Ernst Strasser (* 29 April 1956 in

Grieskirchen Grieskirchen is a town in Austria. It is capital of the Grieskirchen district of Upper Austria, in the Trattnachtal valley. Notable people * Karin Bonelli (born 1988), flutist with the Vienna State Opera The Vienna State Opera (, ) is a his ...

Upper Austria Upper Austria ( ; ; ) is one of the nine States of Austria, states of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, and Salzburg (state), Salzbur ...

) is a former

Austrian People's Party The Austrian People's Party ( , ÖVP ) is a Christian-democratic and liberal-conservative political party in Austria. Since January 2025, the party has been led by Christian Stocker (as an acting leader). It is currently the second-largest p ...

(ÖVP) politician and former Federal Minister of the Interior in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

(2000–2004),

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

(2009–2011) and bearer of the " Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold with Sash".
Biography of Ernst Strasser, in Parlament.gv.at, retrieved: 14. May 2019 Since 2014, he works as an Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneur in the

Mergers and acquisitions Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...

sectorDr. Ernst Strasser Biography
retrieved: 14. May 2019 in Slideshare.net and is also a hotel owner.''Ex-Minister als Hotelier: Ernst Strasser kauft Traditionshaus in Bad Ischl''
retrieved: 14. Mai 2019 in Nachrichten.at.

Personal life

Ernst Strasser was born in 1956 as the son of farmers in

. After the elementary school in

, he attended the ''"Bundesgymnasium und Sportrealgymnasium HIB Saalfelden"'' and later the upper school in ''"BORG Grieskirchen"'', where he graduated in 1975 as a school spokesman. Between 1971 and 1975, he was involved in Catholic youth organisations in Grieskirchen. Ernst Strasser studied

Jurisprudence Jurisprudence, also known as theory of law or philosophy of law, is the examination in a general perspective of what law is and what it ought to be. It investigates issues such as the definition of law; legal validity; legal norms and values ...

at the

University of Salzburg The University of Salzburg (, ), also known as the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg (''Paris-Lodron-Universität Salzburg'', PLUS), is an Austrian public university in Salzburg, Salzburg municipality, Salzburg (federal state), Salzburg State, ...

between 1975 and 1980 and graduated there to the

Doctor of Laws A Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) is a doctoral degree in legal studies. The abbreviation LL.D. stands for ''Legum Doctor'', with the double “L” in the abbreviation referring to the early practice in the University of Cambridge to teach both canon law ...

in 1981. During his studies he was a member of the main committee of the students union at the

as well as social referent of the same organisation. From 1980 to 1981 he did

community service Community service is unpaid work performed by a person or group of people for the benefit and betterment of their community contributing to a noble cause. In many cases, people doing community service are compensated in other ways, such as gettin ...

as an alternative to

military service Military service is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, air forces, and naval forces, whether as a chosen job (volunteer military, volunteer) or as a result of an involuntary draft (conscription). Few nations, such ...

. In 1998, Ernst Strasser was elected President of ''Hilfswerk Österreich'', the largest health care aid organisation in

Lower Austria Lower Austria ( , , abbreviated LA or NÖ) is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Major cities are Amstetten, Lower Austria, Amstetten, Krems an der Donau, Wiener Neustadt and Sankt Pölten, which ...

, that provides help for children and adolescents with more than 4000 employees and over 20000 clients. The focus of his term until 2011 was the relocation of the state office in the government district to St. Pölten, the establishment of home service, the establishment of the visit service for older citizens, the opening of the first company kindergarten in

, the launch of the ''"Lower Austrian women's telephone"'' as well as the consolidation and securing of financing of the organisation. Ernst Strasser is married with Elisabeth Strasser, who brought two children into the marriage. The couple lives in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

and

Bad Ischl Bad Ischl (Austrian German ) is a spa town in Austria. It lies in the southern part of Upper Austria, at the river Traun in the centre of the Salzkammergut region. The town consists of the Katastralgemeinden ''Ahorn'', ''Bad Ischl'', ''Haiden ...

Professional career

After completing his military service, Ernst Strasser began his career as a secretary of the ''Austrian Farmers' Association'' under the former director

Josef Riegler Josef Riegler (born 1 November 1938) is an Austrian former politician and teacher who served as Vice-Chancellor of Austria and Chair of the People's Party from 1989 to 1991. Early life and education Josef Rigler was born on 1 November 1938 to ...

