Marija Torenvoa

Marija Marcella Torenvoa
Marija Torenvoa at the 2022 Confederal Peoples Congress Presidential Inauguration, moments before official inauguration to the Presidency of Government and State
Born	21 March, 1990 Karneja, Patraja
Nationality	Patrajan
Occupation	President of The Confederated Republic of Patraja and Her Constituent Provinces; President of the Patrajan Confederal Peoples Congress
Years active	2006-
Known for	Politics
Notable work	"Saving Republics; A Legal Perspective on Dissolution of Democracy and Formalizing Aristocracy."

Marija Torenvoa (born Marija Marcella Torenvoa, 21 March, 1990) is the President of Patraja and President of the Patrajan Confederal Peoples Congress, a lawyer, and former member of the Patrajan Military. She is known for her criticism of the structure of the Confederated Congress, and in particular the Assembly, and an unabashed attitude to politics, as well as her military and historical prestige within the nation. She is the granddaughter of General Eklan Torenvoa, a former Patrajan General Command leader during the era of the Patrajan Military Junta, wherein he essentially led the southern portion of the nation. She is the youngest-elected leader in modern Patrajan history, taking the office of presidency at the age of 32.

Early Life

Childhood

Marija Torenvoa was born Marija Marcella Torenvoa on the outskirts of Karneja on March 21st, 1990, in the former Federal Republic of Patraja, to father Patryn Torenvoa and mother Marcella Torenvoa. Her mother died in childbirth and was commemorated by Marija's father by having her name be put as Marija's middle name. In a rare interview in 2012, weeks before his death, Patryn stated that the intended plan was to give Marija the middle name "Augustina," but that it had changed once her mother had died. Soon after Marija's birth, her father took her and some extended family into Karneja proper, presumably to avoid the traumas and memory of the deceased Marcella. Not much is known about the childhood of Torenvoa, except that she was a "studious, quiet, but equally-rambunctious girl," who "paid more attention to acting an adult than enjoying a childhood she felt severely lacked a mothers touch," as told by her father from the same 2012 interview.

Early Education

Primary Schooling

Marija Torenvoa attended the New-Years Preschool Program as a child, and attended the Karneja Northern Primary School from 1st to 3rd grade, before being transferred towards the Karneja Primary School of Saint Michael after a move of living residency early on. She finished primary schooling with excellent marks, but a "notably lazy and disinterested attitude" which ensured that she got low points for both behavior and discipline, according to former teacher Natalia Eranna.

Secondary Schooling and Early Graduation

Torenvoa proceeded to attend the Saint King Paul V's Women's Preparatory School, a Catholic secondary and college-preparatory school in the North of Karneja, and a private institute. This was funded mostly by her father's luck in investment after he pushed significant amounts of the family's income to funding the newly-privatized Patrajan Telecom Services Corporation in 2003. The PTS Corporation would bankrupt and sell itself back to the Patraja State Telecommunications Networks in 2012, leading to the suicide-death of Torenvoa's father, a key shareholder at the time played out of the majority of the resale value of the company. Torenvoa would graduate preparatory school at an early age of 16 due to exemplary grades and a stated wish to join the Patrajan Armed Youths Program.

Early Military Experience

Patrajan Armed Youths Program

After graduating secondary school, Marija Torenvoa would spend 2 years from age 16 to 18 in the Patrajan Armed Youths Program, stationed at an unnamed Army and Airbase in Central Patraja. There, she reportedly gained a Badge of Meritorious Proficiency in Hand-to-Hand Combat as well as a Badge of Exemplary Youth Leadership. Despite the achievement of the latter, she was passed up both years as the Duksa Luventicene, otherwise known as the "Captain of the Youth Guard," despite reportedly coming close to choice in the second year. She graduated all classes of the PAY Program except the Munitions Support and Tactical Reconnaissance Classes. In 2016, she was given the posthumous honorary title of Aeterna Luventicenstvine Duksa, known as the "Eternal Youth Guard Leader," during a 10-year anniversary ceremony of the Class of 2006. In 2019, the PAY Program would be shut down and replaced by the Patrajan Independent Youth Legionnaire Program.

Military Service

Service in the Ministry of Patrajan Border Affairs

After graduating from the PAY Program with several honors, Torenvoa enrolled with the Ministry of Patrajan Border Affairs from 2008 to 2010, initially starting out as a Second-Rank Guard and quickly advancing to the status of a Second-Rank Commander. In 2009, she was given leadership of a small border "catch-and-release" program taskforce consisting of herself and 23 other border guardsmen and women. After the program was shut down in 2010 due to lack of funding, Torenvoa requested resignation from the Ministry and was granted an honorable discharge, along with a Medal of Taskforce Achievement from the Ministry of Internal Military Affairs.

