Francesco Santo Ragazzo

The Right Honourable Francesco Santo Ragazzo
66th prime minister of Pacitalia
In office 23rd February, 1988 — 10th August, 1996
Political party	Federation of Progressive Democrats
Preceded by	Daniel Cicerone
Succeeded by	Timothy Ell
Born	19th June, 1930 Puntafora, Amalfia, Pacitalia
Died	15th October, 1996 Timiocato, Capitale, Pacitalia
Spouse	Ariana Paltrioni
Profession	Stockbroker, university professor, politician
Religion	Roman Catholic
Languages	Pacitalian, English

The Right Honourable Signore Francesco Parentano Barrino Santo Ragazzo, MPP, MA(PSci), MA(CivL), BSc (hon.) was the 66th prime minister of Pacitalia. He won the 1988 election over Athena Papistikas and Daniel Cicerone with the Pacifist Party, marking the first time in twenty years a centrist government had taken power. Santo Ragazzo was also the leader of the now-Federation of Progressive Democrats and was re-elected once in 1993, before retiring and passing away from a heart attack in late 1996.

Early life

Francesco Santo Ragazzo was born into a large, middle-class family in Puntafora in the unbearable heat of June 1930. His mother nearly died of heat stroke just from bearing Francesco, who himself suffered a slight breathing problem that developed into asthma. That condition lasted until he hit his early teens, then went into remission. Early in his primary schooling, Francesco showed an interest less in mathematics and science, and more in social sciences and languages, a development that was the complete opposite of his father, who was a structural engineer with a keen scientific mind. His mother worked as a secretary for a stock broker in Puntafora.

Into his teenage years, Francesco's ability to think both socially and economically earned him high grades at his secondary school, where he was comencati (valedictorian) in his graduating year with a 98.2% average. He was given almost thirty thousand douros ($60,000 US) in scholarships and took full advantage, attending the University of Puntafora and obtaining masters' degrees with distinction for Political Science and Civics. The university awarded him with the Fabio Androgeti Award at his 1955 convocation for 'outstanding research and theory in the field of environmental responsibility, political accountability, social unity and economic strength'.

Early career

After graduating with distinction from university, Santo Ragazzo moved into the field of commerce. He became a junior stock broker in Puntafora, working for his mom's firm between 1956 and 1958, then moving to a rival firm to take a more senior position, which took him to early 1961. That year, he was lured back to the University of Puntafora to teach their new "Environmental Economics" class, a part of the Faculty of Sciences. He taught that from September 1961 to April 1972, after which he was given an honourary third degree in the field he taught for eleven years. During his tenure at his alma mater, he and his wife Ariana welcomed three children into the world, in 1965, 1967 and 1970.

Lured into politics

In the summer of 1972, Francesco Santo Ragazzo was enjoying sudden retirement at the young age of 42 when he received a call from Pacifist Party leader Camazo Vendalini. Vendalini asked if Santo Ragazzo would run for MPP in the constituency of Puntafora-Islands, his home district, for the 1973 election. As an added bonus, Vendalini promised Santo Ragazzo the position of either Agustinate of Industry and Commerce, or Agustinate of the Environment if the Pacifists gained power, or the same positions in a shadow cabinet if they were not. The latter scenario occurred as the Liberals cruised to a majority under Roberto Castorini, with Santo Ragazzo taking the Shadow Agustinate of the Environment position for the 1973-77. Castorini was replaced by a new Liberal PM, Athena Papistikas in 1977, and the Pacifists again took opposition status, with Santo Ragazzo retaining his position as Shadow Agus. of the Environment.

In 1981, Santo Ragazzo began to take a more senior position within the Pacifist Party. His efforts not only in government but for other MPPs helped to steadily reduce the popularity of the governing Liberals from the high fifty percent range to the low forties, making the 1985 election too close to call. Unfortunately, those efforts seemed in vain, as the Conservative Party under Giorgio Cassata took the election with a 10-seat majority. However, the Pacifist efforts helped them into second, with the Liberals a nail-bitingly close third.

