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Christoph 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 was successful as an industrialist and 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/Union démocratique du centre; SVP/UDC).
Blocher built his political career through campaigning for a smaller government, for a free-market economy and also against Swiss membership of the European Union and against illegal immigration. Until 2003, in addition to the Zürich's chapter of the Swiss People's Party, he lead 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 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 prominent politician.
On 10 December 2003, Blocher was elected as a 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 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 collegue Pascal Couchepin in an interview with the NZZ newspaper in the October 3rd Sunday edition. The ongoing controversy is also reflected in the scandal resulting from a performance by the painter Thomas Hirschhorn at the Centre Culturel Suisse in Paris on December 5, 2004. In the performance, which was supported by the publicly funded Pro Helvetia institution, where an actor pretended to urinate on an image of Blocher.
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