Politics has changed dramatically since a young lawyer from Buratiyan at the age of 39 was approached to ask if he could write a paper on ‘democracy’.
Koruin Mizirov Gruaman rose to prominence in the country at a young age, becoming the first ever President at age 40, Prime Minister at 45 and had his career rendered practically over within ten years.
The man that so many know so little about has been at the top of the country’s politics for over a decade – an entire generation. Yet, surprisingly little has ever been written about Gruaman’s own feelings and reflections on his career.
There has been no exposé book. There has been no grand TV interviews.
For many they hardly feel like Gruaman has departed from the stage.
Yet as he approaches his 51st year, the Centrists, a party that he led for just under 10 years is only just beginning to adjust to life without him – some three years after he left. I sit down with the former Prime Minister and President at his new offices. A building that lays virtually empty on a corner in Karasicena.
Koruin Mizirov Gruaman has been a figure of such prominence, yet strangely also been such mystery in a country that first elected him eleven years ago. For his party is only now looking for its first candidate for president who isn’t him for the first time since unification and has unveiled a new ‘Progressive’ brand to move on from his time in power. His influence over his party, and the country, has been extraordinarily under-exaggerated for many years. Now, as life begins to get back to normal for the country without him, it seems that this man who has been at the top of politics for an entire generation has not yet even realised he’s no longer there, just like the people around him. Sitting in large decorated, yet empty offices, Gruaman seems to be filling his time still thinking about political campaigning.
“I’m clear that there is more to be done in the country. I don’t think just because I’m not in a position of power, so to speak, that I can’t do anything about that,” he says, making the whole scenario seem quite ‘normal’ or as if it’s a strange question that I ask.
He’s agreed to do his first real interview since stepping down as Prime Minister nearly three years ago in which time he’s made very little entry into domestic affairs, apart from several speaking tours – particularly at the country’s academic institutions.
He’s ventured into continental and domestic affairs, but rejected an offer from Prime Minister Fedorov to serve as Envoy for Gallia – a position that would have brought with it lucrative connections with many heads of state with which he shared many years in office.
Asking him why he turned it down; “I just… I don’t know… I suppose I knew Ludvig [Fedorov] was just doing what he thought he should do. I’d made him Foreign Minister which essentially gave him a springboard to the job once I announced I’d step down. Marina [Yanaka] had decided she didn’t want it – I guess it fell to Ludvig and he felt he owed me.”
He seems awkward with the succession agreement that followed him – with Fedorov taking the reigns almost by default without a challenge;
“Yes,” he says.
“I’m not sure anyone wants to be represented by a two-time presidential candidate in a courtroom”
His offices seem awfully grand and large for someone who doesn’t have plans; “I think I’ve got a clearer idea now with what I want to do. For a year it was a case of rejecting offers to sit on big boards or business deals or go back to being a lawyer.”
On that he seems relatively relaxed and it brings out his first taste at a sense of humour; “I’m not sure anyone wants to be represented by a two-time presidential candidate.”
I press him further by asking what he was most proud of during his first term; “Education. It was a great time for the country – there was optimism about unification and I think for the first time people were excited about government – about the idea of people working together. Where better to start than education.”
Gruaman had made education a key part of his first bid for the presidency – pledges on equality ‘between the former states and equality of the states’ was his initial mantra – equal standards but different solutions essentially once translated into non-political rhetoric. He largely delivered. The National Education Commission that his federal government oversaw was a huge success – raising reading and writing standards in the former Polamar by over 20% within two years. By 2006, Polasciana was ranked as one of the highest states in Meridian Gallia for reading and writing – catching neighbours Eiffelland and surpassing other transition and emerging states including the Central Gallian Republic.
Other than education? “I’m disappointed by how quickly our work on foreign affairs and our work on the continent was stripped away by Pavel [Lukyanov].” Gruaman lost an incredibly close election to the former Unitarian in 2007. Lukyanov beat him in the popular vote by just 1.2% and he only lost out after a clever deal by his rival that stripped him of the presidency and took his government, led by Marina Yanaka with it. “I wasn’t bitter that Pavel used a deal to get rid of us – he did what he thought was right, but I think he moved quickly, incredibly quickly, and didn’t understand the consequences. I think he jumped at the chance and didn’t realise what the Union Party would do to him – to his plans. When I look at my legacy compared to his, I’m assured I did the right thing – I’m not so sure Pavel could say the same.”
Having seen Lukyanov strip away much of the work he did to work with other transition states and begin warm relations with the rest of the continent and further afield he says he was ‘destroyed’ to see those agreements wash away once Lukyanov began to reach out to more extreme partners – including Kadikistan and Khalistan. Lukyanov’s decision to open discussions with the nation of Barazi was the final straw for Gruaman; “That was the point where me and Marina knew that we were involved very deeply with a President who had no agenda and was just trying to do things – anything.”
Gruaman was only out of politics for a year and a half before the deal Lukyanov struck with the Union Party fell apart – he found himself back in the thick of it by 2008 – with Lukyanov as President and himself as Prime Minister.
That election was a difficult time for Gruaman, he recalls. “I had clearly said I wasn’t sure on a return. I wanted to stay party leader but I had always assumed that at that point Marina [Yanaka] would want to take the reins and go for the premiership. I didn’t think she’d want to stand aside – but it was her idea to swap places. She wanted to be in the Federal Council and wanted to be able to affect things with Lukyanov. That would never have worked for me. I wouldn’t have been able to work with him – he just outright disliked me.”
He seems downbeat when asked about the 2008 election, despite winning a clear majority for the Centrists – only the second they have ever won; “It was a difficult time – you had a president ripping apart the changes we’d made to put the country on the right track – we had to fight against them the whole way to get the government to be able to do anything. That’s why we turned our attention to the Governor’s – like Chimsk and Béspura – that’s where things started to happen.”
