Alf Robert Olof Svensson (born 1 October 1938) is a Swedish politician. He was a

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

from 2009 to 2014. Svensson was the leader of the Christian Democrats in Sweden between 1973 and 3 April 2004. He was a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

from 1985 to 1988, and again from 1991 until his election to the European Parliament in 2009. Between 1991 and 1994 he was Minister for Development Cooperation in the liberal-conservative

Cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...

led by Prime Minister

Carl Bildt Nils Daniel Carl Bildt (born 15 July 1949) is a Swedish politician and diplomat who was Prime Minister of Sweden from 1991 to 1994. He was the leader of the Moderate Party from 1986 to 1999. Bildt served as Sweden's Minister for Foreign Affairs ...

Biography

Svensson was trained as a teacher, and taught

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

and history at a school in

Huskvarna Huskvarna (; formerly spelled ''Husqvarna'') constitutes the eastern part of Jönköping, a city in the Sweden, Swedish province of Småland, and has a population of about 24,000. The distance to central Jönköping is about 5 km. The name ...

from 1963 until 1973.Alf Svensson: Om Alf
, accessed 2011-08-14 He was a member of the

Christian Democrats __NOTOC__ Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social ...

from the party's foundation in 1964; he was also one of the founders of its youth wing, Young Christian Democrats, in 1966, and was its chairman from 1970 to 1973. In 1973 he became the leader of the party, after its first leader Birger Ekstedt had died in 1972. At the 1985 elections the Christian Democrats, which had so far not won any parliamentary representation, entered into an election alliance with the Centre Party. Owing to this Svensson won a seat in the

Riksdag The Riksdag (, ; also sv, riksdagen or ''Sveriges riksdag'' ) is the legislature and the supreme decision-making body of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral legislature with 349 members (), elected proportionally and se ...

(parliament), making him the first Christian Democrat MP, but disappointingly for the party this was its only such success. At the

1988 elections The following elections occurred in the year 1988. Africa * 1988 Cameroonian general election * 1988 Equatorial Guinean legislative election * 1988 Kenyan general election * 1988 Malian parliamentary election * 1988 Rwandan parliamentary elect ...

the alliance had been dissolved, and the Christian Democrats failed to get enough votes to enter the parliament on its own. At the 1991 elections the party secured the election of 26 MPs, and Svensson received the cabinet post of Minister for Development Cooperation in a four-party coalition government under the leadership of

. Svensson resigned as party leader in 2004 and was succeeded by

Göran Hägglund Bo Göran Hägglund (born 27 January 1959) is a Swedish politician of the Christian Democrats. He was Leader of the Christian Democrats from 2004 to 2015, Member of the Riksdag from 1991 to 2015, and served as Minister for Social Affairs from 2 ...

, but remained in parliament. In the 2009 election to the European Parliament, he was elected an MEP and left the Riksdag. Svensson, whose leadership of the Christian Democrats lasted over three decades (1973–2004), is a firm supporter of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

and its

Economic and Monetary Union An economic and monetary union (EMU) is a type of trade bloc that features a combination of a common market, customs union, and monetary union. Established via a trade pact, an EMU constitutes the sixth of seven stages in the process of economic ...

, unlike many of his

voter Voting is a method by which a group, such as a meeting or an electorate, can engage for the purpose of making a collective decision or expressing an opinion usually following discussions, debates or election campaigns. Democracies elect holde ...

s who are in general more sceptical about the introduction of the

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

Bibliography

* ''Poletik'' (1990) * ''I valet och talet : fem tal'' (1999) * ''I valet och talet. Del 2, Sju tal'' (2000) * ''Tal av Alf Svensson vid rikstinget i Piteå 2001'' (2001) * ''Här kommer Alf Svensson : minnen'' (2001)

References

External links