Éléonore Gascoyne

Éléonore Gascoyne (b. June 16, 3497) is a Dranish politician of the right-wing Rally for the Republic formerly serving as Minister of Finance during a period of austerity from 3532 to 3535. Prior to her political career, she authored romance novels among other writings.

Life
Gascoyne was born in Melyn, Elbian, where her parents worked as a professor of literature and a medical doctor, respectively. She enjoyed a privileged upbringing, but has described herself as a bratty to rebellious child. At school, she won several poetry contests, and gained a scholarship for her academic education, which she received at the National Academy of Arts. She graduated with a BA in literature and philosophy in 3420.

Gascoyne then went to become a journalist for a women's magazine for a short time, but left the job soon, finding it "too limited for my fantasies." At that time, she first developed an interest in politics and began to admire former Prime Minister Julia Breckinridge, who also was a staff writer at women's magazines prior to becoming a politician.

Apart from joining the party Breckinridge founded, the RFR, she nevertheless didn't have any political ambitions at first, instead deciding to become a freelance writer. She mainly penned romantic fiction novels which have been described as "trashy" by critics. However, they sold reasonably well, and Gascoyne once proudly remarked during a talk show appearance that "you could hardly work less and yet earn more than I do."

In 3527, Gascoyne was elected to Parliament in the course of an attempt of then-RFR Secretary-General Thomas Trelawney to recruit local celebrities for battleground constituencies. This could, however, not prevent an electoral disaster. Gascoyne was elected nonetheless as an MP for the wealthy suburbs of Melyn.

As the RFR caucus had shrunk massively and a comprehensive leadership and frontbench renewal was underway, even a freshman MP like her had a chance for high-ranking position, and she was awarded the post of education critic, where she first embarrassed herself by demanding that Julia Breckinridge's autobiography, A Quest for Liberty, should be included in the national curriculum.

Her attitude became more serious quickly, and in 3528 she offered a vision for a 'path forward' for liberalism in Dranland, especially regarding education, where she mulled the idea of a co-existence of private and public schools:

"Freedom is based on choice, and choice isn't given in the current system. But imagine a system of biodiversity where we fund both for-profit private and regular public schools and parents get to choose where to send their children to. Given the general tendency of private sector superiority, we can safely assume that the number of private education institutions will greatly increase following such a reform."

This gained her some praise even from some on the left, including Yuko Asukai, then-Vice President under Sean Yates. Soon after that, she received another promotion, becoming parliamentary leader only one year after having entered Parliament as a complete newcomer.

In that position, she moved the party away from the radical isolationism it had embraced under John Holbrooke by endorsing sanctions against communist Kazulia. She also voiced cautious support for the government's plan regarding a modernization of the Dranish Autonomous Zone.

Despite her seemingly moderating influence on the party, she did not hesitate to hit hard against political opponents. In the run-up to the 3531 presidential election, she attacked Sean Yates for using inadequate language, and proceeded to suggest that he might be an alcoholic, which was criticized by government representatives as a smear campaign.

After Maria Gonzalez of the Popular Party had won the 3531 presidential election, Gascoyne became Minister of Finance, vowing to cut spending (except for education) and taxes significantly as well as to push for deregulation. She had significant success and managed to reduce taxes to below 40% after the former system had known top rates of 53%. Restrictions on public investment were repealed and private-public partnerships in infrastructure were re-introduced. Various welfare subsidies were also reduced. Unemployment however climbed to nearly 9% during her tenure, although she blamed economic woes on the policies implemented by the Yates administration. Tough budget cuts were approved by Parliament as well, but her decision not to cut education funding was overturned by the legislature. This led to the exit of the Dranish Democrats from the coalition in 3534, and early elections had to be held, which President Gonzalez lost in a landslide to Iason Toles.

Gascoyne remained Finance Minister until January 3435, when she resigned in protest over what she described as "eco-fascism" (the passing of a bill banning cars not using 'green' fuels and imposing 'highly restrictive' pollution standards on companies).