Christoph Blocher
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| Christoph Blocher | |
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| In office 1 January 2004 – 31 December 2007 |
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| Preceded by | Ruth Metzler |
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| Succeeded by | Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf |
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| In office 1 January 2004 – 31 December 2007 |
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| Preceded by | Ruth Metzler |
| Succeeded by | Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf |
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| Born | 11 October 1940 Schaffhausen, Switzerland |
| Political party | SVP |
| Spouse | Silvia Blocher |
Christoph Blocher (born 11 October 1940, Schaffhausen, Switzerland) is a Swiss politician, industrialist, and former member of the Swiss Federal Council heading the Federal Department of Justice and Police (2004-2007). Currently he is serving as Vice President of the Swiss People's Party. As an industrialist, he made a fortune in the chemical industry with the EMS-Chemie corporation.
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[edit] Family
He is married to the former Silvia Kaiser; they have three daughters and a son.
[edit] Education
Blocher earned a certificate at the Wülflingen school of agriculture, then studied law at the University of Zürich, in Montpellier and in Paris. He has a DEA degree in law, and in 1971, he was awarded a doctorate in jurisprudence.
[edit] Political career
Blocher built his political career through campaigning for smaller government, for a free-market economy, against Switzerland's membership in the European Union and for more tightly controlled immigration. He represented the canton of Zürich in the Swiss National Council from 1980 until his election to the federal council in 2003 as a deputy of the Swiss People's Party (Schweizerische Volkspartei/Union démocratique du centre; SVP/UDC). In addition to the Zürich chapter of the Swiss People's Party, he led a mass organisation, the Action for an Independent and Neutral Switzerland (Aktion für eine unabhängige und neutrale Schweiz). He has frequently been compared by the media and his political opponents to figures such as Jean-Marie Le Pen and Jörg Haider.
Blocher is leader of the party's nationalist wing, which dominates the party's delegation to the National Council.
[edit] Federal councillor
[edit] 2003 election
The People's Party emerged as the largest party in the National Council in the Swiss election of 19 October 2003. Blocher personally topped the poll in Zürich, and became Switzerland's most prominent and controversial politician.
Since 1929, the People's Party (known until 1971 as the Party of Farmers, Traders and Independents [BGB]) had held a seat on the seven-member Swiss Federal Council. At the time the current coalition was formed in 1959, the BGB was the smallest party represented on the Council. By 2003, it had become the largest party, and demanded another seat at the expense of the Christian Democrats, now the smallest party. The SVP nominated Blocher as its second candidate. This generated a good deal of controversy; previously most SVP councillors came from the party's more moderate centrist-agrarian wing.
After threats of pulling the other People's Party member, Samuel Schmid (a member of the centrist wing), off the council and going into opposition, Blocher was elected on 10 December 2003. He took the seat of Ruth Metzler-Arnold, only the third federal councillor in history (and the first since 1872) not to be reelected.
In the third round Blocher beat Metzler with 121 to 116 votes.[1] The election was anticipated as a major media event (NZZ, 8 December 2003), and widely watched as a live broadcast. After Blocher's election, there were spontaneous protests by members of the Swiss political Left (Tages-Anzeiger, 12 December 2003).
[edit] Controversies
As a result of a reshuffling of Federal Council seats, Blocher became head of the Federal Department of Justice and Police.
During 2004, Blocher's unconventionally unaccommodating stance towards his fellow federal councillors was the cause for speculations about the future of the Swiss concordance system. He was attacked by his colleague Pascal Couchepin in an interview with the NZZ newspaper in the October 3 Sunday edition. This was unprecedented in Switzerland; members of the Federal Council traditionally do not publicly criticise each other.
The ongoing controversy is also reflected in the scandal resulting from a performance by the artist Thomas Hirschhorn at the Centre Culturel Suisse in Paris on December 5, 2004. Hirschhorn, a Swiss, has refused to exhibit anywhere in Switzerland since Blocher's rise to power, and in the performance, which was supported by the publicly funded Pro Helvetia institution, an actor pretended to urinate on an image of Blocher. The resignation of councillor Joseph Deiss in 2006 has been connected in some media reports with the poisoned atmosphere on the council since Blocher's election. This was however not supported by other remaining council members, nor by the then-president, Moritz Leuenberger.
In a public speech held at his cantonal party's annual Albisgüetlitagung in Zürich on January 20 2006, Blocher labeled two Albanians seeking political asylum as "criminals", although no judicial sentence had been spoken at the time. Later, when confronted, he claimed before the Swiss Council of States that he had only used the word 'accused'. Since the speech had been recorded, he then had to admit that he had mistakenly used the word "criminals". In July 2006, a commission of the Council of States reprimanded Blocher, stating that the setting of false prejudice and making false statement to the Council of States constituted unacceptable behaviour for a Federal Councillor.
On 5 September 2007, a parliamentary committee sharply criticised Blocher for overstepping his mandate in his handling of the resignation of former chief prosecutor Valentin Roschacher in 2006. In addition, documents confiscated in March by the German authorities from private banker Oskar Holenweger under suspicion of money laundering were presented as supporting a possible involvement of Blocher in a plot to oust Roschacher from office. Blocher denied any involvement in such a plan. These developments happened to coincide with a campaign alleging a "secret plan to oust Blocher" initiated by the SVP on 27 August, and party spokesperson S. R. Jäggi on 6 September confirmed that campaign was referring to the documents incriminating Blocher in the Roschacher affair now revealed.[2][3] Tension surrounding the "Blocher-Roschacher affair" was fuelled by the upcoming 2007 federal election. On 25 September, the National Council decided to press a debate of the affair before the elections, overturning a decision by the council's office.
Blocher is still a popular target for the opposition. For example on 18 September 2007, Blocher's appearance at the Comptoir suisse (Swiss fair) in Lausanne was disrupted by protesters.[4]
[edit] 2007 non-reelection
In the Swiss Federal Council elections of 12 December 2007, Blocher did not receive the necessary number of votes in the parliament to retain his seat. In his stead, the parliament elected Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf (a moderate SVP member), who accepted the mandate on 13 December 2007.[5] Blocher thus became the fourth federal councillor to be ousted from office in the history of the Swiss Federal State, following Ruth Metzler whom he had replaced the previous term, besides Ulrich Ochsenbein and Jean-Jacques Challet-Venel in the 19th century.
[edit] Future
After the extremely large 2007/2008 losses posted by UBS, its chairman Marcel Ospel resigned on April 1st, 2008, and Mr. Blocher was rumoured to be considered as his replacement [6][7]. However the role went to Peter Kurer, the bank’s general counsel.
[edit] References
- ^ Details of elections to the Federal Council
- ^ Minister accused of involvement in plot, Swissinfo 5 September 2007; Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 6 September 2007
- ^ Der geheimste Plan?, WOZ, 6 September 2007
- ^ Comptoir: la manif contre Blocher dégénère, Radio Suisse Romande
- ^ "Swiss MPs reject far-right leader", BBC News, 12 December 2007. Swiss consensus government falls as rightists quit, Reuters, 13 December 2007.
- ^ Christoph Blocher possible candidate to head UBS board
- ^ UBS to call for 16 billion Swiss francs capital hike - report
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Christoph Blocher website (German)
- Profile of Christoph Blocher with election results on the website of the Swiss Federal Council.
- Biography of Christoph Blocher on the website of the Swiss Parliament. (German)
- Q&A / Cristoph Blocher : Swiss Politician Rejects Racist Label
| Preceded by Ruth Metzler |
Member of the Swiss Federal Council 2004-2007 |
Succeeded by Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf |
