Vernesto Skolad
Ernesto Skolad | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Mervoret of Drevstran | |
| In office 1941–1953 | |
| Preceded by | Vilvo Orbraggar |
| Succeeded by | Obrichko Dursila |
| Leader of Yednosc! | |
| In office 1943–1953 | |
| Preceded by | Creation of the position |
| Succeeded by | Andervi Bogerra |
| Personal details | |
| Political party | Yednosc! |
| Children | 4 |
| Profession | Military Officer |
Ernesto Skolad, was a Drevstranese politician and Mervoret from 1941 to 1953, taking the succession of Vilvo Orbraggar after the latter's decision to leave politics because of health issues. Before this, Skolad had been a colonel in the Triple Crown military and one of Orbraggar's lieutenants who would serve him for all the duration of the Drevstranese Civil War. After the civil war, he remained one of the most trusted partisans of Orbraggar and was granted the leadership of Yednosc!' parliamentary group. In that role, he earned the nickname of Orbraggar's whip because of his strict control over the MPs and zealous application of Orbraggar's orders. When Orbraggar announced that he would not take part in the elections of 1941, Skolad was chosen as the new candidate of Yednosc!. After the death of Orbraggar in 1943, he would become the sole ruler of the country.
Skolad's economic policies placed great pressures on the Drevstranese population, accelerating and strenghtening the various reforms ordered by his predecessor. He notably became an infamous union breaker and for performing extrajudiciary arrests and enprisoning of political opponents, especially union organizers. He would continue to gather popular support however because of the ongoing Drevstro-NATION War. The fall of NAME in 1948 and the de-facto end of the war would notably grant him a great popularity boost that allowed him to win the general elections of the same year. However, he would never finish this second term as he was officially removed from office by the National Parliament after the Black Streets Days, and appeared before an Exceptional Tribunal that condemned him to three years of house arrest and Lifelong political ineligibility.
The reasons behind Skolad's fall are multiple, but are often boiled down to the slow degradation of Skolad's mental state thourough his mandate. Since 1941 he was always unfavourably compared to Orbraggar and even before that was only considered a "lapdog" of the prestigious general. The disparition of Orbraggar placed Skolad in a crisis of legitimacy, which he overcompensated by surrounding himself with yes-men, doubling down on Orbraggar's reforms in an attempt to do better than him, and enforcing them with great brutality to compensate for his own insecurity. The harsh repression of critics and opponents, both in and outside of Yednosc!, was the natural consequence of all these elements, and its intensification is often explained by the isolation in which Skolad and his government found themselves after years of paranoia. As a result, Skolad's weak personality is often quoted as the main reason behind the fall of the First Mervoshia.