AHC/WI: Royal pretender wins their nation's Presidency

Basically, how can we get someone to pull a Louis Napoleon in the 20th or 21st century? Is it an election or an appointment? What would be the international reaction? Who would and could do it? Would they try and reinstall the monarchy?

Thus far the only royalty to win an election as a country's leader has been Bulgaria's last Czar and 48th Prime Minster Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. But that was as PM, not as President.

Bonus points if the President is a female pretender.

Super bonus points if it's another one of Napoleon Bonaparte's family.

Mega bonus points if this is outside Europe.
 
Zhu Rongji, who is pretender to the Ming Dynasty throne, served as Prime Minister of the People's Republic of China between 1998 and 2003. He was seen as an honest and competent administrator.

Maybe if the communist regime were to fall peacefully, and maybe after a few years of political wrangling, it is agreed that introducing a constitutional monarchy under someone who is palatable to the old guard *and* can serve as a symbol of unity would help with an orderly and smooth transition.
 
OTL. Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia was Head of State (technically a republican post) of the post-Cambodian Civil War president before he was reinstated as King. In fact, his entire life has basically been a round table of head of state and government titles, from child king to PM to Head of State to communist president to post-war Head of State, then back to an elderly king.
 
Zhu Rongji, who is pretender to the Ming Dynasty throne, served as Prime Minister of the People's Republic of China between 1998 and 2003. He was seen as an honest and competent administrator.

Maybe if the communist regime were to fall peacefully, and maybe after a few years of political wrangling, it is agreed that introducing a constitutional monarchy under someone who is palatable to the old guard *and* can serve as a symbol of unity would help with an orderly and smooth transition.

good pt--didn't he also serve as vice president afterward?
 
Not quite what you're looking for and pretty implausible due to his religion, but Charles Joseph Bonaparte was born in Baltimore and thus was eligible for the US presidency. It does fulfill two of the bonus points requirements though. :D
 
The last Bulgarian Tsar, Simeon II, became the Bulgarian Prime Minister in the early 2000's, sort of fits the OP.

EDIT: NVM; didn't read OP fully.
 
I don't exactly know whether he was THE pretender due to the paucity of genealogical records and lack of clarity in succession laws, but the Haitian President Pierre Nord Alexis (1908-1910) was a/the grandson of King Henry Christophe, who ruled the North of the country for about a decade until he died - within a fortnight revolutionaries had infiltrated his swanky Palace in the middle of nowhere and killed his teenaged son and half of his main guys. I don't think PNA made a big thing of of it.
 
Crown Prince Wilhelm, though not strictly a pretender until his father Wilhelm II died, was interested in trying his hand at this stunt in 1932 Germany before his father forbade it. Have Hitler trip down the stairs before anyone has ever heard of him and the monarchist German National People's Party is likely to be the leading party of the German far right. If, following the Wall Street Crash, the Nationalists do pretty well in elections to the Reichstag (not necessarily as well as the OTL National Socialists did, but well enough to become a very major party, due to the radicalising effect of extreme economic tumult and due to lacking any effective competitors on the far right) and they pick a leader like Lettow-Vorbeck or Treviranus who's more 'in' with the 'respectable' German nobility and monarchy than Hugenberg—a PoD that only requires killing off two people, Hitler and Hugenberg, at the appropriate times—they may well be able to persuade him to defy his father and compete anyway, as they're powerful enough that it seems worth a try. He already often didn't do what his father wanted him to do, it's actually quite surprising that he was obedient on that point in OTL. Under those circumstances, since Hindenburg was a hard-line monarchist, he could very probably have been persuaded to not run again and endorse the Kronprinz for the Reich Presidency.

If the Nationalists did well enough in the Reichstag that, as with the National Socialists in OTL, there arose an 'anti-republican majority' (far left + far right) that made the pro-republican parties incapable of blocking Hindenburg's increasing tendency to rule by presidential power, there's easy cooperation between them and Hindenburg, there's a somewhat OTL-esque rise of the far right to power (but with much easier collaboration with the cabal around Hindenburg and the Nationalists than in OTL where the National Socialists were involved too) and it's easy for the monarchy to be restored. If the Nationalists didn't do well enough for there to be an anti-republican majority, the pro-republican parties would be stuck governing the country and making themselves even more unpopular, ably aided by their own likely difficulties in coming to a consensus (given the non-negligible differences of ideas, to put it mildly, between democratic socialists and some rather hard-right conservatives of parties including the one of which Brüning in OTL was a member) without a figure from above forcing the way; so it's reasonably possible for the Kronprinz to be elected even if the coalition candidate isn't eliminated before the KPD candidate, let alone if he is. In that case, with Nationalist street thugs roaming all over the place beating up people they don't like, it's only a matter of time before there's a confrontation between the Presidency and the Chancellery, sparking a conflict which the Nationalists—with a much greater support base in the Army, plus the Stahlhelm and any other right-wing street organisations they've picked up—are extremely likely to win.

