Ernst Strasser

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Ernst Strasser 2011

Ernst Strasser (born April 29, 1956 in Grieskirchen , Upper Austria ) is a former politician of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), interior minister of the Republic of Austria and EU parliamentarian as well as entrepreneur and lobbyist , who was sentenced to three years of unconditional imprisonment for corruption .

From February 2000 to December 2004 he was Austrian Federal Minister of the Interior in the governments Schüssel I and Schüssel II . In the 2009 European elections he ran as the top candidate of the ÖVP and became its head of delegation in the European Parliament . Due to the cash-for-laws scandal uncovered by the Sunday Times , he resigned as an EU parliamentarian on March 20, 2011 and suspended his membership in the Austrian workers' union.

Life and private life

Ernst Strasser was born in Upper Austria in 1956 as the son of a farming couple. After attending elementary school in Grieskirchen , he attended the lower level of the Bundesgymnasium and Sportrealgymnasium HIB Saalfelden and later the upper level in the BORG Grieskirchen , where he passed the Matura in 1975 as head boy . From 1971 to 1975 Strasser was involved in the Catholic youth group and the Catholic youth in Grieskirchen.

From 1975 to 1980 he studied law at the University of Salzburg , where he received his doctorate in law in 1981. During his studies he was a member of the main committee of the student body at the University of Salzburg as well as social officer of the same student body. From 1980 to 1981 he did community service as an alternative to military service .

In 1998 Ernst Strasser was elected President of Niederösterreichischer Hilfswerk , the largest aid organization in Lower Austria in the field of home sickness help, child minders and help for children and adolescents with more than 4,000 employees and over 20,000 clients. The main focus of his term of office until 2011 was the relocation of the regional office to the government district in St. Pölten, the development of the home service, the development of the visiting service for older fellow citizens, the opening of the first company kindergarten in Lower Austria , the start of the Lower Austrian women's telephone and the consolidation and securing of financing of the club.

Ernst Strasser is married to Elisabeth Strasser, she brought two children into the marriage, the couple live in Vienna and Bad Ischl .

Professional career

After completing his military service, Ernst Strasser started his professional career as a managerial secretary in the Austrian Farmers 'Union under the director at the time, Josef Riegler , then moved to the legal department of the Upper Austrian Farmers' Union, where two years later he took the position of managerial secretary. When Josef Riegler joined the Federal Government as Minister of Agriculture , Ernst Strasser moved to the Ministry of Agriculture as Secretary of the Federal Minister. After Riegler's election as federal party leader of the Austrian People's Party , Ernst Strasser followed him and worked until 1990 as the federal party leader's office manager.

From 1990 to 1991 he was head of strategic planning at Umdasch AG in Amstetten and then from 1991 to 1992 managing director of Shop Concept-Mittelraum at Umdasch AG in Heidelberg .

Political career

After working at the Austrian Farmers' Union as a director's secretary and at the Upper Austrian Farmers' Union and Part-time Farmers' Association as a legal adviser, Strasser became secretary to the then Minister of Agriculture and later Vice Chancellor Josef Riegler (ÖVP) in 1987 . Between 1989 and 1990 he was Deputy Head of Cabinet of the Vice Chancellor and Office Manager of the federal party chairman of the ÖVP. From 1992 to 1996 he was managing director of the ÖVP Lower Austria and from 1996 to 2000 its club chairman in the state parliament . In addition, he was a member of the Lower Austrian state parliament from 1993 to 2000 and, as a representative of the state of Lower Austria, curator at ORF .

From 1983 to 1985 Strasser was a member of the municipal council of the municipality of Grieskirchen , from 1993 to 2000 a member of the Lower Austrian state parliament. From December 20, 2002 to April 25, 2003 he was a member of the Austrian National Council in the 22nd legislative period. Strasser was President of the Lower Austrian Aid Organization and Vice President of the Aid Organization Austria . In June 2004 he traveled on an official mission to Jerusalem - a few months after resuming full diplomatic relations with Israel - and opened the Theodor Herzl Symposium there.

