Francesco de Palma (A Federation of Equals)

Francesco de Palma is a politician in the Interactive AAR A Federation of "Equals"

Early Life
The son of a Milanese bureaucrat, Francesco received a strong, though informal, education; when a wealthy aristocrat noticed that the young man had an aptitude for science and math, he pulled a few strings and soon Francesco was attending the University of Vienna, which is where he became acquainted with many liberal and radical ideas. He graduated in 1845 and promptly enlisted in the Austrian Army as an artilleryman; by the time of the 1848 Revolution, he was a Captain.

 At the onset of the fighting, de Palma initially sided with the Royalist forces, but in April, 1848, he (and the majority of the men under his command), announced their support for the rebel cause. He and his men would serve in most major battles of the conflict, from Vienna to Prague. Immediately after the civil war ended, de Palma returned to Milan and was appointed a Deputy for Lombardia (with the support of his wealthy patron), after the capture and execution of several Royalist deputies opened a few positions. He joined the DLA shortly after his appointment, and was quickly seen as a moderate member of government with close ties to the Italian Independence Party.

Political Career
At the behest of future War Minister Domenico Mocenigo, he later joined the IIP, and followed several backroom deals (which today are still debated rather heavily amongst Italian political scholars) established himself as its new chairman. Remaining a rather quiet member of the government for several years, he announced in 1856 that the IIP would be renamed Republican Alliance and that he would be running for President of the Federation; during the Alliance (a collection of independent centre-left parties) primary, he defeated his rival and fellow Lombard, Rodrigo Vertucci, which would spawn years of fighting between the two men. Vertucci got his revenge for losing the primary by aligning himself to Viktor Kraus (often referred to derisively as King Silvertongue), who trounced de Palma and the liberals decisively. During the Kraus Administration, and the de Sanctis Coup, Francesco met his future fiancé and common-law wife, Caterina Karykes, surprisingly enough one of the leading supporters of the Danubian Empire (which de Palma himself was highly critical of); the two would best be remembered for their long engagement.



Despite his defeat, de Palma remained a potent political force; indeed, his defeat may well have strengthened his position, as he formed a coalition called the National Reform Union between his own party and the Radical Union of the Federation; the NRU’s presidential candidate, Gabriel Soukup-Valenta, won the 1860 election by a comfortable margin, and de Palma entered his first (of many) terms as Vice President. Through Soukup-Valenta’s first term, de Palma acted as the diplomatic face of the Federation, and travelled across the world, garnering support for one cause or opposition for another; he, with the help of American Ambassador Charles Francis Adams, successfully kept the British Empire out of the American Civil War, which de Palma would later regard as one of his greatest accomplishments. Due to these foreign policy successes, and popularity at home, the NRU won another decisive election in 1864 (with Soukup-Valenta becoming the Federation’s first two term president, and de Palma the first two term Vice-President).





After another successful term in office, Soukup-Valenta declined to run for a third term, and the Independent Wolfram Liberalen, with the support of the NRU, was elected to the presidency; de Palma, despite being a strong candidate for Foreign Minister, was instead made Finance Minister, which he served ably, though unhappily, throughout the Liberalen Administration.



In 1872, Liberalen was replaced by the RUF favourite, Aetios Spiros, on the NRU ticket; due to him being a socialist, he offered the Vice-Presidency to de Palma (who had already gained a strong reputation as a moderate); the NRU chalked up yet another victory, and de Palma became the first man in the Federation to serve as Vice President for three terms. The Spiros Administration would immediately get off to a rocky start, as the issue of monarchism reared its ugly head; the more extreme members of the NRU, such as the Mad-Man of Bratislava, openly encouraged the violent overthrow of any state monarchies, whilst de Palma aligned himself with the conservatives, who argued in defence of states’ rights. All the while, this occurred in the backdrop of the constitutional convention in over two decades, and alongside a crisis in Cisalpina (the latter of which de Palma was an instrumental figure in de-escalating). Despite these issues, Spiros was re-elected in 1876 and de Palma became the first ever four-term Vice President.



However, due de Palma’s increasingly conservative bent, largely inspired by his late fiancé and common-law wife, the Duchess of Candia (whose murder drastically shook Francesco’s mental state), he became more removed from the NRU. It was also during the run-up to the election that Francesco formally renamed the Republican Alliance the Constitutional Union, which he felt was a more appropriate name for the increasingly pro-monarchy party. On the eve of the 1880 elections, sought to work with the ADCP; however, due to scheduling conflicts, de Palma was unable to meet with any conservative party leader and instead struck out with Jovan Lilic, a man Francesco largely disliked, largely due to his autocratic behaviour and cool demeanour; however, the DPU-CU coalition won and de Palme became Vice President a fifth time. Throughout this term, Francesco largely remained outside the Federation, acting as a dignitary to most courts in Europe, as well as being a common guest at the White House.

Positions Held

 * Captain in the Austrian Artillery Corps (1845-1848)
 * Deputy for Lombardia (1848-present)
 * Vice President of the Federation (1861-1869)
 * Minister of Finance (1869-1873
 * <span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;line-height: 115%;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Vice President of the Federation (1873-present)