===
Social Democratic Party of Austria=== Incumbent President
Heinz Fischer (
independent, former member of the
Social Democratic Party) announced on 23 November 2009 that he will seek a second term. According to a 27 June 2009,
Gallup poll for the newspaper
Österreich, Fischer had a job approval rating of 80%. ===
Austrian People's Party=== There were rumours that the candidate of the
Austrian People's Party would be either Governor of
Lower Austria Erwin Pröll or president of the
Austrian Federal Economic Chamber Christoph Leitl. On 13 October 2009 Pröll announced that he would not run for the presidency and that he would remain Governor of Lower Austria. Leitl and former governor of Styria
Waltraud Klasnic also declined a presidential run. On 25 February 2010, the People's Party announced that it would not nominate a candidate, and would not officially support any candidate. ===
Freedom Party of Austria=== The
Freedom Party announced in June 2009 that it would definitely field a candidate "to prevent Fischer['s reelection]". Possible candidates mentioned included
Martin Graf,
Norbert Steger,
Siegfried Dillersberger,
Norbert Gugerbauer,
Dieter Böhmdorfer and
Wilhelm Brauneder. After the Carinthian branch of the
Alliance for the Future of Austria broke away to re-unite with the Freedom Party, it was rumoured that
Barbara Rosenkranz would be their candidate. In early January 2010,
Heinz-Christian Strache, leader of the Freedom Party, guaranteed that the party would nominate a candidate to assure that Fischer would not run unopposed. On 28 February 2010, Strache announced in the
Kronen Zeitung that the Freedom Party would nominate Barbara Rosenkranz as its presidential candidate. ===
Alliance for the Future of Austria===
Alliance for the Future of Austria leader
Josef Bucher and General Secretary
Stefan Petzner voiced their support for a presidential candidacy of
Claudia Haider, widow of former Alliance leader
Jörg Haider, by inviting
the Greens and the Freedom Party to form a non-partisan committee.
Carinthia Governor
Gerhard Dörfler spoke out against such a candidacy, because he "wouldn't like to join forces with Heinz-Christian Strache's [Freedom Party]", but nonetheless said that Claudia Haider would be a "good candidate, who could finance her campaign on her own". On 17 August, Haider announced that she would not run for president. On 26 February 2010, Bucher said that he might run as a candidate for his party, because "he could appeal to [People's Party] voters". On 1 March 2010, the Alliance announced that Bucher would not stand as a candidate, as the odds were clearly against him and they did not want to waste taxpayers' money. ===
The Greens – The Green Alternative=== It was expected that former
Green Party leader
Alexander Van der Bellen might stand in the election, but he stated in January 2009 that if Fischer ran for reelection he would have his support. In June 2009, however, Green party leader
Eva Glawischnig stated that the Greens were considering fielding a candidate, and that Van der Bellen would be a very good candidate. By November 2009, there was still no clear decision from the Greens, even though Van der Bellen had ruled out a run for the presidency on 23 November 2009. On 25 February 2010, the Greens announced they wanted to concentrate on state elections and would not nominate a candidate. After Fischer appeared at an event where the Greens questioned him on a number of issues, with questions submitted by voters via the internet, the Greens on 12 April 2010 officially endorsed his candidacy and called for their voters to vote for him, a first in the party's history. ===
Christian Party of Austria=== The
Christian Party nominated its chairman
Rudolf Gehring as a presidential candidate. On 25 March 2010, they announced they had gathered the necessary number signatures to run for president.
Other candidates A former judge from eastern
Styria,
Martin Wabl, who had twice previously tried to run for president, announced on 6 February 2009 that he would run again. Green municipal councillor
Ulrich Habsburg-Lothringen, as a descendant of
the former ruling house of
Austria-Hungary incapacitated by constitutional law to run for Austria's presidency, stated that he wanted to test the law at Austria's constitutional court if his candidacy is not permitted.
Bernhard Gregor Honemann (nominated by the platform agenda2020.at) also planned to run. None of these candidates obtained the 6000 signatures necessary to run for president. The signatures submitted were: • Fischer: 45,000 signatures • Rosenkranz: 10,500 signatures • Gehring: 8,000 signatures ==Voter statistics==