Result: Destruction of German democracy and restoration of the Hohenzollern monarchy in Germany, under a nice pleasant (sarcasm alert!) anti-Semitic ultranationalist reactionary regime. Yay! Yay…?

As for international results, I think it would be a significant blow to fascists and a major aid to reactionaries across the world as the leading force of the far right; it would be a sea-change from dictatorships like Mussolini's to dictatorships like Franco's and Pinochet's. Plenty of right-wing people who in OTL criticised the National Socialists and the Italian fascists might well not criticise the Nationalists. The international reaction would be pretty similar to the international reaction to Hitler's rise to power in OTL: the left and some elements of the non-extreme right would be appalled, the far right would be cheering, and other elements of the non-extreme right—including people like Churchill—would withhold judgement and later decide whether to cheer them on for stopping socialism or to despise them for being expansionist/breaking their word/some reason or another.

(I've long argued, for a variety of reasons, that a Nationalist takeover, rather than a communist Germany or the highly optimistic 'Weimar survives' idea, is the likely result of killing off Hitler early, though I don't think this particular way is the only or even the most probable way for it to occur.)
 
Thus far the only royalty to win an election as a country's leader has been Bulgaria's last Czar and 48th Prime Minster But that was as PM, not as President.

A very USA view. The Prime Minister is the top dog in Bulgaria as in many other countries. I know that in the USA the President has more power than any King in the world and far more than poor old Farmer George ever did but Prime Ministers are frequently the boss.
 
Half of Iran is descended from the Qajars. Main difficultly would be how to determine who is the foremost pretender.
 
Half of Iran is descended from the Qajars. Main difficultly would be how to determine who is the foremost pretender.

And I guess that most of Iranians if not all are descedants of Achaenids. But this is pretty difficult to even prove.

And in Egypt might be much people who are descedants of pharaohs. But this is too bit to prove.

Well, many people are probably descedant of some ancient king. And almost all presidents of USA are descedants of Henry II of England. But this hardly count.
 
And I guess that most of Iranians if not all are descedants of Achaenids. But this is pretty difficult to even prove.

And in Egypt might be much people who are descedants of pharaohs. But this is too bit to prove.

Well, many people are probably descedant of some ancient king. And almost all presidents of USA are descedants of Henry II of England. But this hardly count.

In this case it's slightly more special, because the Qajars only became Shahs at the tail end of the 18th century and proceeded to breed like rabbits for the next century or so. Apparently family reunions result in literal hordes of children causing chaos. :eek:

It'd be a bit like if everybody in America was on speaking terms with a descendant of George Washington.
 
Zhu Rongji, who is pretender to the Ming Dynasty throne, served as Prime Minister of the People's Republic of China between 1998 and 2003. He was seen as an honest and competent administrator.

Maybe if the communist regime were to fall peacefully, and maybe after a few years of political wrangling, it is agreed that introducing a constitutional monarchy under someone who is palatable to the old guard *and* can serve as a symbol of unity would help with an orderly and smooth transition.

Now that's interesting.

OTL. Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia was Head of State (technically a republican post) of the post-Cambodian Civil War president before he was reinstated as King. In fact, his entire life has basically been a round table of head of state and government titles, from child king to PM to Head of State to communist president to post-war Head of State, then back to an elderly king.

Yeah his life is a juggling game of titles and governments who imposed them on him.

Not quite what you're looking for and pretty implausible due to his religion, but Charles Joseph Bonaparte was born in Baltimore and thus was eligible for the US presidency. It does fulfill two of the bonus points requirements though. :D

Oh you clever little devil you. :p Yes a literal interpretation of the OP does make this true.

Also, I made a thread based of that idea too.

The last Bulgarian Tsar, Simeon II, became the Bulgarian Prime Minister in the early 2000's, sort of fits the OP.

EDIT: NVM; didn't read OP fully.

:rolleyes: it takes a special kind of reading comprehension fail to miss literally everything I posted.

