List of presidents of Aucuria
The President of Aucuria (Ruttish: Aukurijos prezidentas) has been the country's head of state since 1793, when the office formally superseded the presidency of the Revolutionary Saeimas. The president also acted as head of government of Aucuria from 1793 to 1843 and from 1935 to 1980; under the current constitution, however, the powers of the head of government are instead held by the Chancellor. The president is elected by direct popular vote. A presidential term currently lasts six years, but the office had a four-year term from 1793 to 1843 and a five-year term from 1935 to 1980.
The first president of Aucuria was Bendiktas Klimantis. The longest-serving president of Aucuria was Fridrikas Dabrauskas, who held the title for 22 years, 2 months, and 14 days before his assassination; the shortest-serving president, Juozapas Juknevičius, held the title for only five days before resigning amidst the Velvet Revolution. The incumbent president of Aucuria, since 2016, is Žygimantas Barauskas of the Social Democratic Party.
List
Political Parties:
- Conservative
National Conservative National Renewal
- Liberal and radical
Federalist Republican Liberal Liberal Democratic New Liberal
- Social democratic and socialist
- Other
Italicized numbers are used for the presidents of the First and Second Aucurian States, who are not regarded as legitimate presidents by the Aucurian government and are thus counted separately.
№ | Portrait | Name | Took office | Left office | Days | Election | Political party |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Bendiktas Klimantis (1742-1810) |
May 1st, 1793 | May 1st, 1801 | 8 years | 1793, 1797 | Federalist | |
Highly regarded for his role in leading the Revolutionary Saeimas during the Aucurian Revolution, Klimantis was elected to the presidency with no serious opposition in 1793. As political rifts formed in the young republic, Klimantis opted to side with the Federalists, who emphasized states' rights, agrarianism, and limited government. He defeated his former friend Klemensas Brazauskas, who had sided with the rival Republican Party, in 1797 and subsequently served a second term which saw a continuing widening of the rift between the Republicans and Federalists. He retired in 1801, hoping to set a two-term precedent for future presidents to follow. | |||||||
2 | File:Antonio José de Sucre Small.jpg | Juozapas Kairys (1748-1829) |
May 1st, 1801 | May 1st, 1809 | 8 years | 1801, 1805 | Republican |
A hero of the Aucurian Revolution, Kairys succeeded Klemensas Brazauskas as head of the Republican faction after Brazauskas's death and was subsequently elected president in 1801. As president, Kairys sought to centralize authority in Kalnaspilis and develop domestic industry and commerce; to this end he established a national bank and instituted a series of tariffs on finished goods. He won reelection in 1805 and sought a third term in 1809 but, facing increasing antagonism from rural landholders and state governments due to his efforts to centralize power, he was voted out of office in 1809. | |||||||
3 | Izoakas Poškus (1753-1826) |
May 1st, 1809 | May 1st, 1813 | 4 years | 1809 | Federalist | |
A longtime ally of Bendiktas Klimantis, Poškus was elected to the presidency in 1809. As president, he successfully supported the passage of several laws protecting individual rights and the authority of state governments and overturned some of the tariffs enacted by the Kairys administration; however, his efforts to abolish the National Bank of Aucuria, one of his primary campaign promises, were unsuccessful. This failure sparked a rivalry between Poškus and Antanas Endrijauskas, who regarded Poškus as ineffective; the ensuing split in the Federalist Party caused Poškus to lose the 1813 election. | |||||||
(2) | File:Antonio José de Sucre Small.jpg | Juozapas Kairys (1748-1829) |
May 1st, 1813 | May 1st, 1817 | 4 years | 1813 | Republican |
