Wilhelm Molterer

Wilhelm Molterer (born 14 May 1955 in Steyr) is an Austrian politician who currently serves as the managing director of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI).[1] Between 2011 and 2015 he was the vice-president and member of the Management Committee of the European Investment Bank (EIB).[2] 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.

Wilhelm Molterer
Vice-Chancellor of Austria
In office
11 January 2007 – 2 December 2008
ChancellorAlfred Gusenbauer
Preceded byHubert Gorbach
Succeeded byJosef Pröll
Chair of the People's Party
In office
21 April 2007 – 28 November 2008
Preceded byWolfgang Schüssel
Succeeded byJosef Pröll
Minister of Finance
In office
11 January 2007 – 2 December 2008
ChancellorAlfred Gusenbauer
Preceded byKarl-Heinz Grasser
Succeeded byJosef Pröll
Minister of Agriculture
In office
29 November 1994 – 28 February 2003
ChancellorFranz Vranitzky
Viktor Klima
Wolfgang Schüssel
Preceded byFranz Fischler
Succeeded byJosef Pröll
Personal details
Born (1955-05-14) 14 May 1955
Steyr, Upper Austria
Political partyPeople's Party

Early life and education

Molterer's birth name is Kletzmayr. He was born in Steyr, Upper Austria, on 14 May 1955.[3] 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.[4] 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.[3]

Political career

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.

From 1981 to 1984, Molterer was active in the Austrian Farmers' Association. Starting in 1987, he worked in the Ministry of Agriculture, under the ministers Josef Riegler and Franz Fischler.

Member of Parliament, 1990–2011

Molterer served as Minister of Agriculture in the government of Chancellor Franz Vranitzky from 1994 until 2003.

In 2003, Molterer 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,[5] 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.[6] Wilhelm Molterer stepped down as chairman of the party on 29 September 2008 and was succeeded by Josef Pröll.

Minister of Finance, 2007–2008

During his time in office, Molterer unsuccessfully opposed a 2007 deal between the Austrian government and the Eurofighter consortium on reducing an order of Eurofighter Typhoon military jets from 18 to 15 and to shift to a slightly less advanced model.[7]

Other activities

Controversy

In 2013, Vienna prosecutors extended a corruption investigation to include Molterer and Foreign Ministry State Secretary Reinhold Lopatka on suspicion their ÖVP may have used Telekom Austria funds for illegal party financing in the 2008 election.[10]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wilhelm Molterer.

References
  1. "Wilhelm MOLTERER". www.eib.org. Retrieved 2019-04-05.
  2. "Wilhelm Molterer's Curriculum Vitae" (PDF).
  3. "Who's who in the Gusenbauer cabinet". Wikileaks. 23 January 2007. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
  4. Austrian Lebensministerium. Wilhelm Molterer: Curriculum vitae. Archived
  5. Austrian Successor? EuropeanVoice.com, July 24, 2008. Archived
  6. Austrian election 2008
  7. Eric Frey (June 26, 2007), Austria renegotiates Eurofighter deal Financial Times.
  8. 2007 Annual Report African Development Bank (AfDB).
  9. 2007 Annual Report European Investment Bank (EIB).
  10. Michael Shields (November 21, 2013), Austrian conservatives face money laundering inquiry Reuters.
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