. Then he moved to the legal department of the ''Upper Austrian Farmers' Union'', where he took over the position of a Federal Minister two years later. After the election of

to the leader of the

, Ernst Strasser followed him and worked as an office manager of the chairman until 1990. From 1990 to 1991 he was head of strategic planning of ''Umdasch AG'' in Amstetten and then from 1991 to 1992 managing director of ''Shop Concept-Mittelraum'' (Umdasch AG) in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

. After his retirement as a minister, Ernst Strasser was appointed to the advisory board of the ''Österreichische Staatsdruckerei''. Between 2005 and 2008 Strasser was Managing Partner at VCP Energy Holdings, a subsidiary of Vienna Capital Partners. and from 2006 to 2014 he was Managing Partner at ''GP-Beteiligungs- und Verwaltung GesmbH''. Until March 2011, Ernst Strasser was also a member of the supervisory board of WESTbahn and

G4S G4S is a British multinational private security company headquartered in London, England. The company was set up in July 2004 when London-based Securicor amalgamated with Danish firm Group 4 Falck. The company offers a range of services, in ...

. In addition, he has been an authorized representative of ''SCCB Consulting & Coaching GesmbH'' since 2016. In May 2019, Ernst Strasser took over the hotel ''Hubertushof'' in

Political functions & mandates

From 1983 to 1985 Ernst Strasser was member of the municipal council of

. Between 1993 and 2000 he was member of the Landtag of Lower Austria and also chairman (1998-2000) of the

(ÖVP) in

. Between June 2003 and December 2004, Strasser was member of the ''Österreich Konvent''. From July 2009 to March 2011 Ernst Strasser was head of delegation of the

in the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two 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 ...

. In addition he was representative of

on the ''" ORF Board of Trustees"''. Strasser has also been the president of the ''Austro-Russian Friendship Society'' (Österreichisch-Russische Freundschaftsgesellschaft) since 2003. From December 2002 to April 2003 Ernst Strasser was member of the National Council of the

. He was Federal Minister of the Interior of

between 2000 and 2004. He led his party in the

2009 European Parliament election The 2009 European Parliament election was held in the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) between 4 and 7 June 2009. A total of 736 Member of the European Parliament, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were elected to represent s ...

. He was a

between 2009 and 2011. He was sentenced to 4 years jail as consequence of the 2011 cash for laws scandal.

Lobbying

''Der Standard'' newspaper's investigations in Ernst Strasser found that Strasser has many business holdings and listed some of these activities. Strasser founded ''Consulting, Coaching & Educating-GesmbH'' (CCE) in 2005. It is a one-man company 100% owned by Strasser. For the first two years, the CCE recorded a profit of around 380,000 euros. When the newspaper studied the holdings in May 2009, more recent data was missing from the commercial register. The company owns stakes in various other companies. One company, ''Business Consulting & Development GmbH'', is said to have imported

olive oil Olive oil is a vegetable oil obtained by pressing whole olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea'', a traditional Tree fruit, tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin) and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking for frying foods, as a cond ...

from

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

. Another company had links to Hungarian

bribery Bribery is the corrupt solicitation, payment, or Offer and acceptance, acceptance of a private favor (a bribe) in exchange for official action. The purpose of a bribe is to influence the actions of the recipient, a person in charge of an official ...

investigations. Strasser's CCE owns stakes in ''Russland-Connection Anteile'' as well as ''Firmen Advisory Partners'' (registered in Innsbruck), ''Konti Holding'' (registered in Wien) and ''Expert Management Beratung Russia'' (registered in

). On 20 March 2011, Britain's

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

reported that three MEPs, including Austria's Ernst Strasser, had accepted offers of up to 100,000

euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

s ( $141,000) per year in exchange for proposing amendments in the EU parliament. Austrian vice-chancellor and ÖVP leader

Josef Pröll Josef Pröll (; born 14 September 1968, in Stockerau, Austria) is an Austrian former politician who was the chairman of the Austrian People's Party from 2008 until 2011. He was Vice Chancellor and Minister of Finance. Previously, he was the Fe ...

had called for the deputy's "immediate resignation from all political posts," describing his behaviour as "unacceptable". After initially fighting the claims, Strasser announced his resignation on Sunday, noting: "I have decided to take this step because there has been a campaign against me in Austria" and this was "damaging the People's Party."Austrian MEP Strasser resigns over corruption claims
/ref> On 14 January 2013, Strasser was sentenced to 4 years jail.

Honours and achievements

* 2002

Order of St. Gregory the Great The Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great (; ) was established on 1 September 1831, by Pope Gregory XVI, seven months after his election as Pope. The order is one of the five Papal order of knighthood, orders of knighthood of th ...

* 2003 Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold with Sash

References

External links

Official profile
on the website of the European Parliament {{DEFAULTSORT:Strasser, Ernst 1956 births Living people Austrian businesspeople Austrian People's Party politicians Austrian People's Party MEPs Date of birth missing (living people) Ministers of the interior of Austria MEPs for Austria 2009–2014 Place of birth missing (living people) Austria–Russia relations Austrian politicians convicted of crimes