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05-24-2017, 12:42 AM
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Nyland Daily News
President leaves Liberalist roster ahead of primaries
By Heather Grey
Published: 15 Quartyr 1584
![[Image: kXLVSLg.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/kXLVSLg.jpg)
President Kohout sits down with Liberalist party leader Milan Vuletaski to discuss future legislation. Photo taken Treizen, 1583.
NYKOPING - Just a few weeks ahead of the official start of the 1584 primaries season, President Kohout announced that he would not seek re-election as part of the Liberalist ticket, a move long speculated after nearly a year of growing resistance to his agenda from within his own party. The announcement came amidst rumors of unprecedented attempts within the party to mount a primary challenge against the incumbent president, though a sitting president leaving his party while still holding office would itself be a historic first.
The announcement from the White House was brief a lacking in detail, but made mention of "irreconcilable differences" between the president and many of the party's long-serving leadership, who he accused of "political maneuvering for personal gain at the expense of the nation's wellbeing and the wishes of Nylanders everywhere" for obstructing an agenda the president was elected to enact. Kohout has called the party and said leadership "dinosaurs from a bygone era, too unable or unwilling to bring the party into the next century," and blaming what has recently been named the "Karlsson Caucus", a large group of traditional old-guard liberals within the party, for its flagging membership and declining results in the polls.
For his part, the president has consistently held "policy over politics" as part of his message, emphasizing his willingness to deal with whoever backs his vision & agenda regardless of affiliation. While his message remains the same, his future in politics grows ever cloudy; Kohout maintains that he will seek a second term, but no president has ever won office without the backing of a major party.
He might not need to struggle alone, however. Drama within NL began when the president's tax plan was defeated in the Assembly; over the next couple years, Karlssonites within the organization slowly gathered the backbone and political will to openly oppose Kohout until scandal finally broke with the defeat of the healthcare bill - where a large majority of NL representatives voted against it. While their opposition grew, a moderate group within the party has emerged as well, grumbling over the political obstructionism of the Karlssonite members.
Rarely have these grumbling been seen anywhere beyond closed doors, but other internal frustrations have grown intense as political goals come to a head, with several vocal members of the "Karlsson Caucus" calling for the removal of Milan Vuletaski as party leader, for "failing to represent the interests and ideology of the party." Vuletaski, who has served in the role since Anna Hallman's resignation in 1576, has been a devout supporter of the president's agenda and sponsored several key legislative pieces.
Assemblyman Rosario Manrique openly criticized several of his fellow Liberals after the defeat of the healthcare bill, stating, among other things, "There comes a time in every Assemblyman's career when he must reconcile the demands of his ideology, and the demands of his voter. Consistently, these people [Karlssonites] choose pure ideology over their voters, and history proves that we'll face a reckoning over it."
Whether or not the "reckoning" comes, or Kohout's ideals of a "new Liberalism" can survive, will be determined this Vintyr.
President leaves Liberalist roster ahead of primaries
By Heather Grey
Published: 15 Quartyr 1584
President Kohout sits down with Liberalist party leader Milan Vuletaski to discuss future legislation. Photo taken Treizen, 1583.
NYKOPING - Just a few weeks ahead of the official start of the 1584 primaries season, President Kohout announced that he would not seek re-election as part of the Liberalist ticket, a move long speculated after nearly a year of growing resistance to his agenda from within his own party. The announcement came amidst rumors of unprecedented attempts within the party to mount a primary challenge against the incumbent president, though a sitting president leaving his party while still holding office would itself be a historic first.
The announcement from the White House was brief a lacking in detail, but made mention of "irreconcilable differences" between the president and many of the party's long-serving leadership, who he accused of "political maneuvering for personal gain at the expense of the nation's wellbeing and the wishes of Nylanders everywhere" for obstructing an agenda the president was elected to enact. Kohout has called the party and said leadership "dinosaurs from a bygone era, too unable or unwilling to bring the party into the next century," and blaming what has recently been named the "Karlsson Caucus", a large group of traditional old-guard liberals within the party, for its flagging membership and declining results in the polls.
For his part, the president has consistently held "policy over politics" as part of his message, emphasizing his willingness to deal with whoever backs his vision & agenda regardless of affiliation. While his message remains the same, his future in politics grows ever cloudy; Kohout maintains that he will seek a second term, but no president has ever won office without the backing of a major party.
He might not need to struggle alone, however. Drama within NL began when the president's tax plan was defeated in the Assembly; over the next couple years, Karlssonites within the organization slowly gathered the backbone and political will to openly oppose Kohout until scandal finally broke with the defeat of the healthcare bill - where a large majority of NL representatives voted against it. While their opposition grew, a moderate group within the party has emerged as well, grumbling over the political obstructionism of the Karlssonite members.
Rarely have these grumbling been seen anywhere beyond closed doors, but other internal frustrations have grown intense as political goals come to a head, with several vocal members of the "Karlsson Caucus" calling for the removal of Milan Vuletaski as party leader, for "failing to represent the interests and ideology of the party." Vuletaski, who has served in the role since Anna Hallman's resignation in 1576, has been a devout supporter of the president's agenda and sponsored several key legislative pieces.
Assemblyman Rosario Manrique openly criticized several of his fellow Liberals after the defeat of the healthcare bill, stating, among other things, "There comes a time in every Assemblyman's career when he must reconcile the demands of his ideology, and the demands of his voter. Consistently, these people [Karlssonites] choose pure ideology over their voters, and history proves that we'll face a reckoning over it."
Whether or not the "reckoning" comes, or Kohout's ideals of a "new Liberalism" can survive, will be determined this Vintyr.