Maria Elena Durante
Maria Elena Durante | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Maria Elena Durante in 1947 | |
| Born | 2 February 1922 Xakalen, Alscia |
| Died | 28 September 1975 (aged 53) |
| Occupation |
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| Years active | 1938–1975 |
| Political party | Movement for Emancipation and Democracy |
Maria Elena Durante (2 February 1922 – 28 September 1975) was a Gylian actress and politician. She was the founder and leader of the Movement for Emancipation and Democracy, a pioneering left-wing populist force in post-war Gylian politics.
Previously a successful actress, Maria Elena entered politics in the Free Territories, and experienced a rapid rise after the Liberation War. She was elected to the Popular Assembly as an independent in 1958, and a Senator for Ḑarna in 1962 and 1969.
Her politics were based on economic nationalism, workerism, and demagogic anti-establishment rhetoric. Famed for her ostentatious image, charisma, and passionate campaigning, she was a prominent agitator and campaigner during the Golden Revolution. She gained a sizeable following among working class and poor voters, and appealed to women.
Despite being followed in public life by "a whiff of scandal", Maria Elena wielded considerable clout through the MED, and claimed credit for pushing the Darnan Cyras government to the left. She was a candidate in the 1975 presidential election and finished second, losing to incumbent Reda Kazan. Later that year, she died of cervical cancer.
Maria Elena's success was influential in post-war populism. Her use of personalised leadership, syncretic politics, media communications, and party discipline tactics were used as a template by later populist politicians such as Mielikki Salonen, while Mathilde Vieira drew inspiration from Maria Elena's political strategy in forming her government. Much of her former support would migrate to the Revolutionary Rally during the wretched decade, after the MED collapsed.
Early life
Maria Elena Durante was born on 2 February 1922 in Xakalen. She came from an Italian family, with mixed Megelanese and Cacertian descent, and was the youngest of 5 children. Her father left the family when she was a year old, leaving her mother to raise the children.
Maria Elena and her siblings grew up in poverty, which was ameliorated by Alscia's strong welfare state. Her childhood left a permanent mark on her politics: she was most animated when talking about ending poverty, and even her most ardent opponents never questioned her devotion to the goal.
She attended school in her hometown, where she discovered a passion for acting, often sneaking into the cinema to watch films. As a teenager, she was determined to become an actress.
Acting career
Maria Elena moved to Etra in 1937 by running off with a young musician, although their relationship ended quickly. She wrote in her biography that others described the big cities of Alscia as "marvelous places, where nothing was given but wealth." She made her professional debut in the theatre afterwards.
She took jobs on the stage, radio, and cinema, and worked as a model. She had several relationships during this period, which she later wrote were motivated by money. Her film career was short-lived, interrupted by Alscia entering the Free Territories in 1939. She instead concentrated on stage and radio work.
Although Maria Elena never enjoyed a favourable critical reception, her dependability and work ethic helped her become successful. The radio proved a medium well-suited to her strengths. By 1946, she was one of the Free Territories' best-known actresses. She had moved her mother and siblings into an apartment in Etra, and was developing an ostentatious lifestyle.
Political career
Free Territories
Maria Elena entered politics in 1947, when she was chosen by an Etra communal assembly as a delegate to the General Council. Capitalising on her popularity and name recognition, she remained a delegate for the rest of the Liberation War.
In the General Council, she was an unaligned delegate, who at times collaborated with the socialist faction. She pursued a populist course, and developed an ideological profile that synthesised Donatellism, Ruvelkan democratic socialism, and the Akashian model of state-driven development.
She developed close relations with Donatella Rossetti in the General Council, and saw her as a mentor. Donatella thought Maria Elena was "a crafty opportunist without deeper convictions beyond thirst for fame", but still found in her a useful ally.
Between 1949 and 1952, Maria Elena served in the General Council's Foreign Affairs Commission, a capacity in which she concentrated on ties with Megelan and Cacerta. The assignment strengthened her inclination towards economic nationalism, much to the annoyance of her anarchist colleagues.
She built her profile by use of radio, where she regularly delivered passionate speeches with heavy populist rhetoric. She cultivated a flamboyant image that reunited glamour and left-wing politics, predating the emergence of aristerokratia, but highlighted her impoverished childhood to show solidarity with those who'd suffered the same in Xevden.
She was a member of the Finance Commission between 1954 and 1956. Herta Schwamen commented that her tenure was largely unsuccessful in practical terms, but successful at building a national profile. Aliska, who was also serving in the Commission, judged Maria Elena to be a "lightweight": someone who latched onto a simple idea and hammered away at it.
Gylias
Maria Elena ran as an independent candidate in the 1958 federal election. It was during this election that she was first acknowledged as a force in Gylian politics. She campaigned aggressively, using both radio and party political broadcasts to appeal to voters, and attracted large crowds to her rallies. Her emotionally-charged speeches and populist message found an audience among voters who largely tuned out the intellectual debates over anarchist practice that dominated the election.
She received the most votes of the independent candidates standing for election — slightly over 50.000 votes. As independents were exempted from the 5% electoral threshold, she became one of the Popular Assembly's 10 independent members.
During the transition from the Free Territories to Gylias, Durante occasionally supported the Darnan Cyras government. She said, "Whenever this executive committee has stuck to the left I have voted with it, and whenever it's tripped itself up on academic nonsense I've voted against it."
Political positions
Maria Elena's politics were primarily economic: she advocated redistribution of income and wealth, a welfare state, and a form of corporate nationalism in which corporations should work mainly for the national good. She believed that the state must control economic policy, and was fundamentally skeptical of the anarchist goal of abolishing it.