Service in the Ministry of Internal Military Affairs

After serving with the MPBA, Torenvoa quickly transitioned to the Ministry of Internal Military Affairs, becoming a Junior Auditor Officer at age 20. Months after the posting, however, she was demoted to the rank of Operations Officer for unknown reasons and stayed in the position from 2010 to 2012. In early 2013, she was promoted back up past her previous rank to a standard Auditor Officer, and stayed in the position until 2013, when she resigned to pursue university. Her service in the now-defunct MIMA, compared to the MPBA, is highly redacted and censored due to the closure of the Ministry, and not much is known about her time there.

University

University of Patrajan Law

Torenvoa enrolled in the University of Patrajan Law in 2014 and graduated early in 2016 after successfully passing the Preliminary Exclusion National Patrajan BAR Examination. She was noted as once more being studious and attentive, but had joined in with what seemed a clique of politically-minded students. She began writing her essay-novel, "Saving Republics; A Legal Perspective on Dissolution of Democracy and Formalizing Aristocracy" during this time, completing and publishing it in 2018.

Marija Torenvoa at the graduation of her class from the University of Political and Legal Theory in Karneja.

University of Political and Legal Theory in Karneja

Torenvoa pursued both an additional Bachelors Degree in International Diplomacy and Geopolitics as well as a Masters Diploma in Law at the University of Political and Legal Theory in Karneja, where many of her UPL colleagues had gone, beginning in 2016 and ending in 2018. She graduated as valedictorian of her class, ending the year with the publishing of her essay-novel upon the help of completion by unnamed professors. The UPLTK is a controversial university seen more as a think-tank of various new and fringe ideas than as a traditional university, and has been involved in several lawsuits since its founding in 2007.

Political Career Before Presidency

Prosecutor-General of the Province of Karneja

After graduation in 2018 and holding respectable popularity with the publishing of her book, Torenvoa immediately ran for Province-wide election in Karneja for the title of Prosecutor-General. She was, at the time, the youngest to run for the office, and still remains the youngest-elected at only 28 years old. Controversially, she won mostly by a split in the opposing factions candidature, leading to a splintered left-wing vote and a right-wing coalition around her. She was elected with a popular vote of 64.2%, and followed closely by Adam Liknesho, with a vote count of 28.9%. She served as Prosecutor-General for a one-year term from 2018-2019, and was involved in several high-profile cases, the most notable being Province of Karneja v. Brezhmann, where stock trader Mivalini Brezhmann was accused and convicted of mass stock auction fraud and public endangerment, and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Marija was given the Presidential Honor Certificate by President Leonid Analli after the conclusion of the case. Torenvoa stepped down from the post of Prosecutor-General after her term and an offer by the President with an approval rate of 52.3%.

Appointed Deputy-President of the Confederal Peoples Congress

Seeking to delegate his duties in the Confederal Peoples Congress, President Analli petitioned and was successfully allowed the Executive Power of Voluntary Term-Separation of State and Government Authority in late 2018. In essence, as President of both Patraja and the Confederal Peoples Congress, the President holds leadership of both State and Government. In 2018, the National Court gave the President the power to select an Appointed Deputy-President of the Confederal Peoples Congress to voluntarily delegate his powers over the government to another. In 2019 to the end of his term in early 2022, he chose former Prosecutor-General Marija Torenvoa to act as Deputy-President to the Congress, where her duties included presenting national agendas, calling quorum, and keeping a general executive representation within the Congress. The most notable action taken by Torenvoa during this time was the submission and successful passing of the 2019 PAY Program Repeal Act, repealing the PAY Program and replacing it with the newer PIYL Program. Notably, Torenvoa was criticized with meddling in the PIYL Program to include "distinctly nationalistic and pro-partisan characteristics to a youth program, down to the name," according to the Senator Karlos Minnera. Another notable event was Torenvoa's mid-level blow-up on social media with the passing of the bill, with many internet commentators "discovering" her and lauding the Deputy-President for, mostly, her physical attractiveness.

Marija Torenvoa ran for the 2022 Presidential Election during her service as Deputy-President.

2022 Presidential Election

With President Analli not running for reelection, and his National Union Party of the Homeland not having selected a replacement, Marija Torenvoa was instead selected as his successor. In January 7th, 2022, she announced her bid for Presidency in the March Elections, supported by the still-President Analli and multiple NUPH representatives. In the generally-honorary NUPH Presidential Nomination Elections that took place a week later, she was selected as the nominated candidate with a vote of 99.2%.

