President Thomas Klestil, who died overnight on Tuesday, is to receive a state funeral in the capital Vienna on Saturday, his office announced on Wednesday.
Klestil died late on Tuesday aged 71 after suffering a heart attack only two days before he was due to leave office. He had served as head of state for 12 years.
A requiem mass will be celebrated at St Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, and the coffin will then be placed in a vault reserved for heads of state at the city’s main cemetery.
Austrians on Wednesday started to pay their last respects to the seventh post-war Austrian president as he lay in state at the Hofburg Palace, the presidential residence.
Parliament was scheduled on Thursday to meet in solemn session following a swearing-on ceremony for Klestil’s successor, the social democrat Heinz Fischer, who was elected in April.
Klestil had been set to hand over office to Fischer on Thursday.
On Friday Klestil’s remains will be placed on a catafalque in the Favoriten church near the Hofburg palace.
While the post is mostly ceremonial, Austria’s president is commander in chief of the country’s military, and the Constitution gives the head of state the power to reject nominations for Cabinet ministers or even to remove them from office — something that has rarely been done.
Klestil, a career diplomat who earlier served as Austria’s ambassador to the United States and to the United Nations, was widely credited with helping restore Austria’s credibility following a controversy over the Nazi German wartime service of his predecessor, Kurt Waldheim.
Waldheim had concealed his service in an SS unit, and it did not come out until after he had retired as UN Secretary-General.
On a trip to Israel during his first term, Klestil expressed sympathy with victims of the Holocaust in a speech to the Knesset, making a reference to Austria’s role in the atrocities — one of the numerous times he spoke out against Nazi horrors and his country’s part in them.
Initially backed by the conservative People’s Party, Klestil was later abandoned by that party due to personal rivalries between him and Schuessel, the party’s leader.
Political differences between the two included the president’s opposition to the rightist Freedom Party, which gained popularity with its anti-immigrant, populist rhetoric, joining Schuessel’s party in a coalition government in 2000.
Klestil backed off. But front-page photos of a stone-faced Klestil swearing in members of the Freedom Party to government posts spoke volumes about his opposition to letting those linked to anti-foreigner and past anti-Jewish sentiment share government responsibility.
Tensions were exacerbated by a mutual disdain between foreign minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner — Schuessel’s protege — and Klestil’s wife, Margot Klestil-Loeffler. Their rivalries — and competitions over whether Ferrero-Waldner or Klestil would represent Austria abroad — often led to one or the other staying at
home instead of sharing the podium on foreign trips.
Critics occasionally accused Klestil of overstepping the ceremonial bounds of his office. But he proved an efficient president, and in 1995, during his first term, Austria joined the European Union.
When the European Union punished Austria for allowing the Freedom Party to join the government, he put his diplomatic skills to work and lobbied heads of states to lift sanctions seven months after they were slapped on the nation.
The Viennese-born Klestil studied economics and business before earning a doctorate in 1957. He worked for the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development before becoming a diplomat.
In 1969, he established the Austrian general consulate in Los Angeles, where he befriended Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Austrian bodybuilder who went on to become a movie star and is now the governor of California.
In 1978, he was appointed Austria’s ambassador to the United Nations. Four years later, he moved to Washington, where he became the Alpine nation’s ambassador to the United States.
Klestil moved back to Austria in 1987 to serve as secretary-general for foreign affairs, becoming the highest-ranking career diplomat in the foreign ministry.
He was elected president in 1992, succeeding Waldheim, and re-elected in 1998.
He is survived by his wife, and a daughter and two sons from a previous marriage. – Sapa-AP