Jonas Rigby

**Jonas Rigby** was a Dissauian politician, born on the 18th of January 1930 and died on the 12th of December 2012, who served as Prime Minister of Dissau between 1955 to 1961 and once again between 1977 to 1980. He was also leader of the National Moderate Party between 1955 to 1965 and 1975 to 1980. Rigby was well-known for being the brother and competitor of his sister Astryd Rigby. They never had a real feud between each other whilst the both of them were in politics but they often competed against each other in general elections, leading to the belief that they had a sibling feud.

Rigby was born to Lily Rigby and David Rigby in Great Cinecha, Dissau, on the 18th of January 1930. Rigby attended Old Racha Primary School between 1935 to 1942 and then attended Rachatam Secondary School between 1942 to 1948. After leaving school, Rigby would join National Moderate a year later in 1949 and would be picked as the candidate to contest the constituency of Travesthill for the 1952 Dissauian General Election. He went on to win the election as the youngest MP ever elected at the time at the age of 22. Rigby gained power in National Moderate during the party's issue over denationalizing parts of the economy in 1954 and 1955. He eventually became a prominent figure of the party at a very young age and became Prime Minister after contesting the 1955 National Moderate Party Leadership Election and winning. Rigby became the youngest Prime Minister to be elected at the time (now 2nd) and still holds the title of youngest male Prime Minister ever. Rigby managed to reorganise his power in the mid 50s, leading to his party winning a landslide victory in the 1956 Dissauian General Election. He initially planned for quite a major denationalization plan but eventually decided to only denationalize a small portions of industries. Rigby was very much against the teenager movement, the new wave of social change, and rock music. These beliefs led to his slowly becoming increasingly unpopular among the youth of the country and led to his party almost losing the 1960 Dissauian General Election and having to form a coalition with Free Liberal. Rigby was upset with what he called a "defeat" and so he called an election in 1961 to win an outright majority but he instead lost the election to his younger sister, Astryd Rigby.

After losing the election in 1961, Rigby remain leader of National Moderate until 1965, contesting the 1963 and 1964 election against his sister. He finally resigned as leader in 1965 at the age of 35 and decided to not accept any shadow cabinet positions, leaving mainstream politics for the time being. Rigby was asked to return as leader of the party in early 1969, not long after National Moderate won the election in 1968, but he declined. Rigby began putting himself into the public eye more often in 1973 and 1974, before announcing that he was reentering of mainstream politics in early 1975. Due to the unpopularity of the leadership of Marie Heathers as leader of National Moderate, a leadership election was called in 1975 and Rigby contested the election. Rigby managed to win the election in the third round of voting. After becoming leader of the party, he contested the 1976 election against her sister but lost. He then contested the 1977 Dissauian General Election and won the election with a small outright majority. After becoming Prime Minister for the second time, Rigby intended to be much more moderate this time round and opted to not go forth with his original denationalization plan. Rigby party lost it's majority in early 1979 so Rigby decided to call an election in 1979 to increase it but he ended losing his majority and the results of the election were the closest election results since 1952. Rigby ended up forming a coalition with Free Liberal but ended up resigning as Prime Minister and leader of the party in 1980.

Rigby would leave National Moderate in 1981 and become an independent due to his dissatisfaction that the new Prime Minister had begun a massive denationalization plan. He remained an independent until the 1984 when he joined the Christian Conservative Party. Rigby would fail to win his constituency in the 1985 and 1986 election and so he had a minor break in politics until returning to contest the 1992 election and win his constituency back. Rigby became leader of Christian Conservative in 1994 and led the party to some of their most successful elections in the 1990s. He resigned as leader in 2001 and eventually lost his constituency in the 2004 election. He remained a part of the party until leaving in 2006 for health issues. His health continued to deteriorate in 2007 but after a lifestyle change he managed to remain somewhat heavy until he began deteriorating in 2010 again. Rigby died on the 12th of December 2012 and was buried next to his mother and father in Greenrose Cemetery.

## Life

### 1st Premiership: 1955 - 1961

Main Article: *4th National Moderate Government: 1952 - 1961*

### Reentry Into Mainstream Politics & Becoming Leader Again: 1973 - 1977

#### 1977 General Election

Main Article: *1977 Dissauian General Election*

### 2nd Premiership: 1977 - 1980

Main Article: *6th National Moderate Government: 1977 - 1985*