On 27 April 2007 Austria celebrated the 62nd anniversary of the Second Republic. On 27 April 1945 Karl Renner’s provisional government had signed the Austrian Declaration of Independence. After the wreath-laying ceremony in the consecration room and the crypt of Burgtor, the entrance to Hofburg, the government held a special Council of Ministers.
In his statement Gusenbauer did not only thank the generation of the post-war reconstruction era but also reminded of the victims of the NS regime and Austria’s co-responsibility for the crimes of National Socialism. A lasting political and social consensus had been the foundation for Austria’s success story. The Chancellor referred to the EU as a peace project “which we will support and promote to the best of our ability“.