Gudrun Kugler

Gudrun Veronika Kugler, née Lang, also known as Kugler-Lang (born 12 November 1976, Gmunden, Upper Austria), is an Austrian politician. She is also a Roman Catholic theologian, jurist, and an Austrian People's Party member of Austria's National Council.

Kugler is known for her involvement in the pro-life movement and her work combatting human trafficking, the death penalty, and her efforts in preserving marriage as the union between one man and one woman. Furthermore, she advocates against the discrimination and persecution of Christians and other faith groups in Europe and worldwide.

Political and business activities
Kugler holds master's degrees in law, women's studies, and theology. Her doctorate is in international law. From 2001 to 2004, she worked in Brussels as the first director of the World Youth Alliance-Europe, representing 1.5 million young people from 100 countries at the EU and UN. In January 2005, she and her husband founded Kairos-PR, a consulting company based in Vienna which focuses on charitable initiatives.

In 2005, Kugler ran as an independent candidate for the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) at the Vienna municipal elections and earned the most votes after the top candidate Johannes Hahn (currently Austria's EU Commissioner). In that context, abortion rights advocates and anti-abortion activists accused each other of fundamentalism.

In April 2010, Kugler was elected a member of the Advisory Panel of the Fundamental Rights Platform (a form of co-operation of EU Fundamental Rights Agency with NGOs), for a period of two years.

In 2015, she was elected to the Viennese municipal council for the ÖVP, receiving 1,652 "preference votes" added to ballots by voters by hand.

In October 2017, she surprised political observers when she won a direct seat in the National Council elections in a traditionally social-democratic stronghold in Vienna. Her ticket received the highest increase in votes, more than 9%. Kugler also placed the second in the preference votes of all regional ÖVP candidates in Vienna.

Activities in Austrian Parliament and OSCE
Since 2017, Gudrun Kugler is a Member of the Austrian Parliament. Re-elected in 2019, she is now the human rights spokesperson, as well as the spokesperson for WWII-exiled minorities, for the parliamentary group of ÖVP. She is vice-chair of the human rights committee, the equality committee, and the committee for ombudsperson. Furthermore, she is member of the Austrian Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE, Vice-chair of the OSCE PA Ad Hoc Committee on Migration, and chair of the Austrian bi-lateral parliamentary group with Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.

As spokesperson for human rights, Gudrun Kugler initiated numerous parliamentary resolutions, such as on the protection of religious minorities, namely Christian minorities, the Muslim minority of Uighurs in China, and the Bahaí in Yemen. She also combated human trafficking and organ trafficking, advocated for vulnerable groups in asylum procedures, protecting women against female genital mutilation, human rights in prisons, and human rights in artificial intelligence, and rights for people with disabilities.

Kugler is also known for her critique of China's human rights violations, and for her ambitions to strengthen the collaboration between Central- and Eastern European states.

Christian activities
Together with other Christian intellectuals, Kugler founded Europe for Christ, an initiative to encourage Christians to be aware of their responsibilities in the political forum. She also established the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe.

Kugler attended the first meeting of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights on "intolerance and discrimination against Christians" as a representative of the Documentation Centre.

Kugler has stated that "intolerance against Christians by negative stereotyping and discrimination by denial of rights are on the rise". Since 2008, Kugler has taught as an adjunct professor at the International Theological Institute in Vienna, Austria. She founded and ran the youth academy of the Dr.-Karl-Kummer-Institute. In 2010, she and Denis Borel edited the book "Entdeckung der Freundschaft" (discovery of friendship) in honor of the 65th Birthday of Cardinal Christoph Schönborn. Together with her husband, Kugler founded the Catholic marriage bureau kathTreff.

In 2019, Kugler held a speech at the event of "Awakening Austria" in which she criticized that marriage had become "something arbitrary." The event was held during the election campaign of ÖVP-chancellor Sebastian Kurz, and received public attention as Ben Fitzgerald (founder of "Awakening Europe") called upon the thousands of attendees to pray for Sebastian Kurz.

Socio-political stance
Kugler wants registrars in Vienna to be able to refuse the establishment of registered partnerships with reference to their Christian faith. She is a supporter of the American officer Kim Davis, who refused to issue marriage certificates to homosexual couples because of her Christian faith and so was temporarily jailed. For Kugler, Davis is a prime example of modern-day Christian persecution. Kugler further argues that the authentication of same-sex marriage could consequently lead to marriage among siblings.

Awards
Kugler received the Leopold Kunschak Prize for her dissertation, and the prize of the "Ja zum Leben" Foundation (German: "Yes to life") for her work in Brussels.

In 2018, Kugler received the "Thomas More Award" by the International Catholic Legislators Network.

Private life
Gudrun Kugler is married to Martin Kugler, a historian, head of Kairos Consulting, and former spokesperson of the Austrian branch of the conservative Catholic association Opus Dei, which he left before they married. They have four children.

Essays and Articles

 * Gudrun Kugler-Lang: Gastkommentar : Das "F-Wort" mit dem langen Bart. In: Wiener Zeitung, February 14, 2006, online.
 * Gudrun Kugler: There is no right to abortion, Europe for Christ: Letter for Europe 48 (February 2010).
 * Gudrun Kugler: Intervening at a political debate, Europe for Christ: Letter for Europe 38 (March 2009).
 * Gudrun Kugler: Successful Christian Arguing, Europe for Christ: Letter for Europe 29 (May 2008).