Separatist Senate

The legislative assembly known as the Separatist Parliament, which was also sometimes called the Separatist Senate or the Separatist Congress, was created to govern the Confederacy of Independent Systems. The Parliament was made up of delegates who spoke for the thousands of member worlds that made up the Confederacy. A Separatist Congress Leader oversaw the Parliament's proceedings and served as its speaker. The Head of State of the Confederacy, who also served as the Senate's leader, was permitted to preside over sessions. In addition to member worlds, businesses like the Corporate Alliance were given representation and took part in the legislature's decision-making. Individual members of Congress could propose legislation while in session, and a majority vote was required for it to become law. The Bylaws of Independent Systems, a bill of rights, established the Parliament's operational procedures; for instance, a voice vote was required for issues like starting peace talks with the Galactic Republic.

The Parliament was largely viewed as a civilian political division of the Confederate government, more so than the Separatist Council, another Confederate governing body. The Council, which was made up entirely of corporate leaders who funded the Separatist war machine, also made governmental decisions for the Confederacy, oversaw the distribution of assets to member worlds, and managed the war effort.

The Separatist Parliament's efficacy during the time of the Clone Wars, when the Confederacy was at war with the Galactic Republic, was a point of contention. The Confederacy, a separatist government, was made up of sectors and star systems that had broken away from the Republic, as well as large corporations and trade cartels like the Corporate Alliance, Trade Federation, InterGalactic Banking Clan, and Commerce Guild, among others. These conglomerates were represented on the Separatist Council, which coexisted with the civilian-run Parliament. The Separatists, with their wide range of philosophies—some political and others corporate—fell into a hierarchy rather than a formal, centralized government. The Parliament's decrees were occasionally disregarded, manipulated, or rendered ineffective due to the Confederacy's structure. As part of the Order of the Sith Lords' schemes, Count Dooku himself, the Head of State of the Confederacy, was involved in invalidating Parliament legislation. Senator Lux Bonteri thought Dooku would betray the members of Parliament if his schemes called for it.

Separatist delegates affiliated with businesses like the Corporate Alliance were criticized for amplifying corporate voices in political affairs, as was the case in the Republic Senate. However, those same galactic enterprises served as the foundation of the Confederacy because their security forces made up the Confederacy military, particularly the Separatist Droid Army. Furthermore, Parliament members and Separatist citizens were constantly kept in the dark about the exploits and attacks of ruthless military commanders like General Grievous. This behavior gave an incomplete picture of the Separatists' presence in the galactic war theater, which made things even more difficult for the Parliament. Some people on the Republic's side saw the Separatist senators as Dooku's pawns, and the Parliament itself was generally seen as a failure because of how the Separatist hierarchy was set up.

The Confederacy of Independent Systems was established in 24 BBY when the charismatic Count Dooku, a former Jedi Master, delivered passionate speeches denouncing the Republic Senate for corruption and the Jedi Order for supporting a system that could not be saved. His speech, known as the Raxus Address, established the Confederacy as a separate state from the Republic. Thousands of sectors and star systems began issuing Articles of Secession to the Republic, joining the Confederacy alongside large corporations such as the Trade Federation, InterGalactic Banking Clan, Corporate Alliance, Techno Union, and others who sought Dooku's promise of free trade. In reality, the Confederacy was secretly created to carry out the Grand Plan of the Order of the Sith Lords, of which Dooku was a member under the alias Darth Tyranus. While Tyranus led the Confederacy into war with the Republic, the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Sidious—disguised as Supreme Chancellor Palpatine of the Republic—would destabilize the Republic so that the Sith could eventually seize absolute power over the galaxy. Thus, the Confederacy was a deception resulting from Sith plots against the Republic.

During the Separatist Crisis, a period of tension lasting from 24 BBY to 22 BBY, more than six thousand worlds joined the Confederacy. In 22 BBY, the InterGalactic Banking Clan, Trade Federation, and other companies loyal to the Separatists officially joined the cause, pledging their financial support and security forces to the Confederate military. When the First Battle of Geonosis broke out that year, the corporations' various battle droid security forces, which were eventually organized as the Separatist Droid Army, were deployed against the newly formed Grand Army of the Republic. Following the Battle of Geonosis, a pan-galactic conflict known as the Clone Wars erupted.

