In 1978 the Austrian
Green movement began with the
successful campaign to prevent the opening of the
Zwentendorf Nuclear Power Plant (which had been favoured by
Bruno Kreisky's government). Another major event in the Austrian environmental movement were the
sit-in protests in 1984 which prevented the
Danube power plant at
Hainburg from being built. The VGÖ and ALÖ contested the
1983 Austrian legislative election, scoring 1.9 and 1.4 percent of the vote each but failing to win any seats. Following this the two parties agreed joint lists for state elections in Salzburg, Tyrol, Voralberg and Styria, although other environmentalist lists also contested elections during this time. The joint lists enjoyed success in Voralberg, achieving 13 percent and four seats in 1984, and Styria, where they won 3.7 percent of the vote and two seats. The immediate catalyst for the merger of the two parties was the candidacy of activist
Freda Meissner-Blau in the
1986 Austrian presidential election, in which she won 5.5 percent of the vote. A few months after the election members of the VGÖ and ALÖ, along with journalist, environmentalist and former Socialist Party member
Günther Nenning's Citizens' Parliamentary Initiative and other groups to form Green Alternative.
Federal level In the
1986 parliamentary elections the Green Party started off with 4.82% of all votes cast and entered parliament with eight
National Council mandates. In the early elections to National Council in
2002, the Green Party nationwide received 9.47% of votes, and won 17 mandates to the National Council. At that time, it was the highest number of votes garnered by any European Green party. When the Greens took their seats in parliament for the first time, they chose to appear somewhat unconventional. They initially refused to adapt their behaviour to that of the other parties; an example of this is their refusal to elect a chairperson (
Klubobmann/Klubobfrau) and designated a puppet made out of straw instead. Delegates would appear in parliament dressed in casual wear such as jeans and trainers. Worldwide attention was drawn when the Green delegate Andreas Wabl hoisted a
swastika flag on the speakers podium in the Austrian parliament, protesting against then
Federal President Kurt Waldheim. They were also highly active in parliament, proposing 60 pieces of legislation and asking over 400 written questions within 18 months of the Greens' entry to the National Council, more than any other party. After the national election in
2002, the Greens entered into preliminary negotiations about a possible coalition government with the conservative ÖVP. During negotiations, party leadership was accused of internally black-mailing skeptical members. Negotiations between the two parties were subsequently called off, after the results with the ÖVP were not sufficient. The Green youth organisation
Grünalternative Jugend (Green Alternative Youth or GAJ) briefly occupied the rooms of the Green parliamentary club in the Austrian parliament building in protest. In 2003 three Green federal counsellors formed their own club in the Upper House
Federal Council (
Bundesrat) of Parliament. After the 2006 elections the Greens gained four seats and ended up with 21 seats and became the third largest party in Parliament, however did not have enough mandates to form a coalition government with either the
Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) or
Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) and became the largest opposition party, while the SPÖ and ÖVP formed a
grand coalition government. The party suffered from internal struggles in 2017, losing its Youth wing (which split away and formed an ephemeral
joint list with the
Communist Party of Austria) and later experiencing a split of
Peter Pilz's faction, forming the
Peter Pilz List. The
2017 legislative election saw a collapse for the party, scoring only 3.8% and losing its representation in the Nationalrat for the first time since 1986. Following the results, party spokesman
Ingrid Felipe resigned from her post and was replaced by
Werner Kogler. The party saw a revival in the
2019 European election, in which they scored 14.1% and elected 2 MEPs. The election saw the collapse of JETZ. The party eventually later this year, experienced a strong recovery and performed better well leading up to the
2019 snap legislative election, the Greens returned to the
National Council () with their best ever result in a legislative election, scoring 13.9% and electing 26 MPs, an upswing of 10.2% from 2017. In the
2024 Austrian legislative election, the party lost 10 seats and fell to 8.2%. The party was not included in the initial coalition negotiations between the ÖVP, SPÖ and NEOS.
