🛑ferjal... news
Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen paid a surprise visit to the ‘‘Spektakel‘‘ Center for Culture and the Arts in Vienna—owned by the Iraqi sculptor Abdulrahman Al-Tamimi, known as ‘‘Hawi"—in recognition of the center's significant role in promoting thought, awareness, culture, literature, and art. The visit coincided with a cultural evening and a book signing event for a female author.
Van der Bellen comes from a Russian-bourgeois family; he studied economics at the University of Vienna, where he earned his doctorate, and subsequently served as a professor of economics for twenty years.
He initially joined the Social Democratic Party before moving to the Green Party. He was elected as a federal MP in 1994, appointed federal spokesperson for the Green Party in 1997, and became the leader of the parliamentary group two years later. He stepped down from all official roles in 2008. In 2012, he joined the Vienna State Parliament as an alternate member for a three-year term.
In 2016, he ran for president as an independent candidate with the support of the Green Party. He finished second in the first round—trailing significantly behind the nationalist Norbert Hofer—but won by a narrow margin in the runoff a month later, leading Hofer by 31,000 votes. Van der Bellen thus became Austria's first federal president from the Green Party.
As you can see in this short video, the President is not surrounded by an entourage of servants or heavily armed security details.
