Fachnan Opus

**Fachnan Opus** (April 1, 2000 -) was a prominent Morranian politician who held office as the seventh vice president of Morra from January 20, 2040 onwards, having previously been the founding leader of the Democratic Party of the People from September 2039 until January 2040, and secretary of state for finance from 2037 until 2039. Regarded as an *eminence grise* to President Kairos Hemlock, Opus exerted considerable influence over Morranian political affairs from 2039 onwards.

Born in 2000, Opus gained a degree in political sciences and economics from the University of Amsterdam, before entering the civil service of the Transitional State of Dunsteen in 2023. Following the 2024 coup which established the Corporate Republic of Dunsteen, Fachnan Opus was briefly imprisoned for attempting to help finance secretary Geordo Hemlock escape arrest, but was pardoned in February 2025. After joining the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy, Opus was elected to the National Assembly in October 2025, where he would remain a representative for 14 years. During his tenure in the National Assembly of Morra, Fachnan Opus was a prominent and highly influential politician at the centre of most major policy debates. As a former economics civil servant, Opus led internal resistance to President Sunil Bakshi's economic policy during the late 2020s, with the global banking crisis in 2027 forcing the government to adopt many of Opus' policy suggestions. Fachnan Opus was also an early proponent of the Morranian democracy movement and backed the passing of the 2029 constitution which established the Republic of Morra.

During later terms in office, Fachnan Opus established the National Assembly Economic Committee in 2030 and served as its founding chairman until 2037. As the committee head, Opus led largely neutral and factual questioning of government officials over economic policy, earning bipartisan praise in the process. During the Derigo Disease Debate, Opus was a major figure advocating for the passing of the Public Health Regulations Act and became close allies with Kairos Hemlock after she helped secure the passage of the legislation. After leading the impeachment of vice president Eris Assecla, Opus helped install Hemlock as vice president in an election held by the National Assembly in August 2037. President Bakshi appointed Opus as secretary of state for finance in mid 2037 amid an emerging government crisis - during his two years in office, Fachnan Opus attempted to pass an emergency budget to encourage wealth redistribution and the expansion of welfare to prevent a worsening of already collapsing public opinion towards the government, but these efforts were repeatedly blocked by Speaker Peter Koonz. Following the assassination of President Bakshi and the assent of Hemlock to the presidency, Fachnan Opus became embroiled in the violent political crisis between President Hemlock and Speaker Koonz; following Hemlock's impeachment, Opus founded the Democratic Party of the People in September 2039 in order to return her to the presidency. In January 2040, Hemlock and Opus were elected as president and vice president at the head of a united opposition candidacy and took office days later.

## History

Born in the year 2000 as the child of wealthy Dunsteenian entrepreneurs in Zeeland, Fachnan Opus attended Amsterdam University between 2019 and 2023, graduating with a degree in political sciences and economics. During his time as a student, Opus took part in the 2022 revolution which led to the formation of the Transitional State of Dunsteen and was prominent member of Amsterdam University's student union political society, frequently backing the actions of the then president Werner Reinheart. After graduating in 2023, Opus became a civil servant at the Ministry of Finance supporting finance secretary Geordo Hemlock as a personal economic assistant - following the August 2024 coup d'état which overthrew the government, Opus attempted to help secretary Hemlock escape Brussels but the pair were arrested by the military, with Hemlock sentenced to 20 years in prison, whilst Opus received a sentence of two years. Fachnan Opus was formally pardoned by newly elected president Sunil Bakshi in February 2025 and permitted to return as a senior civil servant under the new Corporate Republic of Dunsteen.

## Tenure in the National Assembly

### First term (2025 - 2030)

 **Political Career**Derigo Disease Debate • Assassination of Sunil Bakshi • 2039-40 Morranian Political Crisis • Impeachment of Kairos Hemlock • People's Party for Freedom and Democracy • Democratic Party of the People

 **Electoral History**National Assembly (2025 • 2030 • 2035 • 2036 • 2037)Vice Presidency (2039 • 2040)

In October 2025, Fachnan Opus was elected to the newly formed National Assembly of the Corporate Republic of Dunsteen as a member of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). During his time as a representative in the C.R. Dunsteen's legislature, Opus came into contact with several senior parliamentarians, including Peter Illich, Peter Koonz, Frank Wassenberg, Eris Assecla, and Ernst van Darmin; within the VVD, Fachnan Opus became regarded as a rising star after proving to be a strong debater and ideologue for the party. Despite his growing popularity, Opus' economic outlook remained deeply at odds with the ultra libertarian policies of the government, and thus Opus declined to serve in cabinet whilst the government continued to practice extreme free market policies. In the aftermath of the 2027 Global Banking Crisis, the government of President Sunil Bakshi began to slow down its libertarian policies and implemented limited economic benefits for citizens; with the government having been forced to make an embarrassing U-turn on its policies, Fachnan Opus reportedly told finance secretary Eris Assecla and a group of senior VVD officials to "go fuck yourselves" after they had publicly taken credit for implementing reforms that Opus had been calling for.

