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Alexander Van der Bellen

For his grandfather, the Russian liberal politician and nobleman, see Aleksander von der Bellen.

Alexander Van der Bellen
Van der Bellen in 2021
President of Austria
Assumed office
26 January 2017
Chancellor
Preceded byHeinz Fischer
Spokesman of the Green Party
In office
13 December 1997 – 3 October 2008
Preceded byChristoph Chorherr
Succeeded byEva Glawischnig
Member of the National Council
In office
7 November 1994 – 5 July 2012
Nominated byPeter Pilz
AffiliationGreen Party
Personal details
Born (1944-01-18) 18 January 1944 (age 80)
Greater Vienna, Alpine and Danube Reichsgaue, Greater German Reich
(now Vienna, Austria)
Citizenship
Political partyIndependent (2016–present)
Other political
affiliations
Spouses
Brigitte Hüttner
​
​
(m. 1962; div. 2015)​
​
(m. 2015)​
Children2 sons (with Brigitte)
Parents
  • Alma Sieboldt
  • Alexander Van der Bellen
RelativesVan der Bellen family
Residences
Alma materUniversity of Innsbruck (Dr. rer. oec.)
Profession
AwardsList of honours and awards
Signature
Website

Alexander Van der Bellen (German pronunciation: [alɛˈksandɐ fan deːɐ̯ ˈbɛlən]; born 18 January 1944) is the current president of Austria. He previously served as a professor of economics at the University of Vienna, and after joining politics, as the spokesman of the Austrian Green Party.[2][3]

Van der Bellen was born in Austria to Russian and Estonian parents who were refugees from the occupation of the Baltic states, and he became a naturalized citizen of Austria together with his parents in 1958. He is a descendant of the former Russian Empire's aristocratic Van der Bellen family of patrilineal Dutch ancestry dating back to 18th century.

He was a member of the National Council representing the Green Party there from 1994 to 2012, and served as both leader of the party as well as its parliamentary group.[4][5]

He ran as a nominally independent candidate supported by the Greens in the 2016 presidential election, and finished second out of six in the first round before winning the second round against Norbert Hofer, a member of the Freedom Party.[6][7] On 1 July, before he was due to be sworn into office, the results of the second round of voting were annulled by the Constitutional Court due to absentee votes being improperly counted too early, requiring the election to be re-held.[8] On 4 December 2016, he won the ensuing election, taking approximately 54% of the vote.[9]

Van der Bellen has described himself as a centrist liberal,[10] and supports green and social liberal policies. As discussed in his 2015 book,[11] he is supportive of the European Union and advocates European federalism.[12] During the presidential election, he appealed to the political centre and was endorsed by the leaders of both the Social Democratic Party and the conservative People's Party. Van der Bellen is the second Green president of a European Union country (after Raimonds Vējonis of Latvia) and the first to be directly elected by popular vote.[13]

  1. ^ "Die 10 wichtigsten Antworten zu Alexander Van der Bellen". www.heute.at (in German). 30 November 2016. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
  2. ^ "Austria far-right candidate Norbert Hofer defeated in presidential poll". BBC Online. 4 December 2016. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  3. ^ Renon, Danielle (4 December 2016). "Autriche. Van der Bellen président: un soulagement face au populisme" [Austria. Van der Bellen President: A relief from populism]. Courrier International (in French). Retrieved 5 December 2016.
  4. ^ "Bundessprecher und Klubobmann, Abgeordneter zum Nationalrat – Univ. Prof. Dr. Alexander Van der Bellen" (in German). Die Grünen. 14 September 2008. Archived from the original on 14 September 2008.
  5. ^ "Van der Bellen sichtlich bewegt" (in German). ORF. September 2008. Archived from the original on 6 October 2008. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
  6. ^ Smale, Alison (23 May 2016). "Austrian Far-Right Candidate Norbert Hofer Narrowly Loses Presidential Vote". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 May 2016.
  7. ^ Osborne, Samuel (23 May 2016). "Austria presidential election result: Alexander Van der Bellelosess over far-right candidate Norbert Hofer". The Independent. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  8. ^ Oltermann, Philip (1 July 2016). "Austrian presidential election result overturned and must be held again". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
  9. ^ "Österreich – Bundespräsidentenwahl 2016". Archived from the original on 23 May 2016. Retrieved 7 December 2016.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Pink was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference VdBbook was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ "Wenn es die EU nicht gäbe, müsste man sie erfinden" (in German). Die Grünen. 28 September 2015. Archived from the original on 28 May 2016. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
  13. ^ Connolly, Kate; Oltermann, Philip; Henley, Jon (23 May 2016). "Austria elects Green candidate as president in narrow defeat for far right". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 June 2016.

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