Interior minister

From 2000 to 2004 Ernst Strasser was Federal Minister of the Interior in the federal governments Schüssel I ( FPÖ- ÖVP coalition) and Schüssel II (ÖVP-FPÖ and ÖVP- BZÖ coalition). There he carried out reforms and renewals, such as the amalgamation of the gendarmerie and police , which led to a unified Austrian police force . The reform of the civil service, the reform of the Cobra, the reduction of duplication, the modernization of foreign affairs and the intensification of cooperation between the Austrian police at EU and international level were further focal points of his work up to December 2004. Was it valid in 2000 and In 2001 he was still liberal, especially since he had not condemned the Thursday demonstrations like other representatives of the governing parties ÖVP and FPÖ, and in the second half of his term of office he was increasingly criticized by the opposition and non-governmental organizations . Above all, the asylum legislation that was amended during his term of office , which, recognized as unconstitutional in autumn 2004, was to be tightened again, established his reputation as a hardliner. Conversely, representatives of the coalition partner FPÖ continued to criticize him as too liberal. From June 30, 2003 until his resignation as Federal Minister of the Interior, he was a member of the Austria Convention .

During Strasser's tenure as Interior Minister, on July 15, 2003, the Mauritanian asylum seeker Seibane Wague was killed in a police operation. Just a few days after the incident, Strasser stood behind the police officers involved and assured them of “full loyalty” for their actions, which were subsequently recognized by the independent Vienna Administrative Senate and the Administrative Court as illegal and torture. In a criminal trial, one of the police officers was convicted of " negligent homicide under particularly dangerous circumstances", as was the emergency doctor who was present at Wague's death. Strasser was also heavily criticized by the refugee aid Asyl in Not for the deportation of 74 Chechen refugees in November 2003 with the following comment: "We invited them to return". This action was classified as illegal by the Lower Austria UVS six and a half years later .

Through Amnesty International , Strasser was also confronted with charges of “political persecution” because his cabinet had reported two human rights defenders to the Federal Criminal Police Office. The Human Rights Advisory Board could see "no security or criminal police calculation". The preliminary investigations by the public prosecutor against Georg Bürstmayer and Nadja Lorenz were stopped within a few days.

The amalgamation of the police and gendarmerie under Strasser's aegis to form a single federal police guard is assessed differently. On the one hand, it is recognized as a historical achievement, on the other hand, critics accuse Strasser of using the structural reform to fill positions motivated by party politics and of having made mistakes in implementing the reform. Strasser resigned on December 10, 2004, shortly after Parliament had decided to merge. The future police chief Peter Stiedl attributes the wave of scandals after the structural reform to the elimination of a supervisory body due to the reform.

EU parliamentarians

In the 2009 European elections , Strasser ran as the ÖVP's top candidate and subsequently became a member of the European Parliament . The fact that he was appointed head of the ÖVP delegation in the European Parliament, although Othmar Karas had received 112,954 preferential votes and he himself only 38,326 , caused discussion .

As a member of the European Parliament, he was a member of the delegation for relations with the Maghreb countries and the Arab Maghreb Union (DEMAG) and the delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean and was a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defense Policy (AFET) and its Subcommittee on Security and Defense (SEDE) and in the Committee on Petitions . He was an alternate member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and the Delegation for Relations with India.

For the Group of the European People's Party (EPP), Strasser was shadow rapporteur in the negotiations on the SWIFT agreement , which he described as a “milestone” for the European Parliament. Through the agreement, which the EPP largely supported, he saw the security of the bank data of the citizens of Europe "95 percent" secured.

