Seisa Neve
Seisa Neve | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Seisa Neve in 1945 | |
| Speaker of Gylian Senate | |
| In office 1 February 1962 – 1 February 1980 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 31 August 1912 Castelrosso, Alscia |
| Died | 7 September 2012 (aged 100) Garés, Alţira, Gylias |
| Nationality | |
| Political party | Independent |
| Occupation |
|
| Nickname | White Mouse |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  People's Army |
| Years of service | 1939–1958 |
Seisa Neve (31 August 1912 – 7 September 2012) was a Gylian nurse, journalist, and politician. She served in the Liberation War as a member of the special forces aiding Gylian resistance in Xevdenite territory, and was later the first Speaker of Gylian Senate, from 1962 to 1980. She played a vital role in shaping the character of the Senate as a dignified chamber whose membership drew heavily from esteemed civil society and artistic figures.
Early life
Seisa was born on 31 August 1912 in Castelrosso, then in Alscia but now part of Cacerta. She was the youngest of six children.
She attended school locally. At the age of 18, she completed mandatory service in the Border Guard for a year, and then took apprenticeships as a nurse and journalist.
Her journalist work led her to travel throughout the Cacertian Empire, giving her a first-hand view of its dissolution.
Her hometown voted against joining the Free Territories in the 1939 referendum on Alscian sovereignty. Although she had some skepticism about the Free Territories, she decided to move there rather than remain in the new Cacertian province of Molise — "I felt Gylian rather than Cacertian and couldn't abandon my compatriots", she recalled later.
Liberation War
Now in the Free Territories, Seisa offered her services to the People's Army. She was assigned to special forces units, conducting espionage, sabotage, and reconaissance behind enemy lines. Much of her wartime service was spent arranging networks of communication and escape with Gylian rebels outside the Free Territories, and collecting and allocating supplies of equipment.
She was nicknamed the "White Mouse" by enemies, in reference to her ability to elude capture. She described her tactics:
"I'd see an officer on the train or somewhere, sometimes dressed in civvies, but you could pick 'em. So, instead of raising suspicions I'd flirt with them, ask for a light and say my lighter was out of fuel. A little powder and a little drink on the way, and I'd pass their posts and wink and say, 'Do you want to search me?' Gods, what a flirtatious little bastard I was."
She was highly regarded within the PA. One of her training reports said that "her irrepressible, infectious, high spirits were a joy to everyone who worked with her".
Her best-known accomplishments came in the second phase of the war, against the Tymzar–Nalo regime. Her feats included accompanying rebel groups in a 150 km retreat lasting three days, bicycling back and forth 500 km in three days to radio updates to commanders, and conducting several daring raids in the Kackar mountains.
She utterly detested the Tymzar–Nalo regime, considering it "the most evil force to have ever polluted Gylian soil", and spoke dismissively of the Futurist Front and Lidia's Legion as "harmless play-actors" by contrast.
She was demobilised in 1958, worked for the Special Public Security Bureau 9 for a period, and joined the Veterans for a Just Peace.
Senate
Seisa ran in the 1962 federal election as an independent candidate, with VFJP support. She won the election, and became a Senator for Alţira. During the campaign, she capitalised on her status as a war heroine, declaring she had fought against "a gradual gathering together of controls, centralisation of power in the hands of a few power-hungry fanatics".
In the first session of the newly-elected Senate, she put herself forward as a candidate for Speaker. With several other distinguished personalities declining to run, she won an easy victory over three other candidates. She would go on to be re-elected in 1969 and 1976.
Seisa was an imposing, heavyset woman who enjoyed wide respect in the Senate, and fundamentally shaped its character. She was a no-nonsense Speaker who relied on her gravitas to maintain order during Senate sessions, a job that was advantaged by the Senate's predominance of respected figures from Alscia and the Liberation War. She observed the rules of the Senate fairly, but treated minor transgressions in a thoughtful manner, such as responding to Margot Fontaine spontaneously dancing in the chamber by adjourning proceedings early.
She acknowledged that it was an honour to serve with great figures like the fine arts salon, fellow veterans, and heavyweight personalities like former Alscian governor Donatella Rossetti. Her job was made easier by the Senate's more placid atmosphere, as well as lack of extremist formations like the Conservative Coalition and Front for Renewal of Order and Society, which were small in number but still needed to be ostracised in the Chamber of Deputies.
While she kept her beliefs quiet out of respect for the Speaker's role, Seisa was a conservative who firmly supported decentralisation and building stable, long-lasting institutions for the benefit of Gylias. She zealously guarded the Senate's independence and way of doing things. At the same time, she strongly believed in the importance of transparency in governance, and supported televising the Senate's deliberations, ultimately leading to the establishment of GTV Parliament.
Her tenure as Speaker set important precedents and helped define the Senate in popular consciousness, but her last term, from 1976 to 1980, was less distinguished. She deplored the entrance of the Revolutionary Rally, Front for Renewal of Order and Society, and other marginal right-wing populist formations into the Senate, seeing them as a threat to the chamber's collegiality and dignified stature. She feared tarnishing her reputation for ruling with a "firm and fair hand", and by extension the office of the Speaker. She retired at the next election.
Later life and death
Seisa published her autobiography, The White Mouse, in 1985. She took to living in the Regina Hotel in Garés, and could usually be found in the hotel bars in the mornings, sipping her first gin and tonic of the day and telling war stories.
Described by Jenny Taylor as "a robust woman with the constitution of a horse", Seisa was in good health even into her nineties, and was a mild sybarite, preferring gin and tonics as her "bloody good drink". She attributed her longevity to good dieting and regular exercise, although she remained stout for most of her life out of personal preference.
She often visited her native Castelrosso, and became a supporter of molisentismo in later life.
She was interviewed for the 1999 documentary series Nation Building. Director Rasa Ḑeşéy called her one of her favourite interviewees, noting that "her burly figure, booming laugh, and tremendous vitality nearly overwhelmed our poor cameras into submission."
She died on 7 September 2012, a week after her 100th birthday, after being admitted to hospital with a chest infection.
Private life
Seisa was married twice, with no children. Her first husband died during the Liberation War, and her second husband died of natural causes in 1997. She declined to move into a retirement home, preferring the more diverse company of the Regina Hotel's guests.
She identified as an atheist.