Role waiver

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The term renunciation of roles denotes the common practice in Austria that the Federal President does not interfere in the “day-to-day political business” and that he does not exhaust the possibilities accorded to his office by the Austrian constitution .

history

In the first version of the Federal Constitutional Law (B-VG) passed in 1920, the role of the Federal President was politically very weak, as the Social Democrats in particular came from parliament as the highest state organ. He neither appointed the federal government , nor could he dissolve the National Council , nor was he commander in chief of the federal army .

The constitutional amendment of 1929 expanded the powers of the Federal President and at the same time weakened those of Parliament. The amendment to the B-VG was decided primarily under pressure from the conservative Christian social camp, which was meanwhile very skeptical of parliamentary rule and wanted to create a strong leadership body similar to the German Reich President .

In order to achieve the two-thirds majority required for the constitutional amendment , however, the Christian Socials had to make concessions to the opposition Social Democrats . Although the latter remained a supporter of exclusively parliamentary democracy , she was persuaded to upgrade the office of Federal President on the condition that the head of state was closely linked to the proposals of other state organs.

The Federal President was granted the right to appoint and dismiss the government, but it remained responsible to the National Council and could still be overthrown by a vote of no confidence. In addition, the head of state was given the opportunity to dissolve the National Council, but only at the request of the federal government and not twice for the same reason. Furthermore, the Federal President received the formal supreme command of the Federal Army, but not the power of disposal over the Army. It appoints the highest judges and federal officials , but here too it is bound by proposals from other bodies.

In Article 67, Paragraph 1, a general clause has been included in the constitution, according to which all legal acts of the Federal President, unless otherwise specified, are to be made on the proposal of the Federal Government.

The last Federal President of the First Republic, Wilhelm Miklas , exercised his "renunciation of roles" in a situation that was disastrous for the state: although he was petitioned by over a million citizens, he failed to dismiss the unconstitutional Dollfuss government in 1933; on the contrary, it covered the further breach of the constitution until the "Anschluss" in 1938.

The Federal President in the Second Republic

Understanding of office after 1945

In theory, the position of the Federal President was enormously upgraded in 1929, but in practice his options are still limited, since in most cases he cannot take the initiative without a motion from the federal government that came about as a result of the last National Council elections, without what has been customary for decades To change the understanding of ministry.

In the public perception of the Second Republic , the Federal President usually appears as a “non-partisan mediator” who admonishes and warns, but hardly takes any political initiatives himself. In fact, the Federal Presidents have so far (as of 2015) made little or no use of important competencies.

Since 1929, at the suggestion of the government, the head of state has only dissolved the National Council once (in 1930, after the failure of two governments within a year), but never in the Second Republic (as of 2015). Neither has the Federal President ever dismissed a federal government against its wishes, dissolved a state parliament or exercised his right to issue an emergency ordinance .

So far, the authentication of a law has only been refused once (by Heinz Fischer ) for substantive reasons. In 1953, Federal President Körner thwarted the ÖVP's attempt to form a small coalition instead of a large one. He announced that he would never appoint such a government.

When it came to appointing senior civil servants and judges, there was only occasional resistance from the Federal President.

Change attempts by Thomas Klestils

With the slogan “Power needs control”, Thomas Klestil moved into the Hofburg , the official seat of the Federal President, in 1992 . His intention to strengthen the role of the Federal President in the political structure, however, largely failed due to the resistance of the federal government. Contrary to his original intentions, he was unable to sign the EU membership treaty, nor did he represent Austria at the meetings of the European Council of Heads of State and Government. (This would also have been extremely impractical, as he could only have taken political action in the Council on the proposal of the Federal Chancellor.)

After Klestil had ended the longstanding practice of appointing the first ranked constitutional judge of the National Council's three-way proposal and appointed the third ranked, the grand coalition changed the constitution so that only one proposal now has to be submitted to the president. He can still refuse this, but he is deprived of his original choice.

Even the inauguration of a small coalition between ÖVP and FPÖ , which strongly opposed him, could not prevent Klestil twice, since no other government constellation would have had the majority of the National Council behind it. However, he refused the appointment of two FPÖ ministers against whom criminal investigations were being carried out, and he also appointed the then ÖVP chairman Schüssel to be Federal Chancellor for the federal government Schüssel I , although the FPÖ had more votes.

The example of Klestil shows that in 1929 the Social Democrats actually prevented a presidential republic as much as possible, as they wanted, and that the respective federal government is hardly dependent on a federal president from the same political camp. In view of this, the "renunciation of roles" has largely prevailed in the real constitution.

Current understanding of ministry

Klestil's successor, Heinz Fischer , who served from 2004 to 2016, hardly deviated from this practice. Although he has refused to authenticate a law, he has, as usual, delegated many of his powers of representation and appointment to other bodies. Influence on the government mostly took place behind the scenes: in the case of decisions that would not come about without the Federal President, it was already clarified in advance whether or what the Federal President would sign.

literature

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