Ewald Johann Stadler (born May 21, 1961), is an Austrian politician. Previously a member of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), he left the FPÖ in 2007, switched to the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ)[1][2] and ran for the European Parliament in 2009 as its leading candidate. From 2008 to 2010, he was a deputy in the National Council of Austria and became a member of the European Parliament in 2011.[3][4]
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Stadler was born in Mäder, Austria. After his schooling, he worked at the Feldkirch city finance office. Later he studied law at the University of Innsbruck. At the time he was close to the Catholic traditionalist movement the Society of St. Pius X. Stadler is a member of the Catholic lay association Compagnia di Santa Maria della Mercede, affiliated with the Mercedarian order.[5]
As one of the requirements for becoming an attorney, he completed his court practicum year at the regional court at Krems an der Donau. He is married and has six children.
From 1985 to 1996 Ewald Stadler was a member of the municipal council (Gemeinderat) in Mäder and a member of its Gemeindevorstand (an elected subgroup of the Gemeinderat) from 1990 to 1994. As early as 1989 he was elected to the Landtag (provincial assembly) of Vorarlberg, in which he remained until 1994. In addition, from 1991 to 1994 Stadler was head of the Landtag caucus of the Vorarlberg Freedom Party (FPÖ). Also, while he was active in Vorarlberg provincial politics, he held the role of a member of the Vorarlberg FPÖ Provincial Party Committee. On November 7, 1994, Stadler moved up to the National Council of Austria (Nationalrat) as an FPÖ member, where he remained until April 28, 1999. Furthermore he was a member of the FPÖ's Federal Party Committee (Bundesparteivorstand). When he moved to Lower Austria, Stadler became deputy provincial party chief of the FPÖ for Lower Austria in 1998 and was a member of the Lower Austria provincial council between 1999 and 2001.
On July 1, 2001, he became a Volksanwalt (ombudsman) at the Federal level, responsible for commerce and advertising, defense, schools and culture, police, and the administration of justice. He stepped down as Volksanwalt on October 30, 2006 when he won a seat in the National Council. Starting in the summer of 2004, Stadler directed the Freedom Party Academy and was responsible for the training of FPÖ functionaries. However, the Academy became less important after a thorough reorganization in December 2006.
Stadler took up his seat for the FPÖ in the National Council on October 30, 2006. After internal differences with the FPÖ leadership, he resigned from the party on March 7, 2007, although he remained a member of the Freedom Party caucus. He announced on August 16, 2008, that he was joining the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) for the National Council election of 2008.[6] However, he wanted to remain a free deputy, elected from a district.[6][7][8] Since October 28, 2008, Stadler has been a representative of the BZÖ in the National Council. Stadler was deputy chief of the Freedom Party caucus from October 30, 2006 to March 6, 2007, and was elected deputy chief of the BZÖ caucus on October 28, 2008.
On April 3, 2009, Stadler was elected as the new party chief of the Lower Austria BZÖ with 97.7 percent of the vote. He succeeded Christine Döttelmayer, who had stepped down from her position at the end of February 2009.[9]
Stadler entered the European Parliament election in June 2009 as the leading candidate of the BZÖ. The 4.6 percent of votes received was not sufficient to win a seat at the time. However, when the Treaty of Lisbon took effect on December 1, 2009, Austria gained two seats in the European Parliament, making the BZÖ vote, retrospectively, sufficient to win Stadler a seat.[10] Stadlers admission had been delayed (until December 7, 2011) whereas other EU countries were completing the process of choosing their own new MEPs and pending the ratification of certain treaty changes.[3]
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