Reelected in 1813, Kairys became the first Aucurian president to serve three terms and to serve non-contiguous terms. During his third term, Kairys resumed his efforts to enact tariffs and increase the power of the central government. An economic downturn resulting from the partial failure of the country's 1816 coffee crop ultimately resulted in Kairys losing the 1817 presidential election, in which he sought a record fourth term; as a lame duck, he sought to prevent his successor, Antanas Endrijauskas, from overturning his policies by installing Republican-sympathetic judges to the national judiciary. | |||||||
4 | Antanas Endrijauskas (1749-1828) |
May 1st, 1817 | December 27th, 1820 | 3 years, 7 months and 26 days | 1817 | Federalist | |
A prominent general during the Aucurian Revolution, Endrijauskas was elected president in 1817 having pledged to reverse the policies of Juozapas Kairys. Stymied in this goal by judges appointed by Kairys late in his third term, Endrijauskas resorted to court-packing to prevent his policies being overturned. He also initiated several campaigns against indigenous tribes in the Sythe-Juoda Rainforest. In 1820, several members of Endrijauskas's cabinet, including Rimantas Čepulis, Liudvikas Požela, and Nikiforas Dovydavičius, were implicated in an embezzlement scheme; Endrijauskas was not implicated in the scheme itself, but had attempted to cover up the scheme. Threatened with impeachment, Endrijauskas resigned the presidency in 1820. | |||||||
- | Kesgaila Vidugiris (1760-1833) |
December 27th, 1820 | May 1st, 1821 | 4 months and 4 days | - | Federalist | |
Chosen by the Saeimas to serve as ad interim president following Antanas Endrijauskas's resignation, Vidugiris only served as Aucurian president for four months; his only major act of note was pardoning Endrijauskas, Čepulis, Požela, and Dovydavičius, which was deeply controversial and further weakened the standing of the Federalist Party going into the 1821 election. | |||||||
5 | Fridrikas Dabrauskas (1766-1843) |
May 1st, 1821 | July 15th, 1843 | 22 years, 2 months and 14 days | 1821, 1825, 1829, 1833, 1837, 1841 | Republican | |
The longtime protege of Juozapas Kairys, Dabrauskas was elected president in 1821 on a platform of centralization and reform. While the Republicans held a majority in the Saeimas, the use of obstructionist policies by the Federalists prevented Dabrauskas from implementing his policies; frustrated, Dabrauskas and sympathetic forces in the army initiated an auto-coup, granting himself extraordinary powers and de facto reducing the Saeimas to a consultative body. He then forcibly suppressed the Federalists, reorganized Aucuria's states to reduce their size and power, enacted new tariffs, and abolished property requirements for suffrage. Under Euclean pressure, Dabrauskas also banned the slave trade in 1835. Buoyed by economic prosperity and his expansion of suffrage, Dabrauskas remained broadly popular through much the 1830s; corruption coupled with economic stagnation and social unrest steadily sapped his popularity, however, and in 1843 he was assassinated by members of the army sympathetic to the opposition. | |||||||
- | Jonas Petkevičius (1782-1865) |
July 15th, 1843 | September 13th, 1843 | 1 month and 29 days | - | Military | |
Petkevičius, a general, was a leading figure in the plot to assassinate Fridrikas Dabrauskas and, following Dabrauskas's death, named himself the interim president of Aucuria, vowing to run the country until a new constitution could be drafted. After the 1843 constitution was ratified, he ceded power to civilian politician Vilhelmas Sagaitis, who was to serve as interim president until an elected president was inaugurated in May 1844. | |||||||
- | Vilhelmas Sagaitis (1804-1868) |
September 13th, 1843 | May 1st, 1844 | 7 months and 18 days | - | Independent | |
Sagaitis, the primary author of Aucuria's 1843 constitution, was selected by Jonas Petkevičius to serve as interim president until an elected president was inaugurated in 1844. While Sagaitis considered running for the presidency, he ultimately decided to run a seat in the Saeimas in the hopes of being chosen for the newly-created position of Chancellor, an endeavor in which he was ultimately successful. | |||||||
6 | Juozapas Maskoliunas (1806-1867) |
May 1st, 1844 | May 1st, 1850 | 6 years | 1844 | Liberal | |
