Samantha Schrӧder

**Samantha Schrӧder** (January 2, 2982 - December 9, 3019) was a Wiltshirian politician who served as Prime Minister of Wiltshire and Leader of the Conservative Party during the 3019 political crisis. She was the first female Prime Minister of Wiltshire. In addition, Schrӧder led Wiltshire into the Novanite Federation, serving as the 1st Provincial Director. Following her time as Prime Minister, Schrӧder remained in national politics as a member of the Wiltshire National Assembly and later the Wiltshire Parliament, which led to her assassination during the Culling of Parliament in 3019.

## Political history

Schrӧder was first elected to the National Assembly in 3017 to represent a North Walkerton constituency. As a fluent German speaker, Schrӧder represented the large ethnic German minority in the country. She continued to rise through the ranks of the opposition Conservative Party, eventually becoming Chairwoman of the Party in November 3018 under newly elected Leader Audrick Hill. She became Minister without Portfolio when Hill took government in 3019 and was notable for leading and managing the Conservative campaign in the January 3019 Election, which resulted in a Conservative majority.

Schrӧder became an influential and powerful player within the party, and advocated for the NNF referendum and Wiltshire's membership of the common market and political union.

Following the referendum, Audrick Hill announced his resignation as Prime Minister and Schrӧder became a leading candidate for the role. In the first ballot, she went against Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party, James Brown. Brown, who served as Deputy Leader and Chancellor of the Exchequer under Hill, announced his candidacy opposed to the NNF and stating "while I respect the results of the referendum, we should maintain distance from external powers influencing our politics". Schrӧder was able to convince a majority of Conservative AMs to back her for the leadership and, when Brown failed to obtain the required number of nominations, she was elected as Conservative Leader. She quickly became Prime Minister and would begin a campaign for increased powers to the Novanite central government, eventually leading to the establishment of the NNF Presidency and federal government. Schrӧder is often credited with the increased federalization of the NNF into the NF.

Schrӧder started her time as Prime Minister, and Director of the Province, extremely popular. However, a number of key missteps would work to reduce her popularity, eventually losing her government majority and the next election. The first was an alleged affair with Scion President Micro Angelo. Angelo worked closely with Schrӧder and rumors started to circulate, eventually leading a full open-access reveal of the affair. Angelo profusely denied the affair. This had a huge impact on her credibility, especially among more traditional Conservatives.

While recovering from the scandal, Schrӧder attended the DefCon conference of heads of state and corporations at the newly constructed Jaresh Inyo Conference Centre in eastern Wiltshire. During the event, riots broke out across Juneville and parts of Walkerton, which led to massive suppression tactics on the orders of Schrӧder herself. She defended the decision as an attempt to "reduce the risk of domestic terrorism for the protection of the world leaders", however, this caused many to believe she was unfit to serve as Prime Minister.

Schrӧder's third, and potentially biggest, mistake came in the form of Wiltshire's admission as a Province of the Novanite Federation. While Wiltshire was a member of the common market of the NNF, the NF was being formed as a federalized country. Most within the Conservative Party were opposed, but Schrӧder continued on with the move - which led to a number of her party leaving the caucus, forcing her to lose her government's majority. The April General Election, which saw her face off against the Labour Party of Rita Smith and the Socialist Party of Harry Melbourne, saw her ousted from government. She was the second leader of the 3019 Political Crisis.

She continued in the National Assembly, eventually being elected to the Wiltshire Parliament in November 3019. She was assassinated alongside the Parliament by the New Corporate Republic in 3019.