Earl Branstead-Smith

Earl Branstead-Smith (b. January 30, 3443) is a Dranish politician of the right-wing Rally for the Republic who currently serves as President of Dranland.

Life
Branstead-Smith was born in Belo Mounasterio (Ulbrach), his parents having both been affluent lawyers. His family was one of the most influential dynasties in the region, since one of his ancestors, Richard Branstead-Smith, had been President in the early 3400s.

After graduating from high school, he proceeded to pursue a legal career like his parents and most of his family, studying at the Iglesia Mayor School of Law and Government from 3461 to 3466, graduating with a Juris Doctor (J. D.).

Politics
During his studies, he had joined the Grand National Party, but opposed its then-minarchist leadership in favor of the more traditionalist wing. He later admitted to having voted for the Dranish Conservative Party over the GNP's successor party, the Rally for the Republic, several times between 3470 and 3491, because he considered the latter too extreme. He nevertheless had his GNP affiliation translated into an RFR membership when the party was renamed in 3470.

Between 3472 and 3488, he was an RFR member of the Ulbrach assembly, which was consistently weak and only sent a small handful of members to the provincial legislature. He also sometimes defied his party's stance on defence and foreign affairs issues, siding with interventionist forces more often than with the isolationist mainstream of his party. He also spoke out against the frequent calls for defence spending cuts coming from members of his party, including chairpersons Graham Breckinridge and Troy Overton.

After having been elected to Parliament in 3488, he became Minister of Defence in January 3493, in a coalition led by President Lucas Manon (Retsforbundet), which he remained until October 3495, amid militant uprisings in the Dranish Autonomous Zone.

Afterwards, he continued to speak for his party on defence issues as RFR critic in that field, until he was chosen as presidential nominee ahead of the 3500 elections, which the communists, driven by their then-relatively strong political performance, already dubbed the beginning of the "communist century".

As an ardent anti-communist, Branstead-Smith rebuked the communist rhetoric and defended capitalism and the free market:

"I'm afraid she [DCL leader Leticia Saldanas] will devote her life to subjecting the people to the devilish cause of communism in vain, because for nearly 300 years GNP, RFR and their allies defended capitalism and fended off all attempts of left-wing takeover - and she can be sure that we will not simply step aside this time so that she can butcher our nation's private sector. Communism is as dead at it has ever been, intellectually as well as politically. Liberty will prevail!"

He won the election easily as the anti-communist, centrist and right-wing forces (including ED, KDF and PP had all rallied behind him. He gathered 58% of the vote, nearly doubling his nearest opponents score.

In his victory speech, he recognized the importance of the broad alliance behind him, saying that

"(...) my victory is not only that of the RFR and the liberty movement, but also that of those centrists who, while not embracing the free market and small government as enthusiastically as we do, nevertheless oppose the communist threat and recognize its inherent immorality, its ignorance of human nature and its merciless vigor to force people into collectivism. I will not deny that my mandate is not that of pushing for a purist libertarian agenda, but acknowledging the broad centre and centre-right base that helped me to get elected."

His party then formed an RFR-ED-KDF-PP coalition and proceeded to propose a couple of reforms including the legalization of private gun ownership, privatization of forests and smoking liberalizations. The bills were, however, opposed by his partners.

The new President also proposed stronger ties between Dranland and the DAZ:

"We defined some formal structures at the time when the DAZ was purchased from Indrala, however they've been largely abandoned. Nevertheless, I do believe that revitalizing these schemes is exactly what the Zone needs - therefore, I will soon proceed to appointing a High Councillor to oversee DAZ affairs from a Dranish point of view, while also giving the Zoners the right to elect observing MPs to the Dranish assembly to speak out for their interests - that, of course, is entirely different from any annexation attempts as it was contemplated during the Duvalle era."