Chapter 79: The Blackest Parliament
The five members of the Frankfurt Preparatory Committee wore extremely grim expressions. Citing the Austrian Empire as an indivisible whole, the Austrian delegation lodged a vehement protest.
Seats at the Frankfurt Assembly had been allocated according to population. In theory, one representative was elected for every fifty thousand people. If the non-German regions were not kicked out, this conference would become Austria's private show.
At this time, Schleswig and Holstein still belonged to Denmark, while Austria still controlled parts of Italy. In terms of population, Austria surpassed the combined total of the Lesser German regions.
A protest was one thing. Hungary and a string of other regions genuinely did not belong to the German lands, so no one was afraid of bickering over it.
But no one had expected the Austrian representatives to be so brazen as to hand the matter directly to the reporters, publicly tearing open the conference's shady underbelly.
Thanks to the Zollverein, Prussia—the most industrially developed of the German states—held the greatest influence among the capitalists. This conference was indeed clearly biased.
By now, everyone understood that the Austrian delegation had come to smash the place up. Bar the Austrians from attending the conference?
Could that still count as a German preparatory parliament? The Austrians would probably be delighted to leave. A parliament that already possessed little legitimacy would become a laughingstock once a corner was missing.
"Gentlemen, we must take action. Public opinion has been extremely unfavorable to us lately. If this continues, the enemy's plot will succeed!" Merlin said solemnly.
The media exposing their dirty pasts had not made them wary. Capitalists everywhere were birds of a feather—who among them did not have a few skeletons in the closet?
What truly worried them now was the Austrian delegation stirring