Wandel (

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

: ''Change'') is an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

and progressive political party led by Fayad Mulla. It is part of the pan-European coalition

DiEM25 The Democracy in Europe Movement 2025, or DiEM25, is a pan-European political movement founded in 2016 by a group of Europeans, including former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis and Croatian philosopher Srećko Horvat. The movement was o ...

Background

The party was launched in 2012 as a progressive, anti-capitalist and

egalitarian Egalitarianism (), or equalitarianism, is a school of thought within political philosophy that builds from the concept of social equality, prioritizing it for all people. Egalitarian doctrines are generally characterized by the idea that all hu ...

movement. Its positions are detailed in the "Demokratische Moderne (English: ''Democratic Modernity'')" manifesto, which emphasizes on abolishing global capitalism and establishing a democratic economy, fair to all people. Despite being anti-capitalist, the party's leader has stated that the party does not support

socialism Socialism is a left-wing Economic ideology, economic philosophy and Political movement, movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to Private prop ...

either, but rather seeks to take some elements from both socialism and capitalism in order to create a new alternative system, tentatively called "neo-socialism", which shares characteristics with the socioeconomic concept of

economic democracy Economic democracy is a socioeconomic philosophy that proposes to shift decision-making power from corporate managers and corporate shareholders to a larger group of public stakeholders that includes workers, customers, suppliers, neighbour ...

Positions and proposals

The party's proposals include: *Replacing the Federal Council with a Citizens' Council, where half of the seats will be reserved for

women A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

, and all members will be elected by

lot Lot or LOT or The Lot or ''similar'' may refer to: Common meanings Areas * Land lot, an area of land * Parking lot, for automobiles *Backlot, in movie production Sets of items *Lot number, in batch production *Lot, a set of goods for sale togethe ...

for a one year term. The Citizens' Council would have the power to reject laws passed by the National Council and call new elections by a corresponding majority, and would have to vote whether to approve constitutional amendments. *An eventual shift to a 21 hour work week *A 1:5 wage ratio (where the lowest income an individual can make is €2000/month and the maximum is €10000/month after taxes) *A national citizens' dividend *Mandating that employees elect company leaders *A

Green New Deal Green New Deal (GND) proposals call for public policy to address climate change along with achieving other social aims like job creation and reducing economic inequality. The name refers back to the New Deal, a set of social and economic refo ...

*Full nationalisation of services which impact social care, such as education, health, pensions, security, banking, and infrastructure *The creation of the

United States of Europe The United States of Europe (USE), the European State, the European Federation and Federal Europe, is the hypothetical scenario of the European integration leading to formation of a sovereign superstate (similar to the United States of Ameri ...

*Making all media sources adhere to a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

model, obtaining finances only through consumers and state media funding *Placing less focus on

GDP Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is ofte ...

as a measurement, instead focusing more on elements of public well-being such as health, scientific achievements, education levels, economic output, wage rates, democratic participation, social cohesion,

ecological stability In ecology, an ecosystem is said to possess ecological stability (or equilibrium) if it is capable of returning to its equilibrium state after a perturbation (a capacity known as resilience) or does not experience unexpected large changes in its c ...

, and safety *A national job guarantee *A cap on the amount of assets/wealth one individual can accumulate * Equal pay for equal work *Anti-trust action against private monopolies *A ban on speculation in currencies, commodities and food; a minimum holding period for shares of stock; the addition of a

financial transaction tax A financial transaction tax (FTT) is a levy on a specific type of financial transaction for a particular purpose. The tax has been most commonly associated with the financial sector for transactions involving intangible property rather than re ...

*Creation of a Future and Prosperity

Fund Fund may refer to: * Funding is the act of providing resources, usually in form of money, or other values such as effort or time, for a project, a person, a business, or any other private or public institution ** The process of soliciting and gathe ...

, funded by business income taxes and the financial transaction tax. All citizens would receive a permanent share in the fund, and would receive a guaranteed annual profit. The Board of the fund will be directly elected.

Electoral performance

2013 Austrian legislative election

Participating only in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and

Upper Austria Upper Austria (german: Oberösterreich ; bar, Obaöstareich) is one of the nine states or of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, an ...

, the party obtained 0.07% of the vote.

2014 European Parliament election

As part of the Europa anders coalition with the KPÖ, Pirate Party, and independents, they received a combined 2.14% of the vote, which was not enough to receive a seat.

2019 European Parliament election

In November 2018, the party announced an alliance with

Yanis Varoufakis Ioannis "Yanis" Varoufakis ( el, Ιωάννης Γεωργίου "Γιάνης" Βαρουφάκης, Ioánnis Georgíou "Giánis" Varoufákis, ; born 24 March 1961) is a Greek economist and politician. A former academic, he served as the Gree ...

for the

European Parliament Election Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are considered the second largest democratic elections in the world after India's. Unti ...

. The party's political director Daniela Platsch was second on the joint list led by Varoufakis. The party did not win any seats.

2019 Austrian legislative election

The party ran in the snap legislative elections held in September 2019, obtaining approximately 0.5% of the vote.

References

{{Party of the European Left 2012 establishments in Austria Political parties established in 2012 Progressive parties Socialist parties in Austria