Wilhelm Molterer
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Wilhelm Molterer (born 14 May 1955 in Steyr) is an Austrian politician, currently Vice Chancellor of Austria and Minister of Finance and head of the conservative Austrian People's Party.
[edit] Youth and early years in politics
Molterer's birth name is Kletzmayr. 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, and studied social economy at the University of Linz.
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, Michael Ikrath, 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.
[edit] Professional politician
From 1981 to 1984, Molterer was active in the Austrian Farmer's Association. Starting in 1987, he worked in the Austrian ministry of agriculture, under the ministers Josef Riegler and Franz Fischler. From 1994 to 2003, Molterer himself held this national government position.
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 catchphase for the particularly frequent phone calls the agency reportedly received from his party office.
He was named acting party head on 9 January 2007. He was formally elected as party head at the federal party convention on April 21, 2007.
[edit] External links
| Preceded by: Hubert Gorbach |
Vice Chancellor of Austria 2007–present |
Incumbent |
| Preceded by: Wolfgang Schüssel |
ÖVP Party Chairman 2007–present |
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