Mïgrai Bharamut
Migraï Bharamut | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Merovret of Drevstran | |
| Assumed office 2014 | |
| Preceded by | Elross Gismond |
| Leader of Nepserot | |
| Preceded by | Elross Gismond |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Migraï Sargavos Bharamut 8 October 1956 Drevstran |
| Political party | Nepserot |
| Children | 3 |
| Profession | Military Officer |
Migraï Bharamut is a proeminent and influential Drevstranese statesman and the current Merovret of Drevstran since 2014, making him the second longest running Mayor of the Palace in Drevstranese history. Before, he was the leader of the Nepserot Party, generally considered to be the liberal party of Drevstran, opposed to the Yedviro Party, more conservative.
Early life
Migraï Bharamut is the son of Sargaï Bharamut and Agarra Bharamut. He is related to the wealthy Lugos family on his mother’s side. His father, Sargaï, was a veteran officer of the Drevstranese army who joined the Nepserot Party, and momentarily became its leader from 1969 to 1975. He attended the prestigious Fehrergy private highschool, and then the famed Tizrakard military university. During his father’s return to politics after a short period of isolation, Migraï became a 1rst Lieutenant in the Drevstranese army, before rising to the rank of colonel.
He married his first wife, Katalina Arany, a distant relative of the Lugos family, and had two sons from her. But they ended up divorcing and Katalina would remarry with one of Migraï’s friend : Lorgan Azkelene. They all seemingly maintained good relations, with Migraï becoming the tutors of Azkelene’s children after the death of their father in 2017. Migraï himself would not remarry but started a long lasting relationship with the philosopher and writer Elwine Aspaz with whom he had a third son in 2008.
Political life
He left the military after 10 years of service as colonel. He was then made president of Lugos Consulting, and then took the succession of his father inside the Nepserot Party. He would become the champion of what he called “Drevstranese Democracy”, opposing the idea that Drevstran was “democratic enough” and that after a certain threshold, it would be detrimental to the peace and stability of society. He became famous after facing in debate Simon Smeleres, leader of the conservatives and president of the party Yedviro. Nonetheless, Simon Smeleres became Mayor of the Palace in 1999.
Migraï would come to blow with the other figures of Nepserot on the question of the Anarchist activist Tomi Klavak. While the rest of the party wanted to distance itself from the activist, Migraï Bharamut publicly took his defense. As a result, and even if he became a Deputy at the Parliament for Nepserot, his relationship with the conservative wing of the party would remain strained.
In 2009, Migraï Bharamut would be one of the main prosecutor of Simon Smeleres, accusing him of corruption and to have been associated with foreign interests detrimental to Drevstran. His vigorous attacks on the ex-Mayor of the Palace led people to believe that he was overplaying Simon’s questionable behaviors -he would indeed be found guilty of corruption but all charges of treason ended up being dropped- in an attempt to get revenge on the Smeleres family, as Simon’s father had managed to exclude Sarga Bharamut from politics in a similar fashion. Migraï would end up before a tribunal, accused of defamation, emission of false accusations, and lying under oath. He ended up being condemned to repay three millions solidii to Simon for defamation, but was acquitted on the other charges.
Rise to Mayorship
Following Smeleres’ fall it was Migrai’s mentor and leader of Nepserot, Elross Gismond, who won the 2009 National elections. Elross proposed a serie of sweeping reforms which proved to be highly divisive among the political class and the population. In 2012 as Elross was visiting striking factory workers who demanded better health regulations and working conditions, an unknown assailant stabbed him twice before he could be seized by the security. The assailant’s motive remain unknown as he always refused to speak and ended up killing himself by escaping police custody and jumping off a bridge. Elross would end up dying of his wounds, making him the first Mervoret to die in office.
For the next two years, the President of the Parliament served as Mayor-in-interim. In the meantime, Migrai took over his mentor’s position as Nepresot’s leader, continuing to defend and push for his predecessor’s reforms, promoting a “populist social policy”. The populists accents of his rhetoric and program, plus the outrage sparkled by Elross death and the lack of a coherent opposition since Simon Smeleres was still at the time occupied with his judicial case, allowed Migrai Bharamut to easily win the 2014 elections.
Mayorship
After his first mandate, Migraï was himself accused by his opponents of corruption and mishandling of public funds.He managed to keep his party’s loyalty thourough the process, his resolute arguments puting the conservatives on the defensive and ultimately cleared him of all charges. In time for him to win the 2014 elections, albeit with a very thin difference between him and the conservatives.
In 2019, Bharamut became the first Mervoret to be re-elected thrice, even if this time it was hotly contested and was only possible because of his settlement with Simon Smeleres, whose party became the majority in the Parliament.
Policies and views
Migraï has been described alternatively as either a popular or populist leader, a skillful orator or a demagogue. He has remained aligned with the “social” wing of the Nepserot Party following the footstep of his mentor, Elross Gismond. He has continuously milited for the reinforcement of the welfare-state, to move Drevstran’s economy upmarket, and to keep the status-quo internationally.
Social views
The “Bharamist” view on welfare has become the main line of the Nepserot Party since he reached Mayorship. It argues that citizenship must encompass access to social, as well as to political and civil rights. In that, it differs from both the Drevstranese Right, which has a more Liberal attitude to social question arguing that full employment and an healthy free economy is the best social policy, but also from the Drevstranese left-wing, which has always been suspicious of large, all encompassing states, and wish to limit its powers, if not destroy it in the case of the Anarchists. Migrai has expanded on his predecessor’s reforms, turning Drevstran’s social coverages from a very selective set of provisions of social-service to a “cradle-to-the-grave” model. Nonetheless, he has stressed-out the “necessity of citizenship” to access such coverage, limiting it to “full-citizenship” and making the access to such status more difficult for people not born from two Drevstraneses parents. A move that is still hotly debated to this day, both inside Migrai’s party, Nepserot, but also among the opposing conservative Yedviro party and the far-right “Yednosc!”, both of which have criticized the move either as being anti-liberal or unconstitutional.
Economic policies
Since his first election as a Parliamentary Deputy, Bharamut has seeked to attract foreign investments into the country, defending a very liberal approach to the economy and promoting the quality of the Drevstranese’s workforce and education, and its innovative start-ups. Since he reached Mayorship, he’s been investing heavily in turning the Drevstranese economy away from low-skill industries and into more modern and technical fields, such as electronics manufacturing and research, pharmaceutical production, and information technologies.