Wilhelm Molterer

Wilhelm Molterer
File:Wilhelm Molterer.jpg
Vice Chancellor of Austria
In office 11 January 2007 – 2 December 2008
Chancellor	Alfred Gusenbauer
Preceded by	Hubert Gorbach
Succeeded by	Josef Pröll
Finance Minister of Austria
In office 11 January 2007 – 2 December 2008
Chancellor	Alfred Gusenbauer
Preceded by	Karl-Heinz Grasser
Agriculture Minister of Austria
In office 29 November 1994 – 28 February 2003
Chancellor	Franz Vranitzky Viktor Klima Wolfgang Schüssel
Preceded by	Franz Fischler
Succeeded by	Josef Pröll
Personal details
Born	(1955-05-14) 14 May 1955 Steyr, Upper Austria
Political party	ÖVP
Religion	Roman Catholic

Wilhelm Molterer (born 14 May 1955 in Steyr) is Vice-President and member of the Management Committee of the European Investment Bank (EIB). Before joining the EIB, he was Member of the Austrian Parliament. He has been Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister of Austria and chairman of the conservative Austrian People's Party.

Early life and education

Molterer's birth name is Kletzmayr. He was born in Steyr, Upper Austria, on 14 May 1955. He grew up in the Upper Austrian town of Sierning, and was raised by his aunt and her husband, Josef Molterer, who adopted him at the age of 14 years. He attended the College of Agriculture in Sankt Florian, graduated in 1974. He received a master's degree in Social Economics from the Johannes Kepler University Linz in 1981.

While a student Molterer first engaged in politics; he became head of the Österreichische Studentenunion (ÖSU) local branch at his university, and a member of the local students' council. By 1978, when a long-simmering policy conflict within the Austrian ÖSU developed towards a split in the party, Molterer supported liberal positions which sometimes were quite grossly at odds with the more conservative mainstream opinion of the ÖSU's main sponsor, the Austrian People's Party. Several Austrian journalists, consulters, entrepreneurs, academicians and finance people who enjoy national and international reputation today (for instance, Peter Adler, Helmut Brandstätter, Gerald Bast, Hermann Mucke and Wolfgang Pilarz) were Molterer's immediate peers in the ÖSU national executive board at this time. In 1980, he obtained his master's degree.

Professional politician

From 1981 to 1984, Molterer was active in the Austrian Farmers' Association. Starting in 1987, he worked in the Austrian ministry of agriculture, under the ministers Josef Riegler and Franz Fischler. He was Austrian minister of agriculture from 1994 until 2003.

In 2003, he became the chairman of the party's parliamentary club. Just like any other leading politician in Austria at any time, he found it hard to resist the opportunity to politically intervene in the workings of the state-owned national television agency, the ORF. In Molterer's case his critics coined the term Moltofon as a catchphrase for the particularly frequent phone calls the agency reportedly received from his party office.

On 9 January 2007, Molterer was chosen to become managing chairman of the party. He was formally elected chairman of the party at the federal party convention on 21 April 2007. By terminating his party's participation in the Grand Coalition with the SPÖ, he precipitated the early re-elections held on 28 September 2008, which ended in the worst result for the ÖVP (and the SPÖ) since their respective inception after World War II. Wilhelm Molterer stepped down as chairman of the party on 29 September 2008 and was succeeded by Josef Pröll.

External links

• Entry for Wilhelm Molterer in the AEIOU Encyclopedia

References

Political offices
Preceded by Franz Fischler	Agriculture Minister of Austria 1994 – 2003	Succeeded by Josef Pröll
Preceded by Hubert Gorbach	Vice Chancellor of Austria 2007 – 2008	Succeeded by Josef Pröll
Preceded by Karl-Heinz Grasser	Finance Minister of Austria 2007 – 2008	Succeeded by Josef Pröll
Party political offices
Preceded by Wolfgang Schüssel	ÖVP Party Chairman 2007 – 2008	Succeeded by Josef Pröll