Mette Elvensar
Mette Elvensar | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Chancellor of Delkora | |
| In office 8 June 1959 – 5 June 1967 | |
| Monarch | Charlotte III |
| Preceded by | Thalbius Sörbengaard |
| Succeeded by | Geirbjørn Feldengaard |
| Minister of Foreign Affairs | |
| In office 5 June 1967 – 2 June 1975 | |
| Chancellor | Geirbjørn Feldengaard |
| Preceded by | Geirbjørn Feldengaard |
| Succeeded by | Osvald Bjerg |
| Leader of National Labor | |
| In office 20 August 1948 – 1 May 1967 | |
| Preceded by | Jørgen Löfgren |
| Succeeded by | Geirbjørn Feldengaard |
| Minister of Education | |
| In office 12 August 1936 – 20 September 1940 | |
| Chancellor | Sofia Westergaard |
| Minister of Agriculture | |
| In office 12 August 1932 – 12 August 1936 | |
| Chancellor | Sofia Westergaard |
| Member of the Chamber of Representatives | |
| In office 12 August 1928 – 2 June 1975 | |
| Constituency | Cybria-Southwest |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Margrethe Ellinor Elvensar 7 January 1901 Börnendren, Cybria, Delkora |
| Died | 2 May 1984 Tjærenbor, Cybria, Delkora |
| Nationality | Delkoran |
| Political party | National Labor |
| Spouse(s) | Otto Elvensar (m. 1932) |
| Alma mater | Tordenhelm University (B.A., M.L.) |
| Occupation | Teacher Politician |
Margarethe Ellinor Elvensar (7 January 1901 – 2 May 1984), better known as Mette Elvensar, was a Delkoran stateswoman, teacher, and political reformist who served as Chancellor of Delkora from 1959 to 1967. Entering office in the midst of a major economic depression, her government initiated the New Kingdom, an ambitious agenda that sought to begin transitioning the economy toward socialization of economic ownership and laid the foundation for the modern Delkoran welfare state.
Although opinions of her tenure vary by political affiliation, Elvensar is almost universally recognized by historians as one of the most effective chancellors in Delkoran history, consistently ranking in the top three of scholarly listings of the most influential chancellors.
Early years
Elvensar was born on a commune in the municipality of Börnendren in southern Cybria in 1901. Her mother Agnes worked as a tailor in the commune, while her father was a carpenter. While attending secondary school, she was introduced to leftist political philosophy by her mathematics teacher and began closely following local politics. She would later reflect that her experience growing up in a commune profoundly shaped her political outlook, remarking in her autobiography that, "Having seen how well society could function when operating on the principles of subsidiarity, solidarity, and equity as was the case in the communes, I knew upon becoming chancellor that it would be my goal to replicate this on a national scale."
Elvensar's first political experience came in 1914 when the municipal council of Börnendren voted to seize a major portion of her commune's farmland through eminent domain for the purpose of building a lead smelter. Against her parent's wishes, she joined a group of the commune's members in staging an act of civil disobedience, chaining themselves to the fence surrounding the property to prevent the construction crew from gaining entrance. When the police were summoned, a large fight broke out that left dozens severely injured. Elvensar was arrested along with her co-conspirators, but was not charged due to being a minor. Although the commune's act of defiance attracted the attention of local newspapers and gained it sympathy throughout the state, construction of the lead smelter proceeded as planned.
University and early career
After obtaining a scholarship to attend Tordenhelm University, Elvensar began studying economics in 1918. While attending Tordenhelm, she became involved with the United Residents Guild, an anarchist group engaged in direct action in the city's working class neighborhoods. A self-described anarchist without adjectives at the time, Elvensar remarked in one interview that, "Up to that point in my life, I had only experienced government as a violent, oppressive force, and so I had no interest in working within the system or waiting on incremental change." After completing her economics degree, she enrolled in the school of law at Tordenhelm, graduating in 1925.
That year, she returned to Börnendren, where she took up a job as a history teacher at a local secondary school. There, she successfully led efforts at unionizing the school system, and subsequently began working with other organizers in the area to unionize other schools throughout the county. In 1926, teachers in Börnendren and seven other municipalities went on strike and, under Elvensar's leadership, successfully negotiated a major salary and pension increase.
Elvensar's efforts during the strike gained her significant publicity in the region, and prompted the local National Labor party organization to approach her about running for office. Still an anarchist, Elvensar later reflected that at the time she believed National Labor to be a corrupt party that was "only marginally better" than the alternatives, but believed it might be possible to radicalize it from within. She subsequently ran for municipal council on the National Labor list in 1927, failing to be seated.
Nonetheless, she was placed on the ballot for the federal election the following year in her home constituency of Southern Cybria, and won a seat after personally knocking on thousands of doors and making a concerted effort to speak to voters in every city and town in the district.
Member of the Federal Parliament
As a member of parliament, Elvensar served on the Committee on Labor and Pensions and the Education Committee. Early on, she developed a reputation as an independent voice in her party who frequently went against leadership.
