23 March 2023
Late last night, Minister of Corporations Owen Itzen officially announced the launch of his Presidential campaign. He will be running as the under candidate of his own party, Los Nacionalistas Libres. His candidacy has been anticipated by many in Phillip since the Ministry of Elections allowed citizens to register. His campaign was most likely launched not only out of the constitutional obligation to do so, but to in some way weaken the campaign of his political rival Reed Von. Itzen and Von have been political enemies since the beginning of the Bolston Shipping Co. dispute. Despite the fact that the drama from that incident has died down significantly, the two are still not on good terms.
Originally, Minister Itzen announced that his brother and fellow Estado Libre resident Austin Itzen would be running for President under the LNL with Minister Itzen as his running mate. After being questioned on whether or not his brother would be attending any future debates, Minister Itzen decided to "switch" the roles of the campaign, making him the President with Austin Itzen as his running mate. Many wonder if Itzen will again "switch" the roles of the campaign after the debate. It seems to many that he does not necessarily want to be a President, but instead the Vice President.
Not much information has come out on as to what Minister Itzen's platform will be exactly, but political experts in Phillip expect him to fairly heavily attack the interests of Minister Von. It's also expected that Minister Itzen will promote the ideologies of Los Nacionalistas Libres, specifically corporatism. According to Phillip historian and current Vice President Luke Fitzgibbins, Minister Itzen is one of the most disliked and controversial political figures within the country. Many members of the National Assembly don't support Minister Itzen because of the quantity of "complicated" bills that he submits to Assembly. VP Fitzgibbins also believes that the rivalry between Itzen and Von has caused many potential supporters of Itzen to support Von in spite of him.
According to Minister Cooper Norfolk, Minister Itzen's candidacy has the potential to steal votes away from Minister Von's campaign if he does not directly attack Von and focuses more on a centralized platform. So far, the announcement of Itzen's candidacy has not caused any major ramifications in the 2nd General Election.