Leadership of the party

Vendalini announced his retirement just before the Cassata government failed at attempting to dissolve parliament in order to create an authoritarian state that would ensure an unpopular Conservative party's continued governance of Pacitalia. Santo Ragazzo handily won the August 1987 leadership convention with 74% of the delegate votes, and with a compromise-style transition PM in Daniel Cicerone ready to leave office, he went into the 1988 elections with confidence and came out leading the country.

Prime Minister of Pacitalia

Immediately after obtaining power, he went about fixing the economic blunders made by the Cassata government. His hard work with his economic-related agustinates paid off, as Pacitalia gained back the low unemployment rate and powerful economy it had lost under Giorgio Cassata in two and a half perilous years. Other legislations included environmentally-responsible acts like the Universal Beach Cleanup Act, which saw the Pacitalian Beach and Park Authority given higher standards of maintenance to follow. Higher visitations to national parks and beaches followed soon after, and Santo Ragazzo was lauded by his environmentalist friends.

At the 1989 Pacifist Party convention, Prime Minister Santo Ragazzo tabled a memorandum suggesting that no longer were they a truly peaceful party, and that they were a more capitalist, strong-economy favouring group. As a result, the party voted highly in favour of a name change, and on a subsequent ballot voted 93% in favour of renaming themselves the Capitalist Party of Pacitalia.

In 1990, Santo Ragazzo began his "Priority Boosts" program, which were monetary or purchase incentives given to Pacitalian corporations to help them compete against international business selling similar products. The program initially seemed to be a bust, but after the first four months the intended results began to appear and this legislation is widely considered to have solidified Santo Ragazzo's place as a strong leader in Pacitalia.

Re-elected

Santo Ragazzo went into the 1993 election with excellent approval ratings and a strong support base and emerged from the battle with an even larger majority, taking 83 of 120 seats in the CLP and a whopping 79 of 100 seats in the Senatoro. He started on a different agenda this time around, now that the economy was stronger. He focused mainly on higher environmental and socioeconomic standards to improve the standard of living across the country, especially in the not necessarily poor, but lower-income areas in the northwest and northeast. With over 1,200 additions to or altogether new hospitals, and 3,300 new primary and secondary schools, plus an increase in per capita income of around 1500 douros, this was yet another success as his term began to come to a close in mid-1995.

End of an era, death of a great

Soon after, a routine visit to the doctor would uncover that Santo Ragazzo had a serious heart condition. As a result, he made the tough decision to retire despite only serving two terms, when he definitely had the potential to be re-elected at least one more time. At 66 years old, he announced a leadership convention for December 1995, which Timothy Ell won, and he retired effective on election day, 10 August 1996, where Ell continued the Capitalist Party legacy, winning another sizeable majority for the party and carrying on the dream of balanced government.

Santo Ragazzo seemingly saw that all was good in the world, because only two months after his retirement and the election in which the Capitalists maintained power, he died of a heart attack, ironically, peacefully in his sleep, at the age of 66. In honour of his tireless work as Prime Minister, Santo Ragazzo has been constantly nominated for Capostication and may eventually receive that award should the opportunity come up.

Prime Ministers of Pacitalia

Madusso-Ceranta | Bussotero | Sant'Orsino | Urtibano | Roberto Faustino | Bertadora | Martino Sperga | Tranibanto | Sorprantakis | Nicostrato | Pantafino | Santo Tiziano | Vittore | Anastasio Brauta | Vidinanta | Zerga | Concetto | Assovolti | da Sinota | Brazzitano | Spucurinanto | da Scupeta | Lomas-Peca | Santo Germano | Remigio | da Marino | Severiano | Berlusconi | Lothario Cristano | Deputà | Pacenta | Tammaro | Biagio Serra | d'Ippolito | Gualtiero-Delgado | Porfirio Aiglia | Callisto | Perrotta | Albaceti | Floriano | Casimiro | Cabrali | Bongiantura | Juliani | Vicino | Azrafeco | Santo Megna | Spadazzo | Fibriaudo | Chiefa Serra | Mapradora | Corpusto | Zalmano | Sorprantakis | Sfra | Sant'Allardo | Parderescu | Dragosto | Pietro Grazzo | Damescu | Rodriguez | Castorini | Papistikas | Cassata | Cicerone | Santo Ragazzo | Ell | Sorantanali | Serodini | Chiovitti