Hans-Peter Martin

Last updated

Hans-Peter Martin (born 11 August 1957) is an Austrian author and journalist and former politician who has been a Member of the European Parliament between 1999 and 2014. [1]

Contents

Journalist and author

Born in Bregenz, Austria, Martin graduated from the University of Vienna in 1984. [2] Already by then, he worked for the German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel . 1986, he became an editor, from 1989 he became the foreign correspondent of Der Spiegel, located in Rio de Janeiro. 1996, he become the foreign correspondent for Vienna and Prague. [3] As a freelance writer, he has written and co-authored several popular books, among them the best-selling The Global Trap: Globalization and the Assault on Prosperity and Democracy (Die Globalisierungsfalle, 1996), Bitter Pills (Bittere Pillen) about the pros and cons of pharmaceuticals and The European Trap (Die Europafalle, only available in German but a partial translation is available on Martin's website [4] ), an inside analysis of European integration, faults of the European bureaucracy and lobbyism in the EU.

The publishing house Penguin Random House released a new book by Hans-Peter Martin carrying the title Game Over: Wellbeing for the few, Democracy for no one, Nationalism for all – and then? in September 2018. [5] "Game over" was shortlisted, together with nine other books, for the best German Economic Book of the year 2018. [6]

Game Over has been subject to numerous reviews:

The German weekly Die Zeit called the book "Discussion inspiring" and wrote that "The book by Hans-Peter Martin is neither scaremongering nor defeatist. It convinces by chaining together a variety of societal phenomena which are rarely combined in popular discourse: the unbroken neoliberal agenda and capital accumulation leading to the breakdown of individual liberties, democracy, and – eventually – war. This is the challenging thesis of the book." [7]

The German newsmagazine Der Spiegel wrote: "The bad news is that the author is likely to be correct in all of his analyses. The good news is that for each game that ends, a new one begins." [8]

European Parliament 1999–2004

In the 1999 European Parliament elections Martin was elected as the independent frontrunner of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPOe). Martin left the European Parliamentary Group of Social Democrats in 2004.

Since then Martin was reelected through his independent candidate list, Hans-Peter Martin's List, in 2004 and 2009.

Early in 2004, he accused MEPs of all parties of falsely claiming reimbursement of travel and subsistence expenses. He produced evidence of MEP's signing the register in the morning to receive their daily allowance, and then immediately leaving the building. Broadcast on German TV, the accusations caused an uproar. [9] The then European Parliament spokesman Hans Gert Pöttering dismissed Martin's accusations as unnecessarily aggressive and the President of the Parliament Pat Cox said that he would have preferred to deal with the case internally.

In response, Martin was accused of claiming too much in meal expenses. He was later cleared of this charge.

Eventually the disclosures and the public outrage Martin's revelations induced resulted in a change of the expense system.

European Parliament 2004–09

In the 2004 European Parliament elections Hans-Peter Martin decided to compete on his own party list "Hans-Peter Martin's List – For genuine control and transparency in Brussels" (Liste Dr. Hans-Peter Martin – Für echte Kontrolle in Brüssel). For an independent he received a surprising 14% of the vote – more than the Greens or the right-wing Austrian Freedom Party – and gained two of Austria's seats in the European Parliament. He has been widely credited with having reduced the vote share of the far-right parties.

The second mandate went to Austrian Karin Resetarits, a former journalist with the Austrian public broadcaster ORF and a private radio station. However, Martin and Resetarits soon found themselves in heavy disagreement and ceased to work together. She later joined the Liberal group in the European Parliament on June 7, 2005 and was not reelected.

Martin's list also competed in the Austrian legislative elections of 2006, but received only 2.8% of the vote and thus was blocked from entry into the Austrian parliament by the requirement to at least have 4% of the vote. Martin explained the unexpectedly low result with accusations of "expedient but contrary to the rule" use of the secretarial allowance, which were widely publicised in the Austrian media. The later court ruling stated that Martin used the funds correctly and did not benefit from the money, but as he did not follow some formal requirements he was ordered to repay the funds. Martin argued that this was a political decision.

