01.10.4499Anna Verde retires at the end of the century!Anna Verde adressing the Congress one last time at her leaving party. Her speeches were always captivating.After 10 years of rehabilitation in the ranks of the opposition, the PND came out strong out of the elections of 4497, winning the largest number of seats in the Chamber and the Governor race in Mezzodiurno, however losing the Presidential campaign brought to an end the long and very fruitful political career of former President Anna Verde. Aged 70, and exactly 20 years after the start of her PND "reign" as Il Duce, she puts down arms after the defeat from Franco Manzelli of the FD. It was a nice way to end her career, as it coincided with the 100th anniversary since the first participation in elections of the PND. Nonetheless, the 6th leader of the PND leaves behind a great deal of work for her successor, namely Luka di Nero (60) who got confirmed unanimously as new Il Duce of the National Democrats. The country is in disarray, Luka is not particularly popular, getting the unanimous confirmation only thanks to Verde's endorsement and the good performance of the party in the elections. Moreover, factionalism has never been stronger. There are 4, not very clearly defined factions in the PND, and 5 people fighting for dominance. There is still the conservative wing, which is still the largest and is luckily for him led by Di Nero after the retirement (together with Anna Verde) of the most unambitious Vespa-Baldassare (Mattheo, former Minister of Education and Culture) aged 80. The conservatives account for about 40 per cent of the party. This number is deceivingly high as 25 years ago, the conservatives amounted 75 per cent. Moreover, the conservatives experience an internal power struggle of their own as unlike his father, the new Vice-Whip Antonio Vespa-Baldassare (41) is very ambitious. The second largest fraction is the Nachiavelli supporters, which although mostly officially aligned with the Conservatives, have openly expressed their support for the factionless Whip of the PND; they amount for about 30 per cent and obviously, Niccolo is using that to his full advantage. He is commonly seen "amongst the people", he calls the admired colonel Raniu a "friend", and even now instead of sitting in the Chamber, election campaigning for him never stops as he joined the mass mob in his hometown of Florenza to demonstrate against the incompetence of Romula - the incompetence for which he is arguably partially responsible. Nonetheless, this momentum causes Di Nero to sleep less at night because if Nachiavelli in some sudden coup manages to claim the Premiership seat, which he clearly wants, then Di Nero's career is officially over. Another 20 per cent of the party is led by the very ambitious Perla Vespa-Baldassare (37), who since the dissolution of the ULD led a fraction of the dissolved party to join the PND. This caused lots of friction initially, causing the PND to plummet in the polls, but the recovery in the opposition has allowed the Liberals to integrate into the PND and the integration clearly paid off in the recent elections. Nonetheless, they are the most liberal exponent of the party and frictions on many social questions and even some economic ones still arise, giving the Liberals their own faction with a very charismatic leader, does not change the course of the heavyweight party that is the PND, but may affect future coalition forming, for example thanks to them, the MLD is favoured to be the junior partner in a potential coalition instead of Istalia Unita. The final 10 per cent is the so-called opportunists, which now work closely with the liberals. They were led by Giuseppe Bencivenni (75) who however retired together with Mattheo Vespa-Baldassare and Anna Verde, never getting his chance to shine like his dad, who led the party in the "golden age" of opportunists. The opportunists are now led by Flaminia Ricollo (43), who is a descendant of Franco Ricollo and who already made a name for herself in the Finance Ministry. She believes the public outcry is "temporary" and believes in tighter cooperation with the AR, which would allow for more of said careful, yet clearly market-orientated reforms. She thinks the economy needs a little "push" and that Istalia should not stop its international commitment because "despite how it looks, Istalia is still a great power." Sentiment which would usually resonate with Radicals.
The final speech of former President Anna Verde as leader of the National Democrats adressed to the Party Congress in Palerno:
Ladies and Gentlemen, on this great day I pass on the torch to you, to carry this party forward. No. To carry the NATION forward. After all, the people have given us, the National Democrats the opportunity to govern this nation for the next few years. They have put their faith in our hands and it is our responsibility not to disappoint them. Whatever the coalition may be, even if the PND ends up in the opposition again, we cannot bow down to anyone or anything. Our principles have brought us here after 100 years of party history. Many parties collapse under pressure withing a decade of exisiting. We have made it for a hundred and the people still trust us and vote for us! We are not an "alternative" vote, we are the mainstream. We are the largest party in the chamber so it is our duty to respond to the call! There are people on the streets, whilst we are sitting here chatting. These people want action, so lets give it to them! Luka, I trust you to handle this. Mattheo, Giuseppe, they will manage. Our time has come to go. Long live Istalia!
PND Whip Niccolo Nachiavelli joins the protests in his hometown Florenza as "voice of the people"PND Whip Nachiavelli (54) with people calling for his PremiershipDespite elections just ending, for Niccolo Nachiavelli a new election campaign cycle has already started. The next elections are important because, right after the general elections, in January 4502, a new Vice-Leader will be chosen as for now the Party Congress has decided to leave Di Nero alone at the helm of the party in order to unite under one "Il Duce", which would facilitate the creation of propaganda. Although some might say, that the Congress is setting him up to fail as Di Nero, although a great statesman of a famous political dynasty never was really popular, as witnessed by his election record. "The party does not want Di Nero as their face," an anonymous source from within the party tells the Corriere, "He is a fine man, but in terms of charisma he is no Antonio [Vespa-Baldassare], Niccolo [Nachiavelli] or Perla [Vespa-Baldassare]."
However, the Whip of the National Democrats has stepped it up again as he joined the protests in his hometown Florenza against the incompetence of the government. During the protest, he exclaimed the following:
These Romulan bureaucrats do not know a thing about life! Instead of securing our borders and helping our working people, they let in refugees and cause massive redundancies in the public sector which we have not seen in decades! Even during the great recession in the times of the disaster that was the Majatran Union, we did not experience such a disarray. If I would be Prime Minister, I would lower taxes for the poor, increase the spending in our security and appoint Raniu Minister of Defence as he would know how to get those bureaucrats in line to get back on track with our military modernization. Going into debt is not a concern as the end justifies the means!
This controversial, populist statement was greeted with massive cheers from the crowd, chanting "Forza Niccolo!"
Nonetheless, the chances of actually happening of what Mr Nachiavelli is describing are very low as despite his insane popularity amongst the far right, he also experiences great resentment from every other Istalian political group. The other parties already have to deal with him in the chamber, with him being the PND Whip, and they have clearly implied their unwillingness to form a cabinet under Nachiavelli. We will have to wait and see how much Niccolo Nachiavelli really meant when he dropped the ominous phrase: "the end justifies the means".
Nazionale, Official Press of the Alternativa Istaliana (Istalian Alternative; AI)