Elected to the presidency in 1844, Maskoliunas was a major landholder who had been a vocal opponent of the Dabrauskas regime. Alongside Sagaitis, now Chancellor, he pushed for the large-scale repeal of tariffs and a devolution of authority to state governments; he also proposed anti-corruption legislation, though this legislation was relatively weak and would not have impacted the patronage networks being established by fellow Liberal politicians at the state level. He declined to seek a second term in 1850. | |||||||
7 | Ignacas Jaudegis (1810-1886) |
May 1st, 1850 | May 1st, 1856 | 6 years | 1850 | Liberal | |
Jaudegis, a lawyer, was elected in 1850. He was broadly perceived as caring little about his presidential duties, particularly after the National Party, led by Rudolfas Česnauskis, took control of the Saeimas in 1853. He sought reelection in 1856, but his personal unpopularity saw him lose the presidency to Aleksandras Vilkauskas even as the Liberal Party retook the Saeimas. | |||||||
8 | Aleksandras Vilkauskas (1803-1879) |
May 1st, 1856 | May 1st, 1862 | 6 years | 1856 | National | |
A prominent general who was widely popular for his exploratory and military expeditions into the Sythe-Juoda Rainforest, Vilkauskas accepted the National Party's nomination for president in 1856, and easily defeated Ignacas Jaudegis. The National Party did not, however, obtain a majority in the Saeimas in the 1856 or 1859 legislative elections; opposition from a Liberal-Democratic coalition in the Saeimas combined with the limited powers of the presidency under the 1844 constitution frustrated Vilkauskas, who ultimately decided that he would run for a seat in the Saeimas in the hope of becoming chancellor instead of seeking a second term as president. | |||||||
9 | Mindaugas Ulpis (1793-1872) |
May 1st, 1862 | June 3rd, 1872 | 10 years, 1 month and 2 days | 1862, 1868 | National | |
Previously the longtime governor of Bendrieji Laukai and Aucurian ambassador to Gaullica, Ulpis succeeded Aleksandras Vilkauskas as president in 1862, and almost universally lended his support the conservative legislation pushed by Vilkauskas, who served as chancellor through most of Ulpis's time in office. He became the first person elected to two presidential terms in 1868. Legislative elections in 1871 saw a Democratic-Liberal coalition headed by Vykintas Obrikas eke out a narrow victory over the National Party; Ulpis regarded Obrikas's reformist tendencies as destabilizing and publicly vowed that he "would sooner die than work with such a radical". He suffered a fatal heart attack in 1872, becoming the first Aucurian president to die of natural causes while in office. | |||||||
- | Vaidotas Simenas (1808-1879) |
June 3rd, 1872 | May 1st, 1874 | 1 year, 10 months and 28 days | - | Independent | |
A former judge and professor of law, Simenas was chosen by the Saeimas as a compromise candidate to fill the vacancy left by the death of Mindaugas Ulpis. Simenas typically worked to find compromises between Aucuria's major political parties in the hopes of opposing political polarization, but did intervene on certain issues where he held strong opinions; among these were Vykintas Obrikas's efforts to abolish slavery and pass anti-corruption legislation, efforts which passed in large part due to Simenas's support. While he contemplated running for a second term in 1874, he ultimately decided against it, opting to retire from politics instead. | |||||||
10 | Jurgis Čekauskas (1834-1900) |
May 1st, 1874 | May 1st, 1880 | 6 years | 1874 | Liberal | |
A lawyer, Čekauskas was elected president in 1874. As a result of an unsuccessful assassination attempt in October 1874, he spent much of the first half of his term recuperating and largely absent from the national political scene; improvements to his condition and the ascension of fellow Liberal Kirilas Griškenas to the chancellorship allowed him to take a more active role in the second half of his term, however. As part of this, Čekauskas pushed heavily for rapprochement between Aucuria and Marirana; these efforts resulted in the formal ratification of the Treaty of Defensive Alliance shortly after he left office. | |||||||
