Carl Gösta Björn Joachim von der Esch (11 January 1930 – 10 March 2010Svenska Dagbladet, March 10, 2010: ''Björn von der Esch har avlidit''
) was a

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 ...

Christian democratic Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism. It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic ...

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

member Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

of 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 ...

1998–2006. Esch had a farming business and did a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

business administration Business administration, also known as business management, is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. From the point of view of management ...

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in opera ...

in 1972. Before joining the Christian Democrats, he had previously represented

Moderate Party The Moderate Party ( sv, Moderata samlingspartiet , ; M), commonly referred to as the Moderates ( ), is a liberal-conservative political party in Sweden. The party generally supports tax cuts, the free market, civil liberties and economic liber ...

in the Riksdag 1991–1994, replacing

Per Westerberg Per Erik Gunnar Westerberg (; born 2 August 1951) is a Swedish politician who was Speaker of the Riksdag from 2006 to 2014. He was a Member of the Riksdag from 1979 to 2014, its most senior member from 2006 to his resignation (see Father of the ...

during his time as a minister. At the time of the Swedish 1994 referendum on membership in 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 ...

, Esch clashed with the Moderate Party as he campaigned on the "no" side. When he subsequently formed a list of EU critics that ran in the 1995

European Parliament election Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are considered the second largest democratic elections in the world after India's. Unti ...

in Sweden, he was expelled from the party. This list was unsuccessful in the election, and von der Esch returned to parliamentary politics in 1998 as a Christian Democrat. In the 2003 referendum on joining the

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 ...

and 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 . ...

, he again campaigned on the "no" side. He later joined the June List, became its vice chairman in 2008, and was on second place on the June List ballot in the

2009 European Parliament election The 2009 European Parliament election was held in the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) between 4 and 7 June 2009. A total of 736 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were elected to represent some 500 million Europeans, making th ...

in which the party lost its representation in the European Parliament.

References

External links

* 1930 births 2010 deaths June List politicians Members of the Riksdag 1998–2002 Members of the Riksdag 2002–2006 Members of the Riksdag from the Christian Democrats (Sweden) Members of the Riksdag from the Moderate Party Uppsala University alumni {{Sweden-Moderate-politician-stub