Tobias "Zlatanic" Zürner

Tobias "Zlatanic" Zürner (@zlatanic.liqi IRL) is a Sanktish local politician and Member of Parliament from the Party for Progress. He is born on 4th June 1989 in Gdynzyć city. Tobias is a part of the German-speaking minority in Sankten, and is one of the prominent youth leaders in modern Sanktish politics.

## IRL

Tobias Zürner is a fictional alias of Malaysian instagrammer @zlatanic.liqi. @zlatanic.liqi was a member of many sims, but his biggest contribution is to Sankten. He is currently 16 years old. @zlatanic.liqi is considered a veteran in political simulations, and has built a somewhat controversial reputation due to being extremely outspoken (in contrast to who he really is IRL as a person).

@zlatanic.liqi can speak three languages - Chinese (Mandarin + Cantonese), English and Malay, and has a little comprehensive ability of the German language.

## Early Life

Zürner was born in a private hospital in Gdynzyć downtown, to a middle class family. His father, Erwin Zürner, worked as a local tourist guide, in an era when tourism in Sankten was the fastest growing industry. His mother, Irma Zürner, was an interior designer, but stopped working to care for Zürner. Zürner grew up as the sole child of his family. He developed great interest in how the world works at an early age, and due to his father's patience of educating and explaining, Zürner's level of knowledge was above that of his peers. Zürner stated in an interview that he wasn't "well-liked" or "well-known" in schools, and for a brief period he had trouble communicating normally in class. He was never bullied for his awkwardness.

Zürner graduated from Gdynzyć Public School and attended an unrevealed private German-speaking secondary school. He graduated and attended the University of Gdynzyć - the most prestigious university in Sankten. He graduated with a Bachelor's in law, but did not pursue for a masters.

## Early Careers

### University

Zürner had a great friend in university whom he did not reveal his name. The said friend was "an extroverted person", and Zürner claims that it was the person who gave him courage to express his opinions. Zürner would then join the debater's club in the University of Gdynzyć, and would proceed to win an award for the university's team in Warsaw in 2011. Zürner also joined the youth of the Party for Progress in 2012, a relatively new party at the time. By the time Zürner had graduated from university, he had already gained enough attention from the PPS.

"I was given a choice. I could become a lawyer, and I'd be fighting injustices in law as a lawyer. Or I could become a politician, and I can do all sorts of things. I chose to become a politician of course, because I could, well, do lots of things than just fighting injustices."

## Political career

### Rise to prominence

"It wasn't (easy). I didn't suddenly become famous in one night or anything. Just like everything else I had in my life I had to work myself the way up. You get many, many rejections and opposition. At first it's painful, but you eventually have to get used to it. It's harsh, but it is how it is."

Zürner slowly rose to prominence in the 14th term within the Gdynzyć PPS community. Gdynzyć was an NDC stronghold, and the presence of the PPS was minimal in the area. Zürner advocated and fought for representation of the PPS in Gdynzyć, and this slowly gained him media attention. He attended many speeches, many debates and attended a lot of events.

"It was like a marathon. It wasn't mandatory, more like I felt like I had to do it. I felt like I was going to get left behind if I stop and rest. It's the grind period. Not healthy, but it definitely worked, in some way."

Eventually, Zürner was selected by the PPS leadership to become a member of parliament, via party list voting.

"It was really like a dream. It was one of those moments in my life where destiny actually worked out in the end."

### Criticism of the government in the 15th term

Zürner was a fierce criticiser of the government in the 15th term. As a fresh member of parliament, his outspoken character meant attracting lots of distaste from other MPs. Zürner criticised that the NDC-SKIP-F&J-LLS government was slowly destroying the public services system, and that its efforts towards privatisation had failed. Zürner called for the government to raise more tax revenue and end what he called an "austerity budget". Zürner also appeared in a lot of charity events following the budget cuts during that term that caused mass lay-offs and damage to healthcare. This brought his reputation up even more.

The PPS leader, Amir, had met in person with Zürner, and around a month later he became the Vice Secretary of the party.

### 16th term & coalition talks

During the 16th General Elections, Zürner ran for Gdynzyć 1 constituency, representing the PPS for the first time in the region. Despite losing, Zürner had garnered almost 40% of support amongst the population. Zürner became an important member of parliament in the coalition talks that would then form the "Grand Compromise" coalition - a coalition between the PPS, DCS, CPS and SLP.

### Candidacy for governorship

Following his defeat as representative for Gdynzyć 1, he ran as a candidate for governor of Gdynzyć province. Zürner's reputation at the time had already reached the corners of the country, and therefore despite losing, he had garnered 45% of support from the province's voters. Nonetheless, Zürner congratulated the victor - @jiatd, governor of Gdynzyć who ran for his third term, stating that @jiatd is a man that he respected

## Political views

Zürner is known for his outspoken and direct form of expression. His style of debating is known to be sharp, precise & unforgiving, hence creating much personal beef with his opponents. He had appeared in the media a lot of times, but stopped doing so because of personal matters.

"I'm not a media-man. I don't like being in the centre of attention. I especially dislike having to put out that face every day, every time. It was stressful."

Zürner is an activist for anti-pollution and environmental issues. He had stated that climate change is "the biggest threat to human existence", and that efforts must be committed as well as changes to lifestyle must be made in order to slow down climate change. He is also an activist against pollution, and has participated in several events to clean up Gdynzyć's streets. This is more evident during his campaign for governorship, where he had listed pollution as the biggest problem he aims to solve in the province.

Zürner has described himself as bipartisan. He had defended or agreed to at least once with each side of mainstream Sanktish politics, and was a great advocator for cooperation between parties (resulting in the Grand Compromise).

"I believe that if something does not harm other individuals physically, mentally and financially, and does not pollute the environment, it should be allowed. I believe that if something checks out what I have said in the last sentence, and brings more benefits than the downsides, it should be implemented. I don't like calling myself progressive, because a lot of the times I just see things the way they are. More often I find the 'conservatives' denying facts than the 'progressives'. Both sides have bad things to say about, so I just don't identify with either of them."

Zürner is described by others, however, as a social liberal and a progressive. More lately, his expression for support for higher marginal tax rates to raise more government income to provide better education and healthcare for low prices have been marked as "borderline social democratic". Zürner is also a famous figure among younger voters, who see him as a leading individual in the new generation of politicians.

## Personal life

### Family

Zürner does not reveal much about his family. He has stated many times in the media that he wishes to keep his family out of his career in politics. It is known that Zürner maintains close relationships with his parents, however, and he visits them frequently.

### Wealth

Zürner is particularly noted by the media for not being wealthy, unlike most other politicians. He lives in a small apartment in downtown Gdynzyć, and is reported by his neighbours as "an ordinary young man". He drives a black Volvo 850 T5 from 1997, a hand-me-down from his parents, though he often takes public transport to the parliament. Zürner has been late two times to a parliament session due to this. Zürner also does not usually walk with bodyguards, and is more often seen protected by police officers. Otherwise, Zürner's life remains highly private and unmentioned in the media.

"As a politician representing the country I feel have to give trust to our police officers for protection. It is only when we use the utilities ourselves that we will truly understand what's wrong with the services we provide to our citizens."

### Linguistical abilities

Zürner is noted for being highly multilingual. He can speak Sanktish, German, Polish and English fluently, and is able to understand spoken Lithuanian.