Erwin Pröll (born 24 December 1946) is an Austrian conservative politician (

ÖVP 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 ...

). From 1992 to 2017, he was the

Governor of Lower Austria A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the type of political region or polity, a ''governor'' may ...

. He was born in Radlbrunn,

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 ...

and after obtaining his

Matura or its translated terms (''mature'', ''matur'', , , , , ', ) is a Latin name for the secondary school exit exam or "maturity diploma" in various European countries, including Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech ...

Tulln Tulln an der Donau () is a historic town in the Austrian state of Lower Austria, the administrative seat of Tulln District. Because of its abundance of parks and gardens, Tulln is often referred to as ''Blumenstadt'' ("City of Flowers"), and "The ...

he studied at the University of Natural Resources (BOKU), Vienna.

Political life

The transfer of the regional administration of

from

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. ...

Sankt Pölten Sankt Pölten (; Central Bavarian: ''St. Pödn''), mostly abbreviated to the official name St. Pölten, is the capital and largest city of the States of Austria, State of Lower Austria in northeast Austria, with 55,538 inhabitants as of 1 Januar ...

took place during his administration. Pröll is seen as a supporter of a Grand Coalition between the ÖVP and Social Democratic Party (SPÖ). In the year 2000 he was still a supporter of the "black-blue" coalition (ÖVP with the Freedom Party (FPÖ)), but two years later argued against such an arrangement. Pröll also has a good relationship with Viennese mayor

Michael Häupl Michael Häupl (born 14 September 1949) is an Austrian politician. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Austria, he served as mayor and governor of Vienna from 7 November 1994 until 24 May 2018. Early life and education Häupl was born i ...

(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 A wireless LAN (WLAN) is a wireless computer network that links two or more devices using wireless communication to form a local area network (LAN) within a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, campus, or office building ...

. 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 is a principle of social organization that holds that social and political issues should be dealt with at the most immediate or local level that is consistent with their resolution. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' defines subsid ...

. Pröll is married with four children. He is the uncle of

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 ...

, former Austrian Vice Chancellor and Minister of Finance. He is imperial Knight of Honor of the

Order of St. George The Order of Saint George () is the highest military decoration of the Russian Federation. It was originally established on 26 November 1769 Julian (7 December 1769 Gregorian) as the highest military decoration of the Russian Empire for commiss ...

. The magazine ''

Falter ''Falter'' () is a weekly Austrian news magazine published in Vienna. History and profile Established in 1977, ''Falter'' is published weekly on Wednesdays. The magazine was founded by Walter Martin Kienreich. The publisher is Falter Verlagsg ...

'' in 2002 reported the response by regional party secretary

Ernst Strasser Ernst Strasser (* 29 April 1956 in Grieskirchen, Upper Austria) is a former Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) politician and former Federal Minister of the Interior in Austria (2000–2004), Member of the European Parliament (2009–2011) and bear ...

to criticism of Pröll's confession that he had only ever managed to finish one book,

Karl May Karl Friedrich May ( , ; 25 February 1842 – 30 March 1912) was a German author. He is best known for his novels of travels and adventures, set in the American Old West, the Orient, the Middle East, Latin America, China and Germany. He als ...

'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." In September 2014, in an interview with the newspaper ''

Kurier ''Kurier'' is a German-language daily newspaper based in Vienna, Austria. In 2023, it had an edition of approximately 103,000 copies. History and profile ''Kurier'' was founded as ''Wiener Kurier'' by the United States Forces in Austria (USFA) ...

'', he denied any interest in being a candidate for the Presidential election due in 2016, saying the idea left him cold: "My life plan is different". Reports in April 2015, however, suggested that he had sounded out the idea with his staff.

References

External links

*
Erwin Pröll at the website of the Lower Austrian Government

{{DEFAULTSORT:Proll, Erwin 1946 births Living people Governors of Lower Austria (after 1918) Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna alumni