| The following article is written from an In Universe perspective. |
The President of the Scallatti Federation, Commander-in-Chief of her Honourable Fleet and Armies and Protectorate of the Destination was the head of state and head of government of the Scallatti Federation, and up until 3556, commander-in-chief of the Scallatti Fleet. While the fleet had presidents since it's establishment in approximately 1200BDE, the official list of Scallatti presidents was, later, established to have begun in 0DE, with President Hortus, despite the fact his first term begun two-years before this point.
History
Formation
The position of a President in the Scallatti Fleet existed long before the establishment of the Scallatti Federation and before the inauguration of Jeremiah Hortus, which took place two years before the Invitation of Destination. However, 32DE, as part of the Destination's party's election promises, President Bernes signed the Act of Destination, resetting the calendar back to the point of the Invitation of Destination, and thus retroactively declaring President Hortus as the first President of the Scallatti. It is unknown what number of president he was when inauguration took place, but historians believe him to have been over the 150th president of the fleet.
At the time of the Invitation, there were two main parties in the developing federation, the People's Party and the Federation Party. After the 2DE election, the Federation Party renamed themselves the Destination Party, seeking to enact the promises of the Invitation and make a fresh start, abandoning the past which had for so long tied them down to ruin and turmoil. The process of this change began in 6DE when the Destination Party won the election and continued throughout President Rovenia's three terms. However, after the re-election of President Hortus in 18DE and following his retirement after one term, the election of his former Vice President, President Daishu, the People's Party began to retract some of the legislation to completely dismantle the history of their fleet. However, in 30DE, President Bernes won the election for the Destination Party, on the key pledge, with outstanding public support, to finish forming a new federation, without the baggage of their history and do so within her first four-year term. During the first two years, President Bernes reinstated all previously retracted legislation relating to the new federation and wrote and approved the written Constitution of the Scallatti, alongside her Vice President, Gavin Igarograd, before on the final day of 32DE, signing the Act of Destination.
The Igarograd Administration
Inaugurated as the 5th president in 38DE, President Igarograd was considered to be one of the greatest presidents in Scallatti history, as over his 12 years in office he managed to unify a bitterly divided nation, who at the beginning of his administration were almost on the verge of civil war, following the passing of the Act of Destination.
President Igarograd, a member of the Destination party, restored the teaching of history in schools covering the previous 100 years before the Invitation of Destination, seen by both sides as a reasonable compromise - this was eventually rescinded in 88DE. Igarograd, however, banned the previous symbols of the fleet, from before the Destination, from being displayed without an educational permit.
After his election to a second term in 42DE, President Igarograd passed the 1st amendment to the Scallatti Constitution, which officially classed all species contained within the Federation as one single species, choosing the name Scallatti, named after the Federation itself. This new homogenized distinction, allowed society within the Federation to move along peacefully, with everyone seeing each other as one. Furthermore Igarograd's amendment made it illegal for a person to request a medical test to find out what species they are, or what percentage of species they contained within them.
During his first term in office, Igarograd submitted proposals to the Senate to open an upper chamber of government, to preside over the Senate. This would eventually become the Chamber of Lords, which was ratified by the Senate in 56DE. A month before the 50DE election, which Igarograd was due to stand in, he was assassinated, while onboard the Hal III, being flushed out of an airlock. The person responsible was never found, although it was commonly believed that the President got into some kind of dispute with senior members within the Federation shortly before the assassination took place. President Bernes Jr, his Vice President, became Acting President, until the election, which the Destination Party, narrowly lost to the People's Party.
Political Upheaval
Following the assassination of President Igarograd, the Scallatti Federation went through a great period of political upheaval. The 6th President, Neil Cinnley-Bogual, of the People's Party was extremely unpopular during his time in office, making radical changes and imposing great security restrictions. This briefly caused a small revolt, from several of the mining ships, however the coup failed, and 66 miners were executed on the order of the President. During the final days before the 54DE election, the President signed the 6th amendment to the constitution prohibiting people who worked onboard the mining ships, apart from the Captain and their crew, from voting in any future elections. Despite this restriction in place, President Cinnley-Bogual lost the election to President Toula Bernes Jr, who officially ascended to the position in 54DE, despite having fulfilled the position in an acting capacity, four years earlier.
