Ursula Stenzel (born 22 September 1945 in

Leopoldstadt Leopoldstadt (; bar, Leopoidstod, "Leopold-Town") is the 2nd municipal Districts of Vienna, district of Vienna (german: 2. Bezirk) in Austria. there are 103,233 inhabitants over . It is situated in the heart of the city and, together with Bri ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

) is an Austrian politician who was a

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

(MEP) from 1996 to 2006. Until September 2015, she was a member of the Austrian People's Party. She is also a former member of the bureau of the European People's Party, and sat on the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

's Committee on Foreign Affairs. She is also chair of the delegation for relations with the

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, a member of the Subcommittee on Security and Defence, and a substitute for the

Committee on Budgetary Control The Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT) is a committee of the European Parliament. with 30 permanent members. It can be seen as the European Union's internal "political watchdog", seeking to identify undesirable developments within EU institutio ...

and the

Committee on Employment and Social Affairs The Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) is a committee of the European Parliament. It is responsible for issues of employment and social policy, including labour rights, social security, inclusion, free movement for workers and pensio ...

. Stenzel has been ''Bezirksvorsteherin'' (district mayor) of Innere Stadt, Vienna's 1st district and old town, from 2005 until she stepped down in 2015. Her successor as district mayor is Markus Figl (

ÖVP The Austrian People's Party (german: Österreichische Volkspartei , ÖVP ) is a Christian-democratic and liberal-conservative political party in Austria. Since December 2021, the party has been led provisionally by Karl Nehammer. It is currentl ...

Family

Stenzel was born in a Catholic family of Jewish descent. Her father was engineer of the North railway, Stenzels mother was the daughter of a hazzan and granddaughter of a rabbi, both from the synagogue in the Rotensterngasse in

, the second municipal district of Vienna.

Career

* Studied journalism, political science and modern history * Journalist and presenter at

ORF ORF or Orf may refer to: * Norfolk International Airport, IATA airport code ORF * Observer Research Foundation, an Indian research institute * One Race Films, a film production company founded by Vin Diesel * Open reading frame, a portion of the ...

(1972–1999) * Member of the European Parliament * Delegation member, EU-Poland Joint Parliamentary Committee (1997–2002) * Delegation Chair, EU-Czech Republic Joint Parliamentary Committee (2002–2004) * Schuman Prize

Controversies

Protests against about fixed closing hours

Stenzel has been criticised by local and national artists for her conservative positions, most notably for her outspoken support of the introduction of a closing time in Vienna's 1'st district ("Innere Stadt"). In answer to Stenzels proposal, a number of Viennese club owners and deejays created a

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

of the

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hit single "Barbra Streisand" which also included a satirical video titled ''Ursula stress ned'' (Ursula don't stress). The single became widely popular within days and the video quickly went viral on

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Switch to Austrian Freedom Party

Shortly before the Viennese municipal election of 2015, the Viennese regional administration of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) decided that it would not endorse Stenzel as district mayor for another term. In reaction, Stenzel left the Christian democratic and conservative ÖVP to join the right-wing populist and national-conservative Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ). However, as the ÖVP managed to keep her relative majority in the first district (despite losing 12,27% of their voters from the elections in 2010) and the FPÖ only coming in third, Stenzel had to step down as district mayor and was succeeded by Markus Figl from the ÖVP.Official final result of the 2005 elections in Vienna's First District
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References

External links

European Parliament archive

Declaration
of financial interests (in German; PDF file) {{DEFAULTSORT:Stenzel, Ursula 1945 births Living people Austrian People's Party MEPs MEPs for Austria 1996–1999 MEPs for Austria 1999–2004 MEPs for Austria 2004–2009 Austrian Roman Catholics Converts to Roman Catholicism from Judaism Austrian people of Jewish descent People from Leopoldstadt ORF (broadcaster) people 20th-century women MEPs for Austria 21st-century women MEPs for Austria