Chairpersons since 1986 , federal spokesperson of the Green Party between 1997 and 2008. He was elected
President of Austria in
2016. The chart below shows a timeline of the Green chairpersons and the
Chancellors of Austria. The left green bar shows all the chairpersons (
Bundessprecher, abbreviated as "Chair.") of the Green party, and the right bar shows the corresponding make-up of the Austrian government at that time. The red (SPÖ), black (ÖVP), and light grey (Independent) colours correspond to which party led the federal government (
Bundesregierung, abbreviated as "Govern."). The last names of the respective chancellors are shown, the Roman numeral stands for the
cabinets. ImageSize = width:450 height:500 PlotArea = width:400 height:440 left:50 bottom:50 Legend = columns:3 left:50 top:25 columnwidth:65 DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:1986 till:2026 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:2 start:1986 • there is no automatic collision detection, • so shift texts up or down manually to avoid overlap Colors= id:Grüne value:green legend:Grüne id:SPÖ value:red legend:SPÖ id:ÖVP value:gray(0.25) legend:ÖVP id:Ind value:gray(0.75) legend:Independent Define $dx = 25 # shift text to right side of bar Define $dy = -4 # adjust height PlotData= width:25 mark:(line,white) align:left fontsize:S shift:($dx,$dy) bar:Chair. color:Grüne from:1986 till:1988 text:
Freda Meissner-Blau from:1988 till:1992 text:
Johannes Voggenhuber from:1992 till:1994 text:
Peter Pilz from:1994 till:1995 text:
Madeleine Petrovic from:1995 till:1997 text:
Christoph Chorherr from:1997 till:2008 text:
Alexander Van der Bellen from:2008 till:2016 text:
Eva Glawischnig from:2015 till:2017 text:
Ingrid Felipe from:2017 till:2025 text:
Werner Kogler from:2025 till:end text:
Leonore Gewessler bar:Govern. color:SPÖ from:1986 till:1987 text:
Vranitzky I from:1987 till:1990 text:Vranitzky II from:1990 till:1994 text:Vranitzky III from:1994 till:1996 text:Vranitzky IV from:1996 till:1997 text:Vranitzky V from:1997 till:2000 text:
Klima from:2007 till:2008 text:
Gusenbauer from:2008 till:2013 text:
Faymann I from:2013 till:2016 text:Faymann II from:2016 till:2017 text:
Kern color:ÖVP from:2000 till:2003 text:
Schüssel I from:2003 till:2007 text:Schüssel II from:2017 till:2019 text:
Kurz I from:2020 till:2021 text:
Kurz II from:2021 till:2021 text:
Schallenberg from:2021 till:2025 text:
Nehammer from:2025 till:end text:
Stocker color:Ind from:2019 till:2020 text:
Bierlein Federal state level The Green party also entered the parliaments or assemblies (
Landtag) of
Austrian federal states and communal governments. Following is an analysis of the party on the
federal state (
Länder) level:
Burgenland Green Alternative first stood in state elections in Burgenland in 1987, taking 2.2 percent of the vote but no seat. In the
2025 Burgenland state election, the party won 5.66% of the vote and held on to their two seats. After swift negotiations, the Greens entered a governing coalition with the Social Democrats, making Burgenland the only Austrian federal state to be governed by the Greens.
Carinthia In the southernmost federal state
Carinthia, different Green parties ran state elections: the
KEL/AL in 1984,
Anderes Kärnten in 1989 and 1994, and
Demokratie 99 in 1999. These parties were, however, never able to enter the federal state assembly. In the
2023 Carinthian state election, the Greens narrowly missed the 4% threshold for representation in the state assembly (
Landtag), receiving 3.85% of the vote. On a local level, the Greens hold seats in the municipal councils (
Gemeinderäte) of
Klagenfurt and
Villach, alongside those of various smaller municipalities.
Lower Austria In 1998 the
Lower Austrian Greens were represented with two delegates in the federal state assembly. In the federal state elections in 2003 the Greens received 7.22% and thus won four mandates, which enabled them to form a parliamentary group - called
club in Austrian politics - in the assembly. With
Madeleine Petrovic, the Lower Austrian Greens have a former federal spokeswoman and one of the most outspoken animal activists of Austria as their leader (
Klubobfrau). In 2005 the Lower Austrian Greens managed to win and take their seats in 100 municipal assemblies and as of 2005 had four vice-mayors. Their managing director in Lower Austria is Thomas Huber.
Salzburg After the federal state elections in 1989 the
Salzburg State Greens had two mandates in the Salzburg federal state assembly, in 1994 three and in 1999 again two. Under the leadership of
Cyriak Schwaighofer the Greens performed under their expectations in the 2004 federal state elections and could not achieve the desired club status of at least three mandates. As voter-current analyses showed, the small increases in votes were largely due to former voters of the
Liberal Forum (LiF), which did not run in the Salzburg elections. In March 2009 they were down from 8% to 7.3%, keeping their two seats in
Salzburg State's parliament. The Bürgerliste (Citizen List) is the common platform of the Greens in
Salzburg municipality. The List entered the city council in the 1987 election, taking 10.1 percent of the vote and four seats. The results of the Viennese
Gemeinderat elections: 1 ran as
Alternative Liste Wien (ALW) ==Organisation==