Frank Schäffler (born 22 December 1968) is a German politician of the

Free Democratic Party Free Democratic Party is the name of several political parties around the world. It usually designates a party ideologically based on liberalism. Current parties with that name include: *Free Democratic Party (Germany), a liberal political party in ...

(FDP) who has served as a member of the Bundestag from 2005 until 2013 and since 2017.

Early life and career

Schäffler was born 1968 in the West German town of

Schwäbisch Gmünd Schwäbisch Gmünd (, until 1934: Gmünd; Swabian: ''Gmẽẽd'' or ''Gmend'') is a city in the eastern part of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. With a population of around 60,000, the city is the second largest in the Ostalb district a ...

and studied

business administration Business administration, also known as business management, is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. From the point of view of management ...

at the

Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences The Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences (Fachhochschule Bielefeld) is the second largest education institution in Bielefeld. It divides itself into six faculties (Fachbereiche): Divisions * Faculty 1: Design (Gestaltung) The Faculty of Desig ...

. He later worked as an insurance salesman.

Political career

Schäffler entered the liberal FDP in 1987 and first served as a member of the Bundestag from 2005 until 2013. During that time, he was a member of the Finance Committee. In 2011, Schäffler led a group of fellow eurosceptic MPs from the FDP who collected enough signatures to force a non-binding inner-party referendum on the question of whether the party should oppose the creation of the €500 billion European Stability Mechanism and instead take a much tougher line opposing bail-outs for debt-strapped members of the eurozone.Quentin Peel (December 14, 2011)
German coalition party hit by resignation
'' Financial Times''. The referendum was widely seen as destabilizing the coalition government under the leadership of

Chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

Angela Merkel amid the European debt crisis. In the run-up to the vote, he became the target of attacks from the party's leadership, including from foreign minister

Guido Westerwelle Guido Westerwelle (; 27 December 1961 – 18 March 2016) was a German politician who served as Foreign Minister in the second cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel and Vice-Chancellor of Germany from 2009 to 2011, being the first openly gay person ...

and FDP Secretary General Christian Lindner, who described Schäffler as “Germany's

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...

”; Lindner subsequently resigned from his position. In 2012, Schäffler co-founded the Alliance Against the ESM. In the

2017 elections The following elections occurred in 2017. Africa * 2017 Somali presidential election 8 February 2017 *2017 Gambian parliamentary election 6 April 2017 * 2017 Algerian legislative election 4 May 2017 *2017 Lesotho general election 3 June 2017 *2 ...

, Schäffler was re-elected and joined the parliament again. In parliament, he first served on the Finance Committee again from 2018 until 2021 before moving to the Budget Committee and the Committee on Digitization. In addition to his committee assignments, he has been a deputy chairman of the German-Swiss Parliamentary Friendship Group. In the negotiations to form a so-called

traffic light coalition In German politics, a traffic light coalition (german: Ampelkoalition) is a coalition government of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and Alliance 90/The Greens. It is named after the parties' tra ...

of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

(SPD), the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...

and the FDP following the 2021 federal elections, Schäffler was part of his party's delegation in the working group on European affairs, co-chaired by

Udo Bullmann Udo Bullmann (born 8 June 1956) is a German politician who has been serving as a member of the European Parliament since 1999. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), part of the Party of European Socialists. Personal lif ...

Franziska Brantner Franziska Katharina Brantner (born 24 August 1979) is a German politician of the Green Party who has been serving as a member of the German Parliament since 2013. In addition to her parliamentary mandate, Brantner has been a Parliamentary State ...

and

Nicola Beer Nicola Beer (born 23 January 1970) is a German lawyer and politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament since 2019, and as one of its Vice-Presidents. Early life and career Beer finish ...

Other activities

Corporate boards

* Bitcoin Group SE, Member of the Supervisory Board (-2018)

Non-profit organizations

Nuclear Waste Disposal Fund The Nuclear Waste Disposal Fund (german: Fonds zur Finanzierung der kerntechnischen Entsorgung) is a German federal fund to manage the financial endowment for long-term nuclear waste storage sites. The fund is organised as a trust and falls into th ...

(KENFO), Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2022) * Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), Member of the Administrative Council (since 2018) * Federation of German Consumer Organisations (VZBV), Member of the Advisory Board on Financial Markets * Friedrich August von Hayek Foundation, Member

Political positions

Schäffler is considered to be a

libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...

. He denies the

scientific consensus on climate change There is a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific org ...

.http://www.frankschaeffler.deich-bin-ein-klimaskeptiker/

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schaffler, Frank 1968 births Members of the Bundestag for North Rhine-Westphalia Living people Members of the Bundestag 2021–2025 Members of the Bundestag 2017–2021 Members of the Bundestag 2009–2013 Members of the Bundestag 2005–2009 Members of the Bundestag for the Free Democratic Party (Germany)