President of Austria

Pursuant to Art. 60 para. 5 Federal Constitutional Law, the Federal President is the head of state of the Republic of Austria elected for a term of six years. (Even if this is not made apparent for every function, the constitutional rules refer in principle equally to citizens).

The Federal President may be re-elected only once for the immediately following term of office and may hold office for a total of twelve uninterrupted years. Along with the federal ministers, the state secretaries and the members of the provincial governments, the Federal President is a supreme executive body pursuant to Article 19 (1) of the Federal Constitution. The core competences of the Federal President include the appointment of the Federal Chancellor and, upon his proposal, of the other members of the Federal Government, as well as the possibility to dissolve the National Council upon request of the Government. The position of the Federal President and his competences define Austria as a so-called parliamentary semi-presidential republic.

Accordingly, in the protocol of the Republic of Austria, the Federal President comes first, before the President of the National Council and the Federal Chancellor. Since 1947 the Head of State has had his offices in the Leopoldinischer Trakt of the Hofburg in Vienna; previously they were in the Federal Chancellery, which is opposite the Leopoldinischer Trakt on Ballhausplatz.

The office of the Federal President was created by the Federal Constitution of 1 October 1920. According to the amendment to the constitution in 1929, the Federal President was to be elected directly by the people. Nevertheless, the re-election of the Federal President Wilhelm Miklas, who had been in office since 1928, was carried out by the Federal Assembly in 1931. Miklas then remained in office under the dictatorial corporative state until his resignation in 1938. According to the provisions of the Second Constitutional Transition Act passed by the provisional state government, Karl Renner was also elected by the Federal Assembly on 20 December 1945. It was not until 1951 that Theodor Körner took over as the first popularly elected Federal President.

The incumbent since 26 January 2017 is Alexander Van der Bellen.

Historical development

In the deliberations on the Federal Constitutional Law (B-VG) from 1919 onwards, the Christian Socialists in particular had insisted on a separate head of state. Until March 1919, the three presidents of the Provisional National Assembly had performed these functions, subsequently Karl Seitz, (First) President of the National Assembly, as an individual. The Social Democrats, on the other hand, preferred a variant in which the President of the National Assembly would perform the duties of head of state, as they did not want to create a "substitute emperor". As a compromise, the Federal President was created in 1920 as a separate organ of state, but his powers were very weak. The Federal President was elected by the Federal Assembly.

The 1929 constitutional amendment considerably upgraded the position of the Federal President under pressure from authoritarian forces. Although a presidential system of government, as demanded by authoritarian forces, was not introduced, the popular election of the Federal President and the appointment by the Federal President of the Federal Chancellor and, on his recommendation, of the Federal Ministers was introduced as a compromise. Furthermore, the Federal President was entitled to dissolve the National Council (Art. 29 B-VG). However, the obligation to propose and countersign remained.

Since the 1929 version of the constitution was reinstated when the Second Republic was founded in 1945, the Federal President still has a potentially powerful position today. His legal status and duties are in principle more significant than those of the Federal President in Germany. In practice, however, the Federal Presidents of the Second Republic exercised restraint and concentrated on behind-the-scenes influence and their representative duties; this is also referred to as "role renunciation". Under these circumstances, authority flows to them mainly by virtue of their personality.

Presidential Chancellery in the Leopoldine Wing of the Hofburg


The first Federal President of the Second Republic, Karl Renner

Legal acts of the Federal President

Basic

Legal acts of the Federal President are called resolutions. They usually require countersignature (see below). While so-called certificates of appointment are issued when a new government is appointed and sworn in, the dismissal of the government does not require a written form, but only has to be brought to the attention of the persons concerned. They can thus also be dismissed against their will.

Binding to proposal and countersignature

Although the Federal Constitution grants the Federal President far-reaching powers, his ability to act is limited by the obligation to propose and countersign (Art. 67 B-VG). This means that, in principle, the Federal President can only act on the proposal of the Federal Government (or of a Federal Minister authorised by the Federal Government). Exceptions to this binding are only possible by constitutional provisions. Moreover, most acts of the Federal President are only valid if they are countersigned by the Federal Chancellor or the competent federal minister. This considerably limits the Federal President's ability to act on his own initiative.

However, the constitutional situation also means that the Federal President does not have to accept a proposal from the government side at all. This means that laws are certified and promulgated by the Federal President with the countersignature of the Federal Chancellor. Possible amendments to the law could thus be obstructed by the Federal President. He could even change the Federal Chancellor so that suitable proposals would be submitted to him, and before a vote of no confidence by the National Council against the new Federal Chancellor, at the latter's request, dissolve the National Council and thus trigger new elections. (So far, although this would not be unconstitutional, it has never been done in this way for reasons of realpolitik).

The following acts of the Federal President do not require a proposal:

• the appointment of the Federal Chancellor (Art. 70 para. 1 B-VG)
• the dismissal of the Federal Chancellor or the entire Federal Government (Art. 70 para. 1 B-VG; for the dismissal of individual Federal Ministers, however, a proposal of the Federal Chancellor is required)
• the appointment of a provisional federal government (Art. 71 B-VG)
• the swearing-in ceremony of the Federal Chancellor, the Federal Ministers, State Secretaries, Governors, etc.
• the proposal-binding nature of acts of the supreme command over the armed forces is disputed
• the prevailing doctrine and practice also excludes purely representational tasks from the proposal principle

The following acts of the Federal President do not require countersignature:

• the dismissal of the Federal Government (Art. 70 para. 1 B-VG)
• the dismissal of individual federal ministers (according to Art. 70 B-VG this requires the proposal of the Federal Chancellor but no formal countersignature)
• the convening of an extraordinary session of the National Council (Art. 28 para. 3 B-VG)
• Instructions in the context of an execution of decisions of the Constitutional Court (Art. 146 para. 2 B-VG)