Peter Kaiser (born 4 December 1958) is an Austrian politician of the Social Democratic Party. Since March 2013 he is governor of

Carinthia Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German language, German. Its regional dialects belong to t ...

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 autonomy, or ...

, at the same time he studied sociology and education at the University of Klagenfurt. In 1988 he became ''

Magister Magister is Latin for "master" or "teacher". It may refer to: Positions and titles * Magister degree, an academic degree * Magister equitum, or Master of the Horse * Magister militum, a master of the soldiers * Magister officiorum (''master of o ...

'' and five years later he was promoted to doctor of philosophy.

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'' from 1989 to 1994, 1997, 2001 to July 2008, and from November 2005 on as parliamentary leader of the SPÖ. 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 '' Landtag'' with 30 of 36 votes, and thus succeeded former officeholder Gerhard Dörfler 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 to do so. On 2 April 2013 Kaiser was sworn in as governor of Carinthia by Federal President Heinz Fischer. 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 incre ...

the SPÖ 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.

Personal life

Kaiser was married to Larissa Krainer and has a son. Besides his political functions Kaiser has been involved for the Carinthian Volleyball union and the ''Jugendherbergswesen'' ( Hostelling International).

References

External links

Peter Kaiser
on Facebook * Die Presse
''Kärnten: Cernic und Kaiser neue SP-Regierungsmitglieder''
from 9. Juli 2008 * Die Presse
''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 Social Democratic Party of Austria politicians Politicians from Klagenfurt University of Klagenfurt alumni