Henri Sãens

The Most Worthy Lord Henri Sãens SCB PII GGXIII OC OPP OPTD
Prime Minister of Ebenthal
In office 12 April 2023 – 30 July 2023 Caretaker: 20 July – 30 July 2023
Monarch	Arthur II
Preceded by	Rupert Ruschel
Succeeded by	Bernardo Barcelos (as minister-president)
In office 8 September 2021 – 5 December 2022
Preceded by	The Duchess of Guterfolg
Succeeded by	Rupert Ruschel
Member of the House of Councillors
Incumbent
Assumed office 8 September 2021
Constituency	Sanktstaat
Minister of Culture and Education
In office 1 August 2021 – 9 September 2021
Prime Minister	The Duchess of Guterfolg
Preceded by	Yuri Barcelos
Succeeded by	The Countess of Barcelos
Truchsess of the Tribune of Truth
In office 24 May 2020 – 1 August 2021
Monarch	Arthur II
Member of the Rubrayevish Bundestag
In office 1 August 2015 – 10 July 2016
Constituency	City-State of Lilásia
Steward of Znatsnaz
In office 14 December 2014 – 1 December 2016
Monarch	Gionata Giackovseen XIII
Preceded by	Leonardo Dias
Succeeded by	Louise Sintra
Personal details
Born	21 April 1996 (1996-04-21) Americana, Brazil
Citizenship	Ebenthali
Nationality	Brazilian
Political party	Moderate Party (2021-2022) National Party
Alma mater	American College
Occupation	Student
Religion	Episcopal Church

Henrique de Sãens Lund-Dias, better known by his nickname Henri Sãens (Americana, Brazil, 21 April 1996) in an Ebenthali theorist and politician of Brazilian, Spanish and American Confederate origin who became the first politician to be reappointed to the office of Prime Minister of Ebenthal. A micronationalist since 2013, Henri served as steward to Emperor Gionata Giackovseen XIII of the the Sublime Confederation of Znatsnaz during that micronation's mixed simulationit-secessionist phase and was twice elected member of Rubrayev's Bundestag. He moved away from micronationalism between 2016 and 2020, when he was appointed Truchsess at the Tribune of Truth, having been the only occupant of a judicial office without a legal record. Then affiliated to the Moderate Party, on 1 August 2021 the Prime Minister Lady Gabriela Amorim, 1st Duchess of Guterfolg appointed him to the office of Minister of Culture and Education. He has declined the title of Duke of Sãens and was granted the courtesy title of lord. A skilled politician, not long after his appointment as Minister, Henri was appointed Prime Minister, having held the position for a little less than one year and three months between 2021 and 2022, when a political crisis forced him to resign and to break with the moderate Party. He joined the National Party and in April 2023 returned to power following the resignation of the New Democrat cabinet.

Biography

Early life

Henrique de Sãens was born in the town of Americana, in the state of São Paulo countryside, to the middle-class Lund-Dias family which was originated in the 1960s from the marriage of the Lund family, which has its roots in the Confederate States and the Confederados immigrants to Brazil in the second half of the 19th century, to the Dias family, of Portuguese ancestry. Since his grandmother was a Lund and his grandfather a Dias, but the Confederado cultural heritage is a strong part of his family, his father was registered as Lund-Dias. Henrique mother's Amélia Saens Peña, was born in Brazil to an Argentinian father, and it is a great-great-great-granddaughter of President Roque Sáenz Penã. Upon registering though, her family name was written as Sãens.

Only child, Henrique grew in Americana attending the American Episcopal Church in Santa Bárbara d'Oeste. He claims to be an native speaker of Portuguese and English due to his American heritage. His nickname Henri, the French version of his name, was given to him by his grandmother after a French singer of the 1930s.

