On the occasion of this year’s National Council election, the “Krone” is taking a closer look at all parties in a special digital format. This time, the focus is on the Greens. From ‘expulsion’ from parliament to the governing party at federal level. From the Greens’ perspective, the past seven years have been a political rollercoaster ride. The “Krone” looks back – and forward.
For the first time in years, no high-ranking politician in Austria resigned in May 2024. In previous years it looked completely different. Especially in 2017. After Reinhold Mitterlehner announced his resignation as ÖVP leader, his successor Sebastian Kurz took over and immediately called new elections, the then Green Party leader Eva Glawischnig also resigned – surprisingly for many. By this point at the latest, it became clear to many political observers what, from the Greens’ perspective, would lead to a political catastrophe just a few months later.
Green Party leader Eva Glawischnig, who led the Green Party for nine years, resigned.In her personal statement of May 18, 2017, she cited health reasons for this. However, Glawischnig came under pressure within the party after the lack of a revival following the federal presidential election, but also after the Young Greens were expelled from the federal party. About ten months later, she joined gaming giant Novomatic – to the great surprise of many Greens.
When he retired, Glawischnig left behind a track record: In the 2013 National Council elections, the Greens achieved the best result in the party’s history to date(12.4 percent). Government participation in Upper Austria was lost to the FPÖ during their term in office, but at the time of their withdrawal the Greens were in power in five states: Vienna, Carinthia, Salzburg, Tyrol and Vorarlberg. Since January 2017, Alexander Van der Bellen has also been the first Green Federal President to sit in the Hofburg.
Eva Glawischnig’s successor will be resolved with dual leadership. Ulrike Lunacek was declared the top candidate in the National Council elections, while Ingrid Felipe became federal spokeswoman and thus party leader. Albert Steinhauser became the new club leader of the Greens in the National Council. At the Green Party’s federal congress before the elections, Lunacek received 96.5 percent of the delegates’ votes (248 out of 257 valid votes). This meant that she received more approval than her predecessors. At the conference, she was “convinced that we can win these elections on October 15.” As we know, things ended very differently – and there were even more personnel changes…
After 31 years as a Greens representative and member of the Eco Party, Peter Pilz split from the Greens and participated in the elections for the National Council on 15 October with his own Pilz list. The reason for his departure from the Greens was the Federal Congress. There he was defeated in the vote for fourth place on the list by the youth candidate Julian Schmidt. Pilz refused to run for a position lower on the list, and he also rejected a preferential vote campaign by the party leadership.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