European Parliament 2009–14

In 2009, Martin flirted with the idea of heading a planned Austrian list of the pan-European eurosceptical alliance Libertas.eu, but later rebuffed Libertas' advances. [10]

While Libertas finally didn't manage to set up a list at all, Martin successfully competed again with his independent Hans-Peter Martin's List. He even surprised many by increasing his vote share to 18%, giving his list three seats in the European Parliament.

In 2014, Martin decided against standing for election, instead returning to journalism. Reflecting on his political work, Martin consistently defines himself as a "buffer against the far-right". [11]

Anti-Lobbyism campaign

During his mandate Martin vocally campaigned for transparency and against lobbying. Starting in 2011 he collected and published all lobby invitations his office received [12] and in 2013 published an analysis. [13] [14] In total Martin collected more than 1400 "lobby attempts" during the two-year timespan and published a summary table ordered by category. [15] Among examples of extraordinary lobbying Martin listed were all-inclusive travels to Azerbaijan, China and Switzerland as well as free conference invitations to Cyprus and London. [16] He estimated the value of the two years of lobbying to be up to 65,000 Euro. [17]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liberal Forum</span> Political party in Austria

The Liberal Forum was a centrist, liberal political party in Austria. The party was active from February 1993 to January 2014, when the party merged into NEOS – The New Austria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Independence/Democracy</span> European Parliament political group

Independence/Democracy (IND/DEM) was a Eurosceptic political group that operated in the European Parliament between 2004 and 2009. At its height in 2004, it had 37 MEPs and it only existed during the European Parliament's 6th term. It was affiliated with the Eurosceptic Europeans United for Democracy party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elmar Brok</span> German politician (born 1946)

Elmar Peter Brok is a German politician who was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1980 until 2019. He was the chairman of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs from 1999-2007 and from 2012-2017. He is a member of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, which is part of the European People's Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human Environment Animal Protection Party</span> Political party in Germany

The Human Environment Animal Protection Party is a political party in Germany, founded in 1993. In 2014, one of the party's candidates was elected to the European Parliament, and one candidate was elected again in 2019. The party's only EU representative resigned from the party in February 2020 and since this date the party has had no members in the European Parliament. The party has never had any members in any of the German state parliaments, nor has it ever had any members of the Bundestag.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karin Kraml</span> Austrian journalist and politician

Karin Kraml is an Austrian journalist and politician. She was a member of the European Parliament from 2004 until 2009. At the time, her surname was Resetarits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Schulz</span> German politician

Martin Schulz is a German politician who was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Germany from 1994 to 2017 and a Member of the Bundestag (MdB) from 2017 to 2021. During his tenure he was Leader of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats from 2004 to 2012, President of the European Parliament from 2012 to 2017 and Leader of the Social Democratic Party from 2017 to 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Rübig</span> Austrian politician (born 1953)

Paul Rübig is an Austrian politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1996 until 2019. He is a member of the Austrian People's Party, part of the European People's Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Graf Lambsdorff</span> German politician (born 1966)

Alexander Sebastian Léonce von der Wenge Graf Lambsdorff, commonly known as Alexander Graf Lambsdorff is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP), part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, who has been serving as the German ambassador to Russia since 2023.

The Hans-Peter Martin's List – For genuine control in Brussels was a populist and Eurosceptic political party in Austria. It had three seats in the European Parliament.

An election was held in 2009 to elect the delegation from Austria to the European Parliament. Austria will have 17 seats in the European Parliament, instead of the 18 that the country had before the re-allocation of seats.

Declan James Ganley is an English-born Irish entrepreneur, businessman, and political activist. He was the founder and leader of the Irish branch of the eurosceptic Libertas Party.

Libertas was a pan-European political party founded by Declan Ganley that took part in the 2009 European Parliament election in several member states of the European Union. It won one seat in France.

