Susanne Riess (born 3 January 1961 in Braunau am Inn)[1] is a former Austrian politician of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ). Riess-Passer is now CEO of the Wüstenrot-Gruppe.
Career
In the first government headed by Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel, which was inaugurated in 2000, she became Vice Chancellor[2] and minister of public services and sports, representing her party in the coalition with Schüssel's Austrian People's Party (ÖVP). The Freedom Party had finished second in the 1999 election, so its leader, Jörg Haider, should have become Chancellor in any coalition with the ÖVP which finished third. However, Haider yielded to Schüssel in order to appease international opinion. Although this should have put him in line to become Vice-Chancellor, he realised he was too controversial to have any role in the government. He thus resigned as party leader in favour of Riess-Passer, who had been FPÖ managing chairwoman since 1996.
In the course of the formation of the government in 2000, she became chairwoman and leader of the FPÖ.