Steve Bennett (Pacifica)

The Right Honourable Steve Bennett MO FO BeSO SO HO BO
Prime Minister of Valkyria
Incumbent
Assumed office 26 July 2022
President	Kate Murphy
Preceded by	Stella Kaufman
Leader of the Socialist Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 18 January 2020
Preceded by	Amalia Rollins
Deputy Leader of the Socialist Party
In office 14 March 2018 – 18 January 2020
Leader	Amalia Rollins
Preceded by	Viktor Carlsen
Succeeded by	Petra Malcolmsdotter
State Secretary for Defence
In office 19 June 2017 – 9 August 2019
Prime Minister	Margaret Harrison
Minister	Julia Burns
Member of the Valkyrian Parliament for Ravneby's 2nd
Incumbent
Assumed office 19 June 2017
Preceded by	Devon Macdonald
Personal details
Born	Steffan Torsson Bennett (1981-06-13) 13 June 1981 Ravneby, Qvait
Political party	Socialist
Parents	Tor Bjarkarsson Bennett Sanna Hendriksdottir
Alma mater	University of Ravneby
Military service
Allegiance	Qvait Valkyria
Branch/service	Qvaitican Navy Valkyrian Special Forces
Years of service	2003–2017
Rank	Colonel
Unit	Njord Group
Battles/wars	2014 war of the South Pacific
Awards	See below

Steffan Torsson Bennett (born 13 June 1981) is a Valkyrian politician and former naval officer who has been serving as the prime minister of Valkyria since 2022 and leader of the Socialist Party since 2020.

Early life

Steffan Torsson Bennett was born on 13 June 1981 in Ravneby, Qvait, where he grew up with his father, Tor Bjarkarsson Bennett, a professor at the University of Ravneby, and his mother, Sanna Hendriksdottir, a socialist activist who served in the Ravneby Storting from 1980 to 1990. His parents met in 1967 during protests against the authoritarian dictatorship in Qvait, during which they were arrested. The two would spend three years in Ravneby Prison before their unconditional release in 1970 following the collapse of the Fallenist regime. During their imprisonment, Bennett's parents endured inhumane treatment from the prison guards in the form of beatings and malnourishment, similar to what most other prisoners faced at the time.

Born 11 years after the successful transition to democracy, Bennett grew up in the capital and graduated from Torshov High School in 1999. While studying political science at the University of Ravneby, Bennett joined the Socialist Youth in 2000 and served as its regional president for Ravneby from 2002 to 2003. In May 2003, Bennett earned his bachelor's degree and graduated second in his class.

Military careeer

Bennett joined the Qvaitican Navy in June 2003 after graduating from the University of Ravneby. After spending two months in officer training, Bennett earned the rank of junior lieutenant in August and was stationed on the Valkyrie class frigate QRS Mist for three years. In that time, the Mist travelled on the open seas of the Southern Pacific Ocean, making various stops on allied ports. After his promotion to lieutenant in 2005, Bennett returned to Qvait to undergo special forces training, which lasted for six months. He ended up graduating with honours, earning commendatory remarks from his instructors due to his exhibition of leadership while under stress.

In October 2005, Bennett joined Njord Group, which was recognized by the military as the most elite special forces unit in the Qvaitican Armed Forces. Most of Bennett's activities as part of the unit remain a secret, but declassified government documents show that Bennett took part in special operations and underwent periodic training alongside allied special forces. In 2014, Bennett was a participant in the 2014 war of the South Pacific, fighting in the water as part of underwater demolition and sabotage operations and on the ground in the Battle of Gullkysten against invading Sporaltryan forces.

Bennett's time during the Battle of Gullkysten was the most meritorious period of his military service, earning him six military orders, including the Order of Mjølner, the highest honour given to a soldier who does not die in battle. During the five-week battle, Bennett was credited for 86 confirmed kills as a sniper, some of which were against people who posed an immediate threat to fellow Qvaitican soldiers. At times, Bennett was also fighting on the ground in close-quarters combat. Though, the act that earned Bennett the Order of Mjølner was his unit's impromptu evacuation of 17 civilians away from the battle, all of whom were successfully rescued. However, Bennett suffered a gunshot wound that fractured his clavicle and four other squadmates were killed in their effort to evacuate the civilians.

Because of his injury in Gullkysten, Bennett spent the remainder of the war in an underground bunker in northern Qvait that was repurposed as a hospital for wounded soldiers and civilians. After the war, Bennett spent most of his time doing clerical work while undergoing rehabilitation. Despite the surgery to his clavicle, Bennett continued feeling pain for a year after the intial wound. In 2015, he again underwent a surgical procedure to correct a malunion. While the procedure was successful in reducing his pain, Bennett said in 2021 that he still feels a dull pain in his left shoulder from time to time.

Because of complications involving his clavicle, Bennett was at-risk of being medically discharged from the Navy, but he was granted an exemption from Vice Admiral Karlinna Danielsdotter and worked in her office through Njord Group's transition from the Qvaitican Navy to the Valkyrian Special Forces in 2016 before requesting his discharge in 2017 soon after his promotion to colonel.

Dates of promotion

Ins.	Rank		Date
	Austral	Valkyrian
	Colonel	Oberst	January 2017
	Lieutenant colonel (2016–2017) Commander-captain (2014–2016)	Oberstløytnant Kommandørkaptein	January 2014
	War captain	Orlogskaptein	March 2011
	Captain lieutenant	Kapteinløytnant	February 2008
	Lieutenant	Løytnant	March 2005
	Junior lieutenant	Fenrik	August 2003

Political career

Member of Parliament

Further information: 2017 Valkyrian general election (Pacifica) and 2019 Valkyrian general election (Pacifica)

In 2017, Bennett stood for election in Ravneby's 2nd constituency of the Storting as a member of the Socialist Party, challenging the Labour Party's Devon Macdonald. In his campaign, Bennett made promises on nationalising "essential industries" as a means of preventing corporations from profiting from the daily needs of the people and strengthening labour rights. Bennett also stressed Macdonald's liberal credentials, criticising him for voting in favour of legislation that increased economic inequality in Valkyria and contributed to the rising cost of living, the effects of which were felt in the constituency they were campaigning to represent.

