CERCLE DIPLOMATIQUE - issue 02/2016

LE MONDE AUSTRIA | INTERVIEW
“If the role of a president is to
build trust and to keep an eye on
the constitution, I can honestly
say, I didn‘t fail in these goals.“
and see him the first time I visited him in
Bejing. He even had the old photo of him
and me in Vienna framed and it was on the
front page of the Chinese People‘s Daily
newspaper. My long friendships and acquaintances
were certainly of great benefit
during my term in office.
Mr. President, when we look back on the 12 years
of your term in office, the first third was all
sunshine and roses and the last two thirds where
shaped by one crisis after another – the financial
crisis from 2008 onwards, the European debt and
Greece crisis from 2010, outbreak of the civil war
in Syria in 2011, war in Ukraine and the Crimean
crisis since 2014, the refugee crisis since 2015,
terror everywhere you look. How would you
assess the state of the world today?
In retrospect, the second third was certainly
more difficult than the first third and
the last was even more difficult than the
second. But I couldn‘t give you a year where
not much was going on. Even 2004 to 2008
was defined by the consequences of the
Iraq War, the unstable situation in the
Middle East, NATO expansion, the failure
of the EU constitutional treaty. There was
always something going on. Fukuyama‘s
thesis that the fall of the Iron Curtain
would result in an end to the story never
happened. But it is true that during the last
third of my term in office the problems,
which had arisen before in the shape of the
Syrian war, the refugee crisis and Islamic
State terror, had increased dramatically.
Do you think these developments could threaten
the instability of the global political order and
endanger the European project, the EU?
It is in fact a whole string of difficulties
and problems that have been solved in an
unsatisfying way, so the term “crisis situation”
is no exaggeration. Especially in the
21st century, European countries need to
cooperate with each other in order to fulfil
the high ideal of the European Union. Full
stop. Now, we have a situation where the
convincing overall goal is suffering cracks
and flaws and the general idea that this union
is important has taken a back seat because
the EU has not been able to deal with
a number of problems. At the same time,
the centrifugal forces are getting stronger.
The refugee problem has triggered national
egotisms – their attitude is to let someone
else solve it, in line with the Floriani Principle.
This is the unfortunate outcome and
Europe has to pull itself out of this situation
again.
Is the basic concept of the EU – no more war on
the continent due to unity and cooperation – no
longer strong enough?
This concept is still completely right.
Time and again, pupils ask me whether I
can still remember the war. Then I tell them
that to this day, I automatically put my
socks and clothes for the following days
next to my bed because that‘s what was instilled
in me as a child during the war. The
aerial attacks, the smell of soot in the coal
cellar, the anti-aircraft fire and the bleeding
fingers you would get from the razor-sharp
shrapnel and naturally all the dead bodies
that lay everywhere are etched in my memory
just as strongly. This is why I see war
as the “ultimo irratio”, just like Willy Brandt
did. But I admit that this original concept
of Europe is going through a fading out in
people‘s emotions because less and less
people who actually experienced the war
are still alive.
Where do you see the Austrian Armed Forces in
this context?
There are justified distressed and forced
situations, such as when you‘re dealing
with a Hitler who is hell-bent on imposing
his terrible, dreadful ideology onto other
countries with force. Therefore, you need
to have a national defence. The Austrian
Armed Forces, however, are not an instrument
of warfare but of keeping peace.
Why couldn‘t you prevent the Austrian UN troops
from being pulled out from the Golan Heights in
2013, which is generally seen as one of the few
blemishes during your term in office?
At the time the decision was made, the
reports I had from the Minister of Defence
on the allegedly life-threatening situation
for our UN soldiers in Golan Heights contained
no information that would have put
me in a position where I would have been
able to say, “Please, don‘t do it, we can‘t
waver.” No president would have acted any
differently. But today, with the knowledge
that accumulated in the subsequent weeks
and months, I would say that this decision
was wrong.
PHOTOS: RALPH MANFREDA, TATIC/HBF (1)
Were there, looking back at the end of your term
in office, any other wrong decisions, moments of
failure you would like to evaluate?
That actually depends on how you understand
the role of this office. When someone
wants to become president and promises
to reduce unemployment, increase the
minimum pension, finally reform the education
system and even check if everything
is as it should be in Brussels, then his list of
failures will be pretty long. But if the role of
the president is to see the whole picture, to
be a modest force behind the scenes in
bringing rivalling parties together, to build
trust in the population and in the world for
Austria, to keep an eye on the constitution
and to also act as an adviser to the government,
then I can honestly say that I did not
fail in any of these goals.
The Austrian Federal President
Heinz Fischer during the
interview with Cercle
Diplomatique‘s publisher
Alexander Bursky (center)
and the author Rainer
Himmelfreundpointner.
Heinz Fischer and China‘s
former prime minister Wen
Jiabao with a picture that has
been taken during a visit of
Wen to Austria 25 years ago.
Bitter Sweet Symphony
From a Wiener Melange to home-made cakes to a small breakfast or a quick snack –
the choice is infinite. All items for take-away. During the summer months, guests
enjoy an outside terrace with stunning views onto the Bognergasse.
Café Am Hof
Am Hof 2
1010 Vienna
42
Cercle Diplomatique 2/2016