Artabanos of Inimicus

Artabanos of Inimicus (Inimician: Artabanos van Inimicus; German: Artabanos von Inimicus; Latin: Artabanos Inimicis) is the incumbent Emperor of Inimicus. He was elected to the Emperorship on the 22nd of May 2014 after having been awarded a majority of the vote in the second Imperial Election in Inimicus. Artabanos explicitly distances himself from "far-right" politicians of the Inimician People's Front whenever compared to them. While he compared his own politics to centre-right politicians, he also admires former Inimician Prime Minister Harvey in 't Gras, a social democrat. Artabanos also criticises the Inimician model of coalition forming and the policies of the government of Prime Minister Simon Lane and repeatedly described his own ideology as pragmatism and not populism.

Early Life

Artabanos was born on 19 February 1978 in Astro, as the third child to a Catholic family. He has always claimed he never followed the Catholic faith, however. In 1995 he began to study politicology at the Academia Astri but transferred after a few months to the Academia Teli. In 1997 he ended his study with the Academic degree Doctorandus. In 2001 he received a doctorate in politicology at the Academia Teli as a Doctor of Philosophy.

Educational Career

Artabanos worked as a lecturer at the Academia Astri and as an associate professor at the Academia Teli, where he taught Marxist sociology. He was a Marxist at the time and joined the Inimician Labour Front.

In 2001 Artabanos became director of a government organisation administering student transport cards. In 2002 he moved to Telum. From 2002 to 2005, he was an extraordinary professor at the Academia Teli.

When his contract ended, he made a career of public speaking and writing books and press columns, gradually becoming involved in politics.

On June 3rd 2003, Artabanos married his wife Charlotte. She is currently the Imperial Consort.

Political Career

In 2002 Artabanos wrote "Aen het volck van Inimicus" (To the people of Inimicus), declaring he was the successor to the charismatic but controversial 18th-century Inimician politician Joan van der Capellen. A one-time communist and former member of the social-democratic Inimician Labour Front, Artabanos was now (+- 2005) considered a centre-right classical liberal influence in Inimician politics. He became a member of the Teluminan Monarchist Party, or TMP, the group campaigning for the restoration of the Inimician monarchy which was abolished in 1801.

On 9 February 2006, he was interviewed by Nuntius Inimici, an Inimician newspaper. He stated in this interview that the TMP's leader, Hugh Doyle, was "an unimaginative fool". This caused the TMP to expell Artabanos from the party. From that moment on, Artabanos has been an independent politician, because, as he stated himself: "none of these political class-funded parties has my support".

In the Ducal Elections of 2006, Artabanos was elected Duke of Terra Praestoris, the northeastern Inimician province, with a thrashing majority of 86% of the vote. He became very popular during his time as Duke, which lasted until 2011, when the TMP started the Third Inimician Civil War and the nation's administrative bodies were dismantled when the President took direct control of the country. Despite this untimely end to his Dukedom, his popularity did not diminish.

Artabanos's increasing popularity made him the subject of hundreds of interviews during the Civil War, and he made many statements about his political ideology. In March 2012 he released his quickly-written book The Mess of a Civil War, which he used as his political agenda. Even though Artabanos was in favour of a new Inimician monarchy, he did not find the TMP's way of achieving this goal, civil war, acceptable.

"Artabanism"

The ideology or political style that is derived from Artabanos is often called Artabanism. Observers variously see him as a political protest targeting the alleged elitism and bureaucratic style of the Inimician coalitions or as offering an appealing political style. The style is characterized variously as one "of openness, directness and clearness", populism or simply as charisma. Another school holds Artabanism as a distinct ideology, with an alternative vision of society. Some argue that Artabanism is not just one ideology, but containes liberalism, populism and nationalism.

During the Imperial Election of 2014 campaign, Artabanos was accused of being on the "extreme right", although others saw only certain similarities. While he employed anti-immigration rhetoric, he was neither a radical nationalist nor a defender of traditional authoritarian values. On the contrary, Artabanos wants to protect the socio-culturally liberal values of Inimicus, women's rights and sexual minorities. He held liberal views favouring the drug policy of Inimicus, euthanasia, and related positions. Artabanos admitted in a 2014 interview by Nuntius Inimici that he has openly supported Green policies in the early 2000s.

Some Inimician political analysts and scientists consider Artabanos to be a eurosceptic because he has claimed in the past that he did not want Inimicus to join the European Union in late 2012. This is disputed, however, as he has recently had a meeting with Premier Commissioner Kaegan Hezterblatz and has clearly showed support for the Premier's plans and has even agreed to sign a copy personally of every bill passed in the European Council.

His ideology can be comprised in the following positions:

• Civil liberties
• Classical liberalism
• Deregulation
• Direct democracy
• Euroscepticism (disputed)
• Freedom of speech
• Laissez-faire
• LGBT rights
• Secularism
• Separation of church and state
• Small government
• Women's rights

Rise to Power

When the Empire of Inimicus was founded in November 2012, the TMP's political leader, William Jameson, became Emperor William of Inimicus. His reign was terrorised by green extremists and he eventually succumbed to them: he was killed when a bomb went off at the Imperial Palace on the 5th of May 2013. His successor, the military leader of the Civil War, was elected in the first Imperial Election and crowned on the 15th. Emperor Hugh fared better than his predecessor, and was set to become the first long-ruling Emperor. Exactly a year after his coronation, however, Hugh suffered from a bad case of Crohn's Disease and abdicated the throne on May 15th 2014. Three days afterwards, the Imperial Election candidates were announced. Artabanos had placed himself amongst them as an independent candidate. Because of his popularity, he lead the polls throughout the campaign, followed closely by the daughter of the former Green Party leader, Jeffrey Speller, who was executed nearly a year ago (October 2013) after he attempted to assassinate Emperor William using soap.

After a tense electoral television debate, in which Artabanos preformed very well according to every poll, it was nearly certain he would become the third Inimician Emperor. Judy Speller (the second of Jeffrey's daughters to go into politics) ended second and Coppleman on behalf of the Party of National Pride was granted third place. All other candidates got merely a few per cent of the vote. In a historic victory speech, Artabanos said: Ick heb er zin an. At your service!, (English: I'm looking forward to it. At your service!; German: Ich freue mich darauf. Zu eurem Befehl!) and saluted. He is the current incumbent Emperor of Inimicus since 22 May 2014

Newly-elected Emperor Artabanos during his victory speech

Rimrothian Kidnapping

Founding of the United Green Front

Overall Policy