Ebba-Elisabeth Busch is a Swedish Christian Democrats politician who has served as Leader of the Christian Democrats since April 2015. She is a candidate in the 2018 Riksdag election, for Uppsala County and almost all other constituencies. Between 2013 and 2020, she was commonly known as Ebba Busch Thor due to her marriage to Niklas Thor.
Busch was the municipal party political secretary for the Christian Democrats councillor Gustaf von Essen in the Uppsala Municipality. In 2009, she assumed responsibility for the budget when Essen went on sick leave, and at the age of 22 she became a substitute municipal councillor. Ahead of the election for municipal councillors in Uppsala in 2010, the party suggested that Busch should be placed third on the election ballot, while the incumbent councillor Gustav von Essen would be first. The party youth organization chairman Charlie Weimers, who did not get to vote in the election, wrote that he thought the party should have Busch at the top of the ballot. In the end, a closed vote within the party decided the top name on the ballot, and Busch beat Essen by a margin of two votes. At the election, Busch received 1,679 votes, against only 220 for Essen. Busch served as vice chairman of the Christian Democrat youth organisation until 5 June 2011. Busch made several comments to the media during 2010 criticizing the then party chairmanGöran Hägglund, and what she perceived as his weak leadership following the 2006 General Election. Ahead of the January 2012 leadership election within the party, she supported Hägglund's opponent Mats Odell. She was also herself a candidate for the post of deputy party chairman at the same election, but lost to Maria Larsson. Previous top names in the party have stated that they strongly disagree with Busch making the party into a right wing party instead of a Christian party and have even threatened to leave their party as a result of Busch's nomination, while perhaps the most popular ex-leader of the party, Alf Svensson, has described his disappointment with Busch's worldview.
Party Leader
In 2015, Busch was announced as the suggested successor of Göran Hägglund as party leader of the Christian Democratic party, and was formally elected on 25 April. Her time as leader was long characterized by an uncertainty on how to profile the party, and consistent low numbers in opinion polls. Her early attempts to gain votes by adopting tougher positions on immigration and law and order were thwarted when the Moderate Party usurped that space. This was followed by a return to a focus on more traditional Christian Democratic issues, such as healthcare and family politics. At the same time, Busch continued to position the party in a more conservative direction on other issues like the opposition to Mosque prayer calls and gender science at preschools. At the same time, she also came under attack from social conservatives inside her own party for participating in the Stockholm Pride Parade. The Christian Democrats received only 2,9% in a big opinion poll published in May 2018, and the party's fortunes looked bleak. But support quickly grew as the election campaign got under way with the first debate in mid-August. Busch's strong performance in this and other debates was credited in large part for the party's surge in the polls. She ended up leading her party to its best electoral performance in 12 years, finishing well above the 4% threshold.
Personal life
In 2013, Ebba Busch married footballer Niklas Thor. She has a son, Birger, born in May 2015 and a daughter, Elise, born in February 2017. On 5 December 2019, Busch announced on her Instagram account that she and her husband had filed for divorce.
