Christine Anderson (politician)

Christine Margarete Anderson
MEP
Anderson in 2020
Member of the European Parliament
for Germany
Assumed office
2 July 2019
Personal details
Born (1968-07-29) 29 July 1968 (age 55)
Eschwege, West Germany
Political partyAlternative for Germany (AfD)

Christine Margarete Anderson (born 29 July 1968) is a German politician who has served as a Member of the European Parliament since 2019.[1] A member of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), Anderson is a former activist of the Pegida movement.[2]

Background and education

Anderson was born in Eschwege, Hesse, West Germany.[3] She completed a commercial apprenticeship. She lived in the United States for six years, where she studied economics and worked for a US trading company.[4] Her brother, Ralph Moller, has claimed that Anderson did not complete her studies and that the reported trading company job was actually a sales associate job at an outerwear store.[5]

Political career

In 2013 Anderson became a member of Alternative for Germany (AfD). From 2016 to 2018, she was the party's group leader in the Limburg-Weilburg district assembly. She was elected to the European Parliament in the 2019 election.[6] Before the election, she stated her goal was to "lead Germany out of this EU nightmare".[2]

Anderson is a former activist of the anti-Islam, far-right[7] Pegida movement,[2] having participated in Pegida street protests promoting opposition to immigration, specifically Islamic migrants.[8] She has also appeared on Rebel News, where she stated her support for the Canada convoy protest.[8]

In the European Parliament, Anderson is a member of the Committee on Culture and Education, the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality, and the Special Committee on Artificial Intelligence in the Digital Age, and a deputy member of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection.[9]

Anderson was appointed to the Special Committee on the COVID-19 Pandemic, and in a July 2022 session she entered into the record a complaint that there had been too much emphasis upon getting experimental gene therapy treatments into healthy people.[10]

In February 2023, Anderson was pictured alongside three Canadian MPs, Colin Carrie, Leslyn Lewis and Dean Allison, all of whom are members of the Conservative Party. The picture sparked a political controversy in Canada, with several groups, including the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, criticizing the meeting.[11] Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre denounced the meeting, stating that "Frankly, it would be better if Anderson never visited Canada in the first place. She and her racist, hateful views are not welcome here".[12]

Personal life

Anderson has three children and lives in Fulda.[13][14]

References

  1. ^ "All chosen in alphabetical order". Der Bundeswahlleiter (in German). Retrieved 2 December 2019.
  2. ^ a b c "AfD stellt europakritisches Kandidatenteam auf". Spiegel.de (in German). 18 November 2018. Retrieved 16 December 2021.
  3. ^ "Christine Anderson: Identity and Democracy Group". europarl.europa.eu.
  4. ^ "AfD Hessen: Direktkandidatin Christine Anderson". Archived from the original on 28 May 2019. Retrieved 16 December 2021.
  5. ^ "Limburg: Lebenslauf der AfD-Spitzenkandidatin wirft Fragen auf". Franfurter Neue Presse (in German). 21 May 2019. Retrieved 16 December 2021.
  6. ^ "All chosen in alphabetical order - Der Bundeswahlleiter".
  7. ^ Shannon Latkin Anderson (19 November 2015). Immigration, Assimilation, and the Cultural Construction of American National Identity. Taylor & Francis. p. 16. ISBN 978-1-317-32875-9. In Germany, the far-right anti-Islam movement Pegida found massive audience in its anti-Islamic, anti-immigration marches
  8. ^ a b "European Politicians Who Defended Ottawa Convoy Also Promote Anti-Vaccine and Anti-Immigrant Policies". Press Progress. 25 March 2020.
  9. ^ Personal profile of Christine Anderson in the European Parliament's database of members
  10. ^ "European Parliament Multimedia Centre". multimedia.europarl.europa.eu. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
  11. ^ Bailey, Ian (24 February 2023). "Conservative MPs criticized for meeting with anti-immigration German politician". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 24 February 2023.
  12. ^ "Pierre Poilievre denounces Conservative MPs meeting with far-right German politician". CTVNews. 24 February 2023. Retrieved 24 February 2023.
  13. ^ "The political flight of the AfD-EU member Christine Anderson from Limburg to Fulda". Villmarer Nachrichten (in German). 31 July 2020. Archived from the original on 14 August 2020.
  14. ^ "MEP Christine Anderson is a new member of the AfD district executive in Fulda". Osthessen Zeitung (in German). 25 October 2020. Retrieved 16 December 2021.

External links