Second term – VdB: from university professor to federal president

His reelection win to the state’s highest office is likely due more to a solid first term in turbulent times than to a particularly inspired campaign. We can expect more of the same, a deliberative president who doesn’t give a damn.

When he finally reached the Hofburg six years ago after his election campaign against Norbert Hofer, it was unimaginable that the campaign, which had resulted from the repeating and postponing of the elections, would have been the slightest problem for the head of state. Government crisis after government crisis, Corona and most recently Russian aggression in Ukraine – there was always something to do, Van der Bellen became a calming anchor.

It was really not easy for the native Viennese, who grew up in the Tyrolean Kaunertal. Above all, the Ibiza affair, with all its consequences in terms of the role of the Hofburg, had historical features. At the request of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz he fired the then Interior Minister Herbert Kickl (FPÖ), a government was voted out of office by the National Council, government leaders and ministers came and went.

When asked about it, Van der Bellen said his biggest mistake was misjudging Vladimir Putin. Otherwise, he was not particularly noticeable in foreign policy. The president took Corona seriously from the start, allowing himself only the embarrassment of breaking the curfew, which was very unpopular at the time, over dinner with friends. Van der Bellen mainly insisted on the fight against the climate crisis, the closer the re-election came, the more he discovered morality in politics as a subject with insulting festival speeches.

The economics professor was discovered for politics by Peter Pilz, a former Green Party fighter. After a failed candidacy for the position of chairman of the Court of Audit, Van der Bellen transferred in 1994 to the National Council, of which he was a member until 2012. He quickly became the silent star of the party and in 1997 its leader. The tenure was largely marked by electoral success and lasted for the then-Green conditions almost an unbelievable eleven years. Van der Bellen’s biggest disappointment at the time was the failure of the black-green government talks with Wolfgang Bowl (ÖVP).

When Van der Bellen’s career seemed to be coming to an end in the 2010s with a mandate in the Vienna state parliament and his rather ridiculous job as a university representative of the city, a “window of opportunity” suddenly opened with the Hofburg elections in 2016. The then 72-year-old slipped through this and quickly got excited about his new job.

Van der Bellen did not have the popularity of his predecessor Heinz Fischer, but was felt in some way, for example when he personally accompanied the dog “July” on her farm at the Hofburg.

How turbulent the second term of office will be for the son of an Estonian mother and a Russian father is still difficult to predict. In any case, Van der Bellen wants to hold out. Only when he realized that it was getting too much for him did he say: “Oida, that’s enough”. At least that is what he promised shortly before the elections on ORF.