Wolfgang Sobotka | |
---|---|
President of the National Council | |
Assumed office 20 December 2017 | |
Preceded by | Elisabeth Köstinger |
Minister of the Interior | |
In office 21 April 2016 – 18 December 2017 | |
Chancellor | Werner Faymann Christian Kern |
Preceded by | Johanna Mikl-Leitner |
Succeeded by | Herbert Kickl |
Personal details | |
Born | Wolfgang Sobotka 5 January 1956 Waidhofen an der Ybbs, Lower Austria, Austria |
Political party | People's Party |
Wolfgang Sobotka (born 5 January 1956 in Waidhofen an der Ybbs) is an Austrian teacher, conductor and politician of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) who has been the President of the Austrian National Council since 20 December 2017.
The son of a teacher, Sobotka studied history at the University of Vienna, cello and music education at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna, and conducting at the Bruckner Conservatory, Linz.[1]
In the 1980s and 1990s Sobotka worked as a main school and music school teacher in his hometown Waidhofen an der Ybbs.
In 1992, Sobotka entered local politics Waidhofen, first as a city council. From 1996 until his move to the Lower Austrian Provincial Government in 1998, he was also mayor of Waidhofen an der Ybbs.
From 1998 to 2016 Sobotka was a provincial councilor in Lower Austria and from 2009 to 2016 also held the office of deputy governor of Lower Austria.
From 2016 to 2017 Sobotka served as Austrian Federal Minister of the Interior in the governments of successive Chancellors Werner Faymann and Christian Kern.[2]
Sobotka had four children with his first wife, who died in 1999. He has two children and two stepchildren with his second wife.[4]