Julie Legrand

This is a Gylian name. The surname is Legrand. This person is customarily referred to by the given name Julie.

Julie Legrand
Minister of the Public Sector of Gylias
In office 2 January 1958 – 5 March 1976
Prime Minister	Darnan Cyras
Personal details
Born	(1928-01-28) 28 January 1928 Senik, Alscia
Political party	Democratic Communist Party
Nickname	Major Julie
Military service
Allegiance	People's Army
Years of service	1948–1958

Julie Françoise Manon Élise Zoë Cécile Sophie Legrand (Gylic transcription: Juli Fyransuaz Manon Eliz Zoe Sesil Sofi Legrandy; born 20 January 1928) is a Gylian soldier, revolutionary, and politician. She was Gylias' public sector minister in the Darnan Cyras government, and a major figure in the Golden Revolution and the pact of the dinner party.

Julie served in the People's Army during the Liberation War. She never served in combat, but was a successful administrator who earned great popularity with soldiers, and was repeatedly elected commander, earning her the nickname "Major Julie". Her wartime experience both shaped her public image and enabled her to befriend lifelong allies who shaped her politics, including Raira Sano, the Freeman sisters, and future cabinet colleague Sweetie Letise.

As a cabinet minister, she was instrumental in the establishment of Gylias' robust public service, encompassing both administrative agencies and public organisations. For this, she was nicknamed the "mother of Gylias' public service". She was additionally famed for her flamboyant personality and glamorous public image, making her one of the cabinet's most popular ministers.

An unabashed statist within the anarchist Democratic Communist Party, Julie amassed enormous power within the party. She imposed a level of platformism and party discipline that chafed anarchists but made it a powerful organisation and rallying point during the Golden Revolution. She was a prominent supporter and participant in the pact of the dinner party, and was said to have "domesticated" the DCP to accept it.

After the Darnan Cyras government left office, Julie remained a Deputy until her retirement in 2008, making her the last parliamentarian to have been first elected to the Popular Assembly. She maintained her power and influence within the DCP until her retirement, cementing her position as the party's "establishment", and sought to suppress the party's factional battles and moderate its image.

Her legacy remains substantial: she was described as a "grande dame and diva of the left" by The National Inquirer and "a conservative socialist who sought to preserve the trappings of bourgeois society while abolishing its substance" by The Social Times.

Early life

She was born on 20 January 1928 in Senik. She came from a modestly well-off French family, and learned French as her first language. Her parents named her "Julie Françoise Manon Élise Zoë Cécile Sophie Legrand", amalgamating all the first names they had considered but couldn't decide between.

Her unusually long name was a source of pride for Julie; as an adult, she would often end a promise with "… or my name isn't Julie Françoise Manon Élise Zoë Cécile Sophie Legrand!", and chastise those who displeased her by making them address her by her full name.

Julie attended primary and secondary school in Senik. Her parents believed she was destined for great things, and thus Julie displayed a strong sense of self-confidence and purpose from an early age. During a family trip to Etra, she became fascinated with the pomp and glamour of politics. On the way home, she told her parents, "I want to be in power."

Her formal schooling was curtailed by Alscia's accession to the Free Territories. Instead, it was continued in volunteer classes.

Free Territories

People's Army

Shortly after her 20th birthday, she joined the Democratic Communist Party and the People's Army. She served in the Liberation War, in administratrive and planning roles, and never saw combat. She was a successful administrator who earned great popularity with soldiers, and was repeatedly elected commander, earning her the nickname "Major Julie".

Julie proved a successful commander. She ended up commanding a batallion of bicycle infantry, the Major Julie Legrand Batallion, which became an elite unit of the People's Army and saw action in several key battles of the war, including the climactic Battle of Velouria. In her memoirs, Raira Sano praised Julie as "a superb armchair general" and wrote that she "understood that battles are won long before the battlefield, on logistics, morale, concentration of forces, and planning."

Julie's wartime experience was pivotal to her future career. During the war, she met and befriended lifelong allies who shaped her politics, including Raira Sano, the Freeman sisters — who took her as a protégé in the DCP —, and arms trafficker and power broker Sweetie Letise, who would be her colleague in government.

