Lena Haidynraix
Lena Haidynraix | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Prime Minister of Gylias | |
| Assumed office 1 February 2020 | |
| President | Ravy Egiði Frauke Stark |
| Preceded by | Toni Vallas |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 4 October 1987 Velouria, Nerveiík-Iárus-Daláyk |
| Political party | Civic National Party |
| Alma mater | University of Velouria |
Lena Haidynraix (born 4 October 1987) is a Gylian sportsperson and politician. She is currently serving as Prime Minister of Gylias, in office since 2020. She is the first centre-right Prime Minister of Gylias since the Liberation War.
Early life
Lena Haidynraix was born on 4 October 1987 in Velouria. Her parents were Acrean immigrants, originally from Västergötland. Her surname was originally written Heidenreich, but her parents changed it to its Gylic transcription, in what she joked was an attempt to be "more Gylic than the Gylics".
She speaks German as her native language, but learned to write it phonetically using the Gylic alphabet. In one interview, she quipped, "By Acrean standards, I'm either dyslexic or illiterate."
Career
Sport
Lena was passionate about sport in childhood, and began to play basketball aged 9. She joined a youth basketball club, and practiced regularly. She enrolled in the University of Velouria in 2005 to study history, but left without completing a degree.
She played in various under-21 basketball teams before becoming a semi-professional, working various part-time jobs and playing with the city's basketball team, the Velouria Vectors. She became a quite successful and popular player.
Capitalising on her basketball fame, she ran for the presidency in 2010. She was the first athlete candidate since figure skater Katalin Nemes in 1999, and at 24, the youngest candidate in a presidential election.
Like Katalin, she didn't expect to win, but instead ran on a platform of promoting sports. Her quirky campaign, highlighted by tongue-in-cheek PPBs, proved unexpectedly popular, and she finished fourth in first preference votes.
Politics
Encouraged by her presidential run, Lena decided to enter politics. Her father was a "steadfast, The National Inquirer-reading conservative" and long-serving city councillor affiliated with the National Bloc. She thus joined the Civic National Party, joking that her political beliefs were "genetic".
She was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 2012, representing a Velouria circonscription. She won reelection in 2016.
In the legislature, she served in the Permanent Committee on Culture, Arts, and Leisure, where she was a prominent advocate of Lagrangian sports policy. Her proposals included projects to strengthen the National Recreation Organisation and diversify methods of fan-financing sports teams.
She was a high-profile supporter of the popular initiative on sport promotion, which passed with 65,4% of the vote in a 2016 referendum.
She entered the National Bloc primary election in 2017. She stood out in the field for her youth and existing athletic fame, which helped propel her to victory after multiple rounds of IRV.
Prime Minister of Gylias
Lena proved a formidable challenger to incumbent Toni Vallas, and the two remained neck-and-neck heading into the 2020 federal election. The election was transformed when the Æþurheim civil war unexpectedly became an issue. Lena led the National Bloc to a tie with the Progressive Alliance. However, the final result was a hung parliament due to a surge in support for Non-inscrits, particularly anarchists.
Lena managed to secure support from the Free and Voluntaryist Union, People Power-Citizens' Movement, Rally for a Free Society, and Union of Independents, allowing her to form a centre-right minority government with the Centre Group, Union for a New Republic, and Independent Regional Alliance for Minorities. She thus became Gylias' first centre-right Prime Minister since the Liberation War.
Her cabinet included several long-serving NB officeholders, such as Mayor of Mişeyáke Lisa d'Arville and former Governors Nicolette Mercier, Yseult Roxane Danesh, and Eiko Fujimura.
Domestic policy
Lena's economic policies are broadly statist and supportive of a greater role for emancipated markets.
She is a green conservative who supports strict environmental protection policies and has continued her predecessor's efforts to turn Gylias into a circular economy. She regularly seeks Green Party support for her environmental policies and budgets.
She has increased public spending on sport, launched projects to expand Gylias' cycling infrastructure, and supported the expansion of car-free zones in Gylian cities. She declared in one speech, "We must prepare for the day when cars no longer exist, and are seen for the mistakes they were."
Foreign policy
The defining foreign policy issue of Lena's tenure has been the Æþurheim civil war. She secured support from the FVU, PP-CM, RFS, and UI by promising stronger support for the anarcho-syndicalist KSA. As a result, formal relations with Æþurheim have suffered, while public diplomacy has strengthened in its place.
She is a soft supporter of the Common Sphere, defending the organisation in its current form and opposed to changes that would make it a supranational union.
She has contributed to an improvement in relations with Acrea through a good relationship with Chancellor Malin Rasmussen.
Public image
Lena has cultivated the image of a typical urbane Gylian conservative, acknowledging The National Inquirer as a significant influence. The contrast between this image and her youth when she entered politics has defined her public profile.
She is known for her preference for sportswear and athleisure clothes, particularly tracksuits. In this regard, she shares a similarity with Toni Vallas, who was noted for preferring a more casual style of clothing than her predecessors Mathilde Vieira and Kaori Kawashima.
She is seen as a more low-key Prime Minister than her predecessor.
Private life
Lena is single, and has been involved in several casual relationships and one-night stands.
She is mainly a practitioner of traditional Acrean polytheism.
She remains an active athlete during her political career, and is a basketball player and coach at a local Mişeyáke sports club. She has often referred to her athletic career in a political context, filming PPBs depicting her on a basketball court and using basketball metaphors in speeches to emphasise the importance of teamwork.