Apart from ecological issues such as environmental protection, the Greens are Pro-European[16] and campaign for the rights of minorities and advocate a socio-ecological (ökosozial) tax reform.

In 1978 the Austrian Green movement began with the successful campaign to prevent the opening of the nuclear power plant in Zwentendorf (which had been favoured by Bruno Kreisky's government), the Green Party was born in 1984 during the sit-in protests which prevented the Danube power plant at Hainburg from being built.

In the 1986 parliamentary elections the Green Party started off with 4.82% of all votes cast and entered parliament with eight National Council mandates.

Worldwide attention was drawn when the Green delegate Andreas Wabl hoisted a swastika flag on the speakers podium in the Austrian parliament, protesting against then Federal President Kurt Waldheim.

The Green party also entered the parliaments or assemblