Cárlos Tobón
Cárlos Tobón NA | |
---|---|
37th President of Carloso | |
Assumed office 11 February 2011 | |
Deputy | Jorge Spalderán (2011-2021) Estebán Santander (2021-present) |
Preceded by | Montero Irisar |
Secretary-General of National Salvation | |
Assumed office 7 September 2010 | |
Deputy | Jorge Spalderán (2010-2020) Estebán Santander (2020-present) |
Preceded by | Position established |
Minister of Finance | |
In office 11 February 2006 – 5 September 2010 | |
President | Montero Irisar |
Preceded by | Tomás Berrocal |
Succeeded by | Matthew Couturier |
National Assemblyman for Madrigal | |
Assumed office 11 February 2001 | |
Constituency | Madrigal-21 |
Metropolitan Assemblyman for Firosa | |
In office 19 May 1997 – 11 February 2001 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Cárlos Montoya Tobón 7 November 1968 Madrigal, Carloso |
Nationality | Carlosian |
Political party | National Salvation (2010–present) |
Other political affiliations | Conservative (1989–2010) |
Spouse | Nicolasa Mendoza (m. 1995) |
Relations | Facundo Tobón (brother) |
Children | 4 |
Parent(s) | Sebastián Tobón (father) Catalina Prohens (mother) |
Alma mater | University of Madrigal (LLB) |
Occupation | Politician |
Profession | Barrister |
Religion | Catholic |
Signature | |
Military service | |
Allegiance | Carloso |
Branch/service | Carlosian Army |
Years of service | 1987–1990 |
Rank | Serjeant |
Battles/wars | Bourgougian Blitz |
Cárlos Montoya Tobón NA (born 7 November 1968) is a Carlosian statesman, barrister and Army veteran who has served as the 37th President of the Executive Council of the Federal Republic of Carloso and commander-in-chief of the Carlosian Armed Forces since 11 February 2011. He is also the current leader of the National Salvation party and a former member of the Conservative Party. Tobón has served as a National Assemblyman for Madrigal's 21st constituency since 2001.
Born and raised in the suburb of Firosa, Madrigal to a largely Hispanic family, Tobón served in the Carlosian Army during the Bourgougian Blitz. After the war, he studied Law at Madrigal Metropolitan University and became an active member of the Conservative Party. After working as a junior counsel for several years, Tobón was elected to the Madrigal Metropolitan Assembly in 1997. He was elected as a National Assemblyman for Madrigal's 21st constituency at the 2000 general election. Tobón quickly became a noted figure within the traditionalist wing of the Conservative Party and became friendly with fellow Blitz veterans including [[Jorge Spalderán], Estebán Santander and Army General Régulo Moran. When the Conservatives and Democratic Party formed a coalition after the 2005 general election, Tobón became an outspoken opponent of cooperation with the Democrats. In an attempt to pacify dissent within the Party, President Montero Irisar appointed Tobón as Minister of Finance in 2007.
As Minister of Finance, Tobón tried to introduce sweeping monetary and fiscal reforms to reduce the national debt and restart economic growth. These were repeatedly blocked by the economically liberal Democrats. At the same time, the Democratic agenda of social reforms; which was agreed upon as part of the coalition agreement, saw many, more moderate members of the Conservative Party look to Tobón and Jorge Spalderán for leadership, rather than President Irisar. When the Democrats began to push for the legalisation of same-sex marriage and abortion in the run-up to the 2010 general election; eventually leading to President Irisar announcing that a referendum would be held on abortion that year, Tobón and like minded Conservative politicians formed an organised faction within the party to oppose the referendum, calling it the Alliance for the National Salvation of the Fatherland. In the aftermath of the Attorney General v. Q case, the destruction of the Supreme Court and mass rioting in the streets of major Carlosian cities, Tobón led a wave of mass resignations from the Conservative Party, co-founding National Salvation with Spalderán to contest the general election and becoming a key figure in the violent Corrective Revolution.
A combination of the defections of many key Conservative figures, a military intervention led by General Moran and an attempt to flee the country by President Irisar caused Conservative support to implode, losing well over half their seats in the 2010 election, with the Democrats suffering similar loses. National Salvation achieved a shock plurality of the vote, entering into a coalition with a group of rural independents and military veterans to form a government. Tobón was elected President of Carloso, taking office on 11 February 2011, with Jorge Spalderán as Deputy President. He immediately began the process of overhauling the Carlosian economy and rolling back the social policies of the previous government, beginning a programme of reindustrialisation, implementing a distributist economic model, reintroducing the ban on divorce, stopping the state's recognition of same-sex civil partnerships and reinforcing the constitutional ban on abortion. Within a year of taking office, Tobón ordered the withdrawal of Carloso from the World Assembly (WA) after a hotly contested referendum returned a result in favour of leaving. Carloso would go on to join the International Freedom Alliance (IFA); later the International Freedom Coalition (IFC), in 2014. He inititated a wide range of administrative and legislative reforms, returning many powers to the provincial assemblies and local government, including greater responsibility for healthcare, housing and planning permission. Penalties for especially heinous crimes were severely increased under Tobón, including the introduction of capital punishment for a wide range of offences, including murder, rape, execution of an abortion and drug dealing. A total ban on the construction of land-based industrial wind turbines was also introduced.
