Heinz Fischer

Heinz Fischer GColIH, OMRI, RSerafO, GCollSE (born 9 October 1938) is a former Austrian politician who served as 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
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.

Federal order

 * 2004: AUT Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria - 1st Class BAR.svg 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 orders

 * 1993: Cordone di gran Croce OMRI BAR.svg Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (Italy)
 * 2005: PRT Order of Prince Henry - Grand Collar BAR.png Grand Collar of the Order of Prince Henry (Portugal)
 * 2005: ESP Isabella Catholic Order GC.svg Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic (Spain)
 * 2006: FIN Order of the White Rose Grand Cross BAR.png Grand Cross of the Order of the Order of the White Rose of Finland (Finland)
 * 2006: HUN Order of Merit of the Hungarian Rep (civ) 1class Collar BAR.svg Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary (Hungary)
 * 2006: OPMM-co.svg Collar of the Order pro merito Melitensi (Sovereign Military Order of Malta)
 * 2007: ITA OMRI 2001 GC-GCord BAR.svg Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (Italy)
 * 2007: Order Sint Olaf 1 kl.png Grand Cross of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav (Norway)
 * 2007: Seraphimerorden ribbon.svg Knight of the Royal Order of the Seraphim (Sweden)
 * 2009: LTU Order of Vytautas the Great with the Golden Chain BAR.svg Grand Cross with Golden Chain of the Order of Vytautas the Great (Lithuania)
 * 2009: PRT Order of Saint James of the Sword - Grand Collar BAR.png Grand Collar of the Order of Saint James of the Sword (Portugal)
 * 2009: CZE Rad Bileho Lva 1 tridy BAR.svg Grand Collar of the Order of the White Lion (Czech Republic)
 * 2012: CHL_Order_of_Merit_GC_and_Collar.svg Collar of the Order of Merit (Chile)
 * 2013: Legion Honneur GC ribbon.svg Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour (France)
 * 2013: Huisorde van de Gouden Leeuw van Nassau Ribbon.gif Knight of the Order of the Gold Lion of the House of Nassau (Luxembourg)
 * 2014: ALB National Flag Order.png National Flag Order (Albania)
 * 2015: BOL Order of Condor of the Andes - Grand Cross BAR.png Grand Collar of the Order of the Condor of the Andes (Bolivia)
 * 2016: BUL Order Stara planina ribbon.svg 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