Klestil, Thomas

▪ 2005

      Austrian diplomat and politician (b. Nov. 4, 1932, Vienna, Austria—d. July 6, 2004, Vienna), worked to earn international respect for Austria, serving as an ambassador, as foreign minister, and, finally, as president from 1992. Klestil began his career in the Foreign Ministry in 1962. After serving as Austrian ambassador to the UN (1978–82) and to the U.S. (1982–87), he returned home to head the Foreign Ministry. After Klestil succeeded Kurt Waldheim as president, he devoted his energies to rehabilitating Austria's image, which had suffered because of its apparent tolerance of Waldheim's Nazi past. Klestil was reelected in 1998. He faced a political crisis in 2000 when the ruling conservative People's Party formed a coalition with the right-wing Freedom Party and the country was ostracized by the member-states of the European Union, which it had joined in 1995. The diplomatic sanctions were lifted after about seven months. Klestil died in office two days before the end of his second term.

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