Fernand Ecker
His Excellency Fernand, Baron Ecker | |
|---|---|
 Fernand Ecker in 2020 | |
| Prime Minister of Lisander | |
| Assumed office 1 May 2020 | |
| Preceded by | Valentina Francavilla |
| Member of Lisander Parliament for Kasandora | |
| Assumed office 1 January 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Bruno Dayer |
| Kasandora City Council Member | |
| In office 1 January 2009 – 31 December 2014 | |
| Preceded by | Bruno Dayer |
| Succeeded by | Clarissa Vinhedo |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Fernand Alphonse Ecker 19 April 1977 Soria, Lisander |
| Political party | Social Democrats (2009-2018) Independent (2018-) |
| Spouse | Melissa Dayer (2007-Present) |
| Children | 2 |
| Parents |
|
| Residence(s) | Solar de Mayenne, Soria |
| Alma mater | Universitas Concordia Kasandora |
 | |
Fernand Alphonse, Baron Ecker is a Lisanderian Politician and Public Administrator that currently serves as the Prime Minister of Lisander.
Born in Soria to Marian and Lucia Ecker (née Montero), a lawyer and a mathematics teacher, Fernand Ecker lived all of his childhood in the capital city of the nation. His father was an accountant, and his mother a teacher. He defined his school life as "simple and introspective", being a student in Saint-Germain, an upper-midclass school outside the capital. Records say he played football and some fencing.
Career as Public Servant
At age 18, still unsure of his future, Ecker moved to Kasandora, to study Administration in Concordia University, because it was "a simple choice that could give a solid job". He entered the public service as assistant of Bruno Dayer, his teacher at Concordia and then councilman on the same city, representing the Social-Democrats. He completed hid university education, first finishing a Bachelor of Administration degree, then a Masters in Public Administration. In the first two years, he had a scholarship, then in 1997, at age 20, he was contracted by the City Hall of Kasandora, as a public servant. For twelve years he acted in various positions. Starting from common Typist, his university studies allowed him to progress up to Coordinator of Welfare Affairs. The working relationship with Bruno Dayer grew closer. In late 2002, Some sectors of the media even reported that Fernand would be maintaining a closeted homosexual relationship with his teacher. However, the story proved a little different. Fernand was actually in a closeted relationship with someone in the Dayer family, however, it was not with the teacher, but with his daughter. One year later, when he was 26, he announced an engadement with Melissa Dayer, Bruno's daughter, six years younger.
Political Career
Kasandora City Council
After three tenures as Councilman, in 2009, Dayer decided to launch himself as a candidate for the Lisanderian Parliament, choosing Fernand, his pupil and son-in-law, as its sucessor in the City Council. Ecker campaigned for university students and civil servants. Promoting himself as a public administrator with experience, he was elected for the second seat of the Council, mostly with the vote of the youth, but especially with the votes of public servants, that voted massively on its "colleague". Proving himself popular, the then 32-year councilman was recognized as "the most remembered councilman" for three of the five years of its tenure. His work for the University Community, with the public services and his time as Welfare Coordinator helping socially vulnerable people proved worthy. "Ecker is a man that likes to listen people. he's not afraid to leave the office and go through the city, to help with people's problems wherever they are." - a political commentator said of him. In 2012, by the third year of his tenure as Councilman, his first daughter, Laura, was born.
In 2014, after one term as Parliament Member, due to health conditions, Dayer made public his decision to retire from Parliament, and focus on his teaching career. Once more, the way would be open for its former pupil. Aged 37, Ecker wasn't that much interested on launching himself on a national campaign. "I wasn't feeling ready. I mean, I was in a stage of my life that I was too much in my comfort zone. I have a beautiful wife, we had a two-year-old girl at home, running around, full of energy. I didn't want to miss her growth because I was always living on this daily itinerary between Kasandora and Soria. I didn't want to live Melissa alone. I didn't even want to have myself driving everyday from home to Parliament, to get back to home no one knows why... I had everything working nicely back in Kasandora. But then Melissa said she was pregnant again. And I felt different. I felt that I could tackle the entire world if they asked me to." However, due to differences in political program, he was one of a reasonable number of parliamentary members and candidates that he decided to leave Social-Democrats and run as an Independent candidate. "In a national level, there is much more to consider. While I believe the SD plan is the right choice for Kasandora, same could not work in northern cities. I need to gather support everywhere, and be a partisan in this case wouldn't help. If I'm elect, I'll be a parliamentary for Kasandora as one commune, not only for those who chose me." The tactic worked. He was still elect with the vote of Social-Democrats in Kasandora, but a number of electoral districts known to be supportive of the conservative National Alliance-Moral Minority (AN-MM) seen a surge in votes for Ecker.
First term as MP and 2019 crisis management
Opposite to his career as local councilman, Ecker decide to go low-profile on its first tenure as a member of the Parliament. He delivered nineteen law projects, focusing education, both university and professional. His most prominent bill was the "Law for Small School-Community Activities", to grant financing for small schools that start extra-curricular activities, like sports and culture groups, in exchange for the schools to contract local professionals to work on them. In votations, most of the time, he followed Social-Democrats, but also supported projects for both leftist Popular Movement Union (UMP) and conservative AN-MM. He was more than once criticized, from multiple sides of the political spectrum of Parliament, for being a physiological parliamentary, with no clear alignment. However, this non-alignment policy would prove useful for the near future.
