Aiken

Aiken was a North American micronation and a constituent state of New Europe.

History
Aiken officially became part of New Europe when the Fourth Reichstag first met in North Augusta on 11 June 2011. Its government was a provisional republic under President Caroline Kalayjian who set up the state and its borders based off its populations location and activity. Once established it vowed to make up for the mistakes of the old Kingdom of South Carolina. Although it is legally recognized as South Carolina's successor state, none of its citizens had any prior affiliation with the government or the King. Although Kalayjian kept Aiken stable throughout its early months it would see a minor clash between its state politics and imperial politics. The Imperial Chancellor of New Europe, Alexander Huber, was unable to run for re-election in October of 2011. The Nationalist Party nominated Aiken's top nationalist, Jessica Brigan to run against the Socialist candidate Eric Perez. Initially the nomination was welcomed by the Aiken leadership as they saw it as an oppertunity to put their young state on the international stage. However Brigan developed close ties to members of the Reichstag and more importantly became close to the throne. Kalayjian used Brigan as her tool to push for more expansionist opinions in the Reichstag. Some of Aiken's local population felt that Kalayjian should focus on establishing a solid government rather than get the state tied up in imperial politics. On 01 October 2011, when the election began, Brigan was created Countess of Aiken by decree of the emperor. Kalayjian and the Aiken population were outraged by what they felt was the monarchy's way of asserting its supremacy over the state. However, Brigan initially refused the title unless ratified by the Aikener Parliament. Confident that parliament would vote against, Kalayyjian called the matter up for a vote in an emergency session. The parliament agreed to recognize the title as well as adopt a constitutional monarchy under the countess until such a time when population numbers grew. The newly created ruler of the state apointed her friend and now former president Kalayjian as her Prime Minister.