Falko Saft

Falko Saft is best known for his leadership of both the Libertarian Socialist Party of Darnussia and the GreenShirts. His leadership is most remembered for rebuilding the party after the Merenbürg attacks and leading as both an activist and politician as the sole voice opposing the Darnussia-Keymon War.

Early Years
Saft was born and raised in a Communist family in Red Stad. From a young age he was very active in Communist resistance movements and when he was 15 he enlisted in the People's Revolutionary Army. At age 20 however, he resigned having grown a distaste for violence. In 3006 he was one of the many Communists who joined in with the new Libertarian Socialist movement and became the LSPD representative for his Red Stad district in 3010.

Early Political Life
Saft was given the nickname of Johnson 's Bulldog on the federal stage. While Johnson was the idealist he tended not to be as confrontational as Saft would be to other parties. He got married in this time period.

Wartime
When the war broke out with the Keymonese, Saft quickly took the aggressive stance in stark contrast to Sistak's diplomatic approach to politics. He and Sistak arranged a project in which Saft would start a movement of anti-war protests that would focus on mobilizing the youth against the war. The movement was called the GreenShirts and Saft's model was to model the group after the PRA but use civil disobedience to achieve their ends. He gave up his seat as a minister and took up work as an activist leader. During the war he was arrested at least 10 times on disturbance of the peace and unlawful protest charges.

After Merenbürg
After the nuclear attacks on the capital of Merenbürg, the LSPD's future was in extreme danger. With the death of Sistak along with most of the party leadership, a desperate series of meetings on the future of the party were held in Doressa to find a new leadership. Though controversial over his leadership of the GreenShirts, Saft was elected as the most senior party member that survived the attacks. Saft found himself in a perilous position of being the joint leader of both the LSPD and the GreenShirts.

Wartime Leader
During the rest of the war, Saft made it his mission to step up the anti-war sentiment and end the conflict once and for all. GreenShirt activism increased and intensified to acts of vandalizing and civil disobedience. On the public floor he brought the deaths at Merenbürg into the hands of the Communists and Nationalists who ran the war effort. Though with the victory over Keymon their actions seemed more symbolic than effective. This time period is what most Darnussians will remember Falko Saft for.

The Utopia Incident
When the manditory religion laws had passed in Darnussia, Saft as a staunch attacker of the legislation initially supported the uprisings against the government over the legislation. Efforts he fronted mostly focused on getting Darnussians of the wrong religion into refuge in other nations. Once the resisters began a massacre against supporters of the bill, Saft arranged with the LSPD mayor of Doressa to turn the city into a temporary city-state and dedicated to protecting as many as possible until eventually the legislation was reversed and the revolts ended.

Peacetime Leader
GreenShirt membership slipped as the war ended and with the lack of major conflicts, Saft turned out to be less effective at rallying a base for the party when the stakes were less drastic. Though no other contender's came for the role, the LSPD existed as a weak party in this time period. Eventually he retired in 3048, handing the leadership to the very popular new figurehead Claire Johnson whom he privately admitted he was sceptical of at first. He has since renounced this and was a staunch supporter of Johnson's leadership in his retirement.

Retirement
Though retired, Saft was still leading the GreenShirts and in his time he would organize occasional rallies to help the party during elections. He published a book on his experiences and his time as leader through the war and the Utopia Incident. His last major act was a publicized trip to Keymon to support an Anarcho-Socialist revolution in the country. He passed away on the 16th of November 3065 at age 80.

Legacy
Even the most critical of the Saft leadership lionize him for bringing the LSPD from the clutches of death and revitalizing the base under an important cause. Many remember as the first time the teeth of the party showed. Some remember him for his leadership of the GreenShirts. A magazine published after his death called him "the face of the anti-war movement. Many Darnussians from many parties and walks of life always saw Falko Saft as a hero for standing up in such dangerous times."