While the Separatist Council was made up of corporate leaders who oversaw the war effort, another governing body was formed from the civilian population. The Separatist Parliament, as it became known, was made up of representatives from thousands of Separatist member worlds, similar to the makeup of the Republic Senate. Indeed, some of the senators appointed to the Parliament were former members of the Republic Senate, such as Mina Bonteri, who continued to represent her homeworld of Onderon in the Confederacy. Senator Bec Lawise became the Separatist Congress Leader, presiding over Parliament sessions alongside Confederate Head of State Dooku. The assembly was based on the Separatist capital world of Raxus Secundus, which was blockaded by a sizable fleet from the Confederate Navy. The Separatist Senate Building was built in the center of a large city on Raxus Secundus with an upper viewing gallery for observers.

The Parliament faced numerous challenges during the Clone Wars, including justifying the Confederacy's very existence. Despite several attempts to negotiate with the Separatists, the Republic Senate refused to recognize the legitimacy of the Separatist state, even passing a law prohibiting Republic senators from communicating with Separatist officials. General Grievous, the Confederacy's appointed Supreme Commander of the Droid Armies, committed numerous exploits on the front lines, but the politicians and citizens of the Confederacy were kept in the dark about his crimes and other atrocities committed in their name against the Republic. Dooku and Darth Sidious were central to perpetuating the conflict between the Republic and the Confederacy in order to further the Sith Grand Plan to rule the galaxy.

As the Separatist Droid Army gained ground on battlefronts across the galaxy, some Parliament senators campaigned to escalate the war effort against the Republic. However, the majority of delegates struggled to decide whether to support further expansion of their armed forces. Similar conditions in the Republic Senate came to a head in 21 BBY, the second year of the war, leading Republic Senator Padmé Amidala of Naboo to travel to Raxus Secundus in violation of the Republic's non-contact statute. Amidala, a vocal advocate for diplomacy amidst the increasing cacophony of the Republic Senate, was concerned about a rising bill in her own Senate that would deregulate the galactic banks, opening new lines of credit to expand the Republic Military and thus increase the fighting. She traveled to Raxus Secundus with Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano to seek a meeting with Mina Bonteri of Onderon, who had mentored her in politics during her early career, in the hopes of ending the war through diplomatic negotiations. In talks with her former colleague, Amidala convinced Bonteri that if the Separatist Parliament extended an olive branch of peace, there might be enough of a sympathetic response in the Republic Senate to begin formal intergovernmental dialogue. Bonteri agreed and promised to submit a motion for peace to the Parliament.

Bonteri drafted her bill, which would immediately sanction an offer for peace negotiations to Supreme Chancellor Palpatine and the Republic, and introduced it at a following Parliament session. She prefaced her proposal, to cries of support and rejection from all sides of the Separatist Senate Building, by decrying the futility of the war's casualties and calling for peaceful coexistence between Confederate and Republic worlds. Once she had finished, numerous senators stood up to applaud her words, though other delegates disagreed. Among the dissenters was Senator Voe Atell, an affiliate of the Corporate Alliance, who asserted that the commerce guild would never allow the passage of such a proposal. Senator Kerch Kushi disputed her claims, citing the Parliament's democratic system and lack of corporate governance. Amidst the widespread debate that broke out after Kushi's statements, Count Dooku called for order so that Bonteri's bill could be brought to a vote. As per the Bylaws of Independent Systems, Dooku held a voice vote, with Senators Bonteri, Kushi, By Bluss, and Amita Fonti among the supporters. Voting nay were Atell, Punn Rimbaud, and several others, but they were ultimately outvoted.

Following the enactment of Bonteri's bill, Amidala returned with Tano to the Republic capital of Coruscant. Palpatine was skeptical of the Separatists' offer for peace given their past refusals for negotiation, but Amidala confidentially assured him of its sincerity because of its origination with Bonteri, allowing the vote to be brought to the Senate floor. No party was less alarmed by the Parliament's offer than the coalition pushing for Republic banking deregulation, consisting of Trade Federation Senator Lott Dod, InterGalactic Banking Clan lobbyist Nix Card, and Senator Gume Saam, the latter of whom was receiving payoffs from the Techno Union. All three profited from the war through their corporate affiliations and had already arranged—through their secret ties to Dooku—for an attack on Coruscant to panic the Senate into passing the deregulation legislation. On Dooku's orders, without Parliament authorization, Grievous had a team of Infiltrator/Demolition droids sabotage the Coruscant power network. The assault coincided with the Republic Senate's vote on the bank reform bill, which had its intended effect. Reported as an act of Separatist terrorism, the bombing of the power generator portrayed the Parliament's offer for peace as insincere and, much to Amidala's dismay, prompted the Senate to overwhelmingly vote in favor of banking deregulation. The Senate later rejected the Parliament's motion in light of the attack on Coruscant.

