Benjamin Palander

Benjamin Tapani Palander (born November 25, 1951) is a former Arolan politician who served as the seventh president of Arola from 2006 to 2010.

Palander is infamous for causing the economic recession in Arola in the late 2000s, and eventually did not seek re-election in the 2010 election.

Early life and education
Benjamin Tapani Palander was born on November 25, 1951 in the Ikosenniemi suburb in Kelvia, Arola to a middle-class conservative family. His family moved to Uilo when he was in high school, but he moved back to Kelvia, where he received a bachelor and master’s degree in law at the University of Kelvia in 1973.

Career
Palander ran his own law firm, the Palander Law Trust, from 1975 to 1989, with his wife Laura. He joined the Conservative Party in 1990 and represented the party in Parliament from 1993 to 1997.

Palander was the mayor of Uilo from 1999 and left office in 2005 shortly before announcing his presidential campaign.

President of Arola (2006–2010)
Palander announced his candidacy for the Conservative Party during the 2006 Arolan presidential election in August 2005. He narrowly won the election.

Early in his tenure as President of Arola, Palander’s government wanted to legalise same-sex marriage, however efforts came to a standstill and same-sex marriage remained illegal until 2011.

Palander’s government gained immense opposition in the late 2000s during the. Palander only made the crisis worse in Arola when he forced companies to pay higher taxes in order to support the government needs. Ironically enough, the state-owned company Arogo Holdings nearly went bankrupt as most of its subsidiaries had to pay higher taxes as well. This led to a large-scale demonstration against Palander’s government.

On 25th April 2010, Palander made a nationwide statement on Arolan National Television that he would not run for the 2010 Arolan presidential election amidst large forces of opposition and would step down as President. Palander became the first president in Arolan history to only serve one term and choose not to run for re-election.

Post-presidency
Immediately after stepping down as President, he moved to, due to the protests. He eventually retired from politics officially in 2011 and moved to Uilo in 2014.

Personal life
Palander married Laura Kettunen in 1976 and the couple had two sons. The couple separated in 1996 and Kettunen filed a divorce in April 1998.

In early 2005, while in Uilo, Palander met Italian-Arolan reporter Marina Presutti, who worked for ANT World at the time. They were briefly engaged in 2008 but later broke up the following year due to the protests. In March 2007, the couple announced that they were expecting a child. Their daughter Odette Rivera was born in October 2007, who was taken into Presutti’s custody after breaking up.

Palander currently resides near Lokhteo Beach in Uilo.