Marlène Astier

The Honourable Marlène Astier MP
Prime Minister of Vannois
Incumbent
Assumed office 13 May 2018
Monarch	Charles XII
Preceded by	Jean-Yves Nicollier
Leader of the Conservative Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 13 May 2018
Preceded by	Jean-Yves Nicollier
Secretary of State for Education
In office 16 March 2016 – 28 January 2018
Preceded by	Niocolas Peltier
Succeeded by	Mathilde De Guignes
Minister and Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
In office 24 June 2015 – 16 March 2016
Preceded by	Joseph Lemaire
Succeeded by	Thomas Guilloux
Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister
In office 13 September 2011 – 24 June 2015
Preceded by	Paulette Gérin-Lajoie
Succeeded by	Édouard Castex
Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Foreign Secretary
In office 22 February 2009 – 13 September 2011
Preceded by	Albert Gérard
Succeeded by	Gaëtan Gaudreau
Speechwriter to the Prime Minister
In office 3 August 2004 – 25 December 2007
Deputy of the National Assembly
Incumbent
Assumed office 3 March 2008
Constituency	Amayé-sur-Seulles (2008-2011) Party list (since 2011)
Personal details
Born	Marlène Nicolette Astier 12 December 1980 (age 43) Sainte-Colette, Vannois
Nationality	Vannoisian
Political party	Conservative Party (since 2000) Liberal Millennium (1998-2000)
Spouse	Étienne Vaugeois (m. 2006)
Children	Maximilien (age 16) Laure (age 13)
Residence(s)	Foix House, Rue de Sainte-Colette, Sainte-Colette, Vannois
Alma mater	École d'économie et de sciences politiques de Sainte-Colette (B.A. Economics)
Profession	Politician
Website	premiere.gouv.ve

Marlène Astier (Marlène Nicolette Astier; b. 12 December 1980) is a Vannoisian politician, and the nineteenth Prime Minister of Vannois since taking office in 2018. Initially elected to the Vannoisian National Assembly in 2008, Astier - the daughter of former Social Democratic Prime Minister Maximilien Astier - began in politics as a speechwriter for then-Foreign Secretary Stephan de Renauer. She would continue to work for de Renauer during his time as Prime Minister, and was a parachute candidate into the relatively left-leaning area of Amayé-sur-Seulles as a parliamentary candidate in 2008. Her victory shocked many Vannoisian political analysts, and the 2008 general elections proved to be a landslide for de Renauer's Conservative Party.

After her 2008 election to the Assembly, Astier was quickly fast-tracked, and named Parliamentary Private Secretary to Jean-Christophe, Duke of Périnesse-Toucourt, who at the time had been Foreign Secretary since 2002. The two reportedly developed a close working relationship, and upon de Renauer's death and the ascension of Périnesse-Toucourt as Prime Minister in 2011, Astier was kept on as his PPS. Commanding significant power under Périnesse-Toucourt's laissez-faire method of government, credit has been attributed to Astier for helping formulate and pass several salient government policies in the period from 2011 to 2015, including the Privatization of Vannoisian Railways Act of 2013 and the controversial Public School Act of 2015, which released significant funds to privately-owned and operated schools around the country. After Périnesse-Toucourt announced his retirement in early 2015, Astier requested and was transitioned to a role in the Foreign Ministry, where she worked closely with newly-minted Foreign Secretary Joseph Lemaire. Subsequently, in the shuffle which resulted in the First Nicollier government, Astier was named Secretary of State for Education under Prime Minister Jean-Yves Nicollier in March of 2016. She would remain in that role until Nicollier announced his own retirement due to flagging support and the effects of the 2017 access scandal in which the Prime Minister, Home Secretary, and several other cabinet-level ministers were accused of taking inappropriate gifts from lobbyists. Astier announced her candidacy for party leadership shortly after and, as a relative outsider with the support of several younger members of party leadership including Joseph Lemaire, she won the leadership and Premiership under a slogan of "A New Conservatism".

Astier is seen by most political analysts as an ideological purist, with strong Christian democratic tendencies and a professed belief in the importance of a monarchical presence in society. Her New Conservatism platform follows this trend, and her work in the Foreign Ministry exhibited a strong preference toward alignment with the so-called Western Monarchies and particularly historical counterparts such as Latium and Lyncanestria, while displaying a cooler attitude toward nations such as Garima. She is also considered a supporter of international agreements such as the Yarden Accords, which her father was a strong skeptic of as Prime Minister.

As of her appointment as Prime Minister in 2018, Astier became the first ever female Prime Minister of Vannois; she was also the third youngest at her appointment aged 37, and the second youngest to win a general election aged 39, in 2020. Maintaining an outright majority despite her party trailing in electoral polling by over 12 points at her appointment in 2018, Astier has continued Conservative government stretching back to 1997.

Political Career

National Assembly

Astier, photographed shortly after her appointment as PPS to the Duke of Périnesse-Toucourt, 2011.

2018 Leadership Election

Photographed at an international summit, 2018.