Peter Pilz

Peter Pilz
Member to the National Council
Assumed office
10 June 2018
Affiliation Peter Pilz List
Chairman of the Peter Pilz List
In office
26 July 2017 – 20 August 2018
Preceded by office established
Succeeded by Maria Stern
Spokesman of the Green Party
In office
1992–1994
Preceded by Johannes Voggenhuber
Succeeded by Madeleine Petrovic
Personal details
Born (1954-01-22) 22 January 1954
Kapfenberg, Styria
Political party Peter Pilz List (since 2017)
Other political
affiliations		 The Greens (before 2017)

Peter Pilz (born 22 January 1954) is an Austrian politician (Peter Pilz List). From 1986 to 2017 he was a member of the Austrian Green Party.

On 4 November 2017, on allegations of sexual harassment, Pilz resigned from all his political posts.[1] He did not accept his National Council mandate.[2]

Political career

Born in Kapfenberg, Styria, Pilz has been a member of the Austrian Parliament (Nationalrat) between 1986 and 1991 and since 1999. From 1992 to 1994 he also was federal spokesperson of the Greens.

He is mainly concerned with legal matters and investigating political corruption. Commonly known wearing a black jacket and a red, grey or green T-shirt, he was the first Austrian politician to keep a blog on the Internet.

In January 2005, Pilz made international news when he called for Arnold Schwarzenegger to be stripped of his Austrian citizenship. As Governor of California, Schwarzenegger had refused to intercede in the execution of a convicted murderer, Donald Beardslee. Pilz pointed to an Austrian law which prohibits any Austrian from taking part in, or ordering, an execution.

A few months later, Pilz claimed that a person whom he called "Zeuge D" (German: "witness D") has information that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had participated in the murder of 3 Kurds in Vienna in 1989. According to him the Austrian police had already contacted the witness, who supposedly lived in France, but this was denied by the Austrian Ministry of Justice.

On 25 July 2017, with the disappointment of Green leadership and lack of responses in refugee and migrant crisis, he announced his independent campaign for the elections to the Austrian parliament in the autumn. He headed the Peter Pilz List, a group of intellectuals, artists and entrepreneurs, critical toward the establishment. His new party cleared the 4 percent threshold for entering parliament in the election and handed a major defeat to the Greens, whose support fell to 3.9 percent from more than 12 percent in 2013.[3]

On 4 November 2017, after sexual harassment allegations came to light, Pilz announced that he would not take his seat in the National Council.[1][2] On 22 May 2018, Pilz and his party announced that he returns into parliament before summer, as the trial versus him closed.[4]

Other activities

References

  1. 1 2 "Austrian politician resigns amid sexual harassment claims". Associated Press. 4 November 2017.
  2. 1 2 Peter Temel (4 November 2017). "Vorwurf der sexuellen Belästigung: Peter Pilz tritt zurück". Kurier. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  3. ↑ Cathy Buyck (November 4, 2017), Austrian party leader resigns over harassment accusations Politico Europe.
  4. ↑ http://www.nachrichten.at/nachrichten/politik/innenpolitik/Ermittlungen-gegen-Peter-Pilz-eingestellt;art385,2903653
  5. ↑ 2016 Transparency Report National Council.


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