Information about Christoph Blocher

Christoph Blocher
Christoph Blocher
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Political party	SVP/UDC
Spouse	Silvia Blocher

Christoph Blocher (born 11 October 1940) is a Swiss politician, industrialist and member of the Swiss Federal Council. As head of the Federal Department of Justice and Police, he is the Swiss minister of justice.

He was born in Schaffhausen and has a doctorate in jurisprudence. He is married to Silvia Blocher (née Kaiser) with three daughters and a son. As an industrialist, he made a fortune in the chemical industry with the EMS-Chemie corporation. He has represented the canton of Zürich in the Swiss National Council since 1980 as a deputy of the Swiss People's Party (Schweizerische Volkspartei/Union démocratique du centre; SVP/UDC).

Political career

Blocher built his political career through campaigning for a smaller government, a free-market economy, against Switzerland's membership in the European Union and for a more tightly controlled immigration. Until 2003, 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 his left-wing 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.

Federal councillor

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 Zurich, 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]) has 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; most SVP councillors have come 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.

Blocher owes his election to the three communist national councillors, who refused to vote for incumbent councilor Metzler, resulting in a tie of 116 votes each in the third round of voting. In the fourth round, Blocher beat Metzler with 121 to 116 votes. 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).

Record and 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 Zurich 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 laundry 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. ^[1] Tension surrounding the "Blocher-Roschacher affair" was fuelled by the upcoming 2007 federal election. On 18 September, Blocher's appearance at the Comptoir suisse (Swiss fair) in Lausanne was disrupted by protesters ^[2]. 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.

References

See also

• Minaret controversy in Switzerland

External links

• Christoph Blocher website (German)
• Profile of Christoph Blocher with election results on the website of the Swiss Federal Council.
• Right wing leader Blocher elected to the Swiss federal Council
• Biography of Christoph Blocher on the website of the Swiss Parliament. (German)

Preceded by Ruth Metzler	Member of the Swiss Federal Council 2004-	Succeeded by (Incumbent)

•  • [ e] Current Members of the Swiss Federal Council
Moritz Leuenberger · Pascal Couchepin · Samuel Schmid · Micheline Calmy-Rey · Christoph Blocher · Hans-Rudolf Merz · Doris Leuthard