Heinz Fischer

Heinz Fischer GColIH, OMRI, RSerafO, GCollSE (born 9 October 1938) is a former Austrian politician. He took office as President of Austria on 8 July 2004 and was re-elected for a second and last term on 25 April 2010, leaving office on 8 July 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
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
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
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
2004 Grand Star of Honour of the Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria (Austria)
State Honours
2008 Ring of Honour of the Province of Styria
2008 Freedom of the City of Graz
Awards
2009 Florianiplakette of the Austrian Federal Fire Association in gold
Foreign Honours
Foreign Orders
1993 Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (Italy)
2005 Grand Collar of the Order of Prince Henry (Portugal)
2005 Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic (Spain)
2006 Grand Cross of the Order of the Order of the White Rose of Finland (Finland)
2006 Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary (Hungary)
2006 Collar of the Order pro merito Melitensi (Sovereign Military Order of Malta)
2007 Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (Italy)
2007 Grand Cross of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav (Norway)
2007 Knight of the Royal Order of the Seraphim (Sweden)
2009 Grand Cross with Golden Chain of the Order of Vytautas the Great (Lithuania)
2009 Grand Collar of the Order of Saint James of the Sword (Portugal)
2009 Grand Collar of the Order of the White Lion (Czech Republic)
2012 Collar of the Order of Merit (Chile)
2013 Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour (France)
2013 Knight of the Order of the Gold Lion of the House of Nassau (Luxembourg)
2014 National Flag Order (Albania)
2015 Grand Collar of the Order of the Condor of the Andes (Bolivia)
2016 Order of the Balkan Mountains (Bulgaria)
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
List of national leaders
Politics of Austria
References
Further reading
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1938 births
Austrian agnostics
Candidates for President of Austria
Living people
Members of the National Council (Austria)
Politicians from Graz
Presidents of Austria
Presidents of the National Council (Austria)
Social Democratic Party of Austria politicians
University of Vienna alumni
Austrian people of Jewish descent
Grand Collars of the Order of Prince Henry
Grand Collars of the Order of Saint James of the Sword
Collars of the Order of the White Lion
Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour
Grand Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary (civil)
Grand Crosses with Golden Chain of the Order of Vytautas the Great
Knights Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic
Knights Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
Recipients of the Grand Star of the Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria