Rosso steps down!PND succeeded in "Damage Mitigation" as the nationalist wave fallsFollowing the election, the PND HQ in Palerno was sincerely disappointed about the election loss to an underdog left wing candidate. Many in the party blame it on the fractured bid of the nationalist bloc, whilst Luciano Vespa-Baldassare claims that they should not have aligned with that bloc in the first place and should have endorsed the ULD candidate to follow further along the path of "damage mitigation". This path was actually relatively successful for the PND , which lost only 6 seats, reclaiming its position as strongest nationalist party and despite losing Sarregna, surprisingly winning Mezzodiurno, keeping the party firmly in fourth, which looking at the new number of parties in the chamber and damage taken by PNI is actually quite a satisfying result for the National Democrats.
Nonetheless, this means again a now final farewell to Antonio Rosso. Aged 86 he has seen a lot. He has been World Congress Security Council representative of Istalia, he has been Prime Minister, he was a philanthropist in the Rosso foundation following the AI collapse, he founded the PND and in his final election managed to keep the PND a key player in Istalian politics despite the increased number of parties and the sinking nationalism - he even managed to gather 17 % of the vote for President (remember aged 86). His grand son Gianluigi Rosso (18, named obviously after the honoured President) is currently leading the Youth Wing organization of the PND (Young Alternative) and is expected to step up to the national political scene very soon, presumably following university studies.
The departure of Rosso calls for a new Leader, and the party has unanimously confirmed Vice-Leader Luciano Vespa-Baldassare as the new Il Duce of the party. Of course there were some sighs of disappointment regarding this arguably undemocratic appointment, but the mainstream belief was that the party needed to project unity and strength and a famous name in front of the challenges to come in the new legislature. Moreover, the VB line was always the most moderate one in the party, hoping to govern in the next legislature and sending signals towards the Liberal Democrats of such intentions.
New Leader Luciano Vespa-Baldassare with a comment:
Thank you Antonio Rosso for the fantastic years that i know you, my most proud achievement is calling you a friend. Thank you to the voters who continue to trust us, as we have not lost voters despite the increased party number. Thank you to the party members for unanimously confirming me as their Leader, I hope to not disappoint. Lastly, as a thank you to the media, we can still provide food for speculation regarding who will become the new Vice-Leader of the PND, so have fun tonight!
The Vice Leader of the PND will be elected democratically, AFTER the coalition building process concludes as Luciano hopes with currently unshared power within the party to put the PND in the most optimal position possible.
Only then will the comfortable Environment allow for such crucial decisions such as leadership elections
Claims Luciano.
Nazionale, Official Press of the Alternativa Istaliana (Istalian Alternative; AI)