Sofia Hopkins, Baroness of Bazir

The Right Honourable, Lady Sofia Hopkins-Jiari Baroness of Bazir MEP
Prime Minister of Empherias
In office 21 December 2447 – 26 May 2448
Preceded by	Katelyn Roberts
Succeeded by	Lukas Knight
In office 7 September 2453 – c. 2468 (de-facto) 17 October 2470 (de-jure)
Preceded by	Lukas Knight
Succeeded by	Melanie Monroe (de-facto) Klara Willows (de-jure)
Deputy Prime Minister of Empherias
In office 26 May 2448 – 7 September 2453
Prime Minister	Lukas Knight
Personal details
Born	Sofia Anne Hopkins (previously Saria Knau Zengalis) 22 February 2424 Inysta, Ahitereira
Died	27 January 2520 Bazir, Azyeri-Bordo
Nationality	Empheri Ahitereiran (until 2443) Azyerian (from 2471)
Political party	PSP Red Bloq
Height	178 cm (5 ft 10 in)

Lady Sofia Anne Hopkins-Jiari, Baroness of Bazir (née Saria Knau Zengalis, 22 February 2424 – 27 January 2520) was an Empheri politician who served as Prime Minister of Empherias in two non-consecutive tenures. The first was during independence between 21 December 2447 and 26 May 2448, and the second was under the High Kingdoms of Alaxia between 7 September 2453 and 17 October 2470. She also served as Deputy Prime Minister between 26 May 2448 and 7 September 2453 under the Poppy-Socialist Coalition under Lukas Knight.

Hopkins was elected as a member of parliament for the People's Socialist Party in the 2445 general election aged 21. She showed great promise early on being a great speaker and was appointed as the Minister of Transport in Katelyn Roberts' cabinet. During the 2447 Socialist leadership election, Hopkins defeated Thomas Rettels, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and became the youngest Prime Minister in history aged 23. She negotiated the coalition with the pro-kloresans, those who wanted to join the High Kingdoms, to ensure that her party would not be removed from power amid the rising schism of the party. She fought the 2448 general election, losing to Knight but maintaining the coalition. Knight won re-election in the 2449 general election with the status quo maintained.

In the 2453 general election, the People's Socialist Party won the most amount of seats and maintained the coalition agreement resulting in Hopkins being made the Prime Minister with Knight as her deputy. She oversaw the re-unification of the party by the 2455 general election - which she also won. She would go on to win the 2459, 2463 and 2468 general elections with good majorities. She was often perceived as a very popular person, very in touch but appealing to the masses. Towards the end of her premiership, she married the Prime Minister of Azyeri-Bordo, Qanli Jiari in 2468. This attracted a lot of criticism as she spent more and more time out of the country with her husband, leaving many duties to the Chancellor of the Exchequer Melanie Monroe who many see as a de-facto prime minister. She announced her resignation on 1 September 2470, officially resigning on 17 October 2470 following the 2470 Socialist leadership election with Klara Willows succeeding her.

Her successor awarded her lordship over Bazir, an area in Azyeri, in 2471 for her dedication to the state in terms of politics. She holds a gender recognition certificate, being a trans woman. She died in 2520, aged 95, peacefully in her sleep.

Early life

Hopkins was born on 22 February 2424 in Inysta, Ahitereira. Her father Zalasar Coto was Ahitereiran, while her mother Emmy Zengalis was mixed Palakkine-Empheri and used her father's Palakkine name. When naming their child, she took her mother's surname Zengalis, but adopted an Ahitereiran first and middle name. According to Hopkins herself in her 2479 autobiography, she was assigned male at birth but would transition during her childhood. The family would move to Empherias for better opportunities and to aid Hopkins' transition in 2429. During her youth, Hopkins was very outspoken and was identified as a great oratory speaker during her early school years. She participated in many extracurricular activities.

To make money, her father Zalasar had volunteered to help campaign for the People's Socialist Party during the 2440 general election. Aged 16, Hopkins attended and volunteered to and became very interested in the party. She would help campaign for them during the successive election in 2441, and would join the party officially in 2442. During the next few years, she would attend frequent local meetings alongside major party conferences where she was very outspoken. She had a very distinctive voice and manner of speaking which also helped her stand out.

