Wilhelm Molterer

Molterer's birth name is Kletzmayr. He was born in Steyr, Upper Austria, on 14 May 1955.{{cite web|title=Who's who in the Gusenbauer cabinet|url=http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WL0701/S01771/cablegate-whos-who-in-the-gusenbauer-cabinet.htm|work=Wikileaks|access-date=16 October 2013|date=23 January 2007}} 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.Austrian Lebensministerium. Wilhelm Molterer: Curriculum vitae. [https://archive.today/20240524211606/https://www.webcitation.org/5nSxcujka?url=http://sitemap.lebensministerium.at/article/articleview/20211/1/5752/ Archived] 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.

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.

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,Austrian Successor? EuropeanVoice.com, July 24, 2008. [https://web.archive.org/web/20081201082426/http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/imported/austrian-successor-/61832.aspx Archived] 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.[http://orf.at/wahl08/ Austrian election 2008] Wilhelm Molterer stepped down as chairman of the party on 29 September 2008 and was succeeded by Josef Pröll.

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.Eric Frey (June 26, 2007), [https://www.ft.com/content/0850941c-2413-11dc-8ee2-000b5df10621 Austria renegotiates Eurofighter deal] Financial Times.

• African Development Bank (AfDB), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2007-2008)[https://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Publications/30726073-EN-ENGLISH-ANNUAL-REPORT-2007-WITH-COVER.PDF 2007 Annual Report] African Development Bank (AfDB).
• European Investment Bank (EIB), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2007-2008)[https://www.eib.org/attachments/general/reports/fr2007en.pdf 2007 Annual Report] European Investment Bank (EIB).

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.Michael Shields (November 21, 2013), [https://www.reuters.com/article/austria-corruption/austrian-conservatives-face-money-laundering-inquiry-idUSL5N0J62P220131121 Austrian conservatives face money laundering inquiry] Reuters.

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• [http://aeiou.iicm.tugraz.at/aeiou.encyclop.m/m775159.htm;internal&action=_setlanguage.action?LANGUAGE=en Entry for Wilhelm Molterer in the AEIOU Encyclopedia]

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{{s-bef|before=Franz Fischler}}

{{s-ttl|title=Minister of Agriculture|years=1994{{spaced ndash}}2003}}

{{s-aft|after=Josef Pröll}}

{{s-bef|before=Hubert Gorbach}}

{{s-ttl|title=Vice-Chancellor of Austria|years=2007{{spaced ndash}}2008}}

{{s-aft|after=Josef Pröll}}

{{s-bef|before=Karl-Heinz Grasser}}

{{s-ttl|title=Finance Minister of Austria|years=2007{{spaced ndash}}2008}}

{{s-aft|after=Josef Pröll}}

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{{s-bef|before=Wolfgang Schüssel}}

{{s-ttl|title=Chair of the Austrian People's Party|years=2007{{spaced ndash}}2008}}

{{s-aft|after=Josef Pröll}}

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Category:1955 births

Category:Living people

Category:People from Steyr

Category:Vice-chancellors of Austria

Category:Ministers of finance of Austria

Category:Government ministers of Austria

Category:Austrian People's Party politicians

Category:Johannes Kepler University Linz alumni

Category:Agriculture ministers of Austria

Category:21st-century Austrian politicians