need.
Progressive intellectuals might have despised the Christian Social Party for colluding with the old conservative elites, but the moment the heir to the throne intervened, the narrative would shift. It would no longer be Shtal versus the Christian Social Party; it would become the Crown versus Parliament. While those intellectuals viewed the Archduke favorably—deeming him a million times better than the current Kaiser—they would side with the legislature every single time if forced to choose. Thus, deploying the Archduke was out of the question.
Which means I have to fight this battle using nothing but my own strength... My primary support base consisted of the impoverished working class—men and women who would gladly bleed for me. But at this stage, the only tool they possessed was rioting. That carried a far higher risk than involving the Archduke. If I utilized Franz Ferdinand, I could at least secure the backing of pragmatists among the nobility who wanted to bet on the future emperor. But the moment the working class took to the streets—even for a peaceful demonstration—every single member of the Austrian establishment would instantly unite against us.
In the end, I had only one viable path forward. If the Christian Social Party wants to use political leverage to crush me, I will simply have to pay them back in kind. There was risk, of course, but this was a clash that had to happen sooner or later. I made up my mind.
"I believe our best course of action is to form an alliance with the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria."
"......I assume my ears are playing tricks on me?"
"You heard me perfectly, Your Highness."
"Shtal, isn't this going entirely too far? I still have absolutely no idea what those Social Democrats even stand for."
The Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria, or the SDAP. At the moment, they were a toothless, perennial opposition party. It would be one thing if they at least held a popular majority, but they were a distant second to the Christian Socials, holding a measly eleven seats in parliament. Even so, an opposition party was still an opposition party. When it came to mobilizing the masses, they were easily a match for Lueger's faction. Furthermore, in the original timeline, they would eventually seize power after World War I and hold it firmly until the rise of the Nazi Party. They were, in essence, an undervalued blue-chip stock.
There is a reason a left-wing party managed to become the dominant political force in a rigid, German-dominated empire. Right now, their primary objective wasn't some radical, violent revolution to liberate the proletariat. Instead, they focused on Universal Suffrage and resolving the empire's deep-seated ethnic conflicts. Their entire party platform was built around these two pillars.
1. Austria shall be transformed into a democratic, multi-ethnic federal state.
2. All legislative and executive power shall reside in a parliament elected through universal, equal, and direct suffrage.
3. A unified federation of autonomous nations shall be established to manage state affairs cooperatively.
...
"The SDAP is the only ally capable of shielding us from the Christian Social Party's onslaught."
"Is there no room for compromise with Lueger?"
"Absolutely none, Your Highness. I am Jewish, after all."
"What about the German National Party or the Liberals?"
"They are parties of the aristocratic and bourgeois elite. Their values do not align with yours in the slightest."
"Hmm..."
Franz Ferdinand was a deeply contradictory figure. In the original timeline, the Franz Ferdinand of 1914 was an anti-liberal, staunchly Catholic conservative. He didn't advocate for a return to absolute monarchy, mind you; rather, he was a Machiavellian pragmatist who favored a military-led dictatorship.
Yet, at this specific juncture, he was also a man who harbored a burning hatred for the Kaiser, consumed by isolation and a quiet thirst for vengeance. Whether in the old history or this new one, certain core traits remained constant: his disgust for the rigid class system, his profound devotion to Sophie, and his latent desire to be loved by the public.
He was caught between being a militaristic autocrat and a romantic idealist. Depending on which way he leaned, he could become anything: an absolute emperor, a constitutional monarch, a Napoleonic figure, a president, a "Red Bonaparte," or even a general secretary...
"As you say, the Social Democrats are our only real option. But aligning with them is a far cry from merely doing charity work in the slums."
Indeed, partnering with the SDAP carried immense risk. The imperial family aligning with a party whose very name boasted the words "Social," "Democratic," and "Workers"? This wasn't like issuing war bonds under the Archduke's name. This was a move that carried a very real risk of forced abdication.
But I had an ace up my sleeve.
"Did you not tell me before, Your Highness? That you did not care if you were stripped of your succession rights?"
