Random foreign politicians you admire

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

Politicians of any era nobody has really heard about that you admire.

For me, I'll go with Andres Tarand, a former Estonian PM who resisted the Soviets and was also a geographer and climate activist and was in favor of NATO and against unchecked fundamentalist Islamic immigration.

[Battista Minola 1616]

Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo, PM of Portugal for a brief period in 1979 and the first woman to hold the position, one of the architects of the modern Portuguese welfare state, noted Catholic feminist and long time representative at the UN.

Perhaps less obscure but I also want to mention José Figueres Ferrer, the man who won the 1948 Costa Rican civil war and became president, abolished the army in response and carried out a range of major socioeconomic reforms - he voluntarily left the office shortly afterwards but would be later elected president twice more.

[John Dule]

Vaclav Havel has always been one of my faves.

[Arson Plus]

It's a shame that Chandrababu Naidu's legacy to modernize Andhra Pradesh is being destroyed right now and that he never could become Prime Minister - I wish the NDA got a plurality in the 2014 Indian elections so that instead of Modi, Naidu would be Prime Minister of India.

[Christian Man]

Benjamin Disraeli (Wish he was more on an inspiration for the modern UK Con Party)
 Otto Von Bismarck (Founder of the modern welfare state)
Charles de Gaulle (Great President of France)
Juan Peron (Maverick of Argentina, just wished he was less authoritarian and more democratic)
 Andrzej Duda (Great President of Poland)
Adam Doboszyński (Political Martyr)
 Helmut Kohl (Integrated East Germany after the collapse of Communism)

[PSOL]

Renee-Pierre

[Still Nervous]

Certainly not random, but Jacinda Ardern.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Ada Colau

[Aurelius]

La Rochejaquelein

[Middle-aged Europe]

Politicians of any era nobody has really heard about that you admire.

For me, I'll go with Andres Tarand, a former Estonian PM who resisted the Soviets and was also a geographer and climate activist and was in favor of NATO and against unchecked fundamentalist Islamic immigration.

Wasn't aware that Estonia was subject to unchecked fundamentalist Islamic immigration, but there you go.

[VPH]

Avoiding anybody who became PM or President of their nations:

-Don Luigi Sturzo (Italy) whose politics parallel my own. He opposed Communism and Fascism, supporting instead a Catholic-inspired third way known as Popularismo. Europe would have been much better off following Sturzo's lead.
-Gonçalo Ribeiro Telles (Portugal), a left-leaning monarchist and architect who was a pioneer of environmentalism in Portugal.
-Lord David Alton (UK) for his leadership on behalf of consistently pro-life causes. I got to meet him just before COVID-19 and was very impressed.
-Helen Suzman (South Africa) fought against Apartheid for decades and is not talked about often enough today.
-Jean-Pierre Chevènement (France), David Orchard (Canada), and Peter Shore (UK) for similar reasons. I like their brand of principled yet cranky left-wing patriotism.
-John Diefenbaker and Tommy Douglas(Canada), both party leaders in the early 1960s, were remarkable men whose Red Tory and prairie socialist ideas respectively could use some dusting off today.
-Jon Cruddas (UK) because he's basically the Parliamentary leader of Blue Labour.
-B.A. Santamaria (Australia) for working against Communist influence and towards a more Catholic labor movement. Race Matthews (Australia) too as a more modern distributist Laborite.
-In a weird way, Dov Khenin (Israel) because he managed to be both radical and yet effective as an MK. I don't often agree with Hadash but I respect his ability to work with others on various issues.
-Giorgio La Pira (Italy) was an amazing Mayor of Florence and a true leader for peace. I consider him an important figure in the social Catholic realm.
-A politically diverse handful of Canadian MPs I admire include Charlie Angus, Wayne Long, and Garnett Genius. Provincially, Mike Schreiner (Ontario) is one of my favorites.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I've had a lot of respect for Józef Piłsudski for a while, but especially now that we're seeing Poland and Ukraine finally fighting side by side against Russian imperialism, just as he would have wanted a century ago.

[West_Midlander]

Approve of/support more so than admire (for most of the following) but:

Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland
Lula, at least to some extent
Evo Morales
AMLO
Nigel Farage, a bit
the People's Party leader in Canada
Jagmeet Singh is OK I think
+ Elizabeth May and Larry Sanders, and Merkel

Churchill, Nelson Mandela, Gorbachev is decent

[CumbrianLefty]

Jose Battle y Ordonez

[Reaganfan Democrat]

Cecil Rhodes

[President Johnson]

Jens Stoltenberg, if he counts.

[Enduro]

Does Volodymr Zelenskyy count as a random politician? I've liked everything I've read about him since the war started.