Istalia

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Elections in Alaria: the new Istalian National Congress disappoints Floria Monaldi
Although the Patriots' coalition managed to gain the relative majority the results were below expectations and only thanks to external support they will be able to form the new government

The new elected parliamentarians reunited into the converted Municipal Theather of Pontelasa

September 5617

PONTELASA - Over the past three days, general elections for the 475 seats of the National Congress, the new Italian parliament, were held, which had been called at the end of March on the island of Alaria immediately after the formal closure of the National Convention and the approval of the final measures to fully establish the new Imperial State of Istalia.

As provided for by the new Imperial Constitution, 25% of the seats in the National Congress were reserved for the Armed Forces whose members ran on lists parallel to the civilian ones presented by all the political parties representative within the military. Contesting the first elections under the new Imperial State of Istalia were the two major political parties, the Patriotic Front of Istalia (FPI) and the Democratic Socialist Party (PSD), although a number of other smaller parties of various backgrounds presented their lists and were admitted to the elections: the New Party of Istalian Communists (NPCI), the Veterans' Party (PdV), the Democratic Hosian Union (UOD), the Liberal Alliance (AdL), the Imperial Throne Party (PTI), the Istalian Syndicalist Front (FSI), the Istalian Phalange (FI), the Democratic Action Movement (MAD), and the National Conservative Party (PNC).

Despite the more than optimistic forecasts on the eve of the elections for the Patriotic Front and its allies of the Veterans Party and the Istalian Phalange, a party founded by close supporters of Monaldi, the results that began to arrive already during the night were a real surprise and if the coalition led by Floria Monaldi managed to bring back the relative majority with 43% of the votes, with the Veterans Party only 6 points behind the FPI and the Phalange that instead didn't achieved to enter the parliament, the Popular Democratic Coalition formed by PSD, NPCI and FSI managed to grab an excellent 31% while the rest of the seats were won by the UOD (8%), the AdL (7%), but above all by the PTI which achieved a very good (10%).

It will be the external support of the PTI that will most likely guarantee Floria Monaldi the majority needed to form the first official government of the Imperial State of Istalia, a government where the seats for the FPI will be much fewer than its leader had hoped, having to share them above all with the Veterans' Party, which, unlike what Monaldi herself had predicted, have proven to be much closer to the positions of Appiano-Solari than to those of Monaldi, whose political visions for the future of Istalia have long since taken two different paths.

Another fact that was equally surprising was the support that the Left Coalition has conquered among the ranks of the Armed Forces, following not only an effective electoral campaign conducted by the Democratic Socialist Party, which seems to have adapted very quickly to the new "quasi-stratocratic" system installed in the country, but also the obliged decision for the new Imperial government to quickly integrate the men and officers of the previous Communist Regime into the ranks of the army for the needs of the war effort on the Peninsula.

There are many in the country and even within the majority itself who have breathed a sigh of relief when they see the first results of the elections, given that there has been discontent for some time now over a perceived authoritarian drift taken by Monaldi once he took power on the Island, and certainly among those most satisfied with this personal debacle of the Patriotic leader is Grand Prince Alessandro, who from the Peninsula, where he is leading the Liberation, with the new title of Lieutenant-General of the Empire bestowed to him by his father Mattia, the acting Emperor and Sovereign, released a comment that, despite its fully institutional character, was nevertheless happy to see how the dynamism of Italian democracy has returned to fully express itself in the Country, a cutting remark aimed directly to Monaldi who will now have to deal with the very party that was evidently born as an expression of the will of the Crown, namely the PTI, which achieved the best results precisely among the lists to elect the 25% of the seats guaranteed to the Armed Forces and which according to many analysts has turned out to be a real translation into parliament of the Imperial prerogative of guarantee of the Institutional and Democratic Order.

The reconquest and liberation of the Sarrentine Peninsula will obviously be the main objective on which the government's action will focus and which will certainly lead Pontelasa to reopen to the world on a diplomatic level to seek assistance and logistical but above all financial support for the reunification effort.
The defenses of Quanzar, which were better prepared than expected, and the state of the Istalian Armed Forces, in fact, obviously deeply affected by the Russo's War and the Years of the Treaty of Shame (how the period of national division has began to be called), are making the advance towards the north difficult and dangerous while the flight of more and more Istalians from Quanzar towards the south is generating a humanitarian crisis that the government is having difficulty managing, with the infrastructure in the cities and in the provinces of the Peninsula seriously compromised while the naval assets almost totally engaged in supporting the military in the invasion prevents refugees from being brought to the island of Alaria.