Palpatine's chancellorship

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Main article: Palpatine

This article is about the fictional character Palpatine from the Star Wars universe and his chancellorship.

1 Palpatine becomes Chancellor

[edit] Palpatine becomes Chancellor

At the start of the movie The Phantom Menace Palpatine is the Senator of the planet Naboo^[1]. In the backstory laid down at the start of the movie we discover that, at Palpatine's behest, the Senate had voted to levy taxes on commerce in order to raise funds for the Republic. Palpatine, in his role as Sith Lord Darth Sidious, persuaded and intimidated the Trade Federation into blockading Naboo as a protest. He assured them that the blockade would bring them greater control and profits, as the Senate would be unable to act. Meanwhile, in his role as Naboo's Senator, Palpatine convinced Queen Padmé Amidala of Naboo to endure the blockade; he advised her that the Trade Federation could not force the issue, and that the Senate wouldn't let the dispute continue for long.

Chancellor Finis Valorum secretly requested the Jedi Council's assistance in mediating the dispute on Naboo. The Council dispatched Qui-Gon Jinn and his padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi. The Jedi attempted to meet with Nute Gunray, viceroy of the Federation, aboard his flagship. When it seemed the Trade Federation would be forced to end the blockade, Sidious ordered them to kill the Jedi and invade Naboo instead. He assured them that it would be over before the Senate could respond, as he would keep it occupied with other matters. Sidious' goals were apparently to weaken the power of the Trade Federation (one of the key galactic power blocs at the time), and to leverage sympathy from the invasion of his home-world into political power.

The Jedi escaped to the planet below; but once there, found themselves far too outnumbered to deal with the newly ordered invasion themselves. They were left with little choice but to run the blockade, and to relay news of the invasion to the Galactic Senate where they would be able to elicit aid. However, their ship was damaged in the escape, and the Jedi were forced to set down somewhere to make repairs. Jinn and Kenobi sought these repairs on the nearest non-Federation controlled planet - Tatooine. There, Jinn would find the young slave Anakin Skywalker and discover his extraordinary connection to the Force. Believing the young boy to be the "Chosen One" who, according to an ancient Jedi prophecy, would destroy the Sith and restore balance to the Force, Jinn brought him to the Jedi Council on Coruscant, the Republic's capital, to be trained as a Jedi.

[edit] Palpatine forces a choice

Palpatine requested an audience with Queen Amidala in his apartments at 500 Republica to go over strategy. Their conversation was a masterpiece of psychological manipulation, and it marked the beginning of a gradual transition from a Republic that was weakened but salvageable, to one that was crippled past the point of rescue. He had spent the last six months cultivating the new queen's trust, knowing she would heed him better than the stubborn Veruna would have. It was all for this moment, when, in a pressing crisis, she would have to rely on him. She came believing the Senate would help her, but Palpatine slammed the door in her face by announcing, with mock disgust, that the Senate was long past caring about the common good. Worse, the corruption scandal had weakened Chancellor Finis Valorum worse than she had thought. Both the Senate and Valorum were closed off to her as options. That left her with nothing but the options Palpatine gave to her, which she accepted; a false dichotomy.

The two he gave her were: she could move for a Vote of No Confidence in Chancellor Valorum, and push for the election of a more effective leader, or she could take the matter to the courts. In offering her this choice, Palpatine risked nothing. He knew Amidala was not suited to betraying her friends and allies, but he also knew she was pinning all her hopes on a quick resolution of the crisis. Naboo was being starved under Federation occupation, while she sat comfortably in a luxurious apartment on a distant and unfamiliar planet. The longer her home-world was held, the more of her people would die. If there was to be a solution, it had to be now. And the courts took even longer to decide things than the Senate. He had given her the option he knew she would never choose, could never choose.

As Palpatine had foreseen, time was the deciding factor for her. She could either work in the courts, while the death toll on Naboo rose to unimaginable numbers, or she could heed her trusted senator's advice. Simply put, she had to choose between Valorum or Naboo. She chose Naboo, as he knew she would. He had callously used her love for her people against her, and she believed him. Only 14 and still new to the throne, she had all the qualities of the great leader she would eventually become, but little experience. If Palpatine, who knew the Senate in ways she did not, said that Valorum had become an obstacle, that was enough for her. It was perfect. She would remove Valorum for him, while keeping his hands clean. She would be the hammer to nail the coffin shut on the Valorum government, and at the same time pry the door open for himself. On the other side of this door lay the Chancellorship.

[edit] The fall of Chancellor Valorum

The long-anticipated special session of the Senate — the last to be held under the Valorum government — had only two items on its agenda: a hearing of the Naboo delegation's case, and a debate on the Trade Federation's continued opposition to taxation of the free trade zones. Few expected it to be anything other than routine; the influence of the Trade Federation was such it could easily delay such proceedings. Palpatine alone knew what was coming; for him, it was a great drama written by himself, with all the actors' lines dictated in advance. As Darth Sidious, he knew that the Federation representative, Lott Dod, would try to stall the proceedings with every procedural tool at his command (he may even have instructed Dod to apply this tactic, implying that it was the way to ensure an eventual repeal of the taxation measure). He also knew that the Senate vice chair — his servant Mas Amedda, one of the few to be aware his the true agenda — would keep Valorum shackled to procedure no matter what. And, as Palpatine, he knew that, in the face of an attempt to stall (an attempt which he had ensured), Amidala would have no choice but to act as he had suggested.

When the session started, Dod and his allies threw up objection after objection; Amidala could not even finish her plea, and as the objections and exceptions and loopholes piled up, the queen grew more and more frustrated. Finally, Dod moved that a Senate committee be created to go to Naboo to determine if her "accusations" were valid, citing various arcane senatorial procedures — exactly as expected — Mas Amedda pulled Valorum aside, and when he had finished, Valorum was forced to concede that Dod was within his rights. "Enter the bureaucrats," Palpatine whispered in the queen's ear, "the true rulers of the Republic." ^[2] When Valorum asked Amidala if she was willing to defer her motion to allow the committee to do its work, it was the last straw. She had seen with her own eyes that Palpatine had been right — Valorum was ineffective — and she had nowhere left to go. Palpatine hid his satisfaction as, next to him, Amidala delivered the words that sealed the fate of Finis Valorum — and the galaxy itself.

"I will not defer. I have come before you to resolve this attack on our sovereignty now. I was not elected to watch my people suffer and die while you discuss this invasion in a committee. If this body is not capable of action, I suggest new leadership is needed. I move for a Vote of No Confidence in Chancellor Valorum's leadership."

Valorum was thunderstruck by this betrayal, but by the time he could recover his wits, events had surpassed him. Senator Edcel Bar Gane of Roona seconded the Naboo delegation's motion, and the vote was on the floor. The Senate as a whole had waited for this for months, perhaps years, and so unpopular was Valorum that they fell on him with abandon. The Senators erupted into a frenzied uproar, calling out, "Vote now! Vote now! Vote now!" It was all the Chancellor could do to postpone the vote until the following day. Palpatine already knew it would be a vote the Valorum government would not survive. It now remained only for him to ensure that he would be the one chosen to fill Valorum's shoes.

[edit] The scramble for the Chancellorship

The sudden power vacuum left a choice for the two major factions in the Senate. The loyalists, those Senators who had maintained their integrity, saw the danger of an unstable government and decided that it was time to elect a strong leader to truly clean up the corruption in the Senate. The corrupt Senators wanted stability (and more truly, the status quo) too, if only to allow them to continue plundering their systems, and they sought a figurehead who would provide the appearance of stability and just look the other way while they fattened themselves. It is likely that Bail Antilles, representative of Alderaan, was the choice of the loyal Senators, while Ainlee Teem, representative of Malastare, was the choice of the corrupt Senators. These two nominations came as no surprise; both had been campaigning for this for months, even before the corruption scandal had weakened Valorum to the point that such a nomination would have been feasible.

Much of the back-room politicking that led to the nomination of Palpatine has been lost to history. What is known is that he had been working for months to capture the attention of an influential clique in the Senate, led by Senator Orn Free Taa of Ryloth. Taa was satisfied neither with Teem or Antilles. Possibly he knew that neither of them had a chance of forming a majority for election, and that the result would be a government in deadlock. As early as the corruption scandal, Palpatine had caught Taa's eye as a potential compromise candidate. And from Taa's point of view, it made sense: Palpatine had few enemies in the Senate, and many friends, ensuring that all factions could work well with him. He was satisfactory, if not exactly spectacular. He was selfless, humble, but at the same time confident and assured. He would be able to meet the demand for leadership.

For months, then, Taa's clique had been considering Palpatine as a candidate. This is likely why, as the day darkened over the Senate building, either Taa or one of those Senators in his circle nominated the Senator from Naboo. Palpatine returned to his apartments with Panaka in a jaunty mood. He was confident–indeed, was certain–that the tide was with him, and that the situation on Naboo could not help but create a strong sympathy vote that would make the difference over Teem or Antilles. "I will be Chancellor," he told Amidala.

[edit] The election of Chancellor Palpatine

When the Senate convened the following day to vote on the no-confidence motion, the outcome was a foregone conclusion. Valorum's government had few friends left to it, and the Senate so badly wanted him gone that they did not hesitate. Finis Valorum was swiftly voted out of office in a humiliating political defeat. His political career in ruins, he was left to his own devices, to start his life over from scratch. He spent the next two years in seclusion, waiting for the public's distaste for him to wear off. It never did. He contributed where he could and received no thanks for his trouble. By the time he realized just what role his removal had played in Palpatine's grander scheme, it was too late.

As for the Senate, the delegates quickly proceeded to the vote on a successor. Yet again, they all unwittingly did Palpatine's bidding. Probably, neither Antilles nor Teem could garner enough votes to achieve a majority to govern effectively. Neither side could overcome their hatred of the other side's candidate enough to vote for him for the sake of stability. In the face of a voting deadlock, the Senate eagerly embraced the third option. Antilles' supporters could take heart that Palpatine had kept his distance from the corrupt Senators during his tenure. Teem's supporters were encouraged by his seeming docility. Each side believed that Palpatine would further their interests.

But the ultimate deciding factor, as Palpatine had intended, was the groundswell of sympathy for the representative of besieged Naboo. Palpatine could rightfully claim to have been betrayed by Valorum, who had promised to do all he could to aid Naboo in a time of crisis. Perhaps it was right and just that Palpatine himself should be given the chance to make things right. With such weight behind him, there could be no other outcome. Palpatine received the most votes by far, becoming Chancellor — the last ever to hold the title — by an overwhelming margin. After taking the oath of office and vowing to preserve the Republic — an oath that by any standard must be considered an act of perjury — he promised to reunite the disaffected among the people and restore the remembered glories of the Republic. No one could have realized that they had elected the master of an ancient order dedicated to destroying the Republic.