2024-02-17 04:07:30
Lena Schilling, the Austrian Green Party’s designated top candidate for the EU elections on June 9th, wants to formulate the question of climate protection as “one of the social questions of our time”. Acceptance for corresponding measures can be achieved if it is made clear that more climate protection often also means more freedom, she said in an interview with the APA. The 23-year-old sees her running as a signal to young voters that she is also running “for moms.”
Although she is “not a Green per se”, contacts with other interested parties would have remained “very loose and very relaxed,” said the environmental activist who has made a career change. She would like to see a different course from the social democrats, reminding her of “this whole lobaude debate” including threats of lawsuits from Vienna’s environmental councilor Ulrike Sima (SPÖ).
“There’s a good reason why I’m sitting here now. Because I believe that the Greens are the only party that credibly represents climate protection,” said Schilling. She was also welcomed with “a lot of trust and warmth” and met “very cool” people. At the Green Party’s federal congress next Saturday in Graz, she will stand for election by the party’s delegates.
In addition to climate as a core issue, the designated top candidate also wants to counteract the shift to the right in Europe. “It’s clearly regarding preserving our democracy and, above all, preserving human rights and social rights,” she said. German AfD politicians and Identitarians who talked regarding the deportation of citizens were “bussibussi friends” for FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl. And whenever his party was in government, health insurance companies were attacked, social benefits were cut or women’s rights were restricted, she said.
But Schilling also has a bone to pick with Europe’s conservatives. The European People’s Party (EPP), to which the ÖVP also belongs, is passionately committed to protecting nature and soil, but is also at the forefront of blocking the supply chain law. She doesn’t want to judge the coalition between the Greens in Austria and the People’s Party, which will probably run until the fall. But: “Of course I find it completely absurd that people are constantly talking regarding higher penalties for climate activists and very little regarding climate protection measures.”
She once once more criticized sticking actions on Austria’s streets, which she countered with her own activism: “With a construction site protest, we didn’t block people in early morning traffic, but rather a city government that wanted to enforce a street.” Schilling wants to counter resistance to change and fears of loss of prosperity with positive stories: “Because in many issues, more climate protection also means more freedom,” for example in the expansion of public transport, which brings improvements for everyone.
As an activist, she always saw herself as “part of something bigger”: “It’s always nice to fight for something with other people and also see that you can win things.” She wants to take the concerns of young people into account in the election campaign, but she is also thinking regarding mothers, who are often only talked regarding as if they were a resource who takes care of children and relatives.
“My mom is a completely central figure in my life,” she emphasized regarding the social worker and refugee helper. Schilling also mentioned her father as a “totally important figure.” But he doesn’t like being in public and suffers from being falsely portrayed in the media as “the evil bank manager”, even though he simply works in a bank. “My dad was always at demonstrations,” she said, referring to family youth activities.
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