The president of Austria () is the head of state of the Republic of Austria. Though theoretically entrusted with great power by the Constitution, in practice the president is largely a ceremonial and symbolic figurehead.
The office of the president was established in 1920 following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Habsburg monarchy in 1918. As head of state, the president succeeded the chair of the Constituent Assembly, the post-monarchic provisional legislature. Originally intended to be chosen directly by the Austrian people through universal suffrage every six years, the president was instead appointed by the legislative Federal Assembly until 1951, when Theodor Körner became the first popularly-elected president. Since the institution of the popular vote, only nominees of the Social Democratic Party and the People's Party had been elected to the presidency, with the exception of the Green-endorsed incumbent Alexander Van der Bellen.
The president appoints the chancellor, the vice chancellor, the ministers, the secretaries of state, and the justices of the Supreme Courts. The president can also remove the chancellor and the Cabinet at any time. Additionally, the president signs bills into law and is empowered to dissolve the National Council and the state legislatures, sign treaties with foreign countries, rule by emergency decree, and command the Armed Forces. However, most of these presidential powers have never been applied. Furthermore, the president ranks first in Austria's order of precedence, ahead of the presidium of the National Council and the chancellor.
The principal residence and workplace of the president is the Leopoldine Wing of the Hofburg Imperial Palace, situated in Vienna.
History
Background
Prior to the collapse of the multinational Austro-Hungarian Empire towards the end of World War I, what now is the Republic of Austria had been part of a monarchy with an emperor as its head of state and chief executive. The empire noticeably began to fracture in late 1917 and manifestly disintegrated into a number of independent rump states over the course of the following year.
As the emperor had grown practically powerless, the members of the lower chamber of the Imperial Council – representing Cisleithania, the empire's ethnically German provinces – formed a Provisional National Assembly for their paralyzed country on 21 October 1918. The National Assembly appointed three coequal chairmen, one of them being Karl Seitz, and established a State Council to administer the executive branch.
On 11 November, Emperor Charles I dissolved the Imperial Cabinet and officially renounced any participation in government affairs but did not abdicate, seeing this move only as a temporary break from his rule. However, the next day, the National Assembly proclaimed the Republic of German-Austria, thus effectively ending the monarchy. The State Council assumed the remaining powers and responsibilities of the emperor that day, while the three assembly chairmen – as chairmen of the State Council – became the country's collective head of state.
Establishment
On 4 March 1919, the Constituent National Assembly, the first parliament to be elected by universal suffrage, convened and named Seitz its chairman a day later. The National Assembly disbanded the State Council on 15 March – hence Seitz became the sole head of state – and began drafting a new Constitution the same year. The Christian Social Party advocated for creating a presidency with comprehensive executive powers, similar to those of the president of the Weimar Republic. However, the Social Democratic Worker's Party, fearing that such a president would become a "substitute emperor", favored reverting to a parliamentary presidium acting as collective head of state. In the end, the framers of the Constitution opted for a presidency that is separate from the legislature but bears not even nominal authority.
On 1 October, the Federal Constitutional Law, the centerpiece of the new Constitution, was ratified by the National Assembly and on 10 November, it became effective, making Seitz president of Austria in all but name. The new Constitution established that president is to be elected by the Federal Assembly, a joint session of both houses of the now-bicameral Parliament. On 9 December 1920, the Federal Assembly elected Michael Hainisch to become the first president of Austria.