Career

She was selected to represent the People's Socialist Party in early 2445 and would be elected to parliament at the age of 21 in the 2445 general election. She was the first transgender woman to become a member of parliament. Having made a large speech in 2444 around expanding transport routes, she was quickly appointed Minister of Transport under prime minister Katelyn Roberts. She took this position to her advantage, quickly befriending key cabinet members because of her frequent attendance at meetings in the treasury. Following Roberts’s resignation in 2447, Hopkins became the youngest prime minister in over a hundred years aged 23. She won a leadership election against other major figures thanks to many endorsements from senior MPs, and she was able to beat runner-up Lukas Knight so convincingly because of his controversy amongst the party elite for his views of pan-Alaxianism. However, Hopkins was still relatively young and did make serious blunders in her campaign. Knight, while unpopular with the parliamentary party, was able to consolidate power with his stance on pan-Kloresanism, splitting the party into two: the PSP under Hopkins, and the ASP under Knight.

In her first general election in 2448, Hopkins won only 105 seats out of a possible 600. However, she developed. Becoming deputy to Knight during the coalition, she was involved in various negotiations while Empherias joined the High Kingdoms of Alaxia. She improved her skills even more and changed her image from one full of youthful energy to one of serious reform and a need to fix things. She was the representative from Empherias during the signing of the new constitution of the High Kingdoms in 2452, and she managed to portray her pan-Alaxianism U-turn positively and maturely, and many ASP members became to support her in uniting the party once again. With the Socialist party united once again, she returned to her position as Prime Minister with a seat count of 413 seats out of 600, a supermajority. With the divisive issue of joining the High Kingdoms behind her, a massive approval and popularity, and a supermajority in parliament, she set out on her major reforms throughout the 2450s.

The 2463 general election saw the PSP win 367 seats out of a possible 600. This was down 20 from the last election, and down nearly 50 from the start of her tenure a decade prior - but still a decent majority. Throughout the past decade, she had massively strengthened the power of trade unions, argued in the federal courts against mandatory privatisation of some businesses, invested billions into the creation and upkeep of vital public transport links, increased the number government owned railways tenfold, invested in mental health and transgender support infrastructure, improved public education quality, and oversaw the construction of new green energy infrastructure in nuclear power. The government was still marred by scandal however and with every new decision, the opposition Liberal party saw more and more ways to criticise the government. Running out of steam and frustrated by the Liberals constant attacks, Hopkins introduced a new policy in 2467 that would see changes to the education system to introduce what the opposition called ‘socialist propaganda’. The Minister of Education, who had not been told, resigned in protest - a major blow to the government. The policy was dropped.

In 2468, Hopkins would marry the Prime Minister of Azyeri-Bordo Qanli Jiari after rumours of them dating had been circulating for months. Critics of the government described this as a huge security breach in Empherias with confidential secrets possibly being given to heads of states of foreign countries. Furthermore, Hopkins began taking large amounts of time as leave, spending them in Azyeri. For example, her Chancellor of the Exchequer Melanie Monroe stood in for three consecutive months while Hopkins was abroad. Monroe was essentially working as the chancellor and the prime minister full time in her absence.

After a very exhausting week in May, Monroe collapsed in parliament and was taken to hospital for a few days. Hopkins was seen as inconsiderate for putting Monroe in such an unfortunate situation. The 2468 general election was held during the crisis, and saw the PSP lose 100 seats and be reduced to a minority government. After two months, the opposition Liberal party went to the Supreme Court of the High Kingdoms of Alaxia and ordered that Hopkins be impeached as prime minister due to her security concerns. The court issued a ruling that they did not want to forcibly overthrow an elected chamber of a devolved parliament, but they did transfer the power of the prime minister in all but name to Melanie Monroe. Between 2468 and 2470, Melanie Monroe was the de-facto prime minister trying to stabilise the government which had been suffering from various corruption scandals.

Hopkins officially resigned on 17 October 2470, ending her 17 year tenure - although she had since fell from power years ago. Many believe that throughout the final years, she may have been mentally unstable from long term stress.

Post-political career, retirement and death

Hopkins died of old age on 27 January 2520, aged 95, peacefully in her sleep.