With negotiations with the Republic thwarted, Dooku swiftly engineered a secret attack on Confederate territory in which Sith assassins murdered Bonteri, then publicly alleged that she had been killed in a Republic assault that had targeted the people of the Confederacy. Rife with fear of attack, the Parliament withdrew Bonteri's peace proposal, with Dooku relaying that decision in a direct transmission to the Republic Senate. Although Republic spies uncovered evidence of Bonteri's assassination, many Parliament members did not believe that their Head of State had executed their highly esteemed colleague or that he was even capable of such wrongdoing. In any case, Dooku's actions ensured the collapse of Confederate–Republic diplomatic negotiations.

In the aftermath of the Republic Senate's deregulation of the banks, the Separatists took out a loan from the InterGalactic Banking Clan to finance the manufacture of three million additional battle droids for the Separatist Droid Army, even with an interest rate hike from ten to twenty-five percent. The Republic Senate soon responded by approving an order for five million new clone troopers for its Grand Army, guaranteeing that the Clone Wars would continue across the galaxy. Mina Bonteri's Parliament seat for Onderon was filled by her son, Lux Bonteri.

The Confederate Parliament subsequently consented to dispatch a group of senators for discussions with Republic officials during the first-ever peace conference held between the two warring factions. The world of Mandalore, maintaining neutrality, was selected as the location for this assembly, with Duchess Satine Kryze from the New Mandalorians acting as the host. Senators Voe Atell and Amita Fonti, along with Separatist Congress Leader Bec Lawise, agreed to represent the Parliament. They convened in the royal palace of Sundari, the capital city, where they met with Republic Senators Padmé Amidala, Bail Prestor Organa of Alderaan, and Mon Mothma of Chandrila, all hoping to achieve a peaceful resolution to the conflict. In accordance with Mandalorian regulations, neither delegation was permitted to carry arms, although the Parliament senators' BX-series droid commandos were armed with blasters in their capacity as security droids. Upon the conference's commencement by Amidala, the Republic delegation's leader, the Separatist delegation immediately prioritized a long-standing concern for the Confederacy: the legitimacy of the Separatist state. Atell, speaking on behalf of her fellow delegates, insisted that the Republic formally recognize the Confederacy, a request that Amidala and her team were hesitant to grant.

These discussions faced an interruption from Lux Bonteri, who had recently left the Parliament and disavowed his Separatist affiliations. Bonteri's unexpected presence irritated the Parliament senators, especially when he took the stand and publicly accused Dooku of involvement in his mother's death. Lawise instructed his security droids to apprehend Bonteri and remove him from the royal palace. Despite Kryze's objections to the droids' treatment of Bonteri, Atell dismissed the situation as an internal matter, preventing any external intervention. Lawise issued an apology on behalf of the Separatists for the disturbance and permitted the talks to resume, though they ultimately proved unsuccessful. The negotiations failed due to hidden agendas on both sides, leaving the Senate and Parliament delegations unable to achieve a truce. Further complicating matters was the discovery that Bonteri had escaped from custody aboard the Separatists' C-9979 landing craft at the Sundari docks, aided by his friend Ahsoka Tano, who was serving as Amidala's bodyguard. After pursuing Tano and Bonteri to the Republic transports, the Parliament's squad of security droids engaged in a firefight with the Republic's Senate Guards, but they could not stop Bonteri and Tano from fleeing off-world.

In 19.1 BBY, during the war's final month, the Confederate government officially recognized Rush Clovis as the new leader of the InterGalactic Banking Clan. A Separatist delegation, led by Bec Lawise, was authorized to attend the leadership transition ceremony at the Banking Clan's headquarters on Scipio. Dooku directly interfered with these proceedings. Having supported Clovis's rise to power, Dooku orchestrated a scheme to seize control of the banks. Representing the Confederacy, Dooku declined to pay interest on their Banking Clan loans, manipulating Clovis to instead increase the Republic's interest rates. Subsequently, Dooku deployed a Confederate Navy flotilla to Scipio, decimating the Republic's on-planet security garrison to falsely implicate Clovis in a partisan alliance with the Separatists. After Dooku arrested Padmé Amidala, the Republic delegation's leader, Lawise voiced his opposition to the plan, believing that the Parliament would disapprove of such a blatant action. Dooku responded by using the Force to telekinetically force Amidala to fatally shoot Lawise. Following this, he withdrew his naval forces from Scipio, leaving the Banking Clan in disarray and ultimately leading to the Republic Senate transferring complete control of the banks to Supreme Chancellor Palpatine.

