Empire Rising: Spain

But if Carlo believes a certain official has decent abilities, he can make this official quickly praised by the media and loved by the public.

Although the admiration of the public does not affect the election of the Cabinet Government, it can influence the election of the Lower House.

In other words, Carlo can control the elections in the Lower House through the advantages attached to the official assessment system.

If a party or individual harmful to the royal power really emerges in Spain, Carlo can use this method to make that person’s reputation instantly stink, thereby preventing him from being elected as a member of parliament.

On January 21, 1879, in the gigantic conference room of the Spanish Congress Building, a super-large meeting with hundreds of participants was being held.

Because the Spanish Cabinet Government is nominally responsible to the Lower House, this has led to the meeting summarizing the five-year development plan being held in parliament and reported to parliament.

In addition to the participation of hundreds of members from the upper and lower houses, the meeting also included all members of the Cabinet Government, Carlo, as the King of Spain, and a small number of invited newspaper media.

Of course, these invited newspaper media have one thing in common: they are either controlled by the government or by the royal family.

With these officially controlled newspaper media, they can ensure that they do not leak important data when reporting the news.

As for newspapers without official backgrounds, they can only seek some information disclosed by parliamentary meetings or hotspots reported by officially backed newspapers to make their own newspapers.

Spain is quite strict in newspaper publication. After several rounds of severe crackdowns, no more newspapers dare to publish news content that the government and royal family do not allow.

Of course, news related to the five-year development plan is allowed to be reported, as this is also a time to promote the political achievements of government officials.

At the large parliamentary meeting, Duke Serrano, as Prime Minister, was the first to speak, reporting to the many members and Carlo on the accomplishments of the Spanish Government’s second five-year plan.

"His Majesty the King, fellow members, in the past five years, we have achieved significant results and progress.

Before the implementation of the second five-year plan, our country’s annual fiscal revenue was 545.1 million Pessetas.

After completing the second five-year plan, our country’s annual fiscal revenue has reached 897.9 million Pessetas, an increase of over 352.8 million Pessetas in annual fiscal revenue.

Before the execution of the second five-year development plan, our population was 17.45 million. By the end of last year, our population has exceeded 19.12 million, a net increase of over 1.67 million people.

Five years ago, our steel production was only 123,000 tons, and iron production was only 323,300 tons. After completing the second five-year development plan, our annual steel production has exceeded 200,000 tons, and iron production has exceeded 670,000 tons.

Currently, our steel production has surpassed Austria-Hungary and Russia. According to our projections, our total steel output ranks fifth in the world, which also proves that our efforts over the past five years have not been in vain.

Five years ago, our country’s per capita annual income was only 115.32 Pessetas, with more than half of the population unable to achieve the goal of adequate food and clothing.

After successfully completing the second five-year development plan, our country’s per capita annual income has increased to 134.28 Pessetas, with the average annual income of workers and farmers reaching 146.37 Pessetas and 128.22 Pessetas, respectively, compared to five years ago.

We believe that what Carlo said about making Spain great again is already becoming a reality we are about to see. Perhaps in a few years, Spain will achieve a life where everyone is fed and clothed, and our future will be brighter."

Although Duke Serrano only briefly introduced some changes in Spain over the past five years, he still received enthusiastic applause from the majority of the members attending the meeting.

Of course, the main reason for this is that Carlo was the first to stand up and applaud. The moment Carlo stood up to applaud, other members, no matter how unwilling in their hearts, could only smile and stand up to applaud.

For Carlo, the Cabinet Government’s performance over the past five years has been quite outstanding. Through the tempering of the second five-year development plan, Spain has officially returned to the ranks of European powers.

Although it is only a second-rate power, compared to the previous situation where it fell out of the ranks of great powers, there is no doubt that Spain has become much stronger.

But this is only the first step towards making Spain great again. Spain still needs more tempering through five-year plans to become a first-rate power, with the qualification to compete with superpowers such as the UK, France, and Germany.

After Duke Serrano made a concluding speech, it was then time for the ministers of each department to make their respective summaries of the five-year development plan.

The first to take the stage was the Spanish Minister of Finance, Ewald Bartel. From the paper data, the performance of the fiscal department was quite good.

The difference in Spain’s annual fiscal revenue before and after the second five-year development plan reached 352.8 million Pessetas. Last year, Spain’s annual fiscal revenue even reached a rare 897.9 million Pessetas.

This data made Ewald Bartel, as Minister of Finance, quite proud, and he has basically secured his position as Minister of Finance.

Considering the upcoming Cabinet reshuffle, it is not appropriate to change the candidate for such an important position as Minister of Finance. This means Minister Ewald can easily continue his third term as Cabinet Minister, and then strive for a higher position of authority.