Having little interest in other matters, she played a negligible role in the drafting of the Constitution of Gylias: her pronouncements concerned economic rights, and none of her preferred language made it into Section 3. Nevertheless, she seized on the final wording of Article 26 — which defined "improving the well-being of the people and protecting personal dignity" as the purpose of the economy — and claimed credit for it, in line with her image as a champion of the people.
Her demagogue style of rhetoric and "crude communist rhetoric" helped attract a following of voters distanced from the Golden Revolution who might've otherwise supported reactionary formations. She rarely deviated from her focus on economics, and her occasional criticisms of social engineering efforts were used to bolster her anti-establishment image.
During the 1960s, she became an unusually strong advocate of improved relations with Syara, during the term of its Gylianophile president Marija Kostova. She visited Syara on a few occasions and met with Marija on some, in a move meant to bolster her foreign policy credentials. Her opponents attacked her as a "Syarophile".
Movement for Emancipation and Democracy
Maria Elena gradually relocated her political base to southern Gylias, and was elected Senator for Ḑarna in 1962. She launched her own political party, the Movement for Emancipation and Democracy, in 1964.
The MED was a personal party from the start, earning much ridicule for its initials matching Maria Elena's. It concentrated its efforts at first in local government and referendums, building up support and promoting its agenda. It formed a political alliance with the New People's Party, fielding joint candidates in the 1969 federal election and contemporary municipal and regional elections, and cultivated close relations with ARENA, strategically cooperating on key occasions.
By the 1970s, the MED had become a strong populist force in local politics, and Maria Elena enjoyed the height of her political clout. She ran for the presidency twice. In 1968, she finished 5th, with 10,8% of first preference votes. In 1975, she finished second in first preference votes and made it to the final count, where she lost to incumbent Reda Kazan by 40% to 60%.
Public image
Maria Elena had a paradoxical reputation in public life. She presented herself as an anti-establishment maverick, the champion of the proletariat against the "new elites" that she claimed emerged from the Golden Revolution. At the same time, she had an unabashedly flamboyant image, dressed in extravagant Levystile outfits, and enjoyed air travel, particularly for the spectacle of waving at crowds of supporters after exiting an airplane.
Ŋéida Vaşad described Maria Elena as "the greatest representative of Caesarist kitsch in Gylias", noting her fondness for "strongwoman pageantry" like quasi-Roman salutes. Ŋéida argued that her political success came from the contradiction itself, as she both expressed the "inchoate grievances" of her supporters and embodied a glamorous ideal that they could project themselves onto.
Throughout her career, Maria Elena was followed by a "whiff of scandal". She was involved in various controversies, from being accused of hoarding during the Liberation War to being overly sympathetic to authoritarianism. However, instead of ruining her career, these controversies gave her a somewhat "wicked" image. Maria Elena seized on these to strengthen her following, boasting to her supporters that "Maria Elena can't be beat!".
The Darnan Cyras government was unsure how to effectively challenge Maria Elena. Some, like Julie Legrand and Iulia Edver, advocated a "full frontal attack", confident she could be marginalised and tarnished. Others, like Clarissa Rossetti and Marguerite Tailler, urged caution, noting that controversy hadn't dented Maria Elena's support, and feared that she would simply use attacks to rally and consolidate it. Darnan Cyras preferred to ignore her, reasoning that this would "starve her of publicity". Sweetie Letise, the government's political fixer, proved more successful in using her influence to marginalise Maria Elena.
Maria Elena was consistently underestimated as a politician, with mockery of her paradoxical image and demagogic rhetoric leading her opponents to miss her considerable talent for campaigning and building up the MED into a political force impossible to ignore.
Death
Maria Elena was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1974. She underwent extensive treatment for the condition, including a hysterectomy and chemotherapy, but kept her condition secret from the public. The strain of the 1975 presidential campaign is believed to have contributed to weakening her.
She died on 28 September 1975 at a Mişeyáke hospital.
Legacy
Maria Elena's legacy remains somewhat contested to this day, and she is recognised as an influential politician in post-war Gylias. Her reputation suffered during the wretched decade as she was seen as a forerunner to Aén Ďanez, which was replaced by a more sympathetic view in the 1990s.
On the 50th anniversary of her death in 2015, The Democrat described her as "the founder of Gylian populist politics". Her personal party approach, charisma, and eclectic stances have served as an inspiration for later politicians like Mielikki Salonen and Mathilde Vieira.
To her detractors, she remains a simplistic demagogue and opportunist. She has been described by critical historians as a potential threat to the Gylian consensus; her political opportunism and thirst for the spotlight make it unclear if she would've opposed or allied with the Aén Ďanez government. Aén Ďanez certainly took advantage of her death and the subsequent collapse of the MED, adopting similar rhetoric and campaign tactics as hers in the 1976 federal election.
Maria Elena's public image provided rich fodder for satire, and accordingly she has often been depicted in Gylian pop culture.
In recent years, Maria Elena's reputation has been reassessed and she has developed a quasi-ironic following on the Gylian internet, with memes that openly portray her as a "wicked" figure and humorously celebrate her ability to overcome controversy and self-presentation as a proletarian leader.
The release of the Mansuri grand strategy video game Hearts of Iron aided Maria Elena's online popularity, particularly through the creation of mods that allow her to become the leader of Gylias in-game.
The enduring public interest in Maria Elena's life, speculation on how her career would've developed if she lived longer, and posthumous portrayal as a formidable adversary has been compared to Adélaïde Raynault, who enjoys a similar posthumous reputation.