Her decision to joined the DCP reflected her ambitions rather than any commitment to anarchism. Julie had a strong affinity for her childhood Alscia, and admired the Donatellist vision of "government as an engineering marvel with an elegance of structure". She felt that the impoverished Gylians who had fought against Xevden mainly hated the way they were oppressed and immiserated, and for them the idea of government helping and enriching them would be revolutionary in itself.

General Council of the Free Territories

Julie was elected as a delegate to the General Council on behalf of the People's Army. By attending the General Council, she displayed both her prestige as a People's Army commander and polished her public image in preparation for her political career. As she intended, her presence in the General Council was sensational. The journalist Ŋéida Vaşad recalled her first impression in her diary:

"That vision in green — who is she? The pompous pace … the permanent smirk … that booming voice! It shoots through the chamber like a bolt of lightning. This woman is a born leader."

Before the francité movement had developed, Julie already put her French identity at the forefront of her public profile. She constructed herself an image as "French, arrogant, and irresistible", and sought to become the dominant French figure of public life in the Free Territories. This brought her into conflict with the authoritarian communist leader Adélaïde Raynault.

Historian Nina Raukan describes the rivalry between Julie and Adélaïde as "exceptionally fierce" and "a war of annihilation between two larger-than-life French madames that reproduced in miniature the struggles over who would prevail after the war". The two attacked each other relentlessly in the General Council. Julie's witty insults and unflappable calm established her as a force to be reckoned with, and emboldened leftists who were intimidated by Adélaïde's rhetorical prowess.

Throughout her life, Julie would speak with surprising fondness of her rivalry with Adélaïde, in a way that gave her a slightly "wicked" image. She wrote in her autobiography:

"During the war, few things animated me and brought me as much enjoyment as sex with my husband and hating Adélaïde Raynault. I hated Raynault, but not the way an ordinary person hates someone. It was a pure and beautiful thing. I would wake up in the morning, feel a rush of pride that I am la Julie Legrand, and then feel a sense of satisfaction that I hated Raynault. She represented everything I hated, but her corpse would make a fine stepping stone for me in politics. Whenever I entered the General Council, I felt a calm joy and I couldn't wait to roast Raynault on a spit. We were enemies to the death, and she would make a perfect trophy for my home."

When Adélaïde died on 15 April 1956, Julie and her husband celebrated with a great meal and sharing a 15-litre wine bottle, which they finished in one night. She played a major role in the subsequent Lucian Purge, and took part in public humiliations of authoritarians after their explusion from the DCP. She wrote in her autobiography:

"The purge was my political coming of age. I had arrived, and the entire party knew it. There was a new sherriff in town, there would be changes made, etc. I had tasted the fruits of power, and I enjoyed it. More importantly, chasing the loathsome would-be dictators out of public life gave me a sense of purpose. I had slain the monster Raynault, and nothing stood between me and greatness."

In light of her prestige as a commander and her great profile within the DCP, Darnan Cyras' invitation for Julie to join the post-war Executive Committee was expected. Their meeting proved memorable to them both. Darnan found Julie's egotism grating, but acknowledged her formidable charisma and passion for public service, and decided to give her that responsibility.

Julie recalled that Darnan concluded his invitation with "you're a show-off, a publicity hound, and a loose cannon, but those are ideal qualities for a revolution", and quipped: "This was the only time in his life when Darnan Cyras said something funny, and it was all because of me."

Minister of the Public Sector

Julie's portrait as a cabinet member

Julie took office with the rest of the Executive Committee on 2 January 1958. Her post was retroactively renamed "Minister of the Public Sector" when the Constitution was adopted in 1961.

In office, she took the lead in establishing the modern Gylian civil service, managing to reconcile the traditional ideal of a merit-based, permanent civil service with the anarchist heritage of the Free Territories. She adopted the model of the cabinet ministries as small policy-making institutions, and the independent civil service carrying out the formulated policies.

She both initiated and encouraged the creation of administrative agencies, and made sure that public organisations also came under her purview. She believed in the mobilisation of Gylias' reservoir of expertise to improve government and achieve progress, influenced by the Alscian and Free Territories precedents of applied science.

