Empire Rising: Spain

However, some people could see the benefits of the political division reform to Spain and chose to vote for Evans to support his proposal.

For a time, the number of supporters and opponents of the political division reform remained about the same. Opponents couldn’t fully veto the proposal, and supporters couldn’t push the resolution forward.

The meeting ended without a conclusion, but Evans’ proposal and Alva’s opposition sparked widespread discussion within Spain.

Some of the public supported the merging of administrative divisions; after all, some divisions were not only small in land but also had a pitiful population, appearing to be unnecessary.

Others, like Alva, opposed reforming the administrative divisions. The names of many of Spain’s administrative divisions are tied to its history, such as Galicia, Basque, and Catalonia.

The origins of these names are either the names of local ethnic groups or countries that once existed there.

Although these ethnic groups and countries were unified into the Spanish family for various reasons, it doesn’t mean they have completely disappeared.

Merging administrative divisions would mean removing the names of several major regions. This would undoubtedly be a blow to the countries and ethnic groups that once existed and still exist today.

Most opponents held this viewpoint, believing that it’s better to leave things as they are and that there’s no need for significant changes to the existing administrative divisions.

This nationwide widespread discussion quickly drew Carlo’s attention, or rather, drew his apparent attention.

Even before Evans proposed the reform of administrative divisions, Carlo had considered whether Spain’s current administrative divisions were reasonable, and the reform was something Carlo had discussed with members of the Progressive Party, asking them to help propose it in the Lower House.

The choice of the Progressive Party over the Conservative Party was mainly due to these two parties’ different attitudes toward reform.

Although the Conservative Party is theoretically the Royalist Party, members of the Conservative Party, true to their name, mostly have a conservative attitude.

They will not oppose existing reforms, but they are unwilling to continue new reforms within Spain.

After all, they have become beneficiaries, so why would they harm their own interests to promote reform?

Even for Canovas, the representative figure of the Conservative Party, it’s impossible to change the views of its members.

The Conservative Party consists of a large number of nobles, landlords, and reactionary officials, and their class determines their thinking, something that an individual cannot change.

This is also why Carlo maintained the Progressive Party and the Liberal Party, allowing the three major parties to compete freely.

If there were only the Conservative Party, any necessary reform would face tremendous resistance. Unless Carlo personally stepped in to promote the reform, but doing so would make him bear all the responsibilities for the reform, which is something a king should avoid as much as possible.

Seeing the proposal for administrative division reform at a stalemate, Carlo decided to secretly assist in helping the Progressive Party more rapidly promote the proposal’s implementation.

How to assist? Of course, by reasonably using Spain’s public opinion.

Whether to reform the administrative division or not, the Spanish government also needs to consider the opinions of the public.

As long as the public can reach a unanimous opinion, can those elected representatives dare to ignore the public’s opinion?

Of course not.

This also means that if Carlo can guide the Spanish public to support political division reform, he can push the proposals related to political division reform to pass in the Lower House.

On March 12, the Spanish Sun published an article titled "The Pros and Cons of Administrative Division Reform for Spain," directly pointing out the benefits and drawbacks of the reform and listing the reasons why some lawmakers opposed it.

This article immediately captured readers’ attention and made administrative division reform the hottest news in Spain.

And it didn’t stop there; another major newspaper, the Royal Daily, interviewed thousands of ordinary citizens in Spain’s two major cities, asking their attitudes towards administrative division reform.

The number of interviewed citizens exceeded 5,000, of which more than 3,000 supported the reform, over 1,000 expressed that the reform made no significant difference to them because no matter how the reform occurs, it wouldn’t affect their lives.

Only a few hundred people opposed the reform, as it would mean that representative regional names would disappear from Spanish history.

The stark gap between supporters and opponents immediately led the public to believe the reasons pointed out by the Sun that the lawmakers opposed the reform because it would harm their interests.

This kind of reporting directly put the previously opposing lawmakers on the spot, and whether they explained or not, it was a difficult position.

If they didn’t explain, the public discussions would grow louder, and the blame they carried would become increasingly cumbersome.

If they did explain, it would seemingly confirm the fact that they opposed a beneficial proposal for the country for their own interests.

Helpless, the Conservative Party’s lawmakers could only turn to Canovas, the highest-ranking and most powerful Prime Minister within their party, seeking his help.

To be honest, Canovas was reluctant to get involved in it.