Tobón led National Salvation to achieve a parliamentary majority in the 2015 general election, beginning his second term as President of the Executive Council. His cabinet remained largely unchanged. The first few months of his term were preoccupied with largely foreign matters, dealing with factional divisions in the IFC. He eventually ordered the withdrawal of Carloso from the organisation in March 2016, declaring the country to be neutral. At the same time, Tobón began cultivating links with members of the Santiago Anti-Communist Treaty Organisation (SACTO), including Nifon and Inyursta. In 2017 Shogun Maki Kojiro made a highly publicised state visit to Carloso, a first for a Nifonese leader. The country then became a party to the COSTAL Accords, redefining Carloso's maritime boundaries. Carloso eventually joined SACTO on 20 May 2017 after being invited by the Nifonese government, sparking international outrage. In late 2018, Tobón scored a major victory in winning a referendum on the Twenty-eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Carloso, making Christianity the state religion of Carloso with the backing of 57.72% of the electorate. After the outbreak of the deadly CaBI19 disease throughout the Southern Furukuran Sea region in early 2020, Tobón issued a directive banning travel to and from heavily affected areas, in addition to implementing heavy restrictions on all foreign travel into Carloso.
In 2018, Tobón had stated his intentions to step down as leader of National Salvation by late 2019 and not run for a third term as President, however he later reversed his decision. Following the 2020 general election, we was re-elected to a third term on 11 Feburary 2021, becoming the first individual in the republican history of Carloso to achieve this. He is the most recent President to serve two full terms.
Tobón has been broadly described as a staunch conservative and nationalist. Since the beginning of his second term, many critics of the Carlosian government have referred to Tobón as an illberal, and authoritarian. Tobón has been accused of being a demagogue and has been blamed for the extrajudicial killing of hundreds of suspected drug dealers and sex offenders by Carlosian authorities. Carloso's shift towards SACTO in foreign policy received widespread condemnation, both domestically and internationally. Despite these claims, Tobón remains a popular political figure in Carloso, with an approval rating as high as 71% as of early 2020.
Early life
Cárlos Magaña Tobón was born on 7 November 1968 at Madrigal Metropolitan University Hospital – Saint Vincent's to Sebastián and Catalina Tobón (née Prohens). Sebastián's ancestors were a mix of Portuguese and Spanish immigrants to Carloso, who served as venecedors in the War of Independence. Catalina was largely descended from Scottish and English immigrants who arrived in the eighteenth century. He was raised as a Catholic, though his mother Catalina was born into a Presbyterian household and converted to Catholicism in order to marry Sebastián. Sebastián Tobón fought in the Emergency War as a soldier in the Carlosian Army's IV Infantry Division, taking part in the Battle of Madrigal, Second Battle of Secano and Exercise Revelation. The couple met in 1959 at a dance and went out for four years, marrying in 1963. Cárlos was their second child, his older brother Jair being born in 1965.
Bourgougian Blitz
Legal career
After leaving the Carlosian Army in 1990 with the rank of Sergeant, Tobón, as with all Carlosian soldiers who served with distinction in the Blitz, received a scholarship to study law at the University of Madrigal. Tobón graduated summa cum laude in 1993, successfully taking the national law exam and qualifying to practice as a solicitor.
Political career
Early career
First years in the National Assembly (2001–2006)
Irisar presidency (2006–2011)
Corrective Revolution
President (2011–present)
First term (2011–2016)
Second term (2016–2021)
On 18 Februrary 2020, Tobón attended the 2020 Congress of Ishikawa in Nifon.
Third term (2021–present)
After National Salvation's victory in the 2020 electon, Tobón was sworn in for a third term as President of Carloso on 11 February 2021, making him the longest serving President in the country's republican history. Setting out his agenda for the next five years, Tobón announced an economic recovery package as part of the central government's response to the CaBI1 pandemic. Thanks to government supports, the development of a vaccine against CaBI19, named CabiShield, was announced at the end of April, and approved in early May.
At the same time, a wave of anti-Nifonese sentiment erupted amongst left-wing elements in Carlosian society. This was mainly in reaction to the appointment of Carlosian-Nifonese National Assemblyman Felics Nakayama as Minister of Communications, and a belief that prominent political adviser Alejandro Hiroyuki was using Tobón as a puppet to further Nifonese interests in Carloso. Protesters violently clashed with police on several occassions, with police in Madrigal suppressing a particularly violent riot which targetted Nifonese businesses on 27 April. In May, Tobón directed the National Bank to approve Amrita, per the Cryptocurrencies Statute (2017/6D), making it the first and so-far only cryptocurrency to be approved for use in Carloso. In June, Tobón was noted for striking a more conciliatory tone then in previous years regarding the so-called 'LGBT Pride Month', calling on what he described as "free-thinking homosexual and bisexual individuals" to distance themselves from the "deliberately fabricated, foreign construction that is the LGBTQ+ movement" and suggested they identify with the Carlosian tricolour instead of the rainbow flag. On 7 June, Tobón signed the Anti-Carlosian Activities Statute (2021/6B) into law, banning the display of the rainbow flag in Carloso.
Personal life
Tobón is a devout Catholic. He has an older brother, Jair Tobón, who is a General in the Carlosian Army. His younger brother, Facundo Tobón, is a National Assemblyman for Marindra's 3rd constituency and also a member of National Salvation. His youngest brother, Diego Tobón, is a billionaire businessman, President of The Tobón Organisation and one of Madrigal's most well known personalities. He has three sisters; Diana, Magdalena and Rebeca. Magdalena is a well-known writer of political history and a regular columnist for The Madrigal Times.
Awards and decorations
Styles
- 11 February 2001 – 11 February 2006: Cárlos Tobón NA
- 11 February 2006 – 5 September 2010: Minister of Finance Cárlos Tobón NA
- 5 September 2010 – 11 February 2011: Cárlos Tobón NA
- Since 11 February 2011: His Excellency President of the Executive Council Cárlos Tobón NA