Payl Klosders
The Honourable Payl Klosders | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Prime Minister of North Vyvland | |
| In office 29 October 1953 – 8 June 1961 | |
| Preceded by | Johan Daler |
| Succeeded by | Enrig Jeger |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 200px February 15, 1892 Jrusel, Wik, Kingdom of Vyvland |
| Died | 29 June 1987 (aged 95) Vlud, North Vyvland |
| Resting place | 200px |
| Nationality | Vyvlander (1892-1935) North Vyvlander (1935-1951) Vyvlander (1983-1987) |
| Political party | Christian Democratic Party |
| Spouse | Gunda vun Marken (1918-1983) |
| Parent |
|
| Alma mater | University of Vreusdi |
| Profession | Carpenter |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | Kingdom of Vyvland |
| Branch/service | Vyvlander Navy |
| Years of service | 1932-1935 |
Payl Klosders (pronounced /pɑʊl klozdəʂ/) was a Vyvlander politician for the Christian Democratic Party who was the Prime Minister of North Vyvland from 1953 to 1961. He is credited with reviving the North Vyvlander economy following the slow period of growth after the Vyvlander Civil War, with the Erbiyd yses Laan ('Rebuild our Land') campaign. He is also known for building the foundations of the Vyvlander Merkatregneng economy to this day, presiding over an average of 7% yearly economic growth per year during his tenure. Klosders also played a vital role in the establishment of detente with South Vyvland.
Regularly ranked as one of Vyvland's greatest political leaders, Klosders is one of Vyvlander conservatism's most influential figures, and his legacy is wide-ranging.
Early life
Klosders was born on the outskirts of Mids, the capital of the northernmost Vyvlander province of Deg. His father's family was Lutheran Catholic despite Deg's strong Protestant tradition; this is highlighted in his surname, which means 'of the cloister' - a common moniker for Catholics in the area.
When Payl was sixteen months old, his father died of complications relating to diabetes and exacerbated by the Great Famine. Klosders' short stature has also been blamed on malnutrition as a result of the famine. Due to his father's death, Payl was brought up mainly by his mother and aunt, who lived in neighbouring houses in a row of cottages owned by her family. Payl had an older sister who was aged 9 when he was born, while he would have had one older brother, but he died shortly after birth.
After finishing school at 14, Klosders trained as a carpenter at a workshop in the city centre of Mids. He did not attend university, being the last Prime Minister of North Vyvland or of Vyvland to not do so. Klosders stayed in the carpentry business until a falling out with the owner of the workshop in 1911, when Klosders was 19. Klosders, with a former colleague, attempted to found a new workshop in the nearby town of Elensaas, but this ultimately failed and Klosders moved back to Mids to live with his mother, who by now was frail.
Adulthood and local political career
Klosders' mother died in 1915. The next year, Klosders met Gunda vun Marken, who came from a wealthy family of mill-owners; he married her in 1918. The couple moved to the hamlet of Degsmerk in Kopes municipality, where the vun Marken family owned a small cottage. Payl continued with carpentry from home, but failed to make a viable business out of it and was encouraged by his father-in-law to take up work in banking due to growth in the financial sector at that time.
Payl began commuting to Govkros, where he took work in the local Govkroser Bank as a clerk. A coworker introduced him to politics while working in the bank, and this became a newfound interest of his. Klosders later said how he would visit the city's library to read books on political theory. In 1920, he joined the Conservative Christian Alliance (KCV), then a newly-formed Christian democratic party. He regularly attended meetings with other party members in the city, and was persuaded to stand as a councillor for the 1922 city elections. The elections proved to be something of a landslide for the KCV after a massive overspend on the tram system by the previous leftwing city administration, and so Klosders was elected in Vludvrosdad, a ward where he was expected to have only an outside chance. For the next eight years, Klosders sat as a minor member of Govkros City Council.
In 1932 upon the outbreak of the Vyvlander Civil War, Klosders joined the Vyvlander Navy. Despite being in the naval branch of the armed forces, he spent the overwhelming majority of his three years as a soldier on land, defending the northern side of the River Wik from encroachment. Klosders was injured in the leg by shrapnel, which left him with a slight limp for some years afterwards.
