Alf Svensson

Alf Svensson

Alf Robert Olof Svensson (born October 1, 1938 in Tidan , today Skövde municipality ) is a Swedish politician. He was party leader of the Kristdemokraterna and from 2009 to 2014 a member of the European Parliament.

After completing a master's degree in Swedish literature and history at Lund University , Svenson initially worked as a research assistant at the university. From 1970 he was chairman of the Christian Democratic youth organization and in 1973 he was elected chairman of the Swedish Christian Democrats. In the 1985/88 legislative period , he was able to move into the Reichstag for the first time through a place on the list of the Center Party.

In the 1991 Reichstag elections , the Christian Democrats under his leadership succeeded in overcoming the four percent threshold and entered the Reichstag for the first time on their own. At the same time, they took part in the bourgeois coalition government of Carl Bildt . Svensson held the post of deputy foreign minister until the end of the Bildt government in October 1994 and took over the department for development cooperation and human rights issues.

From 1993 to 1999 Svensson was Vice Chairman of the European People's Party . In 2004 he withdrew from the party leadership of the Kristdemokraterna. Göran Hägglund was elected as his successor . However, Svensson remained a member of the Reichstag and ran in the 2009 European elections in 9th place on the list of Christian Democrats. In the election he received the largest share of the vote with 36.5 percent of the votes and was thus elected. As a MEP in the EPP Group, he was Deputy Head of the Delegation for Relations with South Africa, a member of the Committee on Development and an alternate member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Svensson is married and has three children.

Web links

Commons : Alf Svensson  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Entry on Alf Svensson in the European Parliament 's database of deputies
• Swedish Parliament website ( Swedish )