Christoph BlocherChristoph Blocher (born 11 October 1940) is a Swiss politician. He was born in Schaffhausen and has a doctorate in jurisprudence. He is married with three daughters and a son. He made a fortune in the chemical industry (Ems-Chemie). 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; SVP/UDC). Blocher built his political career through campaigning against Swiss membership of the European Union and against illegal immigration. As well as the People's Party, he leads a mass organisation, the Action for an Independent and Neutral Switzerland (Aktion für eine unabhängige und neutrale Schweiz). He has frequently been compared with figures such as Jean-Marie Le Pen and Jörg Haider. Blocher surprised many observers when the People's Party emerged as the largest party in the lower house of Swiss national parliament in the Swiss election of 19 October 2003. Blocher personally topped the poll in Zurich, and became Switzerland's most influential politician. On 10 December 2003, Blocher was elected as member of the Federal Council, the Swiss seven-member executive. Thus, his party gained one of the two seats of the Christian Democratic People's Party. His predecessor Ruth Metzler-Arnold became the third federal councillor in history not to be reelected. He heads the Federal Department of Justice and Police. During 2004, Blocher's unconventionally uncooperative stance towards his fellow federal councillors was the cause for speculations about the future of the swiss concordance system. He was attacked by his collegue Pascal Couchepin in an interview with the NZZ newspaper in the October 3rd Sunday edition. Soon later, Blocher's official page was reported googlebombed, appearing as the first result for the search term "jämmerlicher Waschlappen" (German for approx. "miserable douchebag").
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Categories: 1940 births | Members of the Swiss Federal Council |
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