In June, Bennett defeated Macdonald and his other opponents by winning 59 per cent of the vote in the first-round ballot, considered a landslide victory. In the neighbouring 3rd constituency, Kate Murphy won the seat, succeeding the retiring Malcolm Fitz after running on campaign promises largely similar to the ones Bennett made despite being a member of the Labour Party. Because of their similarity, liberals within the Labour Party accused Bennett and other Socialists of swinging the 3rd constituency over to Murphy and the Labour socialist wing by encouraging tactical voting. However, Bennett denied the accusation by saying that "democracy speaks for itself".

Due to his military experience, Bennett was co-appointed by Socialist leader Amalia Rollins and Labour leader Margaret Harrison as a state secretary under Julia Burns, a Labour politician serving as the Minister of Defence. Conincidentally, Burns also served in Njord Group at the same time as Bennett, but the two former soldiers have said they never met each other during their service. As state secretary, Bennett worked with Burns in completing the merger of the Qvaitican Armed Forces and Fjernøy Defence Force into a fully unified Valkyrian Defence Force and joined the defence minister on international trips to meet with her counterparts.

In March 2018, Rollins appointed Bennett as the Socialist deputy leader, succeeding Viktor Carlsen, who retired from politics. After his appointment as deputy leader, Bennett began attending Alliance meetings to discuss policy formation and implementation with the other member parties of the bloc. On occasion, Bennett would fill in for Rollins whenever she was absent, speaking on the behalf of the Socialist Party in these meetings.

In the 2019 general election, Bennett faced nominal opposition in his constituency, handily defeating his opponents in the first-round ballot with 64 per cent of the vote, expanding on his margin in 2017. Despite having electoral success in his constituency, the governing Alliance of Social Democrats failed to win a majority of seats in the Storting, resulting in the New Conservative Coalition securing a governing majority after reaching a coalition agreement with the Centrist Democratic Party.

With a Conservative government under Stella Kaufman in power, the new government passed the Expansion of Security Powers Act 2019 (ESPA 19) and the Immigration Regulatory Act 2019 (IRA 19), two laws that curtailed civil rights within Valkyria. During debate on the two bills, Bennett gave dissenting speeches and compared the legislation to Fallenist-era authoritarianism.

In late 2019, as Kaufman blamed Hystaiga for the June 2019 Ravneby nightclub attack and the Mount Kalkara jet crash, Bennett expressed critcism because the National Police investigators did not find conclusive evidence that Hystaiga was responsible for the nerve gas attack nor was there evidence to suggest that the fighter jet was shot down. On 5 November, Bennett joined the rest of the Socialists in voting against the Valkyrian declaration of war on Hystaiga. In June 2019, The Gullkysten Times found Bennett to be the eighth-most admired politician in Valkyria, but his staunch opposition to the war quickly made him unpopular.

Socialist leadership

Further information: 2020 Valkyrian Socialist Party leadership election (Pacifica)

On 1 January 2020, Rollins announced that she would resign as leader of the Socialist Party, prompting the party to hold a leadership election to determine her successor. On 4 January, Bennett announced his candidacy to become Socialist leader. Despite his record unpopularity among the Valkyrian public, the Socialist party membership conversely saw him as the most popular Socialist in Valkyria, leading him to victory in the membership vote on 18 January, securing 78 per cent of the party vote in the first-round ballot.

Throughout the early stages of the Kalkara War, conservative politicians and especially those in The New Right denounced Bennett as a traitor for his opposition to the war. On 7 April 2021, his daughter, Lucilla Steffánsdóttir Bennett, was killed in the Battle of Dystalia, marking the first killing of a Member of Parliament's immediate family in the war. On social media, Bennett wrote that his daughter was "taken by the valkyries so soon in her life after dying in a war that she never believed in". Due to his daughter's death and questions surrounding Hystaiga's responsibility for the 2019 attack, Valkyrian public opinion started turning in Bennett's favor, with a KTN poll showing that 44 per cent of Valkyrians agreeing that the Kalkara War should end.

On 24 May, Bennett led the largest protest in Valkyrian history against the war and the current government, standing alongside former Prime Minister Harrison. In a speech, Bennett called for the unilateral withdrawal of Valkyrian troops and investigations into war crimes and the origins of the war and repeated the phrase "liars, thieves, and murderers", which he often used to describe Kaufman's government.

2022 general election

Further information: 2022 Valkyrian general election (Pacifica)

In the 2022 election, Bennett's campaign centred on ending the Kalkara War, with economic and climate issues being secondary. KTN polling in March 2022 found that Bennett's prioritization of the issues fell broadly in line with the rest of the Valkyrian people. In July, the election resulted in the Alliance being one seat short of victory, but it also resulted in the Socialist Party being the largest party in the Storting. In the weeks after the election, Bennett successfully negotiated the reformation of the Alliance under Socialist leadership and the invitation of the Pirate Party and reentry of The Greens into the bloc, forming a government on 26 July 2022 and becoming the third Valkyrian prime minister.

Prime minister (2022–present)

See also: Bennett premiership (Pacifica)

Awards and decorations

• Order of Mjølner
• Order of the Dauntless
• Grand Order of the Protectors
• Order of the Southern Cross
• Order of the Heroes
• Order of Blood
• Service Medal
• Humanitarian Medal
• Precision Medal