11 | Valdemaras Slankauskas (1827-1907) |
May 1st, 1880 | February 28th, 1885 | 4 years, 9 months and 27 days | 1880 | Liberal | |
Elected in 1880, Slankauskas vowed to back efforts to support Aucurian agriculture and to stimulate domestic industry without enacting tariffs; the outbreak of the War of the Arucian in 1883, however, largely prevented him from advocating domestic policy changes. Regarded publicly as a mediocre wartime leader and, alongside other Liberal politicians, widely blamed for the country's defeat, Slankauskas survived multiple assassination attempts and avoided capture during the 1885 coup attempt only by sheer luck. Alongside Chancellor Jurgis Armaitis, he ceded his office and powers to General Žygimantas Ramanauskas only weeks after the outbreak of the Aucurian Civil War. | |||||||
1 | Eimuntas Lukauskis (1836-1888) |
February 2nd, 1885 | April 24th, 1888 | 3 years, 2 months and 22 days | - | Military | |
A general who blamed civilian mismanagement for Aucuria's defeat in the War of the Arucian, Lukauskis - with the backing of much of the army and the National Party - launched an attempted coup d'etat in 1885; after the effort failed to capture President Slankauskas or Chancellor Armaitis, Lukauskis proclaimed himself president of the First Aucurian State, starting the Aucurian Civil War. While initially holding the upper hand, struggles between individuals and factions within Lukauskis's forces undermined his efforts, allowing the forces of Žygimantas Ramanauskas to gain ground. Lukauskis was shot and killed in 1888 by General Steponas Narusis, who believed that Lukauskis was denying his troops supplies due to his rivarly with Lukauskis's ally Soterijonas Jonavičius. | |||||||
2 | Izoakas Kačinskas (1838-1892) |
April 24th, 1888 | June 7th, 1891 | 3 years, 1 month and 14 days | - | Military | |
Kačinskas succeeded Eimuntas Lukauskis as leader of the First Aucurian State in 1888. He proved unable to prevent the further fragmentation of the forces nominally under his command, ultimately alienating many of his subordinates and allies. He was ultimately captured in 1891 while attempting to flee to Satucin, ending the Aucurian Civil War, and executed the following year. | |||||||
12 | Žygimantas Ramanauskas (1839-1897) |
February 28th, 1885 | May 1st, 1892 | 7 years, 2 months and 3 days | - | Military | |
Granted "the chancellorship with dictatorial powers" by the Saeimas following the outbreak of the Aucurian Civil War, Ramanauskas was never formally named as Aucuria's president but is nonetheless broadly recognized as having held both the chancellorship and presidency de facto. Ramanauskas exploited increasing factionalism within rebel forces to reverse the situation for the Aucurian Republic, ultimately ending the war in 1891 with the capture of Izoakas Kačinskas. After the end of the war, Ramanauskas refused to concede his powers until suffering a non-fatal stroke in January 1892; he ceded the presidency to the democratically-elected Bernardas Šmitas in 1892, but continued to rule as chancellor until 1895. | |||||||
13 | Bernardas Šmitas (1851-1927) |
May 1st, 1892 | May 1st, 1898 | 6 years | 1892 | Democratic | |
Of Weranian ethnic origins, Šmitas promised to oversee a full Aucurian return to democracy following the Ramanauskas years, which was accomplished in 1895. He subsequently worked with Liberal Chancellor Viltautas Talačka to encourage Aucurian light industry, pass worker and consumer protection legislation, and switch Saeimas elections from first-past-the-post to a party-list proportional system. Šmitas also advocated for land reform to benefit small farmers, but clashed with Talačka on this count and was ultimately unable to get any sort of legislation passed on the issue. | |||||||
(11) | Valdemaras Slankauskas (1827-1907) |
May 1st, 1898 | May 1st, 1904 | 6 years | 1898 | Liberal | |
