Montserrat Nowak de Chang

Nowak at the AN, 2012.

Montserrat Nowak de Chang (born 1959, Villa Constitución, DF), is the current president of the Ardispheric Federation. She is in the fourth year of her first five-year term in office (two terms are allowed by the constitution), having taken office on October 15, 2010.

Nowak's political career has been meteoric. Until 1997, she was a successful university professor of Castellanese literature, teaching at the Universidad Autónoma del Distrito Federal. She was, however, married to the popular governor of the Distrito Federal, Eliandro Chang (only the most recent dynast of the vastly successful Chang Family) - hence the expedient "de Chang" on her name, as most Ardispherian women no longer follow the old custom of suffixing their husband's name to their own.

When Chang was diagnosed with cancer in 1996, he decided not to seek a third term as governor. His Partido Socialista selected District Prosecutor Lalia Herdez to be his successor, to stand in the 1997 election. However, she was a mediocre candidate from the start and several financial scandals from her time as mayor in Siete Colinas forced her to withdraw. The Socialists were in panic, lacking a candidate with only weeks before the election, and it appeared inevitable that they would lose their half-century monopoly on the District's governership. A group of student activists approached Professor Nowak to stand for her husband's position, and after consulting with her family, she did.

She served two full terms as governor, and was highly successful - arguably much more charismatic than her husband (who, after his successful battle against cancer, seemed content to retreat from the public sphere). Thus when the Socialists were casting about for a fresh face to recapture the presidency from the Partido Federal, they forcefully recruited "La Profe" (La Profesora), as she is affectionately called.

Nowak ended up running unopposed in the primaries - rare in the modern epoch - and went on to win an easy victory against the disorganized Federalist's Jacobina Rossini in September, 2010.

Since entering the presidency, she has embarked on several landmark initiatives, including Education and Immigration reform as well as liberalizing business regulation and pursuing some free trade agreements, normally domains of the Federalists.

She has been criticized by some for the narrow field from which she has drawn political appointees - she has appointed a number of relatives and fellow academics - but defenders argue this is merely due to her lack of political depth as a relative newcomer to politics.

In the summer of 2015, Nowak won a second term.

Biography

Early Life and Background

Nowak is the daughter of Godosio Nowak and Ferulia O. Nowak was a high school teacher of mixed Galician and Meilanese descent, while her mother was an actress and scion of the noted Gohangukian-Ardispherian O Family.

Politics

2015 Elections

On August 2nd, 2015, Nowak won a second term. She ran on a platform of continuity and benefited from a divided opposition.

Personal Life

Nowak is married to Eliandro Chang and has two children, Milagros Chang and Dion Chang. Although she currently resides in the Casa del Sol officially, the family maintains their private residence in the Plaza Vlaidimr Smith neighborhood in Delegación VIII of the capital. The family is religiously mixed, since Nowak remains a practicing Ortholic while her husband is an active member of the Chogué (Gautamic). Interestingly, it was once revealed in some interviews that she and her husband had allowed their children to choose what relgious tradition they wanted to be raised in, and the two children chose differently, further complicating things for the family.

See Also

• Presidents of the Ardisphere
• Rogelio Gil
• Partido Socialista