Running against Torenvoa was, mainly, the three-times selected leader of the Social Democratic Labor Party, Nataniel Ulstrom, who had lost those three times to the previous President Analli. A stalwart, party-popular, and seasoned politician, many political commentators held his chances of winning with his campaign of experience, change, and anti-demagogism nearly 2 against 1 for the youth candidate in the NUPH. Indeed, whispers about the NUPH's actual intentions of allowing such a young and untested candidate through were already beginning, with many claiming that Torenvoa was always meant to lose to "buy time" for NUPH influence in the Congress to be more solidified in the midst of a large party rebranding. The intentional movement of the NUPH to a renegade nationalist party rather than a hated leadership party is disputed to this day by all involved parties.

In March 7th, the day of the election, Torenvoa ended up winning a shock victory, barely edging out over Nataniel Ulstrom with a popular vote of 50.7% to Ulstrom's 48.2%. The ashamed Ulstrom resigned from both leadership of the SDLP and politics altogether, calling the election itself "a scam to our people" and Torenvoa "a raging bull with a terrible case of blindness...no idea where she's going...except to where she's told." The narrative of Torenvoa merely being a Second Analli kept up throughout her first term.

On March 11th, Marija Torenvoa was sworn in as President of Patraja and of the Confederal Peoples Congress as the youngest leader of Patraja in modern Patrajan history.

Presidency [First Term]

Rebranding of the NUPH

During Marija Torenvoa's first and second term, she seems to have gone for a deliberate approach of subverting the former leadership of her own party through various sections of rebranding. Steering the party more rightward and to a more regulative path, she's instituted herself as the official head of the party, along with unofficially barring former President Analli from NUPH events, essentially ending the political career of the man. Along with this, she's reportedly shaken-up the inner bureaucracy of the party, creating, outright abolishing, and generally modifying nearly all positions within the party, along with replacing their incumbents most of the time.

Military Build-Up

As one of the first acts passed by President Torenvoa, months after her election, she ordered the expansion of the standing army from 100,000 ready-to-deploy men to 150,000, along with several expansions and purchases of foreign and domestically-made military vehicles. This severe expansion of the military, essentially unseen in Patraja since the beginning of the Federal Republic, as well as Torenvoa's usage of the Presidential Order to do it, was widely criticized by opponents in the Congress and media. Much criticism rested on the "gall" or "nerve" of such a hardlined act to be passed so soon in a young, untested presidency. Weeks after the passing of the bill, a Vote of No Confidence was almost taken in Congress to remove President Torenvoa's power over government as President of the Confederated Peoples Congress.

President Marija Torenvoa at the Makersen Hearings

Historical Antiquity Restorations Act

Another, much more minor, act passed directly by Torenvoa in her first term was the Historical Antiquity Restorations Act, where she pledged 50 million yearly Vitaes to the restoration of various temples, artworks, and other governmentally-defined "historical artworks and areas." Uncontroversial to most, this Act was criticized by many sects of the Catholic Church of Patraja as encouraging paganism within the nation, though such criticism never reached a national level.

The Makersen Hearings

President Marija Torenvoa personally delegated a national-level prosecution of Patrajan drug dealer and child-trafficker Igor Makersen, and more than a dozen of his affiliates and conspirators. Makersen, who had gotten off from punishment through a combination of wealth, nation-hopping, and legalisms, was forcefully detained under Presidential Order for what many legal experts criticized as "fundamentally, in a legal sense, no reason at all," according to Professor James Nikolaev from Torenvoa's own Univerity of Patrajan Law, and a former professor of hers.

Support and Organization of Elite/Aristocracy

Shown in both her novel and her private speeches, Marija Torenvoa took several actions to incorporate as what she saw as "the modern aristocracy of the world and Patraja" into state affairs, including appointing billionaire philanthropist Anatolij Marev as her Deputy-President of the Confederal Peoples Congress. This belief, though not widely acted-on in her first term, is relatively well-known for its size, but still obscure, resigned to be theorized about at the time by mostly those who had read the President's book.

Ideas on Constitutional Modifications

Since the Presidential Run of 2022, Torenvoa had repeatedly floated the idea of reorganizing the "messy, bureaucratic, and deeply-paranoid" Patrajan Confederal Constitution into something more centralized and traditionally republican. Most of these ideas tied to Torenvoa's theories of new aristocratism and corporatism, including the idea of modifying the Senatorium; replacing the Assembly; or even adding a third wing of the Legislative to serve as a "Confederal Peoples House of Lords," as was put in Torenvoa's novel. None of these ideas were drafted into any form of law, let alone submitted to courts or party statements, and are only known about through former staffers in the Presidents team.

2025 Presidential Election

Unlike the 2022 Presidential Election, Marija Torenvoa found herself at the seat of power, respect, and absolute proof of, at least, competence and vision for both her party and her nation. Her main opponent, the Liberal Party of Patraja candidate Augustyn Aronev, was also a young politician, and possibly an attempt to emulate the success of the 2022 elections by the Liberal Party, which had since taken precedent as the leading wide-tent left-wing party within Patraja after a moderate downfall of popularity with the SDLP. During the election, things also got much more controversial and heated in Presidential debates, with most known controversies and rumors about President Torenvoa being revealed during the 2025 Presidential Election, including reinvigorated allegations of authoritarianism and pro-monarchism.

By the end of the 2025 Presidential Elections, however, Torenvoa's sitting presidency and her reportedly-well executed responses to controversy gave her a win with the popular vote, at 54.7%, beating out her opponent, who ended up running successfully a year later for a Provincial Seat, and currently serves as the de-facto Head of Opposition to Torenvoa's majority government.

Presidency [Second Term]

Presidential Hardline

Unlike Torenvoa's skirting and precarious first term, the now-reelected President seemed to have renewed confidence in her leadership and party control. Shortly after the election victory, she announced that she would also be running for the 2028-2031 Presidential Seat in the future, and that real changes in the nation were "soon to begin, and even sooner to be felt." Opposition once more declared the President a "wannabe-tyrant," self-styled after the old pagan Konsalar aristocracy of Patraja's first Republic of Peoples. This was unilaterally dismissed by Torenvoa during a press conference shortly after her second inauguration. Inside sources in Torenvoa's government say that she is likely to run once more for the 2031-2034 Presidential Seat, if she were to win the 2028 Presidential Election.

Election Integrity Controversy

A month into the second term, the Vote-Booth Hack of 2025, a computer penetration into voting networks in Patraja financed and operated by an unknown cyber-terrorist group, affected nearly all voting booths in Patraja. The situation was resolved, and no elections took place at the time, but during the fix process, a state computer engineer blew the whistle on potential data issues during the 2025 Presidential Election that related to, reportedly, "up to 37% of all electronic and internet-based voting booths." After analysis, however, it was determined that the impact of the vote alterations was nothing close to as alleged by critics and deeply-concerned citizens. A total of 139 votes were counted improperly for Torenvoa, and 13 for Aronev. Even the National Court of Patraja dismissed handling the finalizations of the issue as "better-delegated to the Assembly." Many critics in Congress and other sources, however, continue to allege a deeper involvement and more number changes to do with the 2025 elections.

Second Military Expansion

A year into her second term, President Torenvoa repeated history by passing a new Military Restructure Bill, this time expanding the army, navy, and air force once more, but also instituting new recruitment programs. Though the original Office of Military Recruitment was kept as-is in the bill, a new Patrajan Office of Exemplary National Recruits was created. This Office, whose sole purpose is defined as helping with "easing the load of the OMR by taking in promising potential candidates for elite military uses and redirecting them to proper pathways," has been criticized for being a governmental-spearhead into the neutrality of the military - particularly because the appointed Director of the POENR is appointed by the President.

Controversies

Accusations of Anti-Democracy

President Torenvoa has been accused of anti-democratic behavior on numerous occasions, including on bills and acts that many criticize as being leaning towards empowering the executive and the elite. Ardent critics cite Torenvoa's 2018 essay-novel as proof of her authoritarian leanings, and often go as far as to demand the Congress remove confidence in the President using the political theory written by her as evidence.

Accusations of Paganism

Though not widespread, Marija Torenvoa has been accused of pagan practice, support, or pro-pagan leanings numerous times, particularly since the Antiquity Restorations Act. Most criticism comes from middle levels of the Catholic Church of Patraja, though the actual Church of Patraja, and the Church itself, has never taken an official position or ruling.

The UPLTK Secret Society Controversy

The largest-in-scale of controversies in which Torenvoa has been involved in, the President was accused of being a member of the then recently-uncovered anti-democratic, pro-fascistic secret society within the University of Political and Legal Theory in Karneja called Reparatio, which had been alleged to be in operation since the founding of the university in 2007, and had de-facto dissolved upon its discovery in 2025. Many allege that the proven members list, which include many of Torenvoa's assortation of colleagues at the time, along with the timing of the society-within-a-thinktank, and Torenvoa's own beliefs, could place her in deep suspicion of being a member of the group. Secret societies and organizations had been outlawed in Patraja since 1983, and to be involved in one is, at the very least, a minor criminal offense. Despite accusations and circumstantial evidence, however, no substantial proof has since been found implicating Torenvoa with the group.

Accusations of Homosexuality

Accusations of Torenvoa's status as an unmarried women being due to her supposed lesbianism are unfounded in all senses, and are generally based on internet memes made around the time of her first Presidential Race. Torenvoa herself has dismissed the claims, simply saying that she'd "never had the time...to properly seek out a life partner in the past."