"......The context then was entirely different. I said I was willing to renounce the throne if it meant securing recognition for my marriage to Sophie."
"In truth, resolving the issue of your Morganatic Marriage was simple. You could have easily yielded your position as heir to your younger brother."
"......"
"But you wanted both, Your Highness. You wanted your marriage, and you wanted the crown. Because deep down, you harbor a burning desire to reshape this empire with your own hands."
He detested the court, the nobility, and the feudal hierarchy. He was wary of classical liberalism. He possessed militaristic tendencies, yet held progressive views on ethnic self-determination. Lately, he had developed a deep interest in public welfare. A progressive who despised both the old aristocracy and the capitalist liberals... wasn't that practically a communist? I pressed on with my explanation of the SDAP.
"......And that is precisely why you must join hands with the Social Democrats."
A Bolshevik Archduke. What a bizarre, unnatural combination. Yet, after spending months analyzing Franz Ferdinand's political inclinations, I had concluded that the SDAP was his perfect match.
"Of course, we must manage the risk. You cannot afford to align with them too openly."
"......It might not be as terrible as it sounds. But still, I cannot fathom what the SDAP truly wants. Are they liberals? Communists? Republicans? Federalists? What if I throw my weight behind them, only to get dragged down by their internal chaos?"
"You won't, Your Highness."
The SDAP was indeed a massive "big tent" party, just as the Archduke feared. It was a chaotic coalition of every leftist, reformer, and dissident who despised the Christian Socials, the Liberals, and the German Nationalists. Depending on which faction took the wheel, they could mutate into anything from the Soviet Communist Party to the American Republican Party. But what if we looked at it from a different angle?
"The party's direction is not beyond our control."
"Meaning?"
"It will not be difficult for us to seize the reins and steer them ourselves."
In a party composed of fragmented, mediocre factions, its ultimate trajectory was highly volatile. But that volatility was an opportunity.
"The SDAP won over two hundred and fifty thousand votes, yet they walked away with a mere eleven seats. They even lost the popular vote to the Christian Socials."
"Indeed. And those eleven deputies agree on absolutely nothing except for the single issue of universal suffrage."
"Now, imagine what would happen if we dropped a bomb called the 'Archduke' right into their laps."
"If we frame it as a march toward social progress... we could hijack their entire platform."
The SDAP possessed virtually zero traditional political authority. They survived solely on their ability to mobilize the masses and their symbolic status as a progressive vanguard. But look at it from another perspective: despite their radical name and the insignificance of their individual deputies, they had still managed to carve out a foothold in the Imperial Parliament through sheer grassroots energy. If we shook the tree, we could easily harvest that energy for ourselves.
"I suppose I must truly prepare myself to be stripped of my succession rights this time."
"Weren't you already prepared for that, Your Highness?"
"I braced myself for it once when I married Sophie. Still, we should be safe for the time being. It's not as if the Emperor would actually name my brother as the heir."
Indeed, there was no viable alternative to Franz Ferdinand. In the original timeline, the future Emperor Karl was currently a mere fourteen-year-old boy. Emperor Franz Joseph I was seventy-one, his remaining years rapidly dwindling. Brilliant though young Karl might be, the court would hesitate to thrust a boy emperor onto the throne of a fragile, fracturing empire.
What about Franz Ferdinand's younger brother, Archduke Otto? The man was infinitely more unhinged than Franz. He was infamous for a scandal where he had paraded stark naked through a prominent Viennese hotel, and his rampant womanizing and violent drunken brawls were the talk of the empire. Moreover, he was currently wasting away from some undisclosed illness, completely withdrawn from public life.
Honestly, from the court's perspective, a "Red Archduke" was still infinitely preferable to a "Naked Archduke." It was a choice between dangerous competence and degenerate incompetence. Let them choose! This meant we still had room to push the envelope. Before the Emperor actually went through with stripping Franz Ferdinand of his rights, I needed to milk his imperial authority for everything it was worth. With my mind made up, I set off. In my capacity as the director of the Stahl-Ferdinand Research Institute, I paid a visit to the headquarters of the Social Democratic Workers' Party.