In 2028, Fachnan Opus voted to enact a new democratic constitution after the government sought to reform itself to gain access to fiscal aid to help the economy following the banking crisis; whilst broadly popular with the wider public, the move was highly controversial among VVD members and led to tensions between factions of the party - in September 2028, Opus and interior secretary Lammert van Raan were caught on camera having a bitter argument in the national assembly chambers over the constitution. Fachnan Opus was present at a ceremony in Amsterdam proclaiming the founding of the Republic of Morra on February 20, 2029, alongside President Sunil Bakshi, Vice President Werner Reinheart, and newly appointed Speaker of the National Assembly Peter Illich. Opus remained as a representative of the newly formed National Assembly of Morra after all former C.R.D. representatives were co-opted into the new legislature. Under the new democratic constitution, political parties were allowed to form and contest elections - amid tensions within the VVD, Fachnan Opus was reported to have been in negotiations with Union of the Corporations (UvdC) leader Frank Wassenberg to join the party, but ultimately opted to remain in the VVD.

### Second term (2030 - 2035)

In January 2030, Fachnan Opus was re-elected to a second term as a representative in the National Assembly of Morra as a VVD list candidate. Following the formation of the Second Illich Ministry in February 2030, the National Assembly began to form new institutions such as committees and boards of inquiry to allow backbench members to gain influence. On March 17, 2030, Fachnan Opus led a bipartisan group of representatives in forming the National Assembly Economic Committee to scrutinise the fiscal policy of the government. In October 2031, Opus was absent from voting on the Healthcare Regulations Act after being invited to Persia to meet with senior global banking figures. Following the outbreak of the Derigo pandemic in 2032, Opus wrote a memorandum to the government urging it to do more to prevent the spread of the disease; in late 2032, Opus attended the funeral of his friend Geordo Hemlock but was criticised by the press for using official government transport to get there. As head of the National Assembly Economic Committee, Fachnan Opus wielded significant influence over the government's fiscal policy through policy papers published by the committee. Within the first five years of the committee's existence, chairman Fachnan Opus subpoenaed finance ministers a total of 73 times, including secretary of state for finance Attje Kuiken who was personally subpoenaed 24 times. Through tough questioning and a general no-nonsense approach, Opus gained bipartisan praise for his sharp criticism of government officials for their mistakes but also for praising figures whom he viewed as being fiscally competent.

### Third, fourth and fifth terms (2035 - 2040)

Fachnan Opus was re-elected to a third term as a VVD representative to the National Assembly in January 2035. After the merger of the Union of the Corporations and the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy in May 2036, Opus was outspoken in opposition to the UvdC's economic policies. In the summer of 2036, Opus launched a political campaign against vice president Eris Assecla after she assumed leadership of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy following Peter Illich's removal - as part of the campaign, Opus attempted to influence assembly members to vote for a movement of impeachment against the vice president, although the efforts ultimately failed. Despite initially supporting the candidacy of Frank Wassenberg for VVD leadership, Opus withdrew his support and publicly claimed that Wassenberg was a "weak and ineffectual politician who's leadership would be detrimental to both this country and the party". Following Wassenberg's victory in the leadership election, Fachnan Opus used the Economic Committee as a platform for his political attacks against the Wassenberg administration. In response to continued opposition to his leadership, Frank Wassenberg called for snap elections in November 2036 to grant himself a new mandate; however, the elections saw the VVD-led coalition loose its majority and the formation of a brief opposition led government. After the collapse of the Thieme Ministry in January 2037 and snap elections in February, Frank Wassenberg and the VVD formed a new coalition government but on a significantly weaker footing. During the coalition formation negotiations, Opus declined an offer to serve in government, arguing that he could not in good faith hold office without a mandate for institutional reforms.

#### Aftermath of the Derigo Debate

During the Derigo Disease Debate in June 2037, Fachnan Opus was a leading proponent of the Public Health Regulations Act 2037 and gained significant media coverage for his heckles during the speeches of vice president Eris Assecla and finance secretary Attje Kuiken. After being deemed to have undermined government policy, Kuiken was removed from her post on the second day of the debate; in the morning of June 17, 2037, President Sunil Bakshi invited Fachnan Opus to take up the office of finance secretary, which he accepted after being promised full control over fiscal policy. After education secretary Kairos Hemlock, daughter of Opus' friend Geordo Hemlock, personally negotiated a settlement that allowed for the passing of the act in the evening of June 17th, Opus became a mentor to Hemlock and sought to advance her pollical career. With the Derigo debate having weakened the position of vice president Eris Assecla, Fachnan Opus took the opportunity to strike a major blow against his rival and led the VVD in initiating impeachment articles against Assecla; after a vote in the National Assembly on July 28, 2037, Assecla was formally impeached from office the same day. As a result of Assecla's impeachment, a vice presidential election was initiated in the National Assembly; during the election campaign, Fachnan Opus acted as campaign manager for Kairos Hemlock's candidacy and engaged in frequent private negotiations with senior members of the National Assembly to ensure Hemlock's election. On August 7, 2037, Kairos Hemlock was inaugurated as the sixth vice president of Morra by Speaker Frank Wassenberg.

