Thomas Klestil (November 4, 1932, Erdberg – July 6, 2004, Vienna) was an Austrian diplomat and politician. He was elected Federal President of Austria (Bundespräsident) in 1992 (on 56.9 % of the popular vote) and was re-elected to the position in 1998. His second—and final—term of office was due to end on 8 July 2004, but his death two days prior to his retirement from office cut his term short.
Biography until 1992
Born in Vienna to a working class family—his father worked for the tramway—Klestil went to school in Landstraße where he made friends with Joe Zawinul. He studied at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration and received his doctorate in 1957.1 After entering the civil service he worked in Austria as well as abroad, for example for OECD. In 1969, he established the Austrian consulate-general in Los Angeles, where he befriended Arnold Schwarzenegger.1 Fluent in English, Klestil was the Austrian Ambassador to the United Nations (1978–1982) and Ambassador to the United States (1982–1987) prior to his election as president.2
Presidency
After being nominated by the conservative Austrian People's Party to run for Federal President, he succeeded Kurt Waldheim on 8 July 1992. However, in the course of his two terms of office, Klestil's alienation from his own party became increasingly obvious, so much so that there was open antagonism between Federal Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel and Klestil when, in 2000, the latter had to swear in the newly formed coalition government with Jörg Haider's Austrian Freedom Party.1 Klestil, who during his election campaign had vowed to be an "active" president, repeatedly criticized the Austrian government and, in an interview with a Swiss daily given in 2003, stated that, theoretically speaking, it was in his power to dismiss the government any time he found it necessary to do so. As a matter of fact the Austrian Constitution does give far-reaching powers to the Federal President, but these had never been exercised by any of Klestil's predecessors.
Thomas Klestil, who had three grown-up children by his first marriage, divorced his wife of many years shortly after his successful election campaign of 1992 and subsequently, in 1998, married work colleague Margot Löffler, the woman he allegedly was already having an affair with at the time of his election. In 1996 he was taken seriously ill but recovered.
On 5 July 2004, three days before he was to leave office, he suffered a heart attack or heart failure, probably caused by his long-term lung problems, and was left in critical condition. He died on 6 July at 23:33 local time at the AKH (Allgemeines Krankenhaus - General Hospital) in Vienna from multiple organ failure.13 On 9 July 2004 he was interred in the presidential crypt at Vienna's Central Cemetery (Zentralfriedhof). Among the notable dignitaries who attended his funeral were Russian President Vladimir Putin, former Austrian President and UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, and the Austrian-born Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger.4
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