The Confederacy suffered defeat in 19 BBY, following three years of conflict. This defeat came with the death of Count Dooku during the Battle of Coruscant and the subsequent execution of the Separatist Council on Mustafar. The Sith Grand Plan reached its intended outcome: Palpatine reestablished the Republic as the first Galactic Empire, declaring himself Galactic Emperor for life. Lacking its corporate leadership, the Confederacy surrendered, and a mass signal was sent from Mustafar, deactivating the Separatist Droid Army. Nevertheless, it took the new Empire several years to subdue and conquer remaining holdout factions of unrepentant Separatists.

The Parliament is remembered for its ultimate lack of influence within the Separatist power structure. When Senator Mon Mothma of the Imperial Senate assumed the role of Chief of State for the Alliance to Restore the Republic after its founding in 2 BBY, she considered the representative Parliament while organizing the Rebel Alliance. Given the Parliament's ineffectiveness, Mothma felt that portraying the Rebellion as a Republic-in-exile would inevitably remind the galaxy of the Confederacy. Furthermore, a separate government, a Republic-in-exile, would legitimize the Empire, rather than portray it as a perversion of the Republic, which was the intention. In the ensuing Galactic Civil War, the Rebel Alliance successfully overthrew the Empire, eventually installing the New Republic as the primary governing body of the galaxy.

As the Confederacy's Head of State, Dooku led both the Separatist Parliament and the Separatist Council during the Clone Wars. He initially served as a Jedi Master before resigning from the Jedi Order in 32 BBY, disagreeing with its role within a corrupt Republic. Upon reclaiming his title as Count of Serenno, he secretly became the apprentice of the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Sidious, adopting the identity of the Sith Lord Darth Tyranus. His responsibilities in the Parliament included presiding over sessions and overseeing votes, often through a hologram due to his frequent involvement in the war from afar.

While he presented himself as a charismatic and reasonable politician to many within the Parliament, Dooku readily overturned the assembly's decisions without their knowledge, including Mina Bonteri's proposed peace initiative. He aimed to prolong the war to fulfill the Sith Grand Plan, which involved draining the Republic to the point where the Sith could seize control. Consequently, he manipulated the Confederacy and its Parliament on numerous occasions, even orchestrating the deaths of Parliament members, such as Mina Bonteri and Bec Lawise, as he saw fit. Additionally, he employed ruthless enforcers like General Grievous and the Dark Acolytes to execute his agenda of deception and manipulation.

Mina Bonteri, a prominent senator in the Separatist Parliament, represented her homeworld of Onderon. Initially a member of the Republic Senate, Bonteri grew disillusioned with the Republic's direction and withdrew alongside her homeworld, which Onderonian King Sanjay Rash allied with the Confederacy at the war's onset. By leaving the Senate, she relinquished several connections and close friendships. However, unlike more aggressive Separatists, Bonteri had no desire for conquest or warfare, instead advocating for a diplomatic resolution to the war. She admired Count Dooku as a political leader, remaining unaware, like many Separatist citizens, of the atrocities committed in their name on the battlefield.

As a respected figure of Separatist idealism, she promoted coexistence between Republic and Confederate worlds as a means to end the conflict. When her old friend, Padmé Amidala, visited Raxus Secundus to seek a peaceful resolution, Bonteri collaborated with her former colleague to initiate negotiations with the Republic, proposing a bill to the Parliament calling for an immediate end to the war. Although most of her associates supported her, Dooku had her assassinated to sabotage the peace effort and advance his wartime agenda. Her position in the Parliament was taken by her son, Lux Bonteri, who uncovered Dooku's involvement in her death and sought revenge.

