Werner Faymann Federal Chancellor of Austria since 2008 Date of Birth: 04.05.1960 Country: Austria

Biography of Werner Faymann

Werner Faymann is an Austrian politician who has served as the Federal Chancellor of Austria since 2008. He was born in Vienna, Austria. During his time in a German school in Vienna, Faymann joined the ranks of the Socialist Youth, the youth wing of the Social Democratic Party of Austria. After graduating from school, he completed his military service and became the chairman of the National Socialist Youth in Vienna in 1981. In this role, he organized a protest demonstration against the visit of Pope John Paul II to Austria in 1983.

From 1985 to 1994, Faymann served as the regional chairman of the "Sozialistische Jugend Wien" (Young Socialists Vienna) movement. In addition, he studied law at the University of Vienna for four semesters, although his course was purely theoretical without practical classes. During this time, he worked as a consultant at "Zentralsparkasse Bank" (now "Bank Austria"). He left this position to become the director and regional chairman of the Vienna Tenants Council.

Faymann then became a member of the Vienna Parliament and Municipal Council, where he focused on housing construction and urban architecture. During this period, he served as the Federal Minister of Transport, Innovation, and Technology in the government of Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer. In January 2007, his position was restructured to Minister of Infrastructure.

On June 16, 2008, Faymann replaced Gusenbauer as the chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Austria and led the party during the legislative elections on September 28, 2008. Despite losing 11 seats and 6% of the votes, the Social Democrats surpassed their main rivals, the Austrian People's Party, both in terms of seats and percentage composition. Faymann effectively became the leader of the largest party in the National Council of Austria, and on October 8, Federal President Heinz Fischer entrusted him with forming a new government.

By forming a coalition with their fierce competitors, the Austrian People's Party, Werner successfully led the newly formed alliance to take the oath on December 2, 2008. The media mainly portrays Faymann's activities in a positive light, while critics claim that this is a result of the chancellor's longstanding friendship with Hans Dichand, the publisher of the central Austrian newspaper "Kronen Zeitung".

Currently, Faymann is married to Martina Ludwig-Faymann and has two daughters, one from his previous marriage.