Following the 1986 elections, Alois Mock was Austrian vice chancellor in the government of Franz Vranitzky (SPÖ) from 1987 to 1989. From 1987 to 1995, he was foreign minister, leading Austria into the European Union. He became one of Austria's most popular politicians. In June 1989, together with his Hungarian colleague Gyula Horn, he cut the wires of the Iron Curtain near Sopron at the fortified border to Communist neighbour Hungary. As a result, during the following months, thousands of East German citizens were able to exit the Eastern Bloc [citation needed]
In November 1989 Mock was one of the founders of the Central European cooperative Pentagonale, which later grew from 5 countries to 18 of the CEI (Central European Initiative). In 1999, he retired from parliament because of Parkinson's disease. At the time of his death, Mock was a Member of the Advisory Board of the Global Panel Foundation, an NGO that works behind the scenes in crisis areas around the world.[3]