Peter Kaiser (born 4 December 1958) 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 ...

n politician of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

. Since March 2013 he is

governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

Carinthia Carinthia ( ; ; ) is the southernmost and least densely populated States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The Lake Wolayer is a mountain lake on the Carinthian side of the Carnic Main ...

and since March 2010 also chairman of the SPÖ Carinthia.

Education

From 1978 to 1987 Kaiser worked as a contractual employee of the Carinthian

state government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonom ...

, at the same time he studied

sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

and education at the

University of Klagenfurt The University of Klagenfurt ( or ''Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt'', AAU) is a federal Austrian research university and the largest research and higher education institution in the States of Austria, state of Carinthia. It has its campus in ...

. In 1988 he became '' Magister'' and five years later he was promoted to

doctor of philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

Political career

Kaiser took his first politician position in 1981 as chairman of the ''Carinthian socialist youth'', later in 1986 he became member of the Carinthian '' Gemeinderat'' and held this office until 1989. Kaiser was member of the Carinthian ''

Landtag A ''Landtag'' (State Diet) is generally the legislative assembly or parliament of a federated state or other subnational self-governing entity in German-speaking nations. It is usually a unicameral assembly exercising legislative competence ...

'' from 1989 to 1994, 1997, 2001 to July 2008, and from November 2005 on as

parliamentary leader A parliamentary leader is a political title or a descriptive term used in various countries to designate the person leading a parliamentary group or caucus in a legislature, legislative body, whether it be a national or sub-national legislature. ...

of the

SPÖ The Social Democratic Party of Austria ( , SPÖ) is a social democratic political party in Austria. Founded in 1889 as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (, SDAPÖ) and later known as the Socialist Party of Austria () from 1945 unt ...

. In July 2008 he became state consultant for health and sports. In 2010 Kaiser succeeded Reinhart Rohr (who left the government) as chairman of the SPÖ Carinthia and thus became second deputy governor. Beate Prettner replaced Kaiser in his position as state councilor. On 3 March 2013 the SPÖ became the biggest party again for the first time since 1994, through Kaiser as their top-candidate after the

2013 Carinthian state election The 2013 Carinthian state election was held on 3 March 2013 to elect the members of the Landtag of Carinthia. The election saw a massive shift in Carinthian politics, which had been dominated by the Freedom Party in Carinthia (FPK) and Governor J� ...

s. Subsequently, he was elected governor by the Carinthian ''

'' with 30 of 36 votes, and thus succeeded former officeholder

Gerhard Dörfler Gerhard Dörfler (born 29 May 1955) is an Austrian politician, who served as Governor of Carinthia from 27 October 2008 (acting since 11 October), following Governor Jörg Haider's sudden death in a car accident, to 28 March 2013. Dörfler is a ...

of the Freedom Party. At his inaugural speech Kaiser spoke some words in Slovenian, the second regional language, he was the first Carinthian

head of government In the Executive (government), executive branch, the head of government is the highest or the second-highest official of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presid ...

to do so. On 2 April 2013 Kaiser was sworn in as governor of Carinthia by Federal President

Heinz Fischer Heinz Fischer Order of Prince Henry, GColIH, Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, OMRI, Order of the Seraphim, RSerafO, Military Order of Saint James of the Sword, GCollSE (; born 9 October 1938) is an Austrian politician who served as the pre ...

. At the

2018 Carinthian state election The 2018 Carinthian state election was held on 5 March 2018 to elect the members of the Landtag of Carinthia. The centre-left Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) was the clear winner, taking 47.9% of votes, an eleven percentage point increa ...

the

once again grew bigger by gaining 10.8 percentage points under Kaiser as their top candidate. On 16 April 2018 he was officially confirmed in his position by President

Alexander Van der Bellen Alexander "Sascha" Van der Bellen (; born 18 January 1944), also referred to by the abbreviation VdB, is an Austrian politician serving as the president of Austria since 2017. He previously served as a professor of economics at the University ...

Personal life

Kaiser was married to Larissa Krainer and has a son. Besides his political functions Kaiser has been involved for the Carinthian

Volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

union and the ''Jugendherbergswesen'' (

Hostelling International Hostelling International (HI) is a non-governmental, not-for-profit organisation working with UNESCO and the World Tourism Organisation UNWTO. Formerly known as the International Youth Hostel Federation, Hostelling International has 60 member ...

References

External links

Peter Kaiser
on Facebook *

Die Presse (, ) is a German-language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Vienna, Austria. It is considered a newspaper of record for Austria. History and profile was first printed on 3 July 1848 as a liberal (libertarian)-bourgeois newspaper within the ...

''Kärnten: Cernic und Kaiser neue SP-Regierungsmitglieder''
from 9. Juli 2008 *

''Peter Kaiser: 51 Jahre ohne Kärntner Anzug. Porträt''
from 24 April 2010
Peter Kaiser
on the sites of the Carinthian government *
Peter Kaiser
on www.meineabgeordneten.at {{DEFAULTSORT:Kaiser, Peter 1958 births Living people Governors of Carinthia Social Democratic Party of Austria politicians Politicians from Klagenfurt University of Klagenfurt alumni