Leia Clemens
| Leia Clemens | |
|---|---|
| |
| Leader of Hatnuah | |
| In office 1658 AN – 1665 AN | |
| Deputy | Samuel Goyers |
| Succeeded by | Iram Buchler |
| Nationality |  CaputiaHaifan |
| Political party | Hatnuah |
Leia Clemens was a Haifan politician who led Hatnuah, the nationalist party of the Caputian state of Haifa, from 1658 AN until 1665 AN. She directed the campaign for Haifan independence through both referendums of the Caputian period, held that the narrow independence majority of 1663 AN bound the kingdom, and resigned the party leadership on the night the 1665 AN referendum returned a plurality for remaining in Caputia.
Leadership of Hatnuah
Clemens took the leadership of Hatnuah in 1658 AN and sat for Haifa in the Caputian Parliament. At the general election of 1660 AN the party returned fifteen members on 1,767,637 votes. Allen Greenstreet of the Liberal League said afterward that most of the Haifan electorate had voted for the unionist parties and for independent candidates, among them the newly founded Yesh Atid under Noam Reiner, which became her chief rival in the state. Clemens answered with the slogan that carried the nationalist campaign for the next five years, "Hands Off Haifa Now!"
Independence referendums
The first independence referendum, held in 1663 AN, returned a narrow majority for independence on a turnout of 47 percent. Prime Minister Royston Merrick and the state's unionist government treated the result as inconclusive because of the low turnout. Clemens held that the referendum bound the kingdom and that the figures accurately represented Haifan aspirations. On the night the result was certified, confrontations between the police and independence supporters left seventy dead in Abeis, Keybir-Aviv, and Diamandis.
When the question was put again in 1665 AN on a four-option ballot, Clemens led the nationalist campaign, bringing 850,000 people into Abeis by the count of the Caputian Broadcasting Corporation. Clemens herself sought independence under a shared Crown, but the separatist camp divided over its aim, and her deputy Samuel Goyers pressed instead for a unilateral declaration and a Republic of Haifa. The poll returned a plurality for remaining a Caputian state, and support for the two independence options together had fallen from the level recorded two years earlier. Clemens resigned the leadership of Hatnuah on the night of the result and declared the referendum illegitimate, as masked protesters before Luxor Palace set the center of Abeis alight. Iram Buchler took the party provisionally.
