Alois Mock

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Dr. Alois Mock (born June 10, 1934) is a politician and member of the Christian-conservative Austrian People's Party (ÖVP). He was Vice Chancellor of Austria from 1987 to 1989. As foreign minister he helped take Austria into the European Union.

Born in Euratsfeld, Lower Austria, Mock went on to study law at the University of Vienna and later international law in Bologna and Brussels. In Vienna, he became a member of K.A.V. Norica Wien, a Roman Catholic student fraternity, which is a member of the Cartellverband.

From 1961 to 1966 Alois Mock advised the Bundeskanzler Josef Klaus on EEC and EFTA policy and for the OECD in Paris. In 1966 he became of Klaus' cabinet secretary and from 1969-1970 was the youngest education minister Austria had ever had.

After the Nationalrat elections of 1971 - where the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) under Bruno Kreisky won a majority - he became a member of parliament and mayor of Euratsfeld. From 1971 to 1978, "Lois" chaired the ÖAAB, the most important grouping of the ÖVP. From 1978 to 1987 he was chairman of the parliamentary party and from 1979 was also federal party chairman. He was later to be succeeded by Josef Riegler, Erhard Busek and Wolfgang Schüssel.

In 1979, Mock became the President of the European Democratic Union (EDU), and from 1983 to 1987 also of the international Christian democratic International Democratic Union (IDU).

At the 1983 elections the ÖVP got almost the same percentage as Kreisky's SPÖ, who did not want to continue without an absolute majority and therefore retired.

Following the 1986 elections, from 1987 to 1989 Alois Mock was Austrian Vice Chancellor in the government of Franz Vranitzky (SPÖ). He held the position of foreign minister from 1987 to 1995, leading Austria into the European Union. He became one of Austria's most popular politicians.

In the summer of 1989, the foreign ministers of Austria and Hungary, Alois Mock and Gyula Horn, ceremonially cut through the border defenses separating their countries.

In July 1989 he cut the wire of the Iron Curtain at the fortified border with Communist neighbour Hungary, together with his Hungarian counterpart Gyula Horn. During the following months thousands of East German citizens could therefore emigrate to Austria and West Germany. This marked the beginning of the fall of Communism.

Together with Hans-Dietrich Genscher of Germany he decided to acknowledge the independence of Slovenia and Croatia, but Europe nevertheless could not prevent the Yugoslavian wars. In November 1989 Alois Mock was one of the founders of the Central European cooperative called Pentagonale, which later grew from 5 countries to the 16 of the CEI (Central European Initiative).

In 1999 he retired as a member of parliament due to Parkinson's disease. Nevertheless he is still intensively interested in Austrian politics, especially those aspects which concern the Austria's Eastern neighbours.

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