I don't exactly know whether he was THE pretender due to the paucity of genealogical records and lack of clarity in succession laws, but the Haitian President Pierre Nord Alexis (1908-1910) was a/the grandson of King Henry Christophe, who ruled the North of the country for about a decade until he died - within a fortnight revolutionaries had infiltrated his swanky Palace in the middle of nowhere and killed his teenaged son and half of his main guys. I don't think PNA made a big thing of of it.

Another interesting tidbit. How many people even know Haiti was an Empire twice?


Ok now this is something that is what I was looking for. I really want to see this as a TL, the political intrigue, the international reactions of the Hohenzollern's coming back to power in a generation, the affect of other disposed monarchies, etc.

A very USA view. The Prime Minister is the top dog in Bulgaria as in many other countries. I know that in the USA the President has more power than any King in the world and far more than poor old Farmer George ever did but Prime Ministers are frequently the boss.

I know all that. It's more of a matter of them becoming another kind of Head of State then just being the political leader of the country.

Well, according to himself, Rhee was a descendant of the Joseon Lee dynasty.

Another fact I didn't know.

In this case it's slightly more special, because the Qajars only became Shahs at the tail end of the 18th century and proceeded to breed like rabbits for the next century or so. Apparently family reunions result in literal hordes of children causing chaos. :eek:

It'd be a bit like if everybody in America was on speaking terms with a descendant of George Washington.

:eek:
 
I'm not cool enough to get quoted apparently. :(:p

Also, Sihanouk was already head of government once after the monarchy was deposed and before he supported the Khmer Rouge, come to think of it - and he also was head of state before reinstating himself as king in 1993, so he meets this AHC twice, maybe thrice.

Souphanouvong is another Indochinese prince (Lao this time) who rode the coatracks of Communism to become head of state.
 
I'm not cool enough to get quoted apparently. :(:p

Also, Sihanouk was already head of government once after the monarchy was deposed and before he supported the Khmer Rouge, come to think of it - and he also was head of state before reinstating himself as king in 1993, so he meets this AHC twice, maybe thrice.

Souphanouvong is another Indochinese prince (Lao this time) who rode the coatracks of Communism to become head of state.

You get quoted for posting new content, like this. :cool:

Man the Communists in Asia had a lot of royalty in their midst didn't they? That's three countries thus far that had former royalty as their leaders, in some manner.
 
Time Magazine in 1963 on possible successors to de Gaulle should he die or retire::

"Into this list of hopefuls, the intellectual, left-wing L'Express last
week introduced a weirdly different suggestion. It claimed that De
Gaulle's own choice as his successor is none other than Henri d'Orleans,
54, Comte de Paris, descendant of King Henri IV, and Pretender to the
throne of France. L'Express pointed to the warm personal friendship
between the count and De Gaulle, recalled that le grand Charles's earliest
political sympathies were monarchist, and noted that the Count's Gaullist
leanings had made him a target of a bombing by Secret Army terrorists.
L'Express concluded: 'This vision is one which haunts De Gaulle's
meditations, and it would reconcile two heretofore antagonistic
principles 'monarchy and republic' in a single legitimacy, that of royal
descent and universal suffrage.'

"Only trouble with this vision is that L'Express hates De Gaulle
and would be the last paper to know what he is thinking.
Paris-Presse characterized the story as little more than 'a good
question to toss out to get a dinner conversation going.'"

http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,896808,00.html (full content only available to subscribers)

I don't take the prospects of the Comte de Paris very seriously, for reasons I have explained at http://groups.google.com/group/soc.history.what-if/msg/e4dbe28850a04e79 and http://groups.google.com/group/soc.history.what-if/msg/f3cfe687
 
1. American guy with British and Napoleonic roots becomes U.S. President
2. The Presidents daughter marries the heir to the British throne, other daughter marries a Chinese businessman.
3. The Presidents daughter and husband become the King and Queens of GB. The other daughter has a son.
4. The K&Q Daughter is born, she is next in line for the throne. The son of the other daughter goes into the CCP.
5. The daughter becomes Queen and has two sons, one of these sons moves to the US. The son of the other daughter becomes Chinese President.
6. The spare to the crown moves to Boston and marries. Has a daughter born on US soil.
7. The daughter of the spare runs and become Mass. Governor then becomes US President after winning in a landslid election.

Not only would this gal be the great great grandson of the frmr. President, but her great grandfather would have been the King, and her grandmother would be Queen.

In the Chinese blokes case, he's got friends and family everywhere.

I believe this fulfills all the criteria...and establishes a real political dynasty. I expect super-mega bonus points.
 
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