Early career in Parliament
The war had strengthened Klosders' beliefs and determination. In a diary entry in 1936, he detailed how he could 'no longer be content with standing on the sidelines' with regards to politics. In the 1937 election he stood as the Christian Democratic Party (the KCV's successor party) candidate for the Labour-held seat of Govkros-Oydsdad-Vludvrosdad. Although he did not win, Klosders achieved a large swing in his party's favour.
At the next election in 1940, Klosders stood in the Kopes constituency, where he lived. Here he easily won the seat and sat in parliament for it until 1951. Soon after entering Parliament, Klosders aligned himself with the more reformist, liberal conservative tendency in the Christian Democratic Party. This meant he was directly in opposition to Morten Haarden's monarchist ruling faction at the time; Klosders earnt a reputation for rebellion among the party in this period.
However, Haarden's faction of the party fell from prominence after the Christian Democrats' decision not to admit Swedish refugees and its subsequent resounding defeat in the 1945 election
Premiership
Klosders' tenure started out in 1953, in a country that was still rebuilding from the destructive effects of the civil war. The population of working-age men was only just beginning to recover, while industrial output was still lower than in the height of the 1920s boom. Much of the economy was still nationalised as a leftover from the wartime. Klosders was to reverse all this, removing monopolies on coal (Vyvluder Kool), steel (Nazonal Sdeel), oil (VNOK, to become Norda) and energy (Funjresjreem vro Vyvlu).
In terms of policy on South Vyvland, Klosders' time in office saw a relaxation of the previously tense situation coinciding with the rise to power of Erman Sanker in the South in 1954. Klosders' Christian Democrats ran the 1951 general election on the policy of a detente agreement with the South against the Socialist Party and Radical People's Party policy of isolation and non-negotiation with the Southerners.
After Jueves's death, Klosders began negotiations with South Vyvland to reopen many border crossing points and reduce the military capacity along the border, in addition to allowing limited trade between the two countries. One of the first symbolic acts in North-South rapprochement was Klosders' joint opening with Sanker of the 1955 Vyvluder Rengverd cycle race in Lorence, the first time the two countries' leaders had been seen in public together since the Civil War. With regards to diplomacy, in 1957 Klosders' government gave up its official territorial claim on South Vyvland (though still recognised it as 'an integral part of the Vyvlander nation'), a move which had been blocked by the Radical People's Party with whom Klosders had been in coalition previously. Although the move was controversial in North Vyvland at the time, it ushered in significant improvements in relations between the two countries.
Culturally and socially, Klosders' goal was to preserve traditional Vyvlander culture against the growing waves of popular culture and music emerging in 1950s Vyvland. His oratory emphasised the traditional concept of Lelsdadnes and his government sponsored traditional folk music and culture, to the pleasure of older voters. Historian Justin vun Wohl has suggested that this policy of cultural repression sowed the seeds for the particularly significant 1968 events in Vyvland including the Stanmer Riots.
The end of Klosders' second term started to see more troubled waters. Klosders' privatisation programme was progressing into areas with which the Vyvlander population did not agree, such as the privatisation of national health service Synprov. Disputes with the trade unions over workers' rights and pay in the newly privatised industries also flared up, damaging the government's reputation as consensus-led. It was in this climate that the Christian Democrats managed to lose the next election to a Socialist-Radical People's Party coalition, despite winning a plurality of seats in the National Diet.
Personal life
Klosders was married to Gunda vun Marken from 1918 until her death in 1983. The couple had no children; memoirs released after Klosders' death have revealed that he was diagnosed as infertile, although runours had circulated of his condition before his death.
Legacy
Klosders' Merkatregneng policy has remained the Vyvlander government's outlook on economic management ever since he left office. He has been consistently rated as one of the best Prime Ministers of Vyvland, both by academics and by the public, for his contribution to restarting the North Vyvlander economy and for his brand of moderate, pragmatic conservatism. He is also widely heralded as a key leader and one of the most significant conservatives in Vyvlander political history; for example, the Conservative Party's Lorence headquarters bears Klosders' name.