“Citizens of France.”
His voice carried through the loudspeakers, echoing across the square.
It was not loud, but very clear, and every word seemed to be drawn from the bottom of his heart.
“Today is a day of national dedication.”
The crowd below was extremely quiet.
“I am certain that my fellow countrymen expect me to speak the truth frankly and decisively upon assuming the presidency, as the situation currently facing our nation demands.”
He paused for a moment and swept his gaze across the audience.
“Therefore, now is the best time to frankly and bravely speak the truth, the whole truth.
We need not fear, nor need we avoid the situation our country faces today.”
Some people nodded, while others clenched their fists.
“This great nation will endure as it always has.
It will prosper, and it will revive.”
He emphasized his tone.
“Therefore, let me state one thing clearly: the only thing we have to fear is fear itself!
It is a nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”
Some people in the square began to applaud, but the applause was sparse.
More people remained silent, listening.
“Whenever our nation is in a critical moment, a frank and energetic leader will gain the understanding and support of the people themselves, thereby possessing the necessary conditions for victory.
I am convinced that in this current crisis, you will once again give me the same support.”
He leaned forward slightly, as if speaking to every single person.
“Both you and I must face our common difficulties with this spirit.”
His voice became a little deeper.
“Thanks to the Holy Goddess, these difficulties are not natural disasters, nor are they force majeure.
They are not floods, not droughts, not locusts.”
“They are man-made!”
Someone in the crowd looked up.
“It is those who hold the lifeline of France who, with their greed and selfishness, have created all of this with their own hands.”
His gaze became sharp.
“You work over a dozen hours a day in factories, your fingers crushed by machines, yet your wages cannot even buy bread for your family.
Meanwhile, the factory owners sit in their offices, doing nothing, yet taking away more than half of the value you created.”
Someone in the crowd clenched their fists.
“You work in the fields from morning till night, growing the food that feeds all of France, but what about yourselves?
You live in leaking farmhouses, wear patched clothes, and your children go to bed hungry.
And those landlords, they plant nothing, they do nothing, yet they hold the land deeds and snatch away more than half of your harvest every year.”
Representatives of the Agrarian Party stood in the crowd, some with reddened eyes.
“Your children, seven or eight, ten years old, thin as sticks, standing in factories unable to reach the machines, so they stand on stools to work.
Their fingers are broken, their palms are gone, and their lives are ruined just like that.
And what about the children of those monopoly capitalists?
They wear silk, eat steak, and ride in carriages to school.”
People in the square began to weep.
“This is the truth of France.
This is the reality you face every day.”
Furina’s voice rose.
“And what is more hateful is, what are those who should be protecting you—those congressmen sitting in parliament, those high officials in formal attire, those politicians who keep saying ‘For France, for all the citizens’—doing?” Find the original chapter at novelping . com.
He paused for a moment and swept his gaze across the audience.
“They are fraternizing with those who exploit you!”
“They are accepting bribes from those monopoly capitalists.
They are using your hard-earned money to buy themselves villas, carriages, and mistresses.
They collude with landlords to oppress the farmers in the south.
They collude with factory owners to exploit the workers in the north.
They turn a blind eye to your suffering and are indifferent to the future of the nation.”
His voice was like a blade, sharp and calm.
“This is the truth of the Conservative Party’s twenty-year rule over France.
This is not governance, this is plunder.
This is not a government, this is a group of leeches sucking the blood of France!”
Thunderous applause erupted in the square.
The applause seemed to explode from their chests, carrying twenty years of anger and grievance.
“They claim that France needs stability and order.
But their stability is the stability of letting you work like cattle and horses forever.
Their order is the order of letting a minority ride on the heads of the majority forever.”
He paused, his voice becoming even firmer.
“Therefore, today, I want to state our determination here, before the Holy Goddess, and before all the citizens of France.”
He took a deep breath.
“This government will declare war on these plunderers.
War on monopoly capital, war on the greedy landlords, war on all those who are sucking the blood of France!”
Applause and cheers intertwined, the voices of over a hundred thousand people converging into a torrent, reverberating over Paris.
Furina waited for quite a while before letting the crowd quiet down again.
“Of course, they will not sit idly by and wait for death.
Those with vested interests will definitely do everything in their power to stop us, just as they did a few days ago.”
Someone in the crowd clenched their fists.
“They will use every means possible.
They will spread rumors, slander, bribe, and threaten.
They might even collude with foreigners and betray the interests of France, just to protect their own purses.”
His voice became more serious.
“Therefore, I need you to understand one thing: this battle will not be easy.
It cannot be accomplished overnight.
It requires all of us to be united, and it requires us to make arduous efforts.”
He raised his voice.
“But I want to tell you, we will definitely win this battle.
Because we stand on the side of justice, because we represent the vast majority of France; because everything we do is not for the benefit of the few, but for the future of this country!”
Applause rang out again.
Furina raised his hand.
“Our top priority is to redistribute social assets.” He said, word by word.
“Industries controlled by monopoly capital must be broken up.
Land seized by landlords must be redistributed.
Wealth plundered by the powerful must be returned to the people.”
His voice became more powerful.
“We will let those workers who risk their lives in factories receive the wages they deserve.
We will let those farmers who sweat in the fields eat the food they grow. This story is hosted at g.com.
We will let those children who lose fingers in front of machines return to school to study.”
“We will legislate to limit working hours, ban child labor, and set a minimum wage.
We will reform the tax system, making the Pantalones pay more taxes and the poor pay less.
We will build railways so that agricultural products from the south can be shipped out.
We will build factories so that the unemployed have work to do.
We will open schools so that every child can learn to read and write.”
Every time he said “We will,” someone in the crowd nodded.
“This is absolutely not an impossible task.
This can be achieved through our efforts.
Of course, we must also admit that this is a very difficult problem to solve.
For twenty years, even for centuries, landlords, monopoly capital, and big financial cliques have always been over the heads of the French people.
This is absolutely not something that can be solved overnight.”
His voice became deep and serious.
“Therefore, it is all the more necessary for the Republic’s government to formulate plans, coordinate, and work together to overcome this difficult moment and resolve these deep-rooted ailments.”
He paused.
“In short, there are many methods.
Only empty talk is useless.
What France needs most right now is action, immediate action!
Action now!”
Applause surged like a tide.
This time, Furina did not wait for the applause to subside.
He raised his voice directly.
“Today’s France needs unity more than at any other time in history.
We cannot just take; we must also contribute.
We must be like an army, sacrificing for our common ideals.
Only in this way can we form a unified entity that advances and retreats together, sharing weal and woe.”
His gaze became incomparably firm.
“I have personally prepared to lead this great army composed of our nation’s people.
According to the constitution and the power granted to me by the Holy Goddess, I will propose a series of measures.
I am convinced that these measures are urgent and necessary for a nation mired in suffering.
These measures may harm the interests of different classes.”
He paused for a second.
“However, in the event that Congress rejects any of them, I will resort to supreme executive power, just as we would when facing the most serious invasion.”
The square was extremely quiet.
Everyone knew the weight of these words.
This was not a threat; this was a promise.
This was the firmest promise made by a twenty-year-old, facing over a hundred thousand people, facing all of France.
“At this critical moment, I humbly ask for the blessing of the Holy Goddess.
May the Goddess bless France, and may the Goddess grant me guidance.”
After saying the last word, he stood there, head slightly bowed.
The winter sunlight leaked through the gaps in the clouds, falling upon him, casting a faint golden hue over his small blue suit.
The square was silent for a few seconds.
Then, cheers erupted like a volcanic eruption.