President Bernes Jr, reversed many of the legislation which President Cinnley-Bogual signed, but was unable herself to revoke the 6th amendment, despite promising it during the 54DE election. The President's actions and fierce rhetoric against the previous administrator, pushed the support for the People's Party to a record low, causing several key members depart and form a new party, the Democratic Party. However, the Democrats also had the support of several key figures from the Destination Party, including President Igarograd's former vice president, Perring Calcta. After just three years, since their formation, the Democrats managed to win the 62DE election, and Perring Calcta was inaugurated as the 8th President of the Scallatti Federation.
For the next two decades, the presidency continued going back and forth between the Democratic Party and the Destination Party, with Toula Bernes Jr. continually nominated for the Destination Party, winning four of nine elections. However, the People's Party managed to male a surprise comeback at the 78DE election, with popularist nomination, Aloxesander Dougie-Frenstein, who surprisingly won the 78DE election, and was the People's Party final President. After just one term, power found itself back with the Destination Party, however, President Fronsetti, the 10th President, would also become the Destination Party's final President. After just two terms, the Democratic Party managed to win back control of the Presidency for the foreseeable future...
The Accuratri Administration
Daniel-Connur Accuratri was inaugurated as the 11th President of the Scallatti Federation and was one of the most divisive presidents ever, only holding about 50% of the public support throughout all his terms, with half of the fleet loving him, and yet the other half absolutely hated him.
President Accuratri's first term between 88 and 92DE was easily his most popular, delivering on nearly all of his manifesto promises and once again uniting the fleet, and keeping their spirits up. It was during his first term that the Scallatti first launched a probe to Taoter III, to do a preliminary survey of the planet, which was a huge national event and made much of the population full of hope. In his first term he also abolished, on a manifesto pledge, the teaching of history prior to the Invitation of Destination, in order to truly put the Scallatti's roots at rest and encourage a new, more optimistic future to be forged, which after the probe launch was top of the public's consciousness. By the end of his first term, Accuratri had an approval rating of 80%, but it wouldn't be long until this begun to dwindle.
The President's second term became plagued by one singular issue, the fact that scientific estimates predicted that within 5 years, the fleet would run out of water, as all of the fleet's supply had been nearly used up. Accuratri was slow to act, in fact for the first 3 years of his term, he refused to act at all, claiming that the information was wrong and a ploy to destabilise the government. This angered much of the general public, as their lives were on the line and yet the president refused to even take it seriously. Finally in 95DE, Vice President Wanes-Bevre persuaded the President to attend a briefing on the issue with the Chief Scientific Officer, and after that meeting the President began dealing with the issue, also aware that he was up for re-election in a year's time. The Vice President chose to stand down at that election due to her conflicts with the President around the issue. Accuratri pulled together, in that year, most of his support, as he began tackling the crisis, but only managed to win the election by the narrowest of margins and failing to win the popular vote.
After having ran on a manifesto promise of reimbursing the Scallatti's water supply, Accuratri, much to many people's surprise, spent a considerable amount of time during his third term trying to deal with the issue. However, his hand was forced, very early on, as the rationing was failing, as the water was just running out, and supplies became dangerously low. Accuratri controversially made the decision to prioritize water to the most important ships, starving 10 ships of any water at all, and causing their whole populations to die within a month. All 10 of the ships were mining ships, and angered much of the public. Working with the scientists throughout the crisis, Accuratri managed to deliver in the year 100, just in time for the election, a new system which allowed the Scallatti to produce their own water, from recycled waste and gases from the fleet, for the foreseeable future. The President used this victory, to not only win the next election, and his fourth term, but to hide the fact that the 10, now empty mining ships, were being used as reservoirs to produce and store the fleet's water, leading some of the opposition to speculate that Accuratri let them die on purpose.
Accuratri's fourth term began very positively with many substantial reforms, but just a year in, it became overwhelmed by an impeachment trial, accusing Accuratri of murdering the populations of the 10 mining ships. This trial lasted two full years, and became extremely heated, with many of the President's allies defecting and leaving what they considered to be a sinking ship. Accuratri refused to acknowledge the trial and just kept on with the business of government. This kept Accuratri popular with much of the public as he used this time to keep the country stable and he portrayed those trying to impeach him as anarchists. Eventually, the impeachment trial failed as Accuratri was found 'not guilty'. He went onto win his fifth term in office soon after, but it didn't last long...
The Uprising of 104
To be added.
