Peter Pilz (born 22 January 1954) 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 ...

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

( JETZT). From 1986 to 2017, he was a member of the

Austrian Green Party Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...

Political career

Born in

Kapfenberg Kapfenberg , with around 22,609 inhabitants, is the third largest city in Styria, Austria, near Bruck an der Mur. The town's landmark is Burg Oberkapfenberg. Its main employer is the steel manufacturer Böhler. The town has a swimming complex, ...

Styria Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...

, 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 A spokesperson, spokesman, or spokeswoman, is someone engaged or elected to speak on behalf of others. Duties and function In the present media-sensitive world, many organizations are increasingly likely to employ professionals who have receiv ...

of the Greens. His main area of interest is legal matters and

political corruption Political corruption is the use of powers by government officials or their network contacts for illegitimate private gain. Forms of corruption vary, but can include bribery, lobbying, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, parochialism, patronage, in ...

. Commonly known wearing a black jacket and a red, grey or green T-shirt, he was the first Austrian politician to keep a

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

on the Internet. In January 2005, Pilz made international news when he called for

Arnold Schwarzenegger Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July 30, 1947) is an Austrian and American actor, film producer, businessman, retired professional bodybuilder and politician who served as the 38th governor of California between 2003 and 2011. ''Time'' ...

to be stripped of his Austrian

citizenship Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection". Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...

. As

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, Schwarzenegger had refused to intercede in the

execution Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the State (polity), state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to ...

of a convicted murderer,

Donald Beardslee Donald Jay Beardslee (May 13, 1943 – January 19, 2005) was an American serial killer who murdered three women. While on parole for killing a woman in Missouri in 1969, Beardslee murdered two more women in California. He was sentenced to death an ...

. 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 German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

: ''"witness D"'') has information that

Iranian president The president of Iran ( fa, رئیس‌جمهور ایران, Rayis Jomhur-e Irān) is the head of government of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The president is the second highest-ranking official of Iran after the Supreme Leader. The president ...

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ( fa, محمود احمدی‌نژاد, Mahmūd Ahmadīnežād ), born Mahmoud Sabbaghian ( fa, محمود صباغیان, Mahmoud Sabbāghyān, 28 October 1956),

had participated in the murder of 3

Kurd ug:كۇردلار Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian peoples, Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Ir ...

s in Vienna in 1989. According to him the Austrian police had already contacted the witness, who supposedly lived in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, 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 JETZT – Pilz List ( ger, JETZT – Liste Pilz, "jetzt" meaning "now"), founded in 2017 as the Peter Pilz List (''Liste Peter Pilz''), was a green and left-wing populist political party in Austria. It was founded by Peter Pilz, a former member of ...

'', 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. On 4 November 2017, after sexual harassment allegations came to light, Pilz announced that he would not take his seat in the National Council, and the seat was assumed by

Martha Bissmann Martha Bißmann (born 23 March 1980) is an Austrian politician. She served in the National Council from 2017 to 2019, entering as a member of the Peter Pilz List after its leader Peter Pilz withdrew. She was expelled from the party in July 20 ...

. On 22 May 2018, Pilz and his party announced that he would return to parliament before summer, as the trial against him had ended.

Other activities

SK Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid Wien (), commonly known as Rapid Vienna, is an Austrian football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian championship titles (32), including the first title in the season 1911–12, ...

, member of the board of trustees2016 Transparency Report
National Council.

References

External links

Pilz's political diary
1954 births Living people Austrian bloggers The Greens – The Green Alternative politicians Critics of Islamism People from Kapfenberg {{Austria-politician-stub