Education and career

Henrique was educated from an early age, but left at the age of 7, when he started studying through homeschooling at his father's beheast, until he was 14 years old. Upon completing 15 years of age, Henrique was enrolled in a private school, where he graduated in 2014. three years after completing school, after a period of indecision about his future, in 2018 he entered the American College, studying pharmacy. In 2021 Henrique was approved in an internship program sponsored by Venâncio Drugstores, working as an assistant to the local pharmacist in the neighboring city of Santa Bárbara d'Oeste.

Politics

Znatsnaz

Henri met Jacob, Crown Prince of Znatsnaz, the future Znatsnazian Emperor Gionata Giackovseen XIII at the Supremacy1914 online game in 2012. Gionata, who was then Crown Prince of Znatsnaz, invited Henri to the NationStates platform, of which he wasn't aware of. Accepting Henri became a citizen of Znatsnaz and was formally appointed by Emperor Gionata Edwardseen XI as Aide-de-Camp to the Crown Prince. Subsequently, Henri was made part of Council of State at his master's beheast. During this period, Henri was still getting used to the simulationist state when Edwardseen was deposed by the Socialist Znatsnazian Party which proclaimed its president as Emperor Gionata Vicentseen XII. The coup would not last long, for Prince Jacob established a government of his own and took control of the state's accounts and gathered most of the politicians support. Henri itself proclaimed Jacob as Gionata Giackovseen XIII and Emperor of Znatsnaz in 13 December 2014.

With the coup terminated, in 14 December 2014 Henri was appointed Steward to his Emperor. Although Znatsnaz was organized as an absolute monarchy, as the right hand to the Emperor, the Steward was very powerful and exercised his power through the Imperial Edicts, rulling effectively as a Head of Government. In 2015 Henri and Giackovseen led the transition from simulationism to secessionism, a period during which Znatsnaz had characteristics of both a simulationist and a secessionist state. In the meantime, Henri was responsible for the compilation of Znatsnazian original laws into a Code of Law. That year Henri had a wake-up calling, as a radical conservative person, much due to his religion, becoming over time a more tolerant person. He founded Znatsnaz's Social-Constructvist Party, although he never ran for office. In 4 July 2015 Henri gave up much of his powers, as Gionata's thirsty for power grew, eventually pushing Henri away.

Rubrayev

In 16 July 2015, while still serving as Imperial Steward in Znatsnaz, Henri was allowed by the Rubrayevish Federal Government to found his Social-Constructvist Party there and he was elected the sole representant of his party at Rubrayev's Bundestag in 1 August 2015. As a parliamentarian, Henri aligned with the Federal Progressive Party and made proposal such as the realization of the country's first and only census and the creation of parliamentary committees, having been voted chairman of the culture committee where he was the main responsible for organizing the Federal Festival that brought together citizens and government officials and representatives of foreign nations in an online conversation with music to debate aspects of culture micronationalist born of NationStates.

Re-elected in February 2016, Henri resigned his office in Znatsnaz to dedicate full time to Rubrayev. In January elections, his party got three members elected to the Bundestag, and he intended to run for presidency or premiership in the next election, had his party kept growing. Assuming his seat in parliament again, Henri openly supported the Left Party's proposal for legalization and regulation of lgbt civil unions, earning distrust among some members of the Federal Progressive Party, part of his parliamentary bench. His successive support for social measures ended up earning him attacks. Known as an American Protestant, he was attacked by the Conservative Party for allegedly betraying Christian principles. Frustrated, Henri resigned his seat and left Rubrayev.

Ebenthal

In May 2020, half a year after assuming the throne of Ebenthal, King Arthur II turned his attention to the country's judiciary power and started a search for competent micronationlists able to assume judiciary offices, specially micronationalists formely known to him. He then invited Henri to assume the office of one ofthe four Truchsess of the Tribune of Truth, Ebenthal's supreme court. Although Henri had no relation with law, which is why he was afraid to accept the invitation, he ended up accepting it, becoming a sort of notary.

