Wally Koepke

Wouter "Wally" Koepke (/ˈkɛpkə/  kep -kuh; born 10 September 1951) is a former Enderronian politician who served as the 35th Prime Minister of Enderron from 2002 to 2008, having previously served as Leader of the Opposition from 1993 to 2002. His combined 14-year long tenure as leader of the Liberal Party of Enderron (2000–2008) and its predecessor, the Conservative Party (1993–2000), makes him the second-longest serving major party leader in post-independence history and the second major party leader to contest four consecutive elections, both after William Oxley. He remains the longest-serving Leader of the Opposition in Enderronian history, continuously holding the position for almost nine years.

Koepke was born in Reedijk, Cooksland to newly-arrived Dutch migrants. He was raised speaking Dutch and only learned English after starting school, making him the the first Prime Minister to speak English as a second language. After graduating from the University of Technology Janszoon with a Bachelor of Engineering, Koepke worked as an engineering consultant until entering politics in the early 1980s. He moved back to Reedijk and was elected to the safe seat of Oxley in the 1982 federal election as a member of the United Party.

In June 1986, he resigned from the United Party after coming into conflict with the party leadership on a number of occasions, and defected to the Conservative Party. At the 1986 election, Koepke was re-elected with a significantly reduced margin, but his presence in the campaign was credited with helping the party win 5 seats. He rose through the ranks of the Conservatives to become party leader, and therefore Leader of the Opposition, in November 1993. At this point, the Conservative Party had already begun surpassing United as the major centre-right party in the country. Koepke led the Conservatives to the 1994 and 1998 elections, both times falling well short of a majority but picking up a substantial swing and cementing the party's status as the main opponent to the centre-left Social Democrats.

Koepke was heavy proponent of a merger between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. The merger eventually occurred in February 2000, with Koepke becoming the leader of the new party, dubbed the Liberal Party. Following the deadlocked 2002 election in which the Liberals won a plurality of seats, negotiations led to Koepke becoming Prime Minister as the head of a coalition government with the Enderron National Party. His premiership was marked by a shift in foreign policy towards a more Western-oriented position and an increase in military interventionism. He supported the War in Afghanistan and 2003 invasion of Iraq, both of which have become increasingly controversial and criticised by opponents. On the domestic front, Koepke promoted cultural cohesion and integration over multiculturalism, and reformed the visa and citizenship systems to decrease mass immigration. He championed economically liberal policies, implementing significant spending cuts to completely eliminate government debt, introducing a goods and services tax (GST) and privatising Enderron Airways and Enderron Telecom (now called Entel). As part of the coalition agreement with the Nationals, the Koepke Government also supported enacted policies to encourage regional development and bureaucratic decentralisation.

The Liberals won an outright majority in the 2006 election, a feat not seen for a right-of-centre party since 1966. Koepke's signature policy during his second term was the introduction of more stringent gun control legislation in response to increasing gun crime, despite fierce opposition from the National Party and the Liberal Party's own rural constituents. He announced his retirement as Prime Minister in January 2008, and formally resigned on 17 February following the election of his successor as leader of the Liberal Party, Adrian Coghlan. He retired from electoral politics at the 2010 election after 28 years in Parliament. Koepke has remained active in the public sphere as a political commentator, while maintaining broad business interests. Since leaving office, his administration has been regarded favourably by the general public, but evaluations by scholars and historians have been more mixed.