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Heinz Fischer
GColIH, OMRI, RSerafO, GCollSE
Heinz Fischer - Buchmesse Wien 2018.JPG
Fischer in 2018
11th President of Austria
In office
8 July 2004 – 8 July 2016
Chancellor
Preceded by Thomas Klestil
Succeeded by Alexander Van der Bellen
Second President of the National Council
In office
20 December 2002 – 16 June 2004
Preceded by Thomas Prinzhorn
Succeeded by Barbara Prammer
President of the National Council
In office
5 November 1990 – 20 December 2002
Preceded by Rudolf Pöder
Succeeded by Andreas Khol
Minister of Science and Research
In office
24 May 1983 – 21 January 1987
Chancellor
Preceded by Hertha Firnberg
Succeeded by Hans Tuppy
Personal details
Born (1938-10-09) 9 October 1938 (age 86)
Graz, Reichsgau Steiermark, State of Austria, German Reich
(now Graz, Styria, Austria)
Political party Independent (2004–present)
Other political
affiliations		 Social Democratic Party
(until 2004)
Spouse
Margit Binder
​
(m. 1968)​
Children 2
Alma mater University of Vienna (PhD)
Awards Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
Order of Prince Henry
Royal Order of the Seraphim
Military Order of Saint James of the Sword
Military service
Allegiance  Austria
Branch/service Austrian Armed Forces
Years of service 1958
Unit Heerestelegrafenbataillon Army Signal Corps

Heinz Fischer GColIH, OMRI, RSerafO, GCollSE (German pronunciation: [haɪnts ˈfɪʃɐ]; born 9 October 1938) is an Austrian politician who served as the president of Austria from 2004 to 2016. Fischer previously served as minister of science from 1983 to 1987 and as president of the National Council of Austria from 1990 to 2002. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) until 2004, he suspended his party membership as he became president.

Early life

Fischer was born to a Jewish family in Graz, Styria, which had recently become part of Nazi Germany, following Germany's annexation of Austria in March 1938. Fischer attended a grammar school which focused on humanities and graduated in 1956. He studied law at the University of Vienna, earning a doctorate in 1961. In 1963, at the age of 25, Fischer spent a year volunteering at Kibbutz Sarid, northern Israel. Apart from being a politician, Fischer also pursued an academic career, and became a professor of Political Science at the University of Innsbruck in 1994.

Political career

Austrian federal president's re-election party, Vienna 20100425
Re-election party in 2010

Fischer was a member of the Austrian parliament, the National Council, from 1971, and served as its president from 1990 to 2002. From 1983 to 1987 he was minister of science in a coalition government headed by Fred Sinowatz.

First term as president

In January 2004 Fischer announced that he would run for president to succeed Thomas Klestil. He was elected on 25 April 2004 as the candidate of the opposition Social Democratic Party. He polled 52.4 per cent of the votes to defeat Benita Ferrero-Waldner, then foreign minister in the ruling conservative coalition led by the People's Party.

Fischer was sworn in on 8 July 2004 and took over office from the college of presidents of the National Council, who had acted for the president following Klestil's death on 6 July.

Second term as president

Yukio Hatoyama and Heinz Fischer at the Japanese Kantei in 2009 (1)
Fischer with Japanese prime minister Yukio Hatoyama in Tokyo on 30 September 2009
Kirchner&Fischer
Fischer with Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in the Pink House.
Fischer Ostermayer Klug f3 Michelides
With ministers Ostermayer and Klug at the opening of the Memorial for the Victims of Nazi Military Justice on the Ballhausplatz
Ali Khamenei receives Heinz Fischer in his house (3)
Fischer with Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei in Tehran on 8 September 2015

In April 2010, Fischer was re-elected president of Austria, winning a second six-year term in office with almost 79% of the votes. The voter turnout of merely 53.6% was a record low. Around a third of those eligible to vote voted for Fischer, leading the conservative daily Die Presse to describe the election as an "absolute majority for non-voters". The reasons behind the low turnout may have been that pollsters had predicted a safe victory for Fischer (past Austrian presidents running for a second term had always won) and that the other large party, ÖVP, had not nominated a candidate of their own, and had not endorsed any of the three candidates. Prominent ÖVP members, unofficially but in public, even suggested to cast a blank vote, which 7% of the voters did.

Post-presidency

In 2017, he and former UN secretary-general Ban-Ki Moon co-founded the Ban Ki-Moon Centre for Global Citizens, an international non-governmental organization to advance the Sustainable Development Goals, headquartered in Vienna.

Personal life

The President of Austria, Heinz Fischer is welcomed to ESO’s premises in Santiago
Heinz Fischer is welcomed to ESO's premises in Santiago.
Coat of Arms of Heinz Fischer (Order of the Seraphim)
Arms as knight of the Seraphim

Fischer identifies himself as agnostic and as a social democrat. He and Margit Binder married in 1968. The couple have two grown children.

Despite being members of opposing parties, Fischer was close friends with former ÖVP politician Sixtus Lanner.

He enjoys mountaineering and has been president of the Austrian Friends of Nature for many years.

Honours and awards

National honours

Federal order

State honours

Awards

  • 2009: Florianiplakette of the Austrian Federal Fire Association in gold

Foreign honours

Foreign orders

Foreign awards

  • 2008: Honorary Doctorate of Law Faculty of the University of Tel Aviv
  • 2009: Honorary Doctorate from the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Heinz Fischer para niños

  • List of national leaders
  • Politics of Austria
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