In 22 July 2021, the Prince of Soussen, President of the Moderate Party, contacted Henri inviting him to join the party with the ultimate goal to win more seats in the next elections for the House of Councillors by having more runners. The talks happened over the course of two days, but the Seneschal Pedro Reis, 1st Count of Gesetzhausen, ruled that in order to run for a parliamentary office, Henri would have to resign his role of Truchsess. In 1 August 2021, upon resigning at the Tribune of Truth, Henri was appointed Minister of Culture and Education by the Prime Minister Gabriela Amorim, 1st Duchess of Guterfolg, becoming her only Moderate minister, in an effort of her part to please her allied bench.

In August as well, King Arthur II offered Henri the title of Duke of Sãens, but Henri politely declined the title but gave no explanation for doing so. He instead accepted the courtesy title of Lord which was granted by the King. In the 7 September elections he ran for the House of Councillors, having been elected councilor by the Principality of Carlenburg (present-day Sanktstaat. With his party forming a overwhelming majority in the lower house, Henri was subsequently appointed Prime Minister of Ebenthal.

Prime minister

One of Henri's first official acts as Prime Minister was to plead with the Conference of Santiago for the adoption of a cryptocurrency as the organization's official currency, if possible, transforming the Doubloon into a cryptocurrency. His claim formally aligned Ebenthal with the governments of the United Provinces of Mauritia, with whom the country had faced some setbacks in their relationship, and Quinta Velha. His new cabinet, under his orders, was also quick to establish relationships with micronations such as Snagov, Aswington and Flandrensis. Henri subsequently begun lobbying for Ebenthal's reform into a unitary state as part of his government program of "micronational cohesion", as he called it, which aims to organize the public machinery as easily administrative and functional as possible. His program received the support of the Republican Party but faced opposition Federal Princes and from the local governments of New Switzerland and Schwarzberg who feared losing power.

During his first month in office, Henri was able to pass an old bill from his party that allows for the establishment of incorporated and non-incorporated territories in the form of enclaves and exclaves surrounded by countries other than Brazil. Along with that, he declared that a new federative unit of Ebenthal will possibly be created, eclaved in Argentine territory belonging to his family. Another law approved of its own authorship competes with the standardization of the Luso-Germanic culture of Ebenthal and institutes the Ebenthal Culture course at the Zweig Institute. In November 2021 Henri saw one of his greatest victories with the Ebenthali Federative Act by which the Government, aligned with the Luso-Germanic Commission, and theoretically supported by the King, abolished the principalities of Aldiva, Alvorada and Carlenburg, creating them as territories with new names and under direct administration by the Federal Government, thus pushing for Henri's unitarism. This victory nonetheless didn't came without a setback, as the Republican Party grew and the Principality of New Switzerland was drawn on the verge of starting a civil war. Nonetheless Henri was ultimatelly successful, gathe with the approval of the Ebenthali Unitary Act.

Neo-Swiss crisis

After months of political conflict, Henri and his allies managed to change the Worker's Party's mind into supporting their position by luring them with the weak position in which passing their proposal would leave the conservative and highly influential politicians of the country's Central Region in. With the Act all the subnational monarchies of Ebenthal were abolished and the principalities, converted into provinces, placed under their direct control until a new definition by the Central Government. The Neo-Swiss Government, however, openly refused to abide by the force of the law and declared that it did not recognize the deposition of its Reigning Prince Antônio I, Prince of New Switzerland, creating the 2022 Neo-Swiss crisis. The Prince demanded that the Prime Minister recognize his sovereignty over the territory of New Switzerland, under threat of secession, but Henri refused to give in, however, initiating the Dialogue of Ten Days, as the negotiations between the Moderate Central Government and the Neo-Swiss Conservative Government. When the Schwarzberger Government declared unconditional support for the Prince of New Switzerland, King Arthur II immediately stopped the Ten-Day Dialogue, and proceeded extraordinarily to deal directly with regional governments. This was a major setback in Henri's political career and, according to observers, affected the relationship of trust developed between King and Prime Minister. Nevertheless, Henri emerged victorious and negotiated the position of the former ruling houses of the old principalities as the first rulers of the new provinces.

Fall from grace

Still facing the consequences of his role in the Neo-Swiss crisis, even despite his political victory in the end, the estrangement of the relationship between Henri and the King reverberated in his relationship with the politicians of his party and his allied base. Political distrust of Henri grew even more when his term was extraordinarily extended by a month due to successive global events that affected Ebenthali politics such as the celebrations of the bicentennial of Brazilian independence and the death of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, which resulted in a official seven-day declaration of mourning.

On 13 September 2022 The Duchess of Guterfolg, left the Worker's Party and founded the New Democratic Party with the aim of being a centrist party of independent position, that is to say, without depending on associations with other parties to form a government. This weakened the position of the Moderates, and especially of Henri, candidate for re-election, whose government, despite being majority, is quasi-dependent on a thin alliance with the Worker's to pass laws of great proportions. With the Conservatives under-represented in parliament and unable to form an alliance that would allow Henri effective government, the Moderates lost confidence in his leadership skills, and some ended up leaving the party to the New Democratics, lured by the party's proposal.

However, despite the setbacks faced by Henri in his political career, the Moderate Party emerged from the elections held on 12 October as the majority party in the House of Councillors, despite losing almost half its seats as well as its allied base in the Worker's Party. Faced with this scenario, Henri worked so that the New Democratic Party, despite its spontaneous and sudden success in its first electoral race, was not able to fulfill its promise of being a party that is independent of others to govern, making concessions to allied politicians and potential allies so that they do not leave their parties for the New Democratic and in order to maintain an alliance between Moderates and what is left of the Worker's so that to build a solid government base.

Resignation

Increasingly isolated, on 20 November a no-confidence vote was cast against Henri by The Duke of Nëbensee, accusing the government of being incapable of governing the country after a series of member resignations of cabinet resulting from disagreements with the Prime Minister on how to handle the diplomatic conflict with Vishwamitra. Over the next two weeks the House of Councillors debated and voted to remove Henri from office, while several members of the Moderate Party abandoned him and joined the newly founded New Democratic Party.

Ultimatelly, it was expected that the motion would not pass as both the ruling and allied bases had seven seats on the Councillors and it was believed a tie would turn into a defeat for the motion with the special right of the Councillor Speaker, to Moderate, to break the tie. However, Worker's Councilor Éric de Pádua voted in favor of the motion, which was approved with 8 votes to 7. Before he was formally removed from power, Henri announced his resignation and that of his entire cabinet on 5 December 2022.

Return to power

After the announcement that he would form a new party, the Swedish Party, Rupert Ruschel, 1st Baron of Sommerlath, who succeeded Henri in cabinet, was forced to resign as Prime Minister as he was outside the New Democratic Party, which then lost the majority in parliament, allowing for the National Party, the big-tent party to which Henri joined after the dissolution of the Moderadter and his break with former president Raphael Sousa, to become become the major party by number of seats. The President of the National Party, Jonathan Scherer, 1st Marquis of Rozandir, constitutionally barred from taking over as head of government from Ebenthal because he is himself head of state of New Southern Rhine , where he is King, appointed in his place Henri, who enjoys wide popularity in the party, to take over the post of Prime Minister, becoming the first holder of the post to hold it twice.

Honours

As an Ebenthaler politicians, Henri must be addressed as The Most Dignified. He also enjoys of the courtesy title of Lord. He subsequently is a member of the following orders:

• Federal Republic of Rubrayev: Grand Cross of the Order of Presidente Prudente
• The Sublime Confederation of Znatsnaz: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Gionata Giackovseen XIII
• The Sublime Confederation of Znatsnaz: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Confederation
• Schneeblutigan Empire: knight of the Order of Peterstaad
• Kingdom of Ebenthal: Knight of the Order of Prince Ludwig Gaston of Saxe-Coburg and Braganza
• Kingdom of Ebenthal: Knight of the Order of Pedro II (dormant)
• State of Vishwamitra: Grand Cross of the Most Excellent Order of the Vishwamitra