Elvensar quickly emerged as a leader within the Red-Black Faction, a grouping of socialists and anarcho-syndicalists within the National Labor caucus in parliament that actively worked to replace Löfgren and other establishment figures with leftists. She likewise supported the Agrarian Workers' Party takeover of the Cybria National Labor organization and its subsequent reorganization under Bjørn Olsen.
In part as an effort to appease the rising tide of far-left dissent in the party and co-opt its leadership, Löfgren worked to secure low-ranking ministerial posts for both Elvensar and Feldengaard after the 1932 federal election, when National Labor entered government as the Liberal Party's junior coalition partner. Elvensar subsequently served as minister of agriculture from 1932 to 1936 and was then shifted to the ministry of education in cabinet reshuffle.
Despite her outspokenness and independent streak, Elvensar got on well with Chancellor Sofia Westergaard, who considered her a valuable ally. Elvensar appreciated Westergaard's "fighting spirit" and was impressed by her role in the Blockade of Banderhus and the Liberal Party split of 1940. In a later speech as Chancellor, she praised Westergaard, saying, "This woman was willing to risk the destruction of Delkora itself, and her party as well, over the simple, moral principle that a civilised society must do all it humanly can to prevent misery among its people."
The 1940 federal election produced a Conservative-Agrarian government, leaving Elvensar in opposition. She spent much of the 1940's as one of the leading voices in her party speaking out against the economic policies of Chancellor Veidnar Albendor. She later cited this time period as the start of her ideological transition from anarchism to democratic socialism, saying, "Whereas before I had conceived of government as a necessarily counterrevolutionary force that was to be eventually overcome, I then started to see it as a neutral weapon that would always be wielded against some element of society. My work would be to ensure it was wielded against the banker, the warmonger, and the racist, and not the worker, the disabled, or the migrant."
Elvensar met her future foreign minister and successor as chancellor, Geirbjørn Feldengaard, then a little-known state legislator from Førelskov, in 1940. The two developed a close friendship, with Elvensar providing assistance to Feldengaard and others involved with the effort to oust the state's National Labor establishment.
After National Labor's poor showing in the 1944 Federal Election, Elvensar challenged Löfgren for party leader, losing narrowly. Continuing to forge relationships with the party's newer, younger cohort, she mounted a successful bid four years later after Löfgren was forced to resign following National Labor's worst showing ever in the 1948 Federal Election. Prevailing over Löfgren's handpicked candidate, Elvensar assumed leadership of National Labor in March of that year.
Leader of National Labor
As leader, one of Elvensar's first initiatives was to implement democratic reforms of the party's internal proceedings. In 1948, she issued a memo calling on National Labor organizations from the national to the local level to open all official proceedings to the public. A rule change she successfully pushed for in 1952 requiring local organizations to elect their leadership brought her into conflict with the National Labor political machines of the major cities and led to a failed effort by the party bosses of Norenstal, Gothendral, and Tordenhelm to oust her.
Elvensar made it a priority of her tenure as party leader to rebuild the party's relationship with the labor movement, which had deteriorated under Löfgren's leadership. She developed a cordial relationship with Mireli Sørensen.
The cumulative effect of these and other initiatives was a strong showing by the party in state and local elections throughout the 1950's. In the aftermath of the 1953 Banking Crisis and subsequent depression, Mette became known for her passionate speeches in Parliament denouncing the policies of Veidnar Albendor's government.
By the late 1950s, growing civil unrest had turned into widespread rioting in the major cities, and the Labor Underground had launched an insurgency. In 1959, Chancellor Hjalmar Madsen was assassinated by a member of the AU, and was succeeded by Thalbius Sörbengaard.
Sörbengaard's heavy-handed response to May Day protests later that year prompted the LO to launch a general strike, which led to a motion of no confidence against his government and a subsequent snap election. In the resulting election, National Labor picked up an unprecedented number of seats, enabling Elvensar to form a single party government. During the campaign, she met Glykera Damonides, who would become her secretary and closest assistant.
Chancellor
Domestic policy
Shortly after taking office, Elvensar gave a televised national address from the Chancellery Building calling for peace as rioting continued throughout the country. The same day, she lifted the state of emergency that had been in place since 1958 and began withdrawing military forces from the cities, quieting much of the unrest.
Elvensar's first term was focused on ending the depression and implementing emergency relief measures as part of the first phase of the New Kingdom. The Emergency Services Act of 1959 provided funding for food, clothing, medicine, and emergency housing for those most in need, primarily in the inner cities and remote rural areas. Her government followed this with direct aid to farmers. Elvensar's government passed federal rent controls and re-instituted the minimum wage. It carried out a complete debt cancellation for all Delkoran individuals.
In a televised address in June 1960, she announced the creation of the Federal Public Works Commission, an agency which would provide a national job guarantee by employing people in the construction of large-scale infrastructure projects. The Commission proved to be successful in reinvigorating the economy, with unemployment falling to 10% by the end of 1960 and 7% the following year.
