Gusenbauer, Alfred

(1960–)

   A native of Lower Austria, Gusenbauer earned a doctorate in political science and law from the University of Vienna. Beginning with his election in 1984 as head of the Socialist Party of Austria’s (SPÖ) youth organization, he worked his way up the organizational ladder of the movement to become party leader in 2000 and federal chancellor in 2007. He had also been a member of the upper house (Bundesrat) of the Austrian parliament and served in several Austrian delegations to the European Union.

   Gusenbauer’s short-lived coaltion government with the Austrian People’s Party, which collapsed in 2008, was politically fractious. The cause of his SPÖ was further weakened by its continued association, through the Austrian Federation of Trade Unions, with the BAWAG banking scandal. Gusenbauer’s efforts to discipline the federation brought him under fire from the group. He also found it very difficult to realize any of the fiscal and social reforms that he had promised in the hotly contested federal election campaign of 2006.