Accordingly, she built close relations between the government and the university sector, and regularly commissioned scientific reports and advice on the smallest issue. She felt that good governance and legislation required as a well-informed population and knowledgeable ministers with access to as much information possible.

Public primacy

Above all, Julie believed axiomatically that the public sector was superior to the private sector, viewing the public sector as guided by higher ideals and moral purpose. Public service had to live up to high standards of quality, efficiency, and courtesy. She devoted much energy to promoting the ideal of "private sufficiency, public luxury", which successfully imparted an image of grandeur and prestige onto public service.

Heading a ministry tasked with coordinating the public sector, Julie dedicated herself mainly to the symbolic and publicity aspects of the post. Highly energetic, she criss-crossed Gylias, taking part in inspections and public events, and making numerous speeches and opinion pieces. Her speeches presented public service as a glamorous and patriotic duty, and contributed highly to the attractiveness and high morale of civil servants.

She worked closely with Cabinet Office Chief of Staff Joan Holloway, and the two became influential champions of public service.

Importance to the Golden Revolution

Julie successfully oversaw the creation of a vast, supple, and effective civil service. Its effectiveness was crucial to the success of the Golden Revolution. The alliance of efficient public administration and radical currents made possible the atmosphere of revolutionary exuberance and experimentation.

The restriction of ministries to policy-making roles and healthy oversight of administrative agencies contributed to Gylias' distinction as one of the least corrupt countries in Tyran, and high public confidence in the political system.

Julie's success in imparting great prestige onto public service produced an enduring phenomenon whereby Gylias' "best and brightest" gravitated towards either public service or creative endeavours.

Public image

Julie visiting Tomes as cabinet minister, 1960

Julie was one of the youngest and most colourful members of the cabinet, and benefited from a bombastic reputation that suited her well as minister. She had a glamorous public image, recognised for her distinctive outfit of a green skirt suit with a large matching hat and a white shirt with a cravat, earning her the nickname "the green lady" (l'dame vert or l'dame en vert).

Champion of public service

Julie was famed for her proud and flamboyant personality. She exuded a sense of self-confidence bordering on arrogance, tempered with French seductiveness and sharp wit. She loved being the centre of attention and joining in activities where she could test her fortitude.

The columnist Denise Sarrault wrote that Julie "convinced many Gylians a French woman wasn't complete without an attractive audacity", and analysed her appeal: "Many would've been tempted to appear in a public information film promoting public service and authoritatively bark, «What are you waiting for? Join today!». Julie was smarter: she recited it with a seductive wink, making the challenge less of an insult and more of a playful dominatrix."

Julie channeled her larger-than-life persona into embodying the ideals of the public sector, much like Rin Tōsaka did with education. She delighted in appearing in public, observing the workings of administrative agencies and praising their workers, speaking directly with ordinary Gylians, and exhorting students and young Gylians to pursue a career in civil service.

She set a record for media appearances in the Darnan Cyras government, issuing "blizzards" of press releases, penning editorials for publications, and giving interviews on radio and television.

Her passion for public service appealed to the public, who saw her as an exemplar for channeling arrogance towards a higher purpose.

Cabinet

Together with Eðe Saima and Birgit Eckstein, Julie formed the chahuteuses ("rowdies"), a group in the cabinet famed for their flamboyant personalities and bonne vivante lifestyles. Several of her colleagues joked that she, Eðe, Rin Tōsaka, and Aliska Géza formed a cartel that shaped cabinet meetings and agenda, acknowledging their vital contribution and high esteem among the cabinet.

The "cartel" joke was true in one respect: Julie and Sweetie Letise controlled the agenda of cabinet meetings, and were thus described by many commentators as the real centre of government. Julie was known for her mastery of procedure and her ability to keep cabinet meetings focused and running smoothly. She boasted that the cabinet never had a single meeting run over its scheduled time while in office.

Cabinet colleagues attested Julie's propensity to "stride into cabinet meetings and act like she was in charge", but they found it charming.

In cabinet, Julie and Eðe were close friends, and at the same time engaged in a light-hearted rivalry in public, owing to their similarly showboating personalities and complementary ministerial posts. Their humorous insult matches and contests of sharp wit served as highlights of cabinet meetings, entertaining their colleagues. Akane Tsunemori remarked in her diary, "They were inseparable friends who happened to be constantly at each other's throats."

Parliament

Julie during a parliamentary session, 1964

Parliament served as a main stage for Julie's larger-than-life personality. She was a Deputy for Arxaþ starting in 1962 — the only Progressive Alliance deputy in a Liberal Union stronghold.

She was a talented parliamentary performer, renowned for her mastery of her brief and command of parliamentary invective; she and Iulia Edver were two of the government's strongest defenders and advocates. Even ARENA leader Emilia Malandrino remarked, "Woe betide anyone unfortunate enough to cross swords with Julie's tongue."

Her easygoing preeminence in Parliament was famously captured in footage and photos that showed her lounging on her bench while smiling with pleasure during parliamentary sessions.

Humour

Julie was famous for her mischievous sense of humour and reveling in the pageantry of office

Julie had a mischievous sense of humour, and was not above poking fun at herself or her image. She sometimes referred to herself in the third person for comic effect; in private, she maintained a distinction between herself and "Julie Legrand" the public character she "performed".

She jokingly alluded to her vanity, and posed for a famous photograph by Annemarie Beaulieu depicting her kissing her reflection in a mirror.

Outside of work, she was a regular attendee of Sibylla, and formed a close friendship with Sofia Westergaard as Delkora's ambassador to Gylias, who enjoyed Julie's charisma and flamboyance as reminders of her younger self.

Julie was a gourmand and a regular drinker of champagne and wine. Eðe nicknamed her "steel liver" because of her seemingly high alcohol tolerance. Julie was proud of her good figure, which she kept in shape through regular jogging and sports, and often jokingly asked friends and colleagues to feel her stomach, boasting of its flatness.

She was described as a champagne socialist due to her lavish lifestyle — she and her husband dined out in haute cuisine restaurants almost nightly, she drove herself around in a converted green hearse, and had a large overdraft with the National Workers' Bank — and her preference for socialising with "aristocratic" figures like the Shelley family, Ludmila Canaşvili, Margot Fontaine, and Alisa Marková.

Cacertaphile

Although Alscia was dissolved when Julie was only 11, it left her with a lifelong appreciation of Cacerta. She was a vocal advocate of close Gylias-Cacerta relations, and sometimes accompanied foreign minister Erika Ďileş on her visits to Cacerta.

Julie in particular admired Cacerta's use of airships as a comfortable and luxurious means of passenger transport long after they were supplanted by airplanes in the rest of Tyran. She pushed transport minister Kōichi Nishida to continue building mooring masts and airship hangars in Gylias, often leveraging her friendship with his daughter Makiko Nishida for this purpose.

In recognition of her passion, Royal Cacertian Air Carriers donated an airship to Gyliair named RCAC 128 Julie Legrand.

Democratic Communist Party

Julie amassed enormous power within the Democratic Communist Party. While the Freeman sisters as the central committee had brought an element of platformism to the DCP, Julie took it further and imposed a level of party discipline that chafed anarchists but made it a powerful organisation and rallying point for radicals during the Golden Revolution.

Nancy Freeman recounted Julie's unique role within the party:

"Into this tumult stepped Julie. An Alscian in the Free Territories. A proud anti-communist among socialists. A professional among amateurs who thought themselves a movement, not a party. A publicist seeking a unified voice for a party full of raucous debate. An organiser in an organisation that wanted to remain loosely-knit. A leader in an organisation that believed in no leaders.

That she not only survived but prevailed is a testament to her skill, tenacity, and greatness."

Columnist Esua Nadel similarly wrote approvingly:

"Julie cheerfully slaughters every sacred cow of the DCP. She is a statist who believes a state is necessary for national coordination. She espouses practicality and a refreshing skepticism of vague utopianism. She champions socialised luxury against revolutionary asceticism. She declares that the revolution is complete and from now on gradualism, reformism, and parliamentarism must rule the day. She takes the role of 'reasonable adult' and imbues it with a thrilling, rebellious edge."