Blamed by many for Aucuria's defeat in the War of the Arucian, Slankauskas was reelected narrowly to the presidency under contentious circumstances regarding vote counts in several states. During his second term, Slankauskas largely supported the legislative agendas of Viltautas Talačka and Paskalis Kalėda; however, he was largely absent from the public eye for fear that his presence or active support would prove politically toxic. He declined to seek reelection in 1904. | |||||||
14 | Karolis Motieka (1859-1917) |
May 1st, 1904 | May 1st, 1910 | 6 years | 1904 | Conservative | |
Motieka, a former governor who had sided with the republic during the Civil War, was elected president in 1904. During his presidency, Aucuria was pressued into making trade concessions to Euclean countries, which damaged Motieka's popularity. In 1908, Motieka and Chancellor Metjūs Cibauskas successfully oversaw the beginning of an infrastructure construction scheme; this scheme was ultimately marred by widespread corruption, however. He sought reelection in 1910 but lost the election to Baltramiejus Rimeikis. | |||||||
15 | Baltramiejus Rimeikis (1858-1929) |
May 1st, 1910 | May 1st, 1922 | 12 years | 1910, 1916 | Liberal | |
Elected in 1910, Rimeikis was widely regarded as a puppet of Paskalis Kalėda and broadly supported Kalėda's legislative agenda. He clashed regularly with Ervinas Antanavičius of the Conservative Party after the latter's election, and, following the start of the Great Collapse, sought to blame Antanavičius for the lack of government response. He was narrowly re-elected to the presidency in 1916; with Jokūbas Vasauskas, a fellow Liberal, as chancellor, Rimeikis sought to alleviate the effects of the Great Collapse through limited intervention to support businesses and plantations; this was unpopular with much of the public and Rimeikis was voted out of office in 1922. | |||||||
16 | Hektoras Kuprys (1870-1925) |
May 1st, 1922 | October 14th, 1925 | 3 years, 5 months and 13 days | 1922 | Democratic | |
A former journalist, Kuprys worked with Chancellor Leandras Naraškevičius and his Democratic-DIAS coalition to propose and pass a slate of reforms aimed at alleviating the Great Collapse, including unemployment benefits, debt relief, land reform, infrastructure and modernization projects, and the nationalization of certain industrial sectors. Kuprys also lent his support to Naraškevičius's efforts to create the National Aboriginal Foundation and extend the franchise to women. Naraškevičius was replaced as chancellor by Pilypas Lušys in 1925; Kuprys clashed regularly with Lušys, who sought to overturn the policies passed by Kuprys and Naraškevičius in the preceding years. Kuprys was assassinated by a functionalist in October 1925 amidst worsening political polarization. | |||||||
- | Kestutis Ambrulaitis (1875-1955) |
October 14th, 1925 | [February?] Nth, 1928 | tbd | - | Independent | |
An economist and bureaucrat, Ambrulaitis was chosen to replace Hektoras Kuprys by the Saeimas. Largely aligned politically with the Conservatives, his support for the domestic policies of Pilypas Lušys, his irredentist and militaristic tendencies, and his inability to stop growing street violence made him a deeply controversial figure. Ambrulaitis encouraged Lušys to invade Satucin in order to reclaim territories lost by Aucuria after the War of the Arucian, believing the Gaullican-controlled colony would be preoccupied with the Great War; this proved a disastrous miscalculation, and Aucurian forces quickly found themselves pushed back by Satucine and Nuvanian troops. Alongside Lušys, he ceded his office and powers to General Karolis Tarvydas in 1928. | |||||||
1 | Karolis Tarvydas (1889-1935) |
[February?] Nth, 1928 | [???] Nth, 1934 | tbd | - | Military | |
With Aucurian forces being pushed back on both the Satucine and Nuvanian fronts, Tarvydas was granted "the chancellorship and presidency with dictatorial powers" by the Saeimas; unable to stop the enemy advance, and seeing no way to win the war, he opted to capitulate to the Entente, placing the country under partial Entente occupation and establishing a collaborationist regime, the Second Aucurian State. Working with domestic functionalists, Tarvydas sought to reshape Aucurian politics and society around paternalism, corporatism, and social conservatism. His regime was opposed by the National Redoubt Government, which waged guerrilla campaigns throughout the Great War and initiated a nationwide liberation campaign in 1934 as the Entente collapsed; again seeing no way to win the situation, Tarvydas surrendered and allowed himself to be captured, ending the Second Aucurian State's brief existence. He was executed for treason in 1945. | |||||||
