Margot Klestil-Löffler

Margot Klestil-Löffler
Margot Klestil-Löffler in 2004
Austrian ambassador to the Russian Federation
Incumbent
Assumed office
December, 2009
President Heinz Fischer
Personal details
Born Margot Löffler
April 3, 1954
Dobersberg, Lower Austria
Religion Roman Catholicism

Margot Klestil-Löffler (born 4 March 1954) is an Austrian diplomat and the widow of Thomas Klestil, the former federal president of Austria. Her parents, Karl Löffler and Gerda Löffler, were farmers.

Margot Löffler was born in Dobersberg, Lower Austria. After her diplomatic career in Moscow and Bangkok, she joined Thomas Klestil's office, who was by that time general secretary in the Austrian ministry of foreign affairs. When Thomas Klestil ran for the presidency in 1992, she was managing his election campaign.

During his first term of office, it became public that they had a love affair. Thomas Klestil divorced his first wife Edith[1] and married Margot Löffler on 23 December 1998. She became the country's first lady, but continued her job in the foreign ministry, which led to the strange situation that she was ranking higher than her former boss, foreign minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner, on state visits or other official occasions.

When Thomas Klestil died in office on 6 July 2004, both his wives attended the funeral service held in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna. The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, brusqued Klestil's second wife by welcoming Edith first.[2]

After her husband's death on 6 July 2004, she was appointed Austrian ambassador to the Czech Republic. Since December 2009, she has been Austrian ambassador to the Russian Federation.

Klestil-Löffler made headlines during the 2014 Sochi winter games when she tried to take a family of Puppies from America's silver medalist Gus Kenworthy.

Mrs Klestil-Löffler speaks German, English, French, Russian and Czech.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Ottaway, David B. (Feb 2, 1994). "Blues on the Danube: A Modern Austrian Operetta in Three-Part Disharmony". The Washington Post (Washington, D.C.). p. a.13. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Senta Ziegler: "Österreichs First Ladies". Vienna. Ueberreuter 1999 ISBN 3-8000-3719-X