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DIE GRÜNEN, Austria/ The Austrian Greens: Party Profile

In November of 1986 the Austrian Greens entered the Nationalrat (National Parliament) with 8 out of 183 seats. DIE GRÜNEN have since become an essential political force addressing environmental, social and general political issues.

After a setback in the December 1995 general elections (4.81%), DIE GRÜNEN recovered and gained strength. In the general election of October 3rd, 1999, DIE GRÜNEN scored 7.40% with 342,260 votes which gave them 14 MPs. The right-wing populist Freedom Party (FPÖ, Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs) and the christian-democratic ÖVP (Österreichische Volkspartei) each gained 26.9% of the vote, Jörg Haider's FPÖ coming in second just 415 votes in front of ÖVP. The Social Democrats (SPÖ) maintained their position as No. 1. Nevertheless, on 4th February 2000, ÖVP leader Wolfgang Schüssel formed a right-wing government together with FPÖ. In the seven years to follow, DIE GRÜNEN severely criticized this government, particularly with regards to its social politics as well as in the field of environment and democracy.

In July 2001, the 20th Congress of DIE GRÜNEN passed a new party program that includes 6 basic principles: ecology, solidarity, autonomy, grass-root democracy, non-violence and feminism. Since March 2002, Alexander Van der Bellen, University Professor for economy, president of the Green Parliamentary Group and party spokesperson since December 1997, has two vice-chairpersons: Maria Vassilakou, president of the Green Group in Vienna (following Madeleine Petrovic, former MP and afterwards president of the Green Group in Lower Austria, in May 2008), and Eva Glawischnig, environmental expert, vice president of the Green Parliamentary Group and since 2006 Third President of the Nationalrat.

In some regional elections (Landtagswahlen), DIE GRÜNEN also did wel

  • In Tyrol, DIE GRÜNEN scored their best ever election result so far in the regional election of September 28th, 2003: 15.59% of the vote gave them 5 seats.
  • In Upper Austria, the critical position of the regional Christian Democrats towards certain aspects of the Federal Chancellor Schüssel's politics enabled a so called "black-green" cooperation after the regional election of September 28th, 2003: DIE GRÜNEN scored 9.06% and Rudi Anschober became member of the regional government, responsible for environment. A protest of Upper Austria against the federal law on asylum, the decision on a regional anti-discrimination act, the agreement on a stop of new highway projects and several concrete steps for stronger promotion of renewable energies were some of the first measures this new coalition has taken.
  • A great and pleasant surprise was the green victory in the Carinthian regional elections of March 7th, 2004: They overcame the quite high threshold and gained 2 seats in the Landtag of a region where Jörg Haider was re-elected governor (this time forming a coalition with the regional Social Democrats!) and where Greens have always had a very difficult stance.
  • In the capital Vienna, DIE GRÜNEN achieved 14.63% of the vote and 14 seats out of 100 (plus two members of the city government without portfolio) in the elections in October 23rd, 2005. In the elections to the Viennese urban districts, the Greens became strongest political party in the districts no. 7 (Neubau, 43.26%) and no. 8 (Josefstadt, 32.26%), thus holding respectively obtaining the position of district mayor. EU citizens living in Vienna were entitled to vote only for the district councils, and 43.05% of them voted Green. Today (Summer 2008) DIE GRÜNEN are represented in all nine Regional Parliaments with altogether 40 seats and an average vote of 8.5%: Vienna 14.63% (14 seats, 2005), Tyrol 10.73% (4 seats, 2008), Vorarlberg 10.17% (4 seats, 2004), Upper Austria 9.06% (5 seats, 2003), Salzburg 7.99% (2 seats, 2004), Lower Austria 6.91% (4 seats, 2008), Carinthia 6.71% (2 seats, 2004), Burgenland 5.20% (2 seats, 2005) and Styria 4.73% (3 seats, 2005).

DIE GRÜNEN moreover have three seats in the 62 seat Federal Council (Bundesrat) – one for Vienna, Lower Austria and Upper Austria each.

