About the Green Party Manifesto
Led into the 2019 elections by long-time politician Werner Kogler, the fight against climate change and for sustainability takes center stage in the Green party manifesto.
The Austrian Greens, for a long time Europe’s strongest Green party, took a bad beating the last parliamentary elections in 2017 – they failed to clear the 4% threshold to get into parliament and have since been regrouping. Now, Greta, climate change, corruption scandals and a green wave across Europe have given them a second chance to play on their strengths.
Led into the 2019 elections by long-time politician Werner Kogler, the fight against climate change and for sustainability takes center stage in the Green party manifesto. “Who would our future vote for” is the title of the 82-page program, which aims to chart a path to Austria’s CO2-neutrality until 2040.
An ambitious CO2-tax, bringing in more than €8 billion and thereby restructuring the economy, should be the starting point for reducing Austria’s CO2 emissions by 50% by 2030, compared to 1990 (currently, emissions are 1% higher than 30 years ago). After 2030, no new cars powered by combustion engines should be allowed on Austria’s roads and massively expanded public transport should fill the gap. The Greens maintain that they are the originators of the “1-2-3-Euro public transport model,” which foresees a price of €1 a day for public transport in cities and municipalities, €2 a day in the respective great region or Bundesland, and €3 a day for all of Austria.
A broad and ambitious sweep of measures is meant to boost cargo transport by rail, end tax privileges for flights, strengthen organic agriculture, reduce packaging waste and make building more sustainable. On education, the Greens want a common school for 10-14-year-olds.
Finally, the party reiterates its long-held views and commitments to the protection of human rights, funding for the integration of refugees and immigrants, full rights and inclusion for LGBTQ people in our society, and a move to introduce basic benefits and affordable housing to reduce poverty. The Greens want to unify social insurance for all Austrians, strengthen wage transparency for more gender equality and aim to democratize the EU with a bigger role for the European Parliament.
