Chancellor, also known as Supreme Chancellor or the Chief of State was the head of state of the New Republic. As the chancellery was the highest office in New Republic, they represented it officially, however it was not an executive and the role was limited to ceremonial. However, a chancellor possessed certain powers that may be exercised discretionally. It was legally a continuation of the position under the Galactic Republic.
Upon the formation of the New Republic, Mon Mothma was elected. She technically succeeded Sheev Palpatine as chancellor, but eliminated the emergency powers inherited from her predecessor and was subjected to restrictions that were designed to prevent any chancellor from accruing any real power, and therefore lost control over the Galactic Senate. Mothma's successors maintained this following the end of her term.
However, differing views emerged from two major political factions in the Senate, commonly referred to as the Centrists and Populists, who disagreed on the extent to which if a new and more powerful title should to replace the chancellor and would have been tasked with bringing order to the divided government, but the debate ended with no consensus and the election for ite postponed indefinitely.
By 34 ABY, Lanever Villecham was elected as the chancellor. A believer in the peace initiatives of the New Republic, Villecham focused his term on improved trade relations with neutral star systems instead of the military build-up with the First Order, that ended with the destruction of the Hosnian system, where the chancellor died, with the First Order invasion of the galaxy soon realized.
The chancellor was the elected leader of the New Republic.
The office of the chancellor would have little central authority, which became a chancellery with a limited powers similar to that made during Ruusan Reformations, and was not even a nominal chief executive, and was subjected to restrictions that were designed to prevent any chancellor from accruing any real power. The powers of the chancellor themselves were derived from the charter of Chancellor, where chancellery was formally known as Supreme Chancellor and was empowered to be leader of the Galactic Senate. A chancellor would officially represent the New Republic, receiving dignitaries and concluding treaties with other governments.
The first New Republic chancellor, Mon Mothma, was given the emergency powers that were once granted to Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine of the Galactic Republic during the Clone Wars. Someone who had spent the duration of the Clone Wars arguing against the increased powers of the chancellor and eager to distance her new government from that of Palpatine's, Mothma intended to eliminate the emergency powers from her position. Though the powers granted her the authority to send New Republic forces to fight and die wherever she chose, she did not want such a responsibility and felt that it was a poison to democracy. Instead, she submitted to the will of the Senate, even in military matters such as the disarmament of the New Republic Defense Fleet.
The Supreme Chancellor was the head of state and head of government of the Galactic Republic.
The origins of the chancellery came from the Galactic Republic, where the Supreme Chancellor served as the leader of the Galactic Senate and the head of state of the Republic itself. Established by Tarsus Valorum who served as the first Supreme Chancellor following the fall of the Old Republic, in which the Sith were defeated by the Jedi Order. The power of the Supreme Chancellor would be limited by the Ruusan Reformations.
During the Clone Wars, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine amassed more and more executive powers until, at the end of the war, he had enough power to transform the Republic into the Galactic Empire and declare himself sovereign ruler of the galaxy.
The position was used by the Alliance to Restore the Republic, where former senator Mon Mothma was given the rank of chancellor while serving as the Alliance's civilian leader.
Mon Mothma was the first chancellor of the New Republic.
After the death of Emperor Palpatine during the Battle of Endor, the Rebel Alliance formed the New Republic and Galactic Senate was reconvened on Mothma's homeworld of Chandrila. Although Mothma was elected as first chancellor of the New Republic, she technically succeeded Palpatine as chancellor via the charter of chancellor which included the emergency powers that had once been given to her predecessor during the Clone Wars. However, it was her intention to do away with those powers, believing them to be a poison to democracy. In a short time after being elected, Mothma then eliminated the emergency powers granted to her by the chancellery's charter. Mothma also planned to propose a massive military disarmament once the Galactic Civil War came to end, hoping to cut the size of the New Republic Defense Force by ninety percent. While the other ten percent would go towards training and supporting local militias. She proposed to put these ideas on the agenda before the New Republic Senate.
The end of the war and the signing of the Galactic Concordance, the peace treaty with the Empire, saw the achievement of that proposal through the Military Disarmament Act. Further reforms carried out by Chancellor Mothma included the rotation of the Senate's capital amongst member worlds. That decision, as well as the decision to not headquarter the Senate on the former galactic capital world of Coruscant, did much to convince star systems that the New Republic would be different from its predecessor governments.
The New Republic Senate considered replacing the title of chancellor with a new office known as First Senator.
Chancellor Mothma was credited with forging a political consensus during her term in office that allowed the New Republic to establish itself as a lasting power. After her term in office ended, however, her successors failed to create that same political consensus, a consensus that Senator Leia Organa credited to her charisma as a leader. By 28 ABY, two political factions—the Centrists and the Populists—had emerged with divergent views on the role of the central government and the power of the executive. Lady Carise Sindian, a Centrist, eventually proposed the abolition of the office of the chancellor and a redrafting of the Republic's constitution to create a new position: First Senator, which she proposed would have strong authority over economics and the military. A fierce debate emerged amongst those who favored a strong central authority and those who worried that a position like First Senator would lead to the rise of another emperor.
Senator Organa became a leading candidate for the role of First Senator, despite her reservations about the creation of the office. Her candidacy was derailed, however, after it was revealed by her political enemies, including Senator Ransolm Casterfo and Lady Carise, that she was the daughter of the late Sith Lord Darth Vader. Senator Tai-Lin Garr replaced her as the populist candidate, but Garr was soon assassinated. The vote to abolish the role of chancellor was then delayed and both parties agreed that the election for First Senator should be postponed indefinitely.
Chancellor Lanever Villecham presided over the end of the Cold War.
In 32 ABY, senator Lanever Villecham of the Tarsunt system was elected chancellor as a strong believer in the peace initiatives of the New Republic and continued to pursue peace with the First Order during the Cold War so long as they followed the dictates of the Galactic Concordance. He instead pursued improved trade relations with the neutral worlds of the Trans-Hydian Borderlands, as they had been disaffected from the Republic for decades. Villecham also had to contend with a private military force, the Resistance, led by general Leia Organa, that pursued evidence that the First Order was violating the Galactic Concordance.
A year later, Organa dispatched an envoy to the then capital of Hosnian Prime, Commander Korr Sella to argue for a military build-up against the First Order with the chancellor on her behalf, as she thought she never get out of the Hosnian system alive if she went, but by then it was too late, with her ultimately proven right when the First Order used its superweapon, Starkiller Base, to target the Republic. It destroyed Hosnian Prime, killing chancellor Villecham and the rest of the planet's population.
The position of chancellor of the New Republic first appeared in the 2015 novel Aftermath, written by Chuck Wendig. In the Expanded Universe of books, comics, and games, which has since become the non-canon Star Wars Legends brand, the leader of the New Republic was known as the Chief of State. Like in canon, Legends stories also depicted Mon Mothma as the first leader of the New Republic.
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