The tax code was restructured to be highly progressive and deficit spending was used to stimulate demand.
During this period, her government led an aggressive nationalization push, bringing failing corporations under government ownership in key industries including finance, energy, and defense.
With these early actions helping the economy to rebound, National Labor coasted to easy victory in 1963. Elvensar's attention then turned to implementation of more far-reaching "structural changes." Her government introduced the Cooperative Economy Act of 1965, which initiating a gradual process of transitioning to workers' self-management throughout the economy. The measure was highly controversial at the time and faced court challenges, but was ultimately upheld.
Economic planning was overseen by the National Industrial Administration and, after Delkora's accession to the Common Sphere, facilitated by the Hermes Programme.
Elvensar's second term was characterized by increasing economic growth, reductions in unemployment and inequality, and huge growth in the cooperative sector. While she enjoyed a single-party majority throughout her term in office, Elvensar maintained good relations with the Liberal Party. In a symbolic gesture, she named Westergaard the first chair of the FPWC, in honor of her advocacy of public works and economic interventionism as Chancellor.
Foreign policy
Although Elvensar's tenure as chancellor was dominated by domestic policy concerns, a number of important foreign policy events occurred while she was in office. She was a staunch advocate of Delkoran membership in the Common Sphere, and vocally campaigned for its accession, which was approved in a 1965 referedum. Her government gave formal diplomatic recognition to Gylias in the aftermath of the Liberation War and sought to build close relations.
Minister of foreign affairs
In the lead up to the 1967 Federal Election, Elvensar made a surprise announcement that she was stepping down as party leader, and would be endorsing Feldengaard to be her successor. In an interview after the announcement, she stated, "I have achieved what I set out to do as Chancellor. Our country is rising from the depths of economic despair and we have taken the necessary first steps to move our Kingdom toward a just and equitable future." In her personal notes, she reflected that the decision was also based on her personal misgivings about long-serving government officials, writing, "I have no desire to linger in office until I am old, gray, and reactionary."
In the ensuing leadership election, Feldengaard was elected by an overwhelming majority. Although she was no longer in the spotlight, Elvensar wanted to remain in the cabinet to mentor her successor and continue to help foster the New Kingdom. After National Labor retained its majority in the parliamentary election that year, he appointed her minister of foreign affairs.
As foreign minister, Elvensar worked to strengthen cooperation within the Common Sphere, finding a valuable ally in Liberal leader Osvald Bjerg. She maintained good relations with Gylias, and her visits there as both Chancellor and foreign minister made her one of the most familiar Delkoran politicians to Gylians since Westergaard.
After her party finally lost its independent majority in the 1975 federal election and was forced to enter into a coalition with the Liberal Party, Elvensar announced her intention to step down from Parliament and was succeeded as foreign minister by Bjerg.
Retirement and later years
In 1977, Elvensar and her husband Otto purchased a small farm in Tjærenbor and retired there, opting to keep out of the public spotlight. She occasionally sat down for television interviews in the late '70s and early '80s and maintained a close friendship with Feldengaard, but otherwise kept a mostly private life. She wrote prolifically during this period on a variety of subjects including politics, philosophy, and popular culture. In 1982, she was interviewed for the DBS documentary series A New Kingdom (1983).
Elvensar died at her home on 2 May 1984 at the age of 83 after suffering a pulmonary embolism.
Legacy
Scholars universally credit Elvensar with having an enormous influence on Delkoran politics and economics, with one historian remarking, "It is rare in the history of Delkora for one of its chancellors to have so huge an impact on every facet of public life, from the halls of government to the union hall down the street." Speaking at her funeral, Feldengaard remarked, "The Delkora Mette was born into is unrecognizable from the one she has left behind."
Elvensar's government is credited with pulling Delkora out of depression and facilitating the largest economic boom in the country's history. The generation that came of age during the height of this boom in the period between 1965 and 1970 is known as the '65 Generation in Delkora, and have been known for their political radicalism, aversion to traditional social institutions such as the nobility and organized religion, and cosmopolitanism. Their support was a key factor that kept National Labor in power throughout the 1970's.
Some scholars go so far as to say her reforms saved Delkoran democracy, with one suggesting, "Had Mette's agenda been thwarted, its unlikely parliamentary government would have long survived the growing forces of authoritarian dissent from a far-left and far-right that were both determined to reorder Delkoran society."
The structural reforms of the Delkoran economy inducted by her government fundamentally changed relations between the government, workers, and employers going forward. The comprehensive welfare state, public ownership of key industries, redistributionist taxation, and commitment to a gradual transition to workers' self-management that all characterized her New Kingdom program are known abroad as the Delkoran Model.
A statue of Elvensar was commissioned for the courtyard of the Chancellery Building in 1987. In 1993, a monument to her was dedicated in the town square of Börnendren. Numerous streets, libraries, and government buildings throughout Delkora are named after her.