1993- Return of a King
Coalition Cracked Apart
Ethiopia has reached a breaking point... within its transitional government. The attempts at trying to establish a vote for Eritrea to leave have failed with the death of its leader along with the in-fighting in the group having snowballed into factionalism and even violence. The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front was on the verge of breaking apart. Their method of trying to maintain power by allowing only ethnic-based parties was called out and without support from the world, was deprived of major legitimacy. Additionally, they underestimated the popularity of the late king when he came to visit over to his homeland. Trying to promote peace and unity, he would provide plenty of support over for
Moa Anbessa, a political movement that called for restoring the monarchy, albeit as a consitutional monarchy. It rejected the plans of dividing up the state by ethnic lines and preached on unity, past history and glory along with the promise of a better future. While the EPRDF would block the
Moa Anbessa front/party from participating, it would not stop its growth. When the king was killed and his son, Zera Yacob Amha Selassie, would ascend to the crown, he would lead on ahead with the party, his assassinated father now a martyr. While details on the would-be assassin remained unknown, most of the blame would still fall on the EPRDF for their negligance, which just charged all the previous complaints had against them with a renewed fervor.
As the EPRDF began cracking under the strain, a new coalition was standing against them, that of the
Moa Anbessa and their growing allies. They would be pressuring more and more of the EPRDF to let in non-ethnic based parties or scrapping the whole system planned on federalizing the nation under ethnic lines. Without much outside support, the EPRDF began hemorrhaging key members and supporters who were prioritizing their own political careers or livelihoods over the coalition's and began defecting or just plain exiting it, causing a growing eruption of in-fighting, both within the constitutent parties of the coalition and the coalition itself. One brutal moment was the death of the EPLF leader from cerebral malaria and that caused them to finally begin cracking. Unable to rule effectively and such, this would soon snowball into growing problems.
Widescale protests and marches were being held in the major cities, calling for a change in government. For the transitional government to step down and for a new one to come and take place.
Rebuilding a Nation
Eventually, the coalition could not hold and as more people joined over the
Moa Anbessa movement, they would finally collapse. The EPRDF, who fought for so long to try and free Ethiopia, would itself break from its own problems, that of support of ethnic federalism. And now, with this, the
Moa Anbessa held the reins of the table as discussions were held now over the formation of Ethiopia's new government.
One of the big names that were involved was Meles Zenawi. Despite the interim president's view over regarding ethnic federalism and leading the EPRDF, many of his other ideas for helping Ethiopia was found to be valuable by
Moa Anbessa and respected him enough to have him be included in much of the discussions. Zenawi would help put into place many of the reforms such as freedom of religion and the press, along with plans to expand schools, land and agriculture reform to ensure that droughts would not plague the nation once more. During these discussions, one foreign consultant compared some of the ethnic issues of Ethiopia over with Yugoslavia and noted that they needed to avoid what happened there. At the same time, the greater study of Yugoslavia revealed many potential ideas over on how they successfully handled a market socialist economy and what could be learned from there. It provided good alternatives to just privatizing everything over there and help try and avoid exploitation.
However, it would still see the end of ethnic federalism as the country would be divided up in different ways, more focused on natural geography, population numbers and other factors to ensure a balance. The only exception of sorts was Eritrea, due to already being an entity. The question over whether Eritrea should be independent or not could not really be ignored forever though trying to figure that in the leadership vacuum in the moment would be impractical. Ultimately, Eritrea would get a referendum over in 1994 to decide their fate on whether to remain with Ethiopia or secede. 1994 was insisted on by the remains of the EPLF, believing that if they delayed it longer than it needed, it would kill the momentum for the movement. Despite this plan though, they still assisted in drawing out plans like everyone else, including on what if the people of Eritrea voted to remain and thus draw out the new federal boundaries to avoid the ethnic federalism.
Return of the Lion
In the middle of May, specifcially between the Ethiopian holidays of Freedom Day and what would be known as Derg Downfall Day would be a new holiday. Crowning Day, referring to the coronation of Zera Yacob Amha Selassie, officially declaring the nation as a constitutional monarchy. Unsurprisingly, many heads of state or their representatives would becoming to witness the coronation, especially those from Africa. For many people, it would be like a long and complicated nightmare would finally be over.
And televised for people in the nation and the world to see the return of the Ethiopian monarch. His Imperial Majesty Emperor Zera Yacob Amha Selassie, Elect of God, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah and King of Kings of Ethiopia had now taken his mantle and returned to become the ruler of Ethiopia. He maintained the title of emperor and thus he was the one of two heads of state to have the title of Emperor, the only other one being the Emperor of Japan. He would be there alongside interim president Meles Zenawi, who would be stepping down by the end of the year as the title of president would be dissolved.
Moa Anbessa would remain around, transforming into a center-right party and would become one of the modern parties of the Ethiopian Parliament. In a display of magnanimity, Emperor Zera Selassie would pardon the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party (informally known as Ihapa) and permitting them to function as an offical party, though they have now renamed themselves as the Ethiopian Freedom Party, becoming a center-left party. The All-Ethiopia Socialist Movement would not be as lucky though by now, most of the party members have exited politics or switched parties, effectively rendering it dead for the time being. As for the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front itself though, most of the parties that made up the coalition have collapsed and the remnants have come together to form the Ethiopian Peoples' Party and would be permitted to serve and continue as an official party for the left-wing. Meles Zenawi wold become the head of the new Ethiopian Democratic Party. This along with some new parties being formed from inspiraton of other nations, such as the Ethiopian Green Party.
While more work had to be done regarding helping Ethiopia, the international support along with some investment and funds coming in to help out with the nation, thus providing a new dawn over for Ethiopia.