A long-time member of
The Greens – The Green Alternative,
Peter Pilz was among the first delegation of Greens deputies elected to the
National Council in 1986, and served as the party's spokesman between 1992 and 1994. At the federal convention of The Greens in June 2017, he sought election for fourth place on the federal
party list for the upcoming election. However, he lost to Julian Schmid. He was then offered sixth place on the list, but rejected it and instead announced his retirement from the National Council. Over the following weeks, speculation grew about the prospect of Pilz forming his own party. When questioned on the subject, he neither confirmed or denied rumours. Opinion polls conducted throughout July indicated such a party could garner support from around 4–6% of voters. On 25 July 2017, Pilz announced his resignation from the Greens and his intention to run his own
electoral list for the election, named the "Peter Pilz List". An application for registration as a political party was submitted on 26 July and approved on 31 July. Pilz claimed that he did not intend to found a new political party; no party programme would be formulated, and there would be no party line. He said that registration as a party was necessary to gather the grassroots support he desired, which he did not consider possible with a purely electoral list. He intended each candidate on the list to specialise in and represent a specific policy area, stating he sought to "people the programme". For his list, Pilz initially presented teacher, musician, and activist
Maria Stern, lawyer and consumer advocate
Peter Kolba, former
Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) politician and
animal rights activist
Sebastian Bohrn Mena, entrepreneur Stephanie Cox, and lawyer
Alfred J. Noll. In August, four more candidates were presented:
Renée Schroeder and
Hannes Werthner (for science policy), nursing assistant
Teresa Roscher (for nursing), and lawyer
Alma Zadić (for integration).
2017 legislative election The Pilz List carried out an unconventional campaign, eschewing
posters which traditionally play a prominent part in Austrian campaigns. The party published only one poster, a blank page with text reading: "1 poster - our only one! / 0 EUR tax money / 0 pestering / Yes, it works!" and a link to the party's website. The party campaigned heavily on
social media, as well as through various media appearances. They promoted their candidates via public functions and so-called "Pilz talks" concerning various policy areas. The events were conducted in a participatory fashion, with anyone interested given the opportunity to engage in the discussion. Peter Pilz called for public funding of political parties to be halved, and financed his campaign using voluntary donations. He stated the party's goal for the election was to win a double-digit percentage of votes. The seats were filled by Peter Pilz, Bruno Rossmann, Wolfgang Zinggl, Daniela Holzinger-Vogtenhuber, Alfred J. Noll, Stephanie Cox, Alma Zadić, and Peter Kolba.
Following the 2017 election In early November 2017,
Die Presse published statements from an anonymous employee of the Greens parliamentary group accusing Peter Pilz of repeated
sexual harassment and
sexual assault, ranging from verbal harassment to
groping. Subsequently,
Falter published further allegations that an employee of the
European People's Party was groped by Pilz at the 2013
European Forum Alpbach. Pilz denied all accusations, but announced on 4 November he would no longer accept his seat in the National Council. On 8 November, he was replaced by
Martha Bißmann. Peter Kolba subsequently became parliamentary leader of the party. On 18 December 2017, Kolba announced that the Pilz List would not run in the upcoming state elections in
Carinthia,
Lower Austria,
Salzburg, and
Tyrol. He stated the party wanted time to build as a movement, and that they planned to compete in the following European Parliament elections. On 14 January 2018, Kolba announced that Pilz would return to the National Council. The timeframe for the move and who would resign to allow his re-entry was not clarified. This was strongly criticised by other parties, with the women's spokeswomen of both the SPÖ and NEOS stating the allegations against him were "not even partially cleared up". On 22 May 2018, the Innsbruck public prosecutor's office suspended its investigation of Pilz for sexual harassment due to the alleged victims' inability to press charges. On 15 April 2018, Kolba announced his pending resignation as parliamentary leader, which was later delayed due to lack of agreement on a new leader. On 30 May, Bruno Rossmann was chosen to succeed Kolba. On 31 May, Kolba announced his immediate resignation from the National Council, claiming he "wanted nothing more to do with this list anymore." He did not explain his motivations, and party members claimed they were unaware that he intended to resign. He was to be succeeded by Maria Stern. However, Stern agreed to decline her mandate and allow Pilz to re-enter the National Council via the federal list in exchange for being guaranteed election as the party's federal leader. Pilz thus returned to the National Council on 8 June. During his swearing-in on 11 June, all female deputies left the chamber with the exception of those from the Pilz group,
Second President of the National Council Doris Bures, and NEOS deputy
Karin Doppelbauer. The party's relations with Martha Bißmann, who had taken up Pilz's original seat in November 2017, had become increasingly strained; by June 2018, the party was on the verge of expelling her. However, after discussions, on 12 June they granted her a "last chance". She resigned from the party, but remained in the Pilz List parliamentary group. On 10 July, Sebastian Bohrn Mena was expelled from the parliamentary group without notice after speaking critically of Pilz in an interview. On 19 July, Bißmann was also expelled from the parliamentary group. At a party meeting on 20 August 2018, Maria Stern was elected as party leader. Pilz became deputy leader. On 19 November 2018, the party announced it was changing its name to "NOW – Pilz List" (). The parliamentary group took the name "JETZT" the next day, while the party formally changed its name on 3 December. The party also adopted a formal party programme, which identified four key priorities: Europe, ecology, justice, and oversight.
2019 elections and exit from parliament In the
2019 European Parliament election on 26 May, JETZT ran a joint list named "EUROPA NOW! – Initiative Johannes Voggenhuber", featuring former Greens
MEP Johannes Voggenhuber as the lead candidate. The list won 1.04% of votes cast and failed to win any seats. After a
snap legislative election was called in June 2019, Alfred J. Noll, Bruno Rossmann, Wolfgang Zinggl and Stephanie Cox announced they would not seek re-election. Alma Zadić announced she would instead run for the Greens; she was elected to the fifth spot on the Greens' federal list. On 9 July, she was expelled from the JETZT parliamentary group. In the election, JETZT garnered 89,169 votes (1.87%), less than half the number they had won in 2017, losing their representation in the National Council. Peter Pilz's former party, the Greens, re-entered parliament with their best ever result, winning 13.9% of votes cast and 26 seats. After the election, Stern and Pilz resigned. Carinthian former police officer Rudolf Mang was elected as the party's new leader. ==Ideology and platform==