Franz Xaver Gruber (politician)

Franz X. Gruber (2011)

Franz Xaver Gruber (born January 21, 1968 in Lienz ) is a former Austrian politician ( ÖVP ) and executive city councilor and deputy mayor of the state capital Innsbruck . Gruber will switch to the private sector in August 2020.

Life

Gruber attended elementary school in Lienz and moved to Lienz grammar school in 1978 , where he graduated in 1986 . From 1986 to 1992 he studied law at the University of Innsbruck . Franz Xaver Gruber began to get involved in politics during his student days. From 1987 to 1988 he worked as a social officer for the Austrian Students' Union at the University of Innsbruck. From 1988 to 1990 he was editor-in-chief of the student newspaper “Unipress” and press officer for the Austrian Students' Union (ÖH), became managing director of Studia (Studentenförderungsgesellschaft mbH) in 1991 and worked from 1992 to 1993 as an editor for the Tiroler Bauernzeitung. In 1994 Gruber became managing director of the Innsbruck People's Party and in 2003 switched to the VP regional party as an organizational officer .

In 2006 Gruber completed further training as a public relations specialist BAW at the Bavarian Academy for Advertising and Marketing (BAW) in Munich and worked as a communications consultant at the company Hofherr Communikation until 2010 .

Since his student days he has been a member of the Catholic student associations Raeto-Bavaria in the ÖCV , and the secondary school associations Andechs and Lebenberg in the Tyrolean secondary school association and the Helvetia Oenipontana of the Swiss student association. He is also a member of the Mühlau Rifle Company, the Tyrolean Jägerverband and the St. Christoph Brotherhood. He has been president of the FC Veldidena football club since 2011 and chairman of the same since March 2017.

Franz Xaver Gruber is the father of two children.

politics

During his student days, Franz Xaver Gruber began to get involved in politics and worked as a social officer for the Austrian student body at the University of Innsbruck. In 1990 he was elected chairman of the ÖH at the University of Innsbruck . He held this position until 1992.

He has been a member of the Innsbruck Municipal Council since 2006, and from 2007 he was city party chairman of the Innsbruck People's Party . From 2007 to 2009 he was also regional chairman of the trade union for art, media, sport and the liberal professions in the Austrian Federation of Trade Unions .

From April 22, 2010 to April 15, 2012 Gruber was 1st Vice Mayor of Innsbruck. He was responsible for social affairs and youth welfare, green spaces as well as agriculture and forestry. After the municipal council elections in 2012, the Innsbruck People's Party was pushed into the opposition, although it was the parliamentary group with the largest number of votes. Since May 16, 2012, Gruber has therefore been an unofficial city council member of the city senate of the state capital Innsbruck. At the state level, Gruber was involved in the Tyrolean social market and is a member of the advisory board of the Tyrolean labor market promotion and the Tyrolean employment association. As part of the cooperation in the Austrian Association of Cities, Gruber was a member of the social and environmental committee. On April 14, 2015, Gruber was appointed auditor in the Tyrol regional group of the Austrian Association of Towns for the period 2015 to 2017.

Due to the tense financial situation of the state capital Innsbruck (new debt) and the difficult geopolitical situation (asylum crisis), the city government was reorganized on December 3, 2015. Mayor Christine Oppitz-Plörer (FI) brought the Innsbruck People's Party into government. The new division of responsibilities to the ÖVP city councils was decided by the municipal council with only 5 votes against. City councilor Franz X. Gruber is responsible for the departments of refugee coordination, tourism, health and for agriculture and forestry.

At the 67th Austrian Association of Cities on May 17, 2017 in Zell am See StR, the management of the Association of Cities unanimously nominated Franz X. Gruber as a member of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe, an organ of the Council of Europe.

After the municipal council election on April 22, 2018, a four-party coalition formed for the new Innsbruck city government , consisting of the Greens, For Innsbruck, ÖVP and SPÖ. At the constituent municipal council meeting on May 24, 2018, Gruber was elected the second vice mayor of the city of Innsbruck. For the current period he is responsible for the policy fields of tourism, social affairs, child and youth welfare, health, market and veterinary affairs, agriculture and forestry, general safety and for the professional fire brigade. At the meeting of the Tyrolean provincial government on August 15, 2018, Franz X. Gruber was appointed a member of the health platform of the Tyrolean Health Fund on the proposal of the Tyrolean regional group of the Austrian Association of Cities.

Gruber has held the position of city party chairman since 2007, and on June 24, 2019 at the extraordinary city party conference at Villa Blanka, he no longer stood for election. KO GR Christoph Appler has been the executive chairman of the city party since January 2019. Appler was elected his successor with 89.21% of the delegate's vote. Gruber received a standing ovation.

When Christine Oppitz-Plörer was voted out of office as the first deputy mayor of the city council due to the financial debacle during the construction of the new Patscherkofelbahn , a novelty occurred in the history of Innsbruck: from October 11, 2019 until the new office was appointed in mid-November 2019, Gruber was still there second vice mayor of the city of Innsbruck, but also the only vice mayor.

On February 27, 2020 Gruber resigned from his position as Vice Mayor and left politics. "Yesterday I handed over my position as Vice Mayor and was given a very worthy and appreciative farewell to my colleagues in the local council. Thank you very much! In the 20 years in the council and 10 years in the city senate, I was able to leave some marks in Innsbruck, I look positive and back with gratitude, the work for the people in Innsbruck has always given me meaning and was a pleasure, "Gruber said at the time, taking stock of his political work in Innsbruck's local politics.

In August 2020, Franz X. Gruber will switch to the private sector and take over the board of the Schröcksnadel Group, i. H. strengthen feratel media technologies AG with its sitour companies and Vereinigte Bergbahnen GmbH. “Franz Gruber is a communicative personality with pronounced analytical and conceptual skills. He will support us strategically in the operative business in the future ”, says Dr. Markus Schröcksnadel as a new addition. In addition to the analysis and optimization of business processes, the strategic control and coordination of projects, Franz Gruber will also provide significant support to the management team for internal and external issues and questions.

criticism

In autumn 2011, political competitors in local media criticized Gruber for allegedly lobbying against the interests of the city of Innsbruck, on whose council he sat, as part of his professional activity for the company "Hofherr Communikations" . The allegations related to an internal company email that became public in which Gruber outlined his plans. At that time Gruber saw no "insubordinate mixture" of political mandate and PR activities. The allegations made did not trigger any legal consequences or proceedings.

Web links

• Website of the Innsbruck People's Party

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Appler's new VP boss in Innsbruck. Retrieved June 26, 2019 . 
2. ↑ http://www.staedtebund.gv.at/services/aktuelles/aktuelles-details/artikel/staedtebund-vollammlung-in-innsbruck.html
3. ^ Innsbruck: Oppitz brings ÖVP into government. In: tirol.orf.at. December 2, 2015, accessed November 26, 2017 . 
4. ↑ Innsbruck coalition: 2nd attempt “without compulsion” , tt.com from December 3, 2015
5. ↑ http://www.dietiwag.org/blog/index.php?daten=2011-10-17 The case of the lobbyist Franz Xaver Gruber