Senator Bec Lawise held the position of Separatist Congress Leader, overseeing Parliament sessions alongside the Head of State. As the Parliament's speaker, he staunchly supported Count Dooku, dismissing any allegations of Dooku's crimes without hesitation. Lawise was among several congresspeople who urged the Republic to recognize the Confederacy as a legitimate government, a request that the Republic delegation hesitated to fulfill during the peace conference on Mandalore. He was displeased by Lux Bonteri's uninvited appearance at the negotiations and quickly labeled him a Separatist traitor for his accusations against Dooku. He responded to Bonteri's words with force, immediately ordering the young man's arrest despite the likelihood of Dooku having him executed for his accusations. Ultimately, Lawise proved expendable to Dooku, who orchestrated Lawise's death when the senator objected to Dooku's arrest of Padmé Amidala on Scipio, as part of a scheme to seize control of the banks from the InterGalactic Banking Clan.

Voe Atell, a senator affiliated with the Corporate Alliance, occasionally represented the commerce guild in the Separatist Parliament. During the debate over Mina Bonteri's bill to initiate diplomatic negotiations with the Republic, Atell opposed her pro-peace colleague, asserting that the Corporate Alliance would never allow a Parliament decision to end the war. Some of her fellow delegates took offense to her remarks, with Kerch Kushi comparing her Corporate Alliance ties to the seats held by such megacorporations in the Republic Senate. Atell voted against the peace bill, finding herself in the minority. Despite her opposition to negotiations with the Republic on that occasion, she later accepted a position on the three-member Parliament delegation at the Mandalore peace conference, where she advocated for recognition of the Confederacy's legitimacy. Padmé Amidala was reluctant to meet her demands, and the discussions eventually failed.

Lux Bonteri, Mina Bonteri's son, succeeded his mother as the representative of Onderon in the Separatist Parliament after her death. Having been raised as a Separatist, Bonteri was idealistic from a young age, sharing some of his mother's views on the futility of war. He was eventually orphaned by the Clone Wars: his father, a military officer, was killed in action, while his mother died for her ideals, orchestrated by Count Dooku. Although Bonteri considered himself a patriot and loyal Separatist, he renounced his Confederate ties and resigned from his Parliament seat after discovering Dooku's actions. He warned other senators about Dooku, believing he would eventually betray them as he had betrayed Mina. Bonteri resolved to bring Dooku to justice, withdrawing to support the Mandalorian Death Watch, a terrorist splinter group, in their pursuit of Dooku. As part of his plan, he interrupted the peace conference on Mandalore to publicly accuse Dooku of murder, hoping to bring him to account and pinpoint his location for the Death Watch.

Bonteri later joined a resistance movement on Onderon and helped liberate his homeworld from Separatist control, after which he was reappointed as the senator of Onderon, given his prior tenure in the Parliament. He decided that Onderon's best course of action would be to realign with the Republic, intending to follow in his mother's footsteps by joining the Republic Senate.

The Separatist Parliament was conceived for the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series as the civilian governing body of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. First hinted at during Celebration V in August 2010 by Series Supervising Director Dave Filoni, it was mentioned in the third season episode "Supply Lines" in September 2010. The accompanying guide for the episode on StarWars.com identified it as a civilian-based component of the Confederate government. The Parliament was formally introduced in "Heroes on Both Sides," released on November 19, 2010. In addition to Mina Bonteri, who was prominently featured, several other senators were identified in the episode's online guide. The Parliament also played a role in the fourth season episode "A Friend in Need," which depicted a delegation from the Parliament participating in an unprecedented peace conference with the Republic. The episode aired on January 13, 2012.

The Parliament constituted a retcon to Star Wars canon concerning the Confederacy's government, which, until the Parliament's introduction, had consisted solely of the corporate-based Separatist Council. The precise relationship between the Parliament and the Council remains unclear, although the television series had previously acknowledged the Council's existence in the first season. According to Filoni, Series Producer George Lucas observed that the Expanded Universe had mistakenly portrayed the Separatist Council as the Confederacy's government, as well as the Trade Federation's supposedly clear Separatist affiliations. Lucas stipulated that megacorporations like the Trade Federation, Commerce Guild, and others on the Separatist Council were more of a neutral party during The Clone Wars series, with the Parliament serving as the Confederacy's actual civilian government. The Parliament's ineffectiveness, hinted at through Count Dooku's machinations in "Heroes on Both Sides," was acknowledged in the April 2012 The Essential Guide to Warfare, which also linked it to the formation of the Rebel Alliance. Jason Fry, one of the book's co-authors, commented that he made it a point to compare the Rebels to the earlier Separatists, incorporating the Parliament whenever possible.

According to Series Writer Brent Friedman, the Parliament was intended to be featured in a future story arc of the television series, but these episodes were never produced after the series was removed from broadcast in March 2013.