17 | Feliksas Lupeikis (1892-1953) |
[February?] Nth, 1928 | May 1st, 1935 | tbd | - | Military | |
A colonel at the time, Lupeikis and a portion of the Aucurian Armed Forces who refused to accept the country's capitulation to the Entente established what they termed a "National Redoubt Government" with Lupeikis as its leader; joined by several left-wing, indigenous, and other resistance groups, the National Redoubt Government became a coherent military and political entity capable of challenging the Tarvydas regime, conducting coordinated guerrilla warfare campaigns against the Second Aucurian State and Satucine-Nuvanian occupation forces. As Entente forces in Euclea and the Asterias were pushed back by the Grand Alliance, Lupeikis launched a successful nationwide liberation campaign in 1934; after the end of the Great War, Lupeikis stayed on as interim leader, overseeing the drafting of the country's 1934 constition and ceding power peacefully to the democratically-elected Dominykas Dabrickas. | |||||||
18 | Dominykas Dabrickas (1888-1946) |
May 1st, 1935 | May 1st, 1940 | 5 years | 1935 | Liberal Democratic | |
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19 | Petras Erenbergas (1893-1977) |
May 1st, 1940 | November 9th, 1943 | 3 years, 6 months and 8 days | 1940 | Liberal Democratic | |
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- | Valdemaras Jakys (1889-1965) |
November 9th, 1943 | May 1st, 1945 | 1 year, 5 months and 22 days | - | Liberal Democratic | |
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20 | Adrianas Volpis (1902-1949) |
May 1st, 1945 | August 7th, 1949 | 4 years, 3 months and 6 days | 1945 | Social Democratic | |
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21 | Albertas Kalvaitis (1903-1966) |
August 7th, 1949 | March 22nd, 1966 | 16 years, 7 months and 15 days | 1955, 1960, 1965 | Military | |
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22 | Liudvikas Šrioderis (1905-1985) |
March 22nd, 1966 | February 10th, 1969 | 2 years, 10 months and 19 days | - | Military | |
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23 | File:A. Pinochet Stamp cropped.jpg | Martynas Sprogys (1915-2002) |
February 10th, 1969 | January 6th, 1980 | 10 years, 10 months and 27 days | 1970, 1975 | Military |
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- | File:Celso Torrelio Villa.jpg | Juozapas Juknevičius (1933-1999) |
January 6th, 1980 | January 11th, 1980 | 5 days | - | Military |
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- | Goštautas Jasaitis (1935-) |
January 11th, 1980 | May 1st, 1980 | 3 months and 20 days | - | Independent | |
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24 | Maksymas Užugiris (1923-2010) |
May 1st, 1980 | May 1st, 1986 | 6 years | 1980 | Independent | |
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25 | Haidaras Sakras (1949-) |
May 1st, 1986 | May 1st, 1992 | 6 years | 1986 | National Renewal | |
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26 | Feliksas Ikedas (1938-) |
May 1st, 1992 | May 1st, 1998 | 6 years | 1992 | New Liberal | |
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27 | Rudolfas Kasneras (1951-) |
May 1st, 1998 | May 1st, 2004 | 6 years | 1998 | National Renewal | |
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28 | Magdalietė Kudirkaitė (1967-) |
May 1st, 2004 | May 1st, 2010 | 6 years | 2004 | Social Democratic | |
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29 | Jozijas Aleliūnas (1958-) |
May 1st, 2010 | May 1st, 2016 | 6 years | 2010 | National Renewal | |
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30 | Žygimantas Barauskas (1953-) |
May 1st, 2016 | incumbent | 8 years, 6 months and 25 days | 2016 | Social Democratic | |
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