Barbara Rosenkranz (1958 - )

Provincial Party Chairwoman, FPÖ Lower Austria 2003-2013

FPÖ candidate at the 2010 federal presidential election

Barbara Rosenkranz was the FPÖ’s candidate at the 2010 federal presidential election; provincial party chairwoman of the FPÖ Lower Austria; minister in the Lower Austrian provincial government, as well as a member of the National Council. She is considered an outspoken family politician.

Short biography

Barbara Rosenkranz was born Barbara Schörghofer in Salzburg on 20 June 1958. After graduating from high school in Salzburg in 1976, she studied history and philosophy in Vienna. She completed this degree in 2018 after having suspended her studies to focus on work.

She began her political career in 1993, when she entered the Lower Austrian provincial parliament, which is located in St. Pölten. From 2000 to 2002, she also served as chairwoman of the FPÖ parliamentary group there. Rosenkranz moved to the National Council in 2002, and in 2003 became chairwoman of the FPÖ Lower Austria.

From 2005 to 2006, in the wake of the BZÖ breaking away with Jörg Haider and numerous other MPs and holders of public office, Barbara Rosenkranz and her colleague Reinhard Bösch were the only two Freedom Party members left in the National Council. In 2005, when the FPÖ was re-organised, she was elected deputy federal party chairwoman of the Freedom Party, and in 2006 - under lead candidate Strache - was elected to the National Council for a further term.

She was the Freedom Party's lead candidate at the 2008 Lower Austrian provincial election. The FPÖ more than doubled its share of the vote and again obtained a provincial ministerial post, which Barbara Rosenkranz held from 2008 to 2013.

In 2010, the FPÖ nominated her to compete against Heinz Fischer in the federal presidential election. Her campaign was initially supported by the Kronen Zeitung and Hans Dichand. Barbara Rosenkranz was able to achieve a respectable result of over 15 percent of the vote.

In 2013, Rosenkranz was again the Freedom Party’s female lead candidate at the election to the Lower Austrian parliament, but suffered a defeat that subsequently led to her resignation as FPÖ provincial party chairwoman. In autumn 2013, she again entered the National Council. Rosenkranz resigned from the FPÖ prior to the 2017 National Council election, which she unsuccessfully contested with her own electoral list. She left the National Council in autumn 2017.

Barbara Rosenkranz is known not only for her family policy expertise, but also for a restrictive line on migration policy, as well as for her critical stance towards the European Union. In 2007, Rosenkranz was awarded the Grand Decoration in Gold for Services to the Republic of Austria.

Main political positions

Weblinks

Barbara Rosenkranz on the web pages of the Austrian Parliament:

https://www.parlament.gv.at/WWER/PAD_14693/index.shtml

Barbara Rosenkranz on the web pages of the Lower Austrian Provincial Parliament:

https://noe-landtag.gv.at/personen/barbara_rosenkranz

Barbara Rosenkranz on the web pages of the “My MPs” (Meine Abgeordneten):

https://www.meineabgeordneten.at/Abgeordnete/Barbara.Rosenkranz

Publications by Barbara Rosenkranz

Wie das Projekt EU Europa zerstört – Eine überzeugte Europäerin rechnet ab. Ares Verlag, Graz 2014

MenschInnen. Gender Mainstreaming – Auf dem Weg zum geschlechtslosen Menschen. Ares Verlag, Graz 2008