Jörg Renatsch: Difference between revisions

|honorific-suffix = Esq.

'''Jörg Renatsch''' (born 31 October 1951) is the 27th and current President of the Republic of [[Asilica]]. A lawyer by profession, Renatsch came to specialize in property and real estate law. In 1989, he was appointed by the legislature of Kariert Canton to serve as a Senator in the upper house of the [[Asilica#National Assembly|National Assembly]] of Asilica. He served for the entire duration of a single session of the Assembly, until 1994 when a new National Assembly term began. By that time, the government of Kariert Canton had changed political parties, and so Renatsch was not reappointed to the Senate. However, after a recommendation by the Kariert Canton Judicial Appointments Committee, he was appointed to serve as a judge in the Superior Civil Court, the middle-level appeals court for civil (non-criminal) cases in that canton. In 2011, he was appointed to the cantonal Supreme Court and named Chief Judge. During his term as Chief Judge, he focused on administrative restructuring to create efficiency and to move cases through the system more quickly. By 2020, the average time a court case took to go from the court of first instance to the Supreme Court was reduced from 26 months to 15.

In the Presidential election on December 9th, 2019, Renatsch was elected President of the Republic of Asilica, replacing Mario Huber, who himself had also come from Kariert Canton and who was a personal friend and mentor to Renatsch. Renatsch was appointed by a broad coalition of members of the National Assembly, with Democratic Party leader Lisetta Gronden calling Renatsch "one of the most capable judges and skilled administrators that this country has ever known." Renatsch's opponent in the election was Ombretta Pezzuto, a socialist and former Senator from the City of Asilica. Renatsch won the election by nearly 40 points.

==Presidency==

[[File:Asilica presidential standard.png|thumb|left|250px|The Standard of the President of Republica, a rectangular version of the country's national flag with a white field in place of blue.]]

The office of President is generally considered to be a symbolic figurehead position. Executive power in Asilica is vested in the Council of State, also known as the Cabinet, which is led by the [[Asilica#Chancellor|Chancellor]]. The President is named in the Constitution as the Commander-in-Chief of the country's armed forces, but the military in Asilica is very decentralized, with all but a small professional naval force under the day-to-day command of the governments of the individual cantons and canton-level cities of Asilica. The President is considered the Head of State and routinely receives ambassadors from foreign countries and visits with other world leaders. While the President does formally enact legislation into law with his signature and appoint members of the Council of State, in reality these duties are exercised only on the advice of the Chancellor.

On June 21st, 2021, a [[2021 City of Asilica Terrorist Attack|terrorist bombing attack]] at the Grand Council building killed more than 850 people and injured more than 1,500. All but 12 councilors died in the attack, which crippled the Asilican government because there is no provision in Asilican law to replace vacancies in the Grand Council by any manner other than an election—which can only be called for by the Grand Council. President Renatsch then became the sole executive officer of the Asilican government, assuming authority from Constitutional provisions that give him the power to "preserve and enforce the law." Renatsch declared a state of emergency and took several executive actions, including closing the borders and the Autostrada network of national highways and appointing the senior-most living councilor, [[Asilica#Chancellor|Teresa Armbrüster]], to be "Provisional Chancellor."

On July 16th, 2021, the Constitutional Court of Asilica resigned en masse rather than rule on the question of whether or not a proposed plan for political parties to appoint new councilors was allowable under the law, thereby allowing Renatsch to continue functioning as the de facto chief executive of the country. Prior to their resignation, the court had also ruled that Ms. Armbrüster could legally be appointed Chancellor. However, any question about who holds ultimate executive authority in the country under the unique circumstances will not be able to be presented to the Constitutional Court until a lawfully-elected Grand Council can appoint new judges.

==Personal Life==

Renatsch was born in the municipality of Grosser Kariert, the largest city in the canton. His parents, Eva and Werner Renatsch, were both school teachers. Jörg married Eliza Augsberger, who had been a classmate of his at the University of Sugen College of Law, in 1982. The couple had one child together, Maria-Theresa Renatsch. In 2019, Eliza passed away from cancer, followed a year later by the death of Maria-Theresa during a massive fire at the casino in Sugen where she worked. His personal home is in Kariert Canton, though as President he stays at the Executive Residence in the City of Asilica.

Renatsch is known to be a fan of golf and tennis, and has two Golden Retrievers, Streifen and Schein.

[[Category:World Leaders]] [[Category:The Acronisphere]]