Damara Larsen

Damara Dimitria Larsen (born 20 Tolven 1505) is a Oslanburgan economist and politician who has been Chairwoman of the Oslanburg Democratic Party since 1559 and Prime Minister of Oslanburg since the 1564 election.

Damara is the second of four children of David and Angela (née Hmicht) Larsen. Her father, a graduate of the Royal University of Agriculture who became a professor at the University of Winstrund and a recognized authority on agronomics, serving as an advisor to the governments of Joreg Lauret and Gorden Oldun. He was the son of a middle class landowning family who have been prominent in the area for over a century, since her great-great grandfather Filip Olden the youngest son of a landowning family from the town of Lindharlan in northern Oslanburg acquired land there and took the surname Larsen, his family not previously having had a surname. Filip married a local girl there, Amelia Tomassun, some five years later.

Her grandfather, Dimitrius Larsen, was briefly the Mayor of Aetinheim, her great-grandfather Markus was a prominent lawyer, and her aforementioned great-great grandfather Filip rose to become Riding Chief and a stalwart supporter of the King during civil strife in that period, when he was involved in a notable incident where a mob physically removed him from office during the riots before he was able to escape on horseback to a cave in the Hegjen Hills, where he remained for several days.

On her father's side, her ancestry includes Vostic (Her great-great grandfather), Kaven (Her great-great grandmother), and more distantly, Lomarren (Through another great-great grandfather).

Her mother, while middle class, was, on the contrary, the daughter of a shop foreman, a self-made man who had come from a long line of tenant farmers and started working as a factory labourer as a teenager. Her maternal grandmother died in childbirth at the age of just twenty-four, and both of her maternal great grandfathers died young, leaving behind wives and young children.

Early Life and Education

Larsen was born on 23 Zechyr 1505 at the St. Johan Hospital, where her father at the time was responsible for the day-to-day management of the family estate (Which at the time was still an active farm, worked both by the Larsen family and several hired labourers) and the other small enterprises owned by the family, namely a pub and a general store. In 1514, the family moved to Viborg where David worked as an agricultural analyst for Hwitrland Farming, one of the largest food processing companies in Oslanburg. Two years later, he accepted a teaching position at the University of Winstrund and the family moved once more, to Herlev.

Most of Damara's subsequent life has been centered in that city; she attended Centre-Sten Elementary and Kunsbankjr Secondary, where she graduated at the top of her class. Following a working holiday abroad, she entered the Donkuster College, graduating after five years of studying. One of her professors later recalled her as "Quiet, studious, and highly intelligent, always intently listening to lectures" and holding views "Both conservative and very much modern… with little tolerance for traditionalist ideas of a woman's place in society, but nevertheless with a deep appreciation for how her mother and maternal grandmother had faced the hardships of motherhood."

She was recalled by her former classmates similarly, describing her as someone who didn't party or act rebelliously and drank rarely and cautiously. She did, however, smoke frequently; both her parents were heavy smokers and both were diagnosed with lung cancer in the later stages of their life. Her father survived the disease, but her mother almost died from complications following surgery on her lungs when Damara was 26 and just out of college, after which she attempted to quit, but was only successful in completely quitting some five years after, before conceiving her son Lewis. Lung cancer eventually claimed her mother's life in 1558.

Private Sector

After her graduation, Damara became an analyst for Dagmar & Associates, a small financial consulting firm in Herlev, before becoming an economist at the Dolan First Nationalbank, then one of Oslanburg's largest banks. At the time DFN, long seen as a staid, conservative company, was going through a major philosophical shakeup with the entry of younger, brasher employees and diversification out of pure banking and into other sectors, especially real estate.

According to her own testimony at a Folteking hearing and corroborated by her associates at the time, Damara favoured more cautious policies at DFN, but as a young, recently hired woman, had very little influence in the company. DFN's real estate dealings were part of a property bubble in Oslanburg and in the 1520s, which burst dramatically in 1530s. In 1532, Damara was among several employees of the bank who publicly resigned as pressure mounted on the bank, presaging it's collapse several months later and it's eventual acquisition by EFXbank.

