Ulrich Schlüer (born 17 October 1944) is a right wing Swiss politician, member of the

Swiss People's Party The Swiss People's Party (, SVP; , PPS), also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre (, UDC; , UDC), is a national-conservative and right-wing populist political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Marcel Dettling, it is the largest party in ...

of the

canton of Zürich The canton of Zurich is an administrative unit (Swiss canton, canton) of Switzerland, situated in the northeastern part of the country. With a population of (as of ), it is the most populous canton of Switzerland. Zurich is the ''de facto'' Capi ...

Biography

Schlüer studied History and German language at the

University of Zürich The University of Zurich (UZH, ) is a public university, public research university in Zurich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of the ...

, receiving a PhD in 1978. He married in 1970 and is the father of four children. Schlüer acted as secretary to Swiss right-wing politician

James Schwarzenbach James Eduard Schwarzenbach (5 August 1911 – 27 October 1994) was a right-wing Swiss politician and publicist. In the 1970s he was head of the short-lived Republican Movement. He also was publisher of a broad spectrum of right-wing literature ...

, and in 1979 founded the nationalist-conservative '' Schweizerzeit'' newspaper. He was the mayor of Flaach 1994-1998, and member of the Swiss National Council 1995 to 2007, when he lost his mandate in the 2007 federal election. However, upon the election of

Ueli Maurer Ulrich "Ueli" Maurer (; born 1 December 1950) is a Swiss politician who served as a List of members of the Swiss Federal Council, Member of the Swiss Federal Council from 2009 to 2022. A member of the Swiss People's Party (SVP/UDC), he was Pres ...

into the

Swiss Federal Council The Federal Council is the federal cabinet of the Swiss Confederation. Its seven members also serve as the collective head of state and government of Switzerland. Since World War II, the Federal Council is by convention a permanent grand co ...

, Schlüer inherited Maurer's seat in the parliament and thus regained his mandate on 2 March 2009 for the remainder of the 2008 to 2011 legislature. He was not reelected in the 2011 federal election. In 2007, Schlüer's parliamentary immunity was suspended due to a lawsuit pressed by a journalist whom Schlüer had attacked in a ''Schweizerzeit'' article. In September 2007, Schlüer figured in an interview in ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', in which he commented on UN special rapporteur on racism Doudou Diène, who had expressed concern over the "racist and xenophobic dynamic" in the campaign pursued by Schlüer's party that :"He's from Senegal where they have a lot of problems of their own which need to be solved. I don't know why he comes here instead of getting on with that

From 2007 to 2009, Schlüer spearheaded a Minaret controversy in Switzerland, federal initiative for the ban of minarets. He stated that "Islam is not only a religion. It’s an ideology aiming to create a different legal system. That’s sharia," and that "a minaret is different. It’s got nothing to do with religion. It’s a symbol of political power." He once sought to establish a Swiss branch of the German anti-Islam activist Udo Ulfkotte's Pax Europa organisation, and in 2007 he was scheduled to hold a speech at a "Stop the Islamisation of Europe" rally in Cologne.

References

External links

*http://www.schluer.ch/ *http://www.schweizerzeit.ch 1944 births Living people Swiss critics of Islam Swiss People's Party politicians Mayors of places in Switzerland Members of the National Council (Switzerland) 2003–2007 {{Switzerland-mayor-stub