ABSTRACT
Kurt Waldheim served as president of Austria from 1986 until 1992. In the years before his presidency, Waldheim had been UN Secretary-General from 1972 to 1981. Nevertheless, Waldheim was criticized by the World Jewish Congress, but Austrian support for him was even stronger after the accusations that he had participated in war crimes. "Jetzt erst recht" was one of Waldheim's slogans in his second run for the presidency. Franz Jagerstatter became a symbol of Christian resistance against National Socialism. In the 1980s, a process of beatification was begun, and on 26 October 2007, Franz Jagerstatter was beatified in Linz. The newly-elected parliament changed basic details of Austria's electoral law: the age requirement for voting was reduced to sixteen years, the postal vote was introduced, and the term of the legislature was extended from four to five years.
