Susanne Riess-Passer

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 (ÖVP). She retained that position until the early elections held in 2002.

In the course of the formation of the government in 2000, she also became federal chairperson of the FPÖ and thus succeeded Jörg Haider, under whom she had already served as managing chairperson since 1996. In that function, she had acquired a reputation of strict loyalty to Haider, which earned her the nickname Königskobra (King Cobra). From the beginning, her position was seen by many observers as a charade, with the true power in the party remaining with Haider.

After severe disagreements with her former political mentor Haider in Summer 2002 (the so-called Knittelfeld Putsch), she resigned from all functions, as did finance minister Karl-Heinz Grasser and the party spokesman in parliament, Peter Westenthaler. She remained Vice Chancellor on a provisional basis until the coalition between ÖVP and FPÖ was renewed in early 2003, and has since then avoided any involvement in politics.

Since 2004, Riess-Passer has been the CEO of the Wüstenrot-Gruppe.