Today, DIE GRÜNEN have about 4,000 - 5.000 party members, they are represented in the city councils of all the regional capitals and have about one thousand of municipal councillors all over Austria. Green or green-affiliated lists have seats in all but 6 towns with over 10,000 inhabitants. The Viennese Greens took the initiative in bringing together green local councillors from all over Europe to discuss common issues and networking. In December 2003 a congress took place in Vienna attended by about 300 participants, a lot of them from the new EU candidate countries. A resolution tabled by the Viennese Greens at the Rome congress of the European Greens in February 2004 includes a catalogue of demands and goals for green politics on the city level.

In autumn 2002, the right-wing government in Austria collapsed due to FPÖ internal disputes and chancellor Schüssel decided to call General Elections on 24th November 2002. A "red-green" majority was not achieved: ÖVP became strongest party for the first time since 1966 (42.30%), SPÖ came in second (36.51%), FPÖ was defeated (10.01%). DIE GRÜNEN scored their best result ever in national elections (9.47% with 464,980 votes) and achieved 17 seats. From May 2003 till June 2004, DIE GRÜNEN held the best Green Party result in general elections world-wide.

After some initial scepticism, the enlarged party committee decided on 5th February 2003 to start coalition negotiations with ÖVP. One argument for this was the attempt to prevent a revival of a new ÖVP-FPÖ government that still had an arithmetical majority. The Greens in Vienna, some Greens in other regions and a number of MPs opposed negotiations because they did not perceive the ÖVP to be willing to seriously leave the political right-wing path it had followed with the FPÖ over the last three years. After one and a half week of negotiations, DIE GRÜNEN decided to break off the negotiations on February 16th, at 5 in the morning after 16 hours of negotiations, because ÖVP was not willing to compromise over crucial issues like a fair pension model, the abolition of university tuition fees, the renouncement of interceptor planes, stronger support for railway transport, partnership regulations for lesbian and gay couples, etc.

It was the first time in Austria that Greens have been in a position to negotiate on forming a government. After the failure of ÖVP to embark on serious reforms, chancellor Schüssel decided to continue to govern together with FPÖ. For the Greens entering into negotiations about forming a government coalition was neither an error nor did it bring about failure. The press and the public paid tribute and respect for their seriousness in the negotiation process. Although the Greens did not enter government then, the days of negotiations have strengthened und changed the Green Party: They are no longer considered the "little sister" of the Social Democrats and the public is aware that the Greens are able to be a partner in a future coalition government.

In the elections to the European Parliament on June 13th, 2004, the tendency of green growth (6.81% in 1996, 9.29% in 1999) prevailed. With 12.89% of the vote (322,429 votes), DIE GRÜNEN held 2 seats. Johannes Voggenhuber was re-elected MEP with the top score of over 30,000 preference votes. His active role in the debate on a new European constitution has been honoured by the voters. The second green MEP is Eva Lichtenberger, former member of the regional government of Tyrol and then MP, who has been struggling against truck transit and for a sustainable transport policy since many years. In the Tyrolean capital Innsbruck (28.52%) and in 5 out of the 23 urban districts of Vienna, DIE GRÜNEN became the strongest party.

In April 2005, a new party, BZÖ (Bündnis Zukunft Österreich, Alliance for the Future of Austria, party color "orange"), was founded by FPÖ MP's and ministers who, together with Jörg Haider, governor of Carinthia, left FPÖ in 2005 and continued to support the ÖVP-led government of Federal Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel, while FPÖ, in government since 2000, returned to opposition again.

The last general election took place on October 1st, 2006. The main issues of the green electoral program were a new energy policy (exit from oil and nuclear power), green job investments (e.g. via energy-efficiency), education, priority for women, organic food, social justice, integration/rights of migrants, stop to social exclusion, freedom instead of paternalism, security and a global foreign policy. While SPÖ was facing troubles caused by the bankruptcy of a trade union-owned bank, the ÖVP minister of education, Elisabeth Gehrer, had a very weak performance, thus allowing the Greens to present their alternative concepts. FPÖ and BZÖ were fighting each other and competed in becoming the most xenophobic political party. The Greens were the only party that kept a strong stance against xenophobia which - as analyses show - helped the Greens especially in the last couple of weeks of the campaign.

