Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen

Alexander Van der Bellen was born in Vienna on January 18, 1944. His mother was born in Estonia, and his father was born in Russia but had Dutch ancestry. After fleeing the Soviets several times, the family finally found a new home in Austria, first in Vienna, then in Tyrol. From then on, the Kaunertal valley is the place that defines Alexander Van der Bellen’s sense of home. Alexander Van der Bellen grows up as the child of Protestant immigrants in the Tyrolean mountains. After elementary school, he attends the Akademisches Gymnasium in Innsbruck, where he graduates in 1962. His passion lies in literature, particularly American crime novels. Alexander Van der Bellen followed in his father’s footsteps and studied economics at the University of Innsbruck, where he earned his doctorate in 1970. He worked as an assistant at the Institute of Public Finance at the University of Innsbruck, and subsequently at the International Institute for Management and Administration in Berlin.

In 1975, he earned his habilitation in public finance. He became an associate professor at the University of Innsbruck, then moved to Vienna and began teaching at the Federal Academy of Public Administration in 1977. In 1980, he was appointed full professor of economics at the University of Vienna. From 1990 to 1994, he served as dean and deputy dean of the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences at the University of Vienna. The interplay of economics, politics, and research would shape his entire life. John F. Kennedy, Bruno Kreisky—amid the historical momentum of these great figures and their ideas, Alexander Van der Bellen developed his political worldview. In the mid-1970s, he joined the SPÖ, which he later left. Through his passionate causes—environmental protection, the climate crisis, and human rights—he found his way to the Greens.

“A black turtleneck, typically unshaven, self-assured but without a trace of arrogance”—this is how the Neue Zürcher Zeitung described Alexander Van der Bellen in 1997, the year he was elected federal spokesperson for the Green Party. In a video message on January 8, 2016, Alexander Van der Bellen announced his candidacy for the office of Austrian Federal President. What followed was an election campaign that lasted longer than anyone had planned—more than ten months. Voters, too, were put to the test. The Constitutional Court’s annulment of the runoff election and the postponement of the repeat runoff due to envelopes that didn’t seal properly marked an unprecedented event in the history of the Republic of Austria.

On December 4, 2016, Austrians finally elected Alexander Van der Bellen as the ninth Federal President with 53.8 percent of the vote. On January 26, 2017, he was sworn in before the Federal Assembly. On May 22, 2022, Alexander Van der Bellen announced his bid for re-election: “To be there for our Austria with all my life experience and strength.” In the election on October 9, 2022, he is re-elected by 56.7 percent of the vote and is sworn in again as Federal President on January 26, 2023, before the Federal Assembly in the newly renovated Parliament.

President Alexander Van der Bellen is married to Doris Schmidauer and has two adult sons from his first marriage. He is an avid reader, starts his day with an espresso and Sudoku, enjoys hiking, and loves dogs. He lives with his wife in Vienna and in the Kaunertal.