Following a brief tenure as a financial analyst for rail manufacturer RivendeTog, Damara formed the financial consulting firm Damara Larsen & Associates in 1535. She became less involved in it's operations after being elected to parliament and withdrew completely from it's day to day operations upon becoming Prime Minister, but retains a major financial stake.

Political Career

While a lifelong Conservative who participated in the party youth group in college and donated thousands of Vruns to the party during the second half of the 1520s, her first run for public office was in 1536, when she ran for city council of Herlev, failing only very narrowly; she came within a thousand votes of winning the district seat she ran for. In 1539 she ran for parliament in the Flotun constituency, where long time United Labour MP Soren Eriksen was retiring, she ended up winning the seat by two percentage points.

Damara quickly secured a reputation as a reasoned parliamentarian with strong expertise on economic matters and has, since the 1549 election, won the constituency outright every election. Currently she serves as the MP for North Fluton.

Popular in her constituency and a competent and moderate legislator, she nevertheless remained a backbencher until Treizen 1554, when she was made Minister for International Development in Mihael Karlssunr's government as part of a cabinet reshuffle. The Oslanburg Democratic Party failed to be re-elected in 1559, but she remained in the ODP shadow cabinet, even being promoted; rather than return to the minor International Development post, where she had proved an able minister, she became Shadow Minister for Finance.

With party confidence in Karlsunnr at rock bottom over the election defeat and Karlsunnr's unpopular foreign and economic policy, Damara, seen as more moderate and pragmatic than him, was a major voice among the calls for a new leadership election. While Karlsunnr refused to resign, Damara was instrumental in marshaling enough support to call a new election. Expectations were that she would not run for the leadership — she was perceived as being withdrawn and wonkish and had relatively little political experience — but ultimately chose to run, and with the support of the party's moderate wing unseated Karlsunnr as leader.

Party Leadership

Upon becoming party leader, comparisons were immediately drawn between Damara, a moderate intent on realigning the party towards the center and drawing in new voters, particularly the youth, and similar young, moderate center-right leaders. With her as leader, the ODP positions on environmental protection, the welfare state, and especially social issues slowly began to change.

While the media and party moderates showed optimism for her leadership, the right wing of the party had substantial criticism of both her policies and demeanour. Notably, former Deputy Leader Esben Öman slammed Damara as "A liberal through and through, with only a thin veneer of conservatism on the surface" and "Lacking passion, with the character of a professor, not a leader".

However, despite this, voters proved more receptive to her style than did some in the party, with opinion polls showing that she was perceived as being pragmatic and sensible. Particularly stark were the results when voters were asked three questions; if or not they believed Larsen would govern in the best interest of the country over that of her party, if they believed her chief rival for the leadership Gottfrid Stenger would, and if former PM Karlsunnr did. Damara had a ten point lead over Stenger and a twenty-one point lead over Karlsunnr.

Personal Life

Damara married Erik Larsen, also a worker in the Herlev financial industry, in 1540. The ceremony took place at her family's estate. They had two children, a son born in 1542, who was named Lewis, and a daughter born two years later named Giliana.

Larsen is a practicing Dainist, as her family has been going back generations, while her husband is Sentrist. The couple raised their two children as Messanics, but not explicitly denominational.

Childhood visits to her family's estate, still a working farm when she was young, left her with a lifelong appreciation for gardening and horseback riding. She also has a love of classical music and rock, she is an avid collector of memorabilia and records of rock bands and plays piano and the electric keyboard. Damara is also noted as avid enthusiast of planes, a interested that was nutured by frequent trips to the nearby airplane with her paternal grandfather at a young age

The family owns two homes; a town house in a southern suburbs of Herlev valued at approximately $3.1 million and a smaller house in Aetinheim, presently being rented to a family friend after Damara moved into the official residence of the Prime Minister, valued at approximately $1.1 million, as well as a time-share on Isle Vikaris.

Their net worth was estimated to be some $30 million, one quarter being their real estate holdings and the rest being investments, chiefly Damara's consulting firm.