Background
Riess-Passer, Susanne was born on January 3, 1961 in Braunau am Inn, Austria.
Riess-Passer, Susanne was born on January 3, 1961 in Braunau am Inn, Austria.
The Freedom Party had finished first in the 1999 election, so its leader, Jörg Haider, should have become Chancellor.
In the first government headed by Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel, which was inaugurated in 2000, she became Vice Chancellor and minister of public services and sports, representing her party in the coalition with Schüssel"s Austrian People"s Party (Österreichisches Volkspartei (Austrian People's Party)). However, Haider yielded to Schüssel in order to appease international opinion. Although this put him in line to become Vice-Chancellor, Haider realised he was too controversial to have any direct role in the government.
He thus stood aside in favour of Riess-Passer, who had been Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs (Freedom Party of Austria) managing chairwoman since 1996.
In the course of the formation of the government in 2000, she became chairwoman and leader of the Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs (Freedom Party of Austria). She was known for being loyal to Haider, which earned her the nickname Königskobra (King Cobra).
After the 2002 elections, she remained Vice Chancellor on a provisional basis until the coalition between Österreichisches Volkspartei (Austrian People's Party) and Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs (Freedom Party of Austria) was renewed in early 2003, and has since had no involvement in politics. Since 2004, Riess-Passer has been the Chief Executive Officer of the Wüstenrot-Gruppe.
After severe disagreements with her former political mentor Haider in Summer 2002 (the so-called Knittelfeld Putsch), she resigned from all of her posts, as did finance minister Karl-Heinz Grasser and the party spokesman in parliament, Peter Westenthaler.
Republican Federal Assembly, 1993, deputy national leader, 1994. Member European Parliament, 1995—1996. Executive national leader, since 1996.