The result of the 2006 general election was very encouraging: DIE GRÜNEN for the first time in their history became third-strongest party in Parliament. They scored 11.05% and 520,130 votes. The 21 elected green MP's (4 more than in 2002) are Dieter Brosz, Vice-Party-Chairperson Eva Glawischnig, Kurt Grünewald, Theresia Haidlmayr, Bettina Hradecsni, Werner Kogler, Ruperta Lichtenecker, Ulrike Lunacek (Co-Spokesperson of the European Greens since May 2006), Sabine Mandak, Gabi Moser, Karl Öllinger, Peter Pilz, Wolfgang Pirklhuber, Bruno Rossmann, Michaela Sburny, Birgit Schatz, Albert Steinhauser (since Summer 2007 instead of Terezija Stoisits), Party Chairperson Alexander Van der Bellen, Brigid Weinzinger, Wolfgang Zinggl and Barbara Zwerschitz. That also means that the Greens are the only party to have more women than men in their Parliamentary Group.

In three Viennese districts (no. 6, 7 and 8) the Greens were strongest party, their score in the regions varied between 5.81% (Burgenland) and 17.38% (Vienna). SPÖ surprisingly became strongest party (despite a loss of votes) and scored 35.34%, thus gaining 68 seats. Chancellor Schüssel's ÖVP was defeated and came in second with 34.33% (66 seats), and FPÖ, led by right-wing Heinz-Christian Strache, with 11.04% (21 seats) was short of DIE GRÜNEN. Jörg Haider's BZÖ managed to jump over the 4%-threshold with 4.11% of the vote (7 seats) thanks to 24.90% in Carinthia, the only "orange" stronghold.

Due to the fact that two right-wing parties managed to get seats in Parliament, there was neither a "red-green" nor a "black-green" majority, meaning that the Greens despite their gains were not in a position to negotiate for a government coalition. DIE GRÜNEN refused any coalition with support or even toleration of FPÖ or BZÖ.

Finally, a "Grand Coalition" government SPÖ-ÖVP, led by Federal Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer (SPÖ), came into being. DIE GRÜNEN conquered new political positions due to their advance to the third place. Eva Glawischnig became Third President of Parliament, and Terezija Stoisits achieved the position of the third "Volksanwalt" (ombudsperson) which had to be handed over to her by FPÖ in Summer 2007.

In 2007, SPÖ Chancellor Gusenbauer became increasingly unpopular because SPÖ voters blamed him for having given up on his promises of the election campaign by negotiating a coalition agreement with ÖVP that kept the university tuition fees and made no steps towards a more just redistribution of wealth. The purchase of "Eurofighter" planes was carried through by SPÖ although a Parliamentary Commission of Enquiry, headed by Green MP Peter Pilz, found out that there was some corruption-like behaviour around the deal made by the previous right-wing government.

DIE GRÜNEN campaigned for a right of residence for well-integrated asylum seekers and organized a demonstration with about 10,000 participants on 9th October 2007, protesting against the Minister of Internal Affairs (ÖVP) who announced the deportation of a Kosovo-Albanian school girl from Austria.

On 20th January 2008, the Greens received 14.56% of the vote in the municipal election of Graz, the second-largest Austrian city (250,000 inhabitants) and doubled their seats. The election campaign was overshadowed by extremely islamophobic statements by the FPÖ top of the list candidate. After some weeks of negotiations, a coalition agreement with ÖVP was concluded, and openly lesbian Lisa Rücker, the Green top of the list candidate, became deputy mayoress and city government member responsible for traffic and environment.

Discussions in Spring 2008 still circulate around the issue of possible advanced elections. ÖVP (still not accepting the electoral defeat of 2006) and SPÖ are blocking each other in the government, begrudging the partner any success.