Libertas.cz is a eurosceptic party in the Czech Republic that was founded in 2009 by the former media entrepreneur and MEP Vladimír Železný. After some controversies it became an associate of Declan Ganley's pan-European alliance Libertas.eu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Europe of Freedom and Democracy</span> European Parliament political group

Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) was a far-right, Eurosceptic political group that operated in the European Parliament from 2009 to 2014. It was composed of 34 MEPs and it existed during the European Parliament's 7th and 8th terms. After 2011, EFD had a loose relationship with the Movement for a Europe of Liberties and Democracy political party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Budget accountability in the European Union</span>

The European Union employs a variety of public accountability measures to review and reform budgets across government. As the EU's budget is at risk of maladministration, every year the Court of Auditors reports on the management of the budget. European Union auditors have stated that as they implement more transparency and double-entry book-keeping systems, it is likely to improve budget management.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Ehrenhauser</span> Austrian politician

Martin Ehrenhauser is an Austrian former Member of the European Parliament (MEP). He took his seat in the parliament in July 2009, when Hans-Peter Martin's List, an independent Austrian list led by author and MEP Hans-Peter Martin gained 17.7% of the Austrian vote in the 2009 elections for the European Parliament. He was defeated in 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2014 European Parliament election in Austria</span>

The 2014 European Parliament election in Austria was held on 25 May 2014 in Austria. As a result of the Lisbon Treaty Austria held 19 seats in the European Parliament, but with Croatia joining the Union in 2013, Austria's allocation was reduced to 18 seats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angelika Mlinar</span>

Angelika Rosa Mlinar is an Austrian and Slovenian politician who served as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2014 until 2019. She is a member of NEOS – The New Austria, part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe. She belongs to the minority of Carinthian Slovenes. She is a distinguished fellow of the European Institute for International Law and International Relations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caviar diplomacy</span> Lobbying strategy of Azerbaijan

Caviar diplomacy is a lobbying strategy of Azerbaijan, consisting of costly invitations to foreign politicians and employees of international organizations to Azerbaijan at the expense of the host country. Caviar diplomacy also includes expensive gifts presented as "a tribute to the Eastern tradition."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Wiener</span> German-Austrian entrepreneur and politician (born 1962)

Sarah Wiener is a German-Austrian entrepreneur, television chef and politician who served as a member of the European Parliament for Austria from 2019 to 2024. She is a member of The Greens – The Green Alternative.

References

  1. ↑ "Advanced search for a Member | MEPs | European Parliament | Austria". europarl.europa.eu. Retrieved 2018-08-20.
  2. ↑ "Dr. Hans-Peter Martin, Biografie". parlament.gv.at (in German). Retrieved 2021-04-18.
  3. ↑ "Der Autor | Dr. Hans-Peter Martin". 2011-05-17. Archived from the original on 2011-05-17. Retrieved 2021-04-18.
  4. ↑ The European Trap Archived 2013-04-09 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ↑ Martin, Hans-Peter; Martin, Manuel (2018). Hans-Peter Martin: Game Over. penguin (Hardcover). ISBN   9783328600237.
  6. ↑ "Wirtschaftsbuchpreis 2018: Die besten Wirtschaftsbücher des Jahres". handelsblatt.com (in German). Retrieved 2018-08-20.
  7. ↑ Guérot, Ulrike (2018-12-28). ""Game Over": Die Freiheit ist schnell verspielt". Die Zeit (in German). ISSN   0044-2070 . Retrieved 2019-01-23.
  8. ↑ Der Spiegel (Winter 2018). "Drohende Apokalypse". Der Spiegel (52): 104.
  9. ↑ German TV program RTL Exklusiv: MEP Hans-Peter Martin exposes an expenses scandal in the European Parliament on YouTube
  10. ↑ "Martin stiffs Irish ´Libertas´" Archived 2011-07-06 at the Wayback Machine , Austrian Times, 5 March 2009
  11. ↑ philipp.hacker (20 August 2015). "Martin: "Ich war ein Prellbock gegen rechts"". kurier.at (in German). Retrieved 2019-01-23.
  12. ↑ "Hans-Peter Martin's Lobby-Ticker". Archived from the original on 2013-05-14. Retrieved 2013-04-11.
  13. ↑ Presse Release on H.P. Martin's website: 1427 lobby attempts in only two years Archived 2013-04-07 at the Wayback Machine
  14. ↑ EUObserver.com, 5/4/2013: MEP registers over 1,000 lobby attempts
  15. ↑ In the spider web of the lobbyists – Table Archived 2013-04-09 at the Wayback Machine
  16. ↑ Hans-Peter Martin: Examples for extraordinary lobbying Archived 2013-04-09 at the Wayback Machine
  17. ↑ Economic Times, 5/4/2013: Euro MP wants tighter rules for EU lobbyists [ dead link ]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.