Lobbying

In March 2011 it became known that journalists from the British weekly newspaper The Sunday Times had offered as alleged lobbyists Strasser from June 2010 to pay him if he would introduce changes to planned guidelines in the financial sector and an amendment on investor protection in their favor. In total, the journalists contacted 60 MPs, three of whom, along with Strasser, Adrian Severin (Romania, PSD ) and Zoran Thaler (Slovenia, SD ), responded ( cash-for-laws affair ). Strasser forwarded the change requests to Othmar Karas and Hella Ranner, who were responsible for this topic in the ÖVP delegation, and urged several times, through his assistant and personally, that the changes be introduced in the responsible committees, but this did not happen. Karas described it as “a matter of honesty and decency. I don't play along with this style, otherwise I would corrupt myself. "

After it became known, Strasser stated that he had forwarded the change requests and did not reveal anything to his colleagues about the background, because he suspected that a secret service was behind the lobbyists who appeared to him "dubious" and that he wanted to find out which one it was. The Greens reported him to the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), and they, like the SPÖ and BZÖ, demanded his resignation, which he described as part of a " veining campaign ". On March 20, 2011, the Sunday Times published an article about the affair and several videos secretly filmed at the journalists' meetings with Strasser. In it he stated that he was using his position in Brussels to build a network that he could use for his own lobbying company (“This is a very good combination”). He currently has five clients, each of whom he receives EUR 100,000 per year, a sixth will be added soon and his interlocutors could be the seventh. In the second video, he explains how, as a parliamentarian, he can influence legislation in the interests of his customers. On the day the article appeared, Josef Pröll , Vice Chancellor and federal party leader of the ÖVP, demanded Strasser's resignation, which he announced a few hours later. Formally, the resignation took place on March 24th with the submission of his resignation. Compared to the Austria Press Agency (APA), Strasser stuck to his statement that he had only pretended to respond to the alleged lobbyists in order to investigate the backers and to show what he had not come to for reasons of time. He is also not active as a lobbyist, "neither in Brussels nor in Vienna". His resignation occurs because it is a "political campaign" against him and he does not want to harm the party.

On March 21, 2011, the European Parliament opened an internal investigation and the Austrian Corruption Prosecutor began preliminary investigations. Two days later, the European Anti-Fraud Office launched an accelerated procedure against Strasser and the other two parliamentarians.

Conviction for bribery

On August 9, 2012, the Corruption Prosecutor announced that he was being charged with bribery (Section 304 StGB , sentence: 1-10 years in prison). The trial against him began on November 26, 2012 at the Vienna Regional Criminal Court .

On January 14, 2013, he was sentenced in the first instance to four years of unconditional imprisonment. The court also ruled that the use of an electronic ankle cuff was excluded. After an appeal and an appeal for annulment, the judgment was overturned by the Supreme Court on November 26, 2013 and the case was referred to the first court. On March 13, 2014, Strasser sentenced him to an unconditional prison term of 3 years and 6 months. On October 13, 2014, the Supreme Court confirmed the first-instance judgment, but reduced the imprisonment to 3 years. Ernst Strasser went into custody on November 13, 2014. After eight weeks in prison, Ernst Strasser was given the opportunity to go on leave on January 12, 2015 to work for a consulting company that was involved in bankruptcy proceedings. On May 28, 2015, after six months in the Simmering Prison, Ernst Strasser was given an "ankle cuff" ( electronically monitored house arrest ) and was able to leave the prison. The application for conditional release was granted after serving almost two thirds of the total sentence and Ernst Strasser's ankle was removed on September 13, 2016 (the application for early release after half the sentence had not yet been approved in May 2016).

After leaving politics

After his resignation as minister, Ernst Strasser was appointed to the advisory board of the Austrian State Printing Office . Until 2006 he was managing partner at Vienna Capital Group Investmentbank and from 2006 to 2014 he was managing partner at GP-Beteiligungs- und Verwaltung GesmbH . In addition, from 2005 to 2012 he was the owner and managing director of the consulting company CCE-Consulting GmbH . This company is also a partner in Advisory Partners OG, BCD Business Consulting & Development GmbH, EXPERT Managementberatung Russia GmbH and ZSA Strategy Consultants GmbH (formerly Eurocontact Consulting GmbH). From 2007 to 2010 Ernst Strasser also held a 10% stake in the consulting firm CIN-Consult Unternehmensberatung GmbH of the former Meinl appraiser Thomas Havranek. In the declaration of financial interests, which is mandatory for members of the European Parliament, Ernst Strasser only declared the companies CCE-Consulting GmbH and BCD GmbH.

With the fall of 2005 Strasser is as an employee of the Tyrolean Agency Hofherr Communikation as a lobbyist for energy companies TIWAG called, with a success of lobbying regarding the government program of the Federal Government Faymann respect of improvements at hydroelectric modifying sensitive areas to protected areas and the streamlining of EIA The complaint was made.

Until March 2011, Strasser was also a member of the supervisory board of WESTbahn and G4S Security.

Ernst Strasser has been an authorized signatory at GP-Beteiligungs- und Verwaltungs-GesmbH since 2014 . In addition, he has been an authorized representative of SCCB Consulting & Coaching GesmbH since 2016 .

In May 2019 Ernst Strasser took over the Hubertushof in Bad Ischl .

Awards

Curiosities

During his time as Federal Minister of the Interior, Strasser offered his office space in Vienna's Palais Modena once a year to artists to show their works. In 2001, the sculptor Oliver Strametz built a listening system in the octagon room and broadcast the conversations taking place in the anteroom to the minister live on the internet. He was referring to a practice in the Imperial Council Presidium of eavesdropping on waiting diplomats through holes in the ceiling of this room. Strasser liked to joke at the vernissage: "Today you would call it an eavesdropping in the BMI."

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ex-Minister as hotelier: Ernst Strasser buys traditional house in Bad Ischl , May 9, 2019, accessed on May 14, 2019 in Nachrichten.at.
  2. ↑ European elections: Ernst Strasser ÖVP top candidate ( Memento of the original from March 29, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Scoop.at. 2009  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / scoop.at
  3. ↑ Ex-minister sees “campaign” against himself . In: ORF . March 20, 2011
  4. ↑ Pröll speaks power: Strasser declares resignation . In: The press . March 20, 2011
  5. ↑ "Neither rights nor obligations" . In: ORF . March 22, 2011
  6. ↑ Strasser anticipates the exclusion from the ÖVP . In: The press . March 22, 2011
  7. ↑ a b c d e [1] , biography of Dr. Ernst Strasser, Parlament.gv.at, accessed: April 29, 2019
  8. ↑ Zivildienst-Kurzung falls , from October 18, 2000, accessed on April 29, 2019 in Wienerzeitung.at.
  9. ↑ Major restructuring of the executive , from November 17, 2011, accessed on April 29, 2019 in Wienerzeitung.at.
  10. ↑ Judgments essentially confirmed . In: ORF . March 15, 2007
  11. ^ Asylum in Need : Strasser judicial scandal. Asylum in need calls for criminal proceedings to be initiated. , accessed March 27, 2016
  12. ↑ Lawyers under attack ( Memento of the original from April 22, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: ORF . November 20, 2004  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / oe1.orf.at
  13. ↑ Philipp Sonderegger: No police calculation ( memento of the original from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: SOS Mitmensch . August 17, 2005  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sosmitmensch.at
  14. ↑ Klaus Stöger: Ex-Cops: Police reform has failed . In: The press . September 19, 2008
  15. ^ Rainer Nowak : Police: New color, too little reform . In: The press. June 28, 2005
  16. ↑ Police chief announces further reforms . In: ORF . March 19, 2007
  17. ↑ ÖVP doesn't give a damn about preferential votes from Karas: Strasser is the head of the EU delegation . In: News . June 15, 2009
  18. ↑ Ministry of the Interior: European elections 2009
  19. ↑ European Parliament: Your MEP: Ernst Strasser (with list of questions, motions for resolutions and requests to speak in plenary; accessed on March 24, 2011)
  20. ↑ EVP: SWIFT: Agreement essential to fight terrorism ( Memento of the original dated July 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.eppgroup.eu archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . 5th July 2010
  21. ↑ EVP: Strasser says new SWIFT agreement safeguards European data protection standards  ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.eppgroup.eu  July 6, 2010 (video; 1:46 min)
  22. ↑ Otmar Lahodynsky: Detective Strasser & Co . In: profile . March 19, 2011
  23. ↑ Strasser is said to have fallen for fake lobbyists . In: The Standard . March 12, 2011
  24. ↑ Green show Strasser to the fraud authority . In: The Standard . March 18, 2011
  25. ^ Katrin Burgstaller: Ernst Strasser resigns . In: The Standard . March 20, 2011
  26. ^ ÖVP boss Pröll demands Strasser's resignation . In: ORF . March 20, 2011
  27. ^ ÖVP federal party leadership: Josef Pröll: Expect Ernst Strasser to resign immediately . March 20, 2011
  28. ^ Strasser affair: EU Parliament intervenes . In: ORF . March 21, 2011
  29. ↑ Strasser faces up to ten years in prison . In: The press . March 22, 2011
  30. ^ Lobbyist affair: identify EU fraud fighters . In: The press . March 23, 2011
  31. ↑ Public prosecutor's office brings charges against Strasser . In: The press . August 9, 2011
  32. ^ Lobby affair: Former EU parliamentarian Strasser accused . In: Spiegel Online . August 9, 2011
  33. ↑ A dinner with consequences . In: ORF . November 26, 2012
  34. ↑ Hellin Sapinski: Strasser sentenced to four years in prison . In: The press . January 14, 2013
  35. ^ Strasser judgment: Ex-Interior Minister sentenced to four years in prison . In: The Standard . January 14, 2013
  36. ↑ Manfred Seeh: Strasser: "Damaged the reputation of the republic" . In: The press . January 14, 2013
  37. ^ ORF : Surprising turnaround , November 26, 2013
  38. ^ ORF : Court considers corruption to be proven , March 13, 2014
  39. ↑ Der Standard : OGH: Three years imprisonment for Strasser , October 13, 2014
  40. ↑ Strasser has started imprisonment at wien.orf.at, accessed on November 13, 2014
  41. ↑ Ex-Interior Minister already released - APA OTS report from January 11, 2015.
  42. ↑ orf.at: First clearance for Strasser on January 12, 2015 , accessed on January 12, 2015.
  43. ↑ Outstanding bills , In: Der Falter . June 15, 2016
  44. ↑ AUSTRIA: Strasser has been free since today with ankle cuffs: Ex-Interior Minister can now sleep at home again , APA-OTS press release from May 28, 2015.
  45. ↑ KURIER: Strasser found gracious judge , APA-OTS broadcast from September 2, 2016 and Strasser removes ankle fetters , ORF report from September 13, 2016.
  46. ↑ Ulla Schmid: Ernst Strasser and the Balaton Connection: Doing business with dubious agency lobbyists . In: profile . May 25, 2009
  47. ↑ Gerald John & Petra Stuiber: The global player from the bathing pond . In: The Standard . May 29, 2009
  48. ↑ Declaration of financial interests - Ernst Strasser (PDF; 81 kB). January 13, 2011
  49. ^ Lobbying for TIWAG: How Ernst Strasser influenced the government in Vienna . In: the tiwag.org. April 1, 2011
  50. ↑ Simon Welebil: Markus Wilhelm: An uncomfortable . In: ORF . April 12, 2011
  51. ↑ Strasser is now being investigated . In: The Standard . March 21, 2011
  52. ↑ Dr. Ernst Strasser biography , last accessed: March 5, 2019
  53. ↑ Ex-Minister as hotelier: Ernst Strasser buys traditional house in Bad Ischl , May 9, 2019, accessed on May 14, 2019 in Nachrichten.at.
  54. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)
  55. ↑ Archive pages PUBLIC VOICE Lab accessed on December 27, 2014
  56. ↑ Homepage Oliver Strametz accessed on December 27, 2014
  57. ^ Kurier : Time for Art in the Ministry, February 14, 2001, page 16
personal data
SURNAME Strasser, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian politician (ÖVP), interior minister and EU parliamentarian
DATE OF BIRTH April 29, 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH Grieskirchen , Upper Austria