The General Elections of October 2019 ended in a stalemate. With a growing on the number of independent candidates elected, and the radicalization of UMP, that ended its coalition with SD, votes become spread and no consensus was reach in keep Valentina Francavilla at the position of Prime Minister. Lisander fell then in Direct Rule. HH the Prince decreed Government Vacancy and gave three months for the Parliament to reach a consensus in a new Prime Minister. By christmas of 2019, Ecker was in talks with Guilherme Hansen, another independent MP and a favourite of the public, to support him as the following Prime Minister. However, these talks weren't working because the SD would not vote for a Independent, neither the UMP. On the other side, MM-AN was seen as "too dangerous to give power". In January 2020, after the first extension of the moratorium by the crown, Hansen suggested Ecker should launch himself as PM candidate, since he was "a blabbermouth with excellent connections in almost every sector of Parliament".
"The Teapot of Parliament"
While he seemed to felt a little bit uneasy and overwhelmed at first events as a PM candidate, relying on the support from other politicians like Sienna de Mitri and Hansen himself, he was able to pacify the Social Democrats and even bite some votes out of UMP and MM-AN. He was described by the time as "the teapot of the parliament", due to being seen drinking tea during almost every reunions to build support. Video compilations like: "Every tea MP Ecker drank in February" became increasingly popular. No matter how silly it was, it increased the popularity of Ecker while restoring a little confidence in the Parliament. Ecker itself used this buzz successfully, drinking some tea in a promotional video for promoting his views that "the Parliament shouldn't be that much disrespected, because of the partisan issues of some groups. In this video, some moments of his career as a public administrator were shown, showing Ecker as a "honest", "simple" and "acessible to everyone" man. In the end, he was the only candidate, and got 106 votes, despite opposition for more radical sectors in both left and right. UMP leader Cássio Ferran stated "although it is a relief to finally have a prime minister, it is just the advent of yet another career politician. It is not the people in power."
As Prime Minister
Ecker started its term promising dialogue with every sector of Parliament, in order to reassure people that the Parliament is in favour of them. "I myself am a man of little talk, unless I need to present something or prove some point to someone. It's always like this with me. Since I was hearing people suffering with a lack of a basic income in Kasandora City Hall 10 years ago, and up to now, the only solution was this, and it will be always this. We're human, that's what we do. Talk, listen, search opportunities and possibilities to make our nation better. I hope to have the support of all of you, no matter you agree with all my points. Let's restablish the trust of the people in this house."
Nobility
In 2020's first list of honours issued by the crown, he was made a Baron. As is usual for new acessions to nobility, Fernand had to add its title to his registered name and apply for a Coat of Arms. However, to avoid a "undesirable aristocratic appearance", he chose to keep signing with its "non-titled name", and using the version of the coat of arms without a nobility coronet. "Although I am very grateful for the recognition of His Highness, I ask you all to treating me the same. When people no longer want me in the Parliament, if I feel I can still contribute to the public service, then I will go to the Court of Nobles and you can call me Lord Ecker. Until then, I remain the same man that I was yesterday. Actually, I must admit it is a little embarrassing." Ecker said, in the first speech after his ennoblement.
Family and Personal Life
By the time of the publicization of Ecker and Melissa Dayer engagement, gossip sources reported that Melissa had been interested in Fernand from the age of fifteen or sixteen, but he did not fully respond to her intentions until she was of age, out of respect for Bruno. They broke up for eighteen months between 2004 and 2006, when she travelled to Galliena to study at the Université de Lutetia. However, with Melissa's return to Lisander in the summer of 2006, they resumed their relationship. Years later, they revealed that they continued to exchange phone calls several times a week. The couple filed for a civil union and moved together in 2007, when Fernand bought a two-store house in Basses North, a middle-class neighbourhood near Kasandora City Hall. They lived in the house until 2020, when the family moved to Soria, to live in Solar de Mayenne, the house built for Prime Minister Adrian de Mayenne in 1926, and since then the official residence of Prime Minister of Lisander.
Melissa Dayer
Melissa Alanis Dayer, jure uxoris Baroness Ecker (aged 38) is an Art History teacher in Concordia University, same Alma Mater of Fernand. She met Fernand when she was only 14 years old and had just finished Middle School. It is known by later interviews that they had their first contact in a romantic sense when she was in the second year of High School (so in 1999) and he was her father's assistant. Anyway, for all the complicating circumstances of their situation as a couple, the two waited until 2003 to formally announce their relationship, and initially, they seemed to have done so only to disregard false claims about Ecker being in a homosexual relationship with her father. Before becoming romantically interested in Ecker, she fell in love with art, enrolling at Concordia University in the History of Art course, where she acquired Bachelor and Master degrees. She lives between Basses North and Mayenne, and she reduced the number of classes she teaches so that she has time to support initiatives as First Lady. She is also a gallerist, and with the family moving to Soria, she recently opened her second gallery, named D:II, a clone of her D:I gallery in Kasandora.
Children
Fernand and Melissa have two daughters. Laura Ecker, aged 9 and Lianna Ecker, aged 7. Both were born in Hospital de Ville de Kasandora, the reference public hospital of the Commune. Both study in Saint-Germain school, same as their father.
Titles, Awards and Honours
This part is yet to be added.