She was a prominent supporter and participant in the pact of the dinner party, and pushed the DCP to accept it.

Reshaping the left

Several historians and biographers used the metaphor that Julie "domesticated" the DCP as a party, or drew parallels with Ilaria Marchese's professionalisation and moderation of the General Council of Workers' Unions and Associations.

Julie embraced her champagne socialist reputation and presented an appealing image to the public during the Golden Revolution, associating the left with prosperity and luxury for all. She put great value on style and appearance, and believed that social revolution was ideally paired with maintenance of "proper" standards of attire — a synthesis famously advocated by Ðaina Levysti. She became known among young leftists for her friendly but resolute insistence on high standards of clothing, and such was her charisma that her requests were often followed.

Julie's attitude towards clothing and support of the pact of the dinner party reflected her fundamental beliefs. As Rin Tōsaka remarked:

"Julie didn't want to tear the existing system down to make way for a new one. She wanted to abolish the class system by simply raising everyone to the level of the upper class, thus equalising everything. She had no patience for glorifying workers or anything of the sort. She wanted the left to embody prosperity, leisure, and luxury for all. When she met with Ritsuko-hakase, she would always joke, 'Doctor Ritsuko, the sooner you can abolish these dreadful, dangerous jobs the better. I hope to see the day we've rid ourselves of manual labour and no one will ever destroy their beautiful bodies again.'"

Julie built a powerful faction around her and in her image within the DCP. She maintained her influence through control of the party's recruitment and platform procedures. While on the outside the DCP was a place of freewheeling debate and diverse ideas, Julie ensured that once a decision was made, the party stood firmly united behind it. Sakura Kusatsu recalled that:

"Like many young DCPers, Julie disabused me quite cheerfully of the idea that since we won the war, we could sit comfortably around and work out a new society. She made it clear that to be in the DCP meant organisation and praxis. You had to set an example, you had to embody an image attractive to the public, and you had to speak clearly and communicate to the public. Julie detested jargon. If she caught you using jargon, you got told off quite forcefully. 'Our job is to clear the mind, not cloud it!', she always said."

Later career

A portrait of an older and grey-haired Julie, made for her 70th birthday by Alessandro Rocca

Julie was re-elected in 1976, but the Darnan Cyras government lost office. She was vocally opposed to a coalition with the Revolutionary Rally, and instead championed a grand coalition with the National Bloc. NB leader Lea Kersed praised Julie as "the loudest and most deafening voice on the left for a grand coalition".

She was a "scourge" of the Aén Ďanez government in Parliament, attacking her with the wit and ferocity she had previously displayed against Adélaïde Raynault. However, she found herself frustrated with the factional battles between "coalitionists" and "oppositionists" that tore the PA during the wretched decade.

She maintained her power and influence within the DCP, cementing her position as the party's "establishment", and sought to suppress the party's factional battles and moderate its image. However, her emphasis on moderation was mostly tactical, in order to regain the voters that had been lost. She held the "Róisínist" faction in contempt, and dismissed Róisín Ní Bradáin as "some Ossorian screwball who ran off from her islands to make a living annoying Gylians".

She easily won re-election in 1980 and 1985. Due to her strong opposition to Aén, she was endorsed by the People Power-Citizens' Movement in her circonscription. The endorsement provoked a media stir, given Julie's statism and platformism. Julie stated during a campaign speech:

"And I want to thank the anarchists, who I am proud to call comrades. I have joined hands with them during the war, and I join hands with them now to fight the greater evil. We have our fights and rows — don't most families? But those are mere quarrels. Against the supreme test, against dictatorship and authoritarianism, we will always be side by side as allies."

After the Ossorian war crisis of 1986 toppled the government, Julie supported the Filomena Pinheiro government, but declined to resume her post as Theophania Argyris had done. She told Filomena that new blood was necessary in the government, particularly to carry out the New Course.

She won further re-elections in 1990, 1995, 2000, and 2004. She provided advice to the Mathilde Vieira government and Kaori Kawashima government, embracing the role of an elder stateswoman.