In September 2037, the Worker's Political Alliance (APA) formally withdrew from the Second Wassenberg Ministry and ended their unofficial partnership with the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) after party membership and leadership alike had grown increasingly frustrated with the political direction of Speaker Frank Wassenberg's government. The unexpected and sudden withdrawal of the APA from government tipped the VVD into a political crisis, and within days senior members of the party forced Wassenberg to resign from his positions as speaker and head of the VVD. As one of the party officials who had pushed Wassenberg to resign, Fachnan Opus was initially tipped as a potential leadership and speaker candidate but ultimately declined to contest the position after President Sunil Bakshi nominated Peter Koonz as his preferred candidate; subsequently, Koonz was appointed as VVD general secretary with no competition on September 17, 2037. Within weeks, Koonz assembled a broad coalition of parties to form a new government, and was sworn in as speaker on November 3, 2037 - under the Koonz ministry, Fachnan Opus was retained as secretary of state for finance and given the task of drawing up an emergency budget to try and calm the fluctuating exchange market. On December 29, 2037, Fachnan Opus delivered his emergency budget to the National Assembly, announcing a 5% reduction in corporation tax and a 10% reduction in income tax to try to encourage spending; however, the wider budget largely failed to reassure markets, whilst Opus himself later claimed that the budget had been subject to significant intervention by Speaker Peter Koonz.

#### Political Crisis

On February 20, 2039, finance minister Fachnan Opus was one of hundreds of people invited to a ball in Brussels by President Sunil Bakshi to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the formation of the Republic of Morra - during the ball, President Bakshi was assassinated by dissidents from the Venenum terrorist organisation whilst talking to Opus at a drinks gathering for senior politicians. As a result of Bakshi's death, vice president Kairos Hemlock assumed the presidency through constitutional succession and became embroiled in a power struggle with Speaker Peter Koonz; during the political conflict, Fachnan Opus was one of President Hemlock's most important backers and attempted to court favour with other members of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) to back her presidency. With the office of vice president vacated by Hemlock's assumption of the presidency, the National Assembly initiated a process in March 2039 to elect a new officeholder - during the election, Fachnan Opus was backed by President Hemlock for the position and succeeded in garnering a significant amount of support for his candidacy. However, the election was actively obstructed by Speaker Koonz, who sought to get his close ally Lammert van Raan elected instead; following Kairos Hemlock's defection from the VVD in May 2039 after the Brussels Massacre, Koonz stripped Fachnan Opus of official VVD candidate status in the vice presidential election, though he retained party membership and his cabinet positions. Despite Koonz's intervention, Opus remained as the most popular candidate from the pro-government bloc and repeatedly came second in every ballot, behind only Wilhelm De Croo of the united opposition. On August 21, 2039, Speaker Peter Koonz led the National Assembly in formally impeaching President Kairos Hemlock; with the vice presidency vacant, Koonz became acting speaker and sought to consolidate his position of power in government. In the afternoon of August 21st, finance minister Fachnan Opus resigned from office in solidarity with former president Kairos Hemlock, and gave an interview to the news channel MNTV in which he demanded that opposition parties make use of their majority in the National Assembly to immediately initiate the constitutional process for the assembly to elect a new permanent president, indicating his desire to see Kairos Hemlock return to office.

With momentum growing behind a joint opposition motion to demand a vote to elect a new president for the remainder of the 2035-2040 presidential term, acting president Peter Koonz used his joint executive and legislative powers to dissolve the National Assembly on September 1, 2039 and prorogued it until after scheduled elections in January 2040; following Koonz's move, former president Kairos Hemlock signed a joint declaration with party leaders Wilhelm De Croo (PvdA), Alexander de Croo (PPM), Marine Le Pen (LPM), and Attje Kuiken (APA) to denounce the move as a "brazen coup on democracy". Two weeks later, on September 18, 2039, former government minister Fachnan Opus filed the formation of the Democratic Party of the People (DPV) with the independent Morranian Electoral Commission, allowing the party to run in all national elections in January 2040; though she was not legally registered as the party's leader, former president Kairos Hemlock acted as the de-facto head of the new party and party leadership even openly admitted that the party was a vehicle to return Hemlock and her ideology back to power. As the nation's most popular politician, Hemlock and the DPV lobbied the United Opposition caucus to be placed on the presidential ticket, and on September 26, 2039, Kairos Hemlock and Fachnan Opus were jointly nominated by the DPV, PvdA, PPM, and LPM for the presidency and vice presidency respectively. Alongside the DPV's successful bid for the united opposition nomination, 36 parliamentary members of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy defected to the DPV during September 2039, with Fachnan Opus becoming the parliamentary leader of the group as well as *de-jure* party head. Amid Koonz's constitutional self coup, proceedings of the ongoing vice presidential election were forcefully halted and secretary of state for defence Lammert van Raan was appointed as acting vice president of Morra on September 20, 2039.

## Vice Presidency

Following a long and protracted electoral campaign, Fachnan Opus was elected as the seventh vice president of Morra as the candidate of the United Opposition bloc in the 2040 Morranian Presidential Election, and was formally inaugurated on Friday January 20, 2040 after a formal certification of electoral votes by the National Assembly of Morra on January 12th.