SPECIAL ISSUE OF THE CORRIEREIllegalized Right Wing Paramilitaries rise up all across mainland Istalia!Minister of Foreign Affairs Luka Di Nero: The friendship with Solentia is over!New PND Leadership most right wing it has ever been due to migrant crisis!This special issue of the corriere presents the latest news as so much has come in the past month that a normal issue would simply not fit.
A common sight in Istalia, an illegal paramilitary member “taking security into his own hands”After the dissolution of paramilitaries, which were introduced and only supported by the PND, there was a slight uproar in the Istalian right wing public which believed that normal police “was not enough”. However, the unrests were small and not worth mentioning initially. Now however, with the swarm of Solentian immigrants, people “feel unsafe” according to one young man. Especially on the border regions in Trivendito and the Nationalist haven Padagna the sightings of illegal paramilitary groups have become much more frequent and the police is unable to deal with them, as once again due to the Solentian situation,there are not enough resources, including human, to deal with internal armed groups. Minister of Defence Anna Verde has said the following:
May I just say: WE TOLD YOU SO. The people will not be happy that paramilitaries are disbanded but now they even have good reason to assemble again. The number of migrants after the President opened borders has shocked us all and for the record, this decision has not been consulted with us. The President and the ULD has acted on their own accord to open borders now it is my duty as Defence Minister to deal with the security lapses. I propose that we issue a situation of national emergency in Padagna and Trivendito inorder to call in the army to not only deal with the influx of migrants safely, but now also with our own citizens which decided to take up arms in now clearly illegal paramilitary groups. The National Democratic Party always supported REGULATED paramilitaries, which these are not.
As of now, no shots were fired but the people are armed with the legal Istalian weapons and are hostile to everyone who does not speak Istalian and obviously the police which tries to arrest them. All of the paramilitaries groups have identified as right wing, with 90% of the “members” voting PND, and what is worse, inside the PND many high up members endorse these groups! To this we will get later as well.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Luka di Nero: A blockade is an act of war! Our patience is over!Meanwhile, on the other side of the border the Solentian government is shooting at its own citizens which try to cross the border legally and illegally to Istalia. The Solentian government has officially closed the border, isolating Istalia from the Majatran mainland and the AR has already called it a “blockade” which would be an act of war. The Minister of Foreign Affairs Luka di Nero has stated the following as a response:
A blockade is an act of war. No question. However, for now as far as we are aware, travel from Istalia TO Solentia might still be possible so we will not flip that switch just yet. We have fought long and hard for a good relationship with a Solentia and war should be avoided at all costs. HOWEVER, friendship with the Solentian government is impossible as we can not look away from people being shot at the Istalian border, nor can we ignore poisonous gases leaking into our country through the said border. The health of our citizens is at stake here so we have proposed to the President, after long and hard hesitation and thought, to withdraw from the friendship treaty and to consider sanctions. If the first soldier does not get in contact with us soon, then we will go ahead. We will not wait for anything anymore. Our patience is over!
We have given chance after chance to Halion, we even proposed to prevent Dolgavian bases to please them as we understand their concern. But the First Soldier’s words of amnesty and a “civil government” have been just that: words. This is not even a warning, this is a threat. Halion needs to think well and act fast regarding what next, because Istalia will tolerate no more provocation.
In recent months, contact with the Solentian government in Halion has been very sporadic, and was more provocation on both sides than dialogue. Many in the PND still believe that the first soldier is to be reasoned with, and many believe that the nationalists succumbed to liberal pressure to give this final ultimatum to Halion, after all the United Right and PND overlap on many policies. But according to Verde and Di Nero, it does not overlap with the most important part: Democratic.
The almost leader of the PND Niccolo NachiavelliThe PND has finally held its congress. Usually, the major congress happens every 4 years in between elections but this has been the first one since 4470, 9 years ago as the congresses of 4474 and 4478 were skipped and postponed respectively as 4472 saw the best PND election result in its history, so no congress was deemed necessary and members enjoyed the very flat hierarchy in the absence of a clear leader. There was a system in place which seemingly did not require maintenance and the ex-whip Kassis, Ex-Prime Minister Di Nero and Ex-President Verde worked very well in tandem handling the most important issues at hand and enjoying great popularity without a clear leader or vice leader. However, as the ex in front of all of their respective titles indicates, their automatism has been punished by the voters and despite still gaining over 150 seats, the National Democracts lost the Presidential and Parliamentary elections to the Liberal Democrats, their now senior coalition partners. So the Party called a congress in 4478, and many, including Verde and Di Nero have applied for the leadership race but the congress had to be postponed due to the near emergency national situation which would not allow for a “balanced political decision on the party’s long term future”. Nonetheless, in even greater political heat of October 4479 the congress gathered. The majority of the members wanted a final decision despite the hesitation of the two ministers, Defence and Foreign Affairs respectively, who have been too busy working in that time to think about the leadership election and hence did not have any real campaign. For that and for many things they have been punished.
A coup has almost been accomplished by the charismatic MP Niccolo Nachiavelli from Florenza. He has gone under the radar his whole life, never being in the Young Alternative but being politically active at university, where he studied philosophy. He was voted into his city council as an independent with his stance being representative of the most right wing streams of Florenzan politics. Hence, he never had the popular right wing support the PND had, but he got enough from the fringes. Ultimately, he joined the PND and went onto the national level, where he also easily got voted into the Chamber, but was a back bench MP in the previous legislature. After the 4476 elections however, he noticed the void left by a lack of clear leader, so he began gathering allies and support and by 4479, before the clear favourites Di Nero and Verde realized, he overtook them both in popularity and in individual votes. In the first round of the leadership election, the votes were as follows:
Niccolo Nachiavelli: 41% (MP from Florenza, unaligned wing)
Anna Verde: 30% (Minister of Defence from Palerno, Conservative Wing)
Luka di Nero: 20% (Minister of Foreign Affairs, Conservative Wing)
Giuseppe Bencivenni 9% (Minister of Health, Opportunist Wing)
Only thanks to the voting system, did the radical right Nachiavelli not become the PND Il Duce, because according to the rules of the party, if no candidate gains a majority, a second round of the 2 best performaning candidates ensues and Di Nero endorsed Verde resulting in her close victory:
Niccolo Nachiavelli: 45%
Anna Verde 54%
1% did not vote
What was also surprising, yet the signs were already there before, the opportunist wing clearly collapsed with only about 10% of the party willing to align themselves with more centrist positions of the AR and specifically the PdA. The golden age of PND “centrist” politics is long gone as the party has been dominated by the grass roots conservatives. Now however, there is a fresh wind of an unaligned wing in the party willing to go further to the right. Nachiavelli wanted to close the borders, leave the coalition with the ULD and is the main supporter of the illegal paramilitaries which he endorses and claims them to be “real patriots”, as they “protect us againss the Solentian mass migration”. Socially, his stance is the first of the PND as openly anti-LGBT and breaks the common way that the party always tried to walk of a fine line between traditional values and LGBT tolerance. Economically, Nachiavelli wants to “force people to work”, by supporting the idea of public works but making it a labour intensive job for the unemployed. The first public work would be a wall on the Solentian border.
The platform for Nachiavelli to thrive was ironically provided by the liberal move of opening the border, as the PND is an isolationist party, many felt disappointed with the ULD alliance and wanted change.
Nonetheless, the new leader of the PND is Anna Verde (50), who was the favorite from the start, making her the second female leader of the National Democratic Party of Istalia, carrying the unoffical rank “Il Duce”. The Vice Leader thanks to his endorsement is Luka Di Nero (40), who is related to the Di Nero political dynasty from Romula. The new Whip however, and this was inevitable due to popular demand, is Niccolo Nachiavelli (34). The chamber is about to get much more interesting and expect the party to have some infighting from time to time.
The leader of the conservative inner party wing and the Vice-Whip was chosen to be the current Minister of Education and Culture Mattheo Vespa-Baldassare (60) a common position for a an elder member and especially for a Vespa-Baldassare to take. The leader of the opportunist wing was re-elected Minister Giuseppe Bencivenni (55), who promised that they will seize the opportunity once the right implodes. The freshly baked new Whip remains unaligned with any particular party wing although the vast majority of his followers, which constitute about 40% of the party, are members in the conservative wing and still, at least officially, follow Il Duce Verde who is a conservative. So no wonder Bencivenni talks about the right imploding although he also remarked: “I would not be particularly happy about that as we are all one party and their success is ultimately our success”.
The other, minor, leadership members which become candidates for ministries in the government cabinet include:
Mauricio Spalatti (30) Former footballer from Romula. Currently Minister of Infrastructure and Transport. Funnily enough, agrees with public works to build autostrada.
Dr. Bianca Rotti (29) dr. Of Sociology from Trivendito. Straight out of university into politcs.
Ahmad Kahn (23), Former member of the Young Alternative in Sarregna. Born into an agricultural family but idolized Juliana Vespa-Baldassare for her work done to improve education in his home region so he went to university in Romula to become a teacher.
Flaminia Ricollo (23), distant yet direct descendant of former AI Leader Franco Ricollo. She studied economics in Vanuku thanks to a MA student exchange program. So she got to travel a lot in Western Majatra: Vanuku, Barmenia, Jelbania and Cobura specifically.
Carlo Levi (35), University Professor in Istalian History from Genevia. A unique case of a Nationalist Yeudi.
Marco Vittelo (29), Chemist from Milona who failed to finish his doctorate degree so he decided to rediscover himself in politics. Believes that the PND is the most fitting party because aparently “they are the only ones who disregard feelings when discussing facts”.
James Renno (21), he was named after a Luthorian actor which makes his name weird because he is fully Istalian. His parents were just great fans of Luthorian movies. James himself however prefers Istalian cinematography and is himself a popular podcast host and intends to use his experience in national politics. He has great influence in the party and beyond as his podcast is listened to by thousands monthly.
Giorgio Giovanni (27), a descendant of a very rich Istalian family which potentially is linked to Mafia. He is also related to the Vespa-Baldassare through Luciano Vespa-Baldassare as his wife was Giorgio’s great aunt. Whether this has propelled his career or not is arguable but Giorgio himself is a very humble young man and a very talented musician playing the saxophone. He also is gifted in Polemic as was witnessed in multiple more political radio shows he was a guest speaker in. He also regularly talks to student across the country and organizes musical trips across Terra and funds musical schools for the less fortunate, making his resume more than satisfactory for a leadership position.
Nazionale, Official Press of the Alternativa Istaliana (Istalian Alternative; AI)