She was a prominent supporter of the Social Partnership Program from the left, and was credited with securing the DCP's support of it. Gylias Review described the feat as Julie's final triumph, representing the decisive victory of her "aspirational, lavish, and leisurely vision" against associations of the left with "poverty, asceticism, greyness, dullness, misery, and bureaucratism".

Retirement

Julie spent her last term in Parliament as a self-described "valedictorian". She assembled collections of her writings from office, expressing pride that the best-selling was a collection of quotations titled The Wit and Wisdom of Julie Legrand. She published a well-received autobiography in 2008. She remarked that writing "is an excellent weapon against mental decline in old age".

She was interviewed for Rasa Ḑeşéy's 1999 documentary Nation Building, and was later the subject of her own documentary, Julie Levieille ("Julie the old"), in 2018. The documentary took a stylised approach by showing Julie drinking champagne and speaking directly to the camera, "regaling the listener with anecdotes and the story of her life".

In a positive review, Downtown wrote: "Her long black hair might've greyed, her face might've wrinkled, but Julie's beautiful egotism and legendary joie de vivre shine just as brightly. She recounts her life with bravado, tr storytelling, and such heady self-confidence one leaves convinced that she was always completely right throughout her life."

Legacy

Julie was a towering figure in the Golden Revolution, widely known for her achievements as public sector minister and personality. Her role in the successful creation and oversight of Gylias' civil service contributed markedly to the success of the Golden Revolution, and became a bedrock of the Gylian consensus.

She helped establish public service as a glamorous and appealing career choice, attracting numerous talented workers, and establishing Gylians' expectations of efficiency, high quality, and opulent appeal from the public sphere. These have had an enduring impact on Gylian politics, society, and the economy.

Her support of the pact of the dinner party and influence within the DCP spread her influence in public life even beyond her ministerial role. She was described as a "grande dame and diva of the left" by The National Inquirer and "a conservative socialist who sought to preserve the trappings of bourgeois society while abolishing its substance" by The Social Times.

Raira Sano remarked approvingly that "Julie spent her life carrying out a tenacious and successful struggle to remake the Gylian left in her image. She cut off the Gylian left from nihilist dead-ends and destructive purity, and did her best to make the left embody her qualities: elegance, bonne vivance, the seductive confidence of a winner."

Isabel Longstowe similarly joked that "Julie got the left to clean up and dress nicely without compromising any of its ideals. It's the greatest thing she ever did for Gylias."

Julie's personality was the subject of affectionate parody and imitation in pop culture. It was an influence on rezy (particularly Remi Ďana) and nénédie, and similar genres of pornography that eroticised the archetype of a well-dressed, arrogantly appealing woman.

Julie's "wicked" public image became an inspiration for many creators in how to depict "wicked" characters. Marie-Agnès Delaunay declared herself an admirer of Julie, and modelled her "wicked" persona after Julie's casual dominance.

Private life

Julie married Marc Legrand in 1953. Marc was a member of the French Fraternal Forces, and took her surname upon marriage. The couple have no children, and made a conscious decision not to have any to not interfere with their careers.

Marc has kept a low profile throughout her career, and has never been interviewed. Julie has spoken in interviews and her autobiography of their happy marriage, and has praised Marc profusely as "the perfect husband for me". She joked in one interview: "There is nothing more fun than doing chores and cleaning around the house while wearing suits. It makes everything feel so distingué."

She is passionate about children and enjoys their company. As a minister, she often visited schools to encourage children to think about future careers in public service. She is remembered by Gylian children as Tante Julie ("Aunt Julie").

She identifies as an atheist, and is a supporter of francité.

Julie's lifestyle has been the subject of enduring public fascination, media coverage, and even medical studies. She and Marc are strict adherents of French cuisine — "If you can't say it in French, don't put it on my plate", she famously quipped — and maintain a regular drinking routine: red wine with lunch, cognac at 18:00, and two glasses of champagne with dinner. However, Julie has maintained strong health throughout her life and displays no signs associated with alcoholism. Her specific routine is known as boire à l'Julie ("drinking like Julie") in Gylias, and is popularly believed to contribute to good health and longevity.