Erwin Pröll
Encyclopedia
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n politician of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP)
Austrian People's Party
The Austrian People's Party is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Austria. A successor to the Christian Social Party of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it is similar to the Christian Democratic Union of Germany in terms of ideology...
. Since 22 October 1992 he has been governor (Landeshauptmann
Landeshauptmann
Landeshauptmann is a former German gubernatorial title equivalent to that of a governor of a province or a state....
) of Lower Austria
Lower Austria
Lower Austria is the northeasternmost state of the nine states in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria since 1986 is Sankt Pölten, the most recently designated capital town in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria had formerly been Vienna, even though Vienna is not officially part of Lower Austria...
. He is the longest serving governor in Austria.
He was born in Radlbrunn
Ziersdorf
Ziersdorf is a town in the district of Hollabrunn in Lower Austria, Austria.It consists of the villages Dippersdorf, Fahndorf, Gettsdorf, Großmeiseldorf, Hollenstein, Kiblitz, Radlbrunn, Rohrbach and Ziersdorf....
, Lower Austria
Lower Austria
Lower Austria is the northeasternmost state of the nine states in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria since 1986 is Sankt Pölten, the most recently designated capital town in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria had formerly been Vienna, even though Vienna is not officially part of Lower Austria...
and after obtaining his Matura
Matura
Matura or a similar term is the common name for the high-school leaving exam or "maturity exam" in various countries, including Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia,...
at Tulln he studied at the University of Natural Resources (BOKU)
University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences Vienna
The University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, or simply BOKU , founded in 1872, is a Vienna university. There are currently around 10500 students enrolled at BOKU.- Campus :The original campus was built in 1896 in the Türkenschanzpark in Vienna's 18th and 19th districts...
, Vienna.
Political life
The transfer of the regional administration from ViennaVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
to Sankt Pölten
Sankt Pölten
Sankt Pölten is the capital city of the State of Lower Austria in northeast Austria. With inhabitants , it is Lower Austria's largest city...
took place during his administration.
Pröll is seen as a supporter of a Grand Coalition between the ÖVP and Social Democratic Party (SPÖ)
Social Democratic Party of Austria
The Social Democratic Party of Austria is one of the oldest political parties in Austria. The SPÖ is one of the two major parties in Austria, and has ties to trade unions and the Austrian Chamber of Labour. The SPÖ is among the few mainstream European social-democratic parties that have preserved...
. In the year 2000 he was still a supporter of the "black-blue" coalition (ÖVP with the Freedom Party (FPÖ)
Freedom Party of Austria
The Freedom Party of Austria is a political party in Austria. Ideologically, the party is a direct descendant of the German national liberal camp, which dates back to the 1848 revolutions. The FPÖ itself was founded in 1956 as the successor to the short-lived Federation of Independents , which had...
), but two years later argued against such an arrangement. Pröll also has a good relationship with Viennese mayor Michael Häupl (SPÖ).
Great interest was aroused in Europe when he proposed a tax on mobile phone masts in the state of Lower Austria. Together with the SPÖ he suggested legally regulating mobile phone transmitters, with the aim of reducing the overall number. At the same time the state planned to set up a local telecommunications infrastructure by means of a Wireless LAN
Wireless LAN
A wireless local area network links two or more devices using some wireless distribution method , and usually providing a connection through an access point to the wider internet. This gives users the mobility to move around within a local coverage area and still be connected to the network...
.
After an agreement with the mobile radio companies, the taxation was not realized. The agreement in fact was used as an example for other regions.
In 2006 he hosted a conference with EU politicians over subsidiarity
Subsidiarity
Subsidiarity is an organizing principle that matters ought to be handled by the smallest, lowest or least centralized competent authority. The Oxford English Dictionary defines subsidiarity as the idea that a central authority should have a subsidiary function, performing only those tasks which...
in Sankt Pölten
Sankt Pölten
Sankt Pölten is the capital city of the State of Lower Austria in northeast Austria. With inhabitants , it is Lower Austria's largest city...
.
Pröll is married with four children. He is the uncle of Josef Pröll
Josef Pröll
Josef Pröll is a former Austrian politician and was the chairman of the Austrian People's Party from 2008 until 2011. He served as Vice Chancellor and Minister of Finance....
, Austrian Vice Chancellor and Minister of Finance.
The magazine Falter
Falter
Falter is a weekly magazine published in Vienna, Austria.Founded in 1977, it is published weekly on Wednesdays. Since Spring 2005 a local edition has also been published in Styria. The magazine reports from a broadly left-liberal perspective on politics, media, culture and the life...
in 2002 reported the response by regional party secretary Ernst Strasser to criticism of Pröll's confession that he had only ever managed to finish one book, Karl May
Karl May
Karl Friedrich May was a popular German writer, noted mainly for adventure novels set in the American Old West, and similar books set in the Orient and Middle East . In addition, he wrote stories set in his native Germany, in China and in South America...
's cowboy novel Der Schatz im Silbersee (The Treasure of Silver Lake): "People like that, at least it shows the governor isn't a know-all."