Štefan Miroslav "Mirko" Messner (born 16 December 1948) is an

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

Carinthian Slovene Carinthian Slovenes or Carinthian Slovenians (; ; ) are the indigenous minority of Slovene ethnicity, living within borders of the Austrian state of Carinthia, neighboring Slovenia. Their status of the minority group is guaranteed in principle b ...

Slavicist Slavic (American English) or Slavonic (British English) studies, also known as Slavistics, is the academic field of area studies concerned with Slavic peoples, languages, literature, history, and culture. Originally, a Slavist or Slavicist was ...

and

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

politician, leading the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) from February 2006 to June 2021.

Life

After graduating from high school, Messner studied Slavic studies and

German studies German studies is an academic field that researches, documents and disseminates German language, literature, and culture in its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies therefore often focus on German culture, German h ...

at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

, where he received his doctorate in 1977. As a teenager, he was politically active in the (Association of Socialist Middle Schoolers) in Carinthia. After its dissolution in 1973, Messner joined the KPÖ-led Communist Student Union within the

Austrian Students' Association The Austrian Students' Union by statutory body (, ÖH) is the general students' representative body in Austria and serves as the students' government by federal law. The ÖH is a member of the European Students' Union. Membership in the ÖH is co ...

. During his studies he became involved in the Slovene Students' Association () and created the Slovenian student newspaper ''

Kladivo ''Kladivo'' (meaning ''Hammer'' in English) was a Slovene language, Slovene and German language cultural-political magazine published from Klagenfurt, Austria, from 1970 to 1989. History and profile ''Kladivo'' was founded by a group of Slovene ...

'', which was published until 1989. When he could not assert his view of nationality policy on the question of Slovenian minority in the party, Messner resigned from all party offices, including membership of the central committee, and quit his job as an employee of the party in 1987. After the KPÖ held the (Party Congress for Renewal in Graz) in 2005, Messner was initially active in the reconstitution of the KPÖ in Klagenfurt and was finally elected as the party's minority spokesman and a member of its federal executive board in February 2006. In March of the same year, Messner was also elected Federal Spokesperson for the party together with

Melina Klaus Melina may refer to: *Melina (given name), including a list of people with the name *"Melina", a No.1 hit song by Camilo Sesto 1975 *"Melina", a song by Tapani Kansa * Melina, Dobretići, a village in Bosnia and Herzegovina * An alternative spellin ...

. Messner has been the leading candidate for his party in all four Austrian National Council elections since 2006. From 2009 to 2016 he was also editor of the party newspaper '' Volksstimme'', which appears as a monthly magazine. Messner was the sole federal spokesman for the KPÖ from 2012 to 2021.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Messner, Mirko 1948 births Austrian communists Austrian journalists Communist writers Carinthian Slovenes Communist Party of Austria politicians Living people Slavists University of Vienna alumni