President of Austria

Federal President of the Republic of Austria Bundespräsident der Republik Österreich
State flag of Austria
Incumbent Presidium Doris Bures, Karlheinz Kopf, Norbert Hofer since 8 July 2016
Style	Mr. President (Herr Präsident)
Residence	Leopoldine Tract of the Hofburg Imperial Palace in Vienna
Appointer	Popular vote
Term length	Six years renewable once
Inaugural holder	Karl Seitz 5 March 1919
Formation	Constitution of Austria
Salary	€328,188
Website	bundespraesident.at

The President of Austria (German: Österreichischer Bundespräsident, lit. "Austrian Federal President") is the federal head of state of Austria. Though theoretically entrusted with great power by the Constitution of Austria, in practice the President acts, for the most part, merely as a ceremonial figurehead who acts mostly on the advice of the Chancellor and the Cabinet. The President of Austria is directly elected by universal adult suffrage once in every six years. The President's offices are located in the Leopoldine Wing of the Hofburg Imperial Palace, in Vienna.

Many presidents have gained tremendous popularity while in office, and no incumbent has ever lost a bid for re-election, although Kurt Waldheim did not run for a second term in office. Five presidents died in office. From 2004 to 2016, the office was occupied by social democrat Heinz Fischer. Since the establishment of direct election in 1951, only members of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) and Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) (and their predecessors) had been elected to the post (with the exception of Rudolf Kirchschläger, an independent endorsed by both the SPÖ and ÖVP) until the election of Green-endorsed Alexander Van der Bellen in 2016.

Prior to the collapse of the multinational Austro-Hungarian empire towards the end of World War I, what now is the Republic of Austria had been part of a monarchy with an emperor as its head of state and chief executive. The empire noticeably began to fracture in late 1917 and manifestly disintegrated into a number of independent nation states over the course of the following year.