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

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

Carinthian Slovene Carinthian Slovenes or Carinthian Slovenians ( sl, Koroški Slovenci; german: Kärntner Slowenen) are the indigenous minority of Slovene ethnicity, living within borders of the Austrian state of Carinthia, neighboring Slovenia. Their status of ...

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

and

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

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 the field of humanities that researches, documents and disseminates German language and literature in both its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies often include classes on German culture, German hi ...

at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...

, 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 (german: Österreichische Hochschülerinnen- und Hochschülerschaft, ÖH) is the general students' representative body in Austria and serves as the students' government by federal law. The ÖH is memb ...

. During his studies he became involved in the Slovene Students' Association () and created the Slovenian student newspaper '' Kladivo'', 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 Central committee is the common designation of a standing administrative body of Communist party, communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, of both ruling and nonruling parties of former and existing socialist states. In such party org ...

, 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 Klagenfurt am WörtherseeLandesgesetzblatt 2008 vom 16. Jänner 2008, Stück 1, Nr. 1: ''Gesetz vom 25. Oktober 2007, mit dem die Kärntner Landesverfassung und das Klagenfurter Stadtrecht 1998 geändert werden.'/ref> (; ; sl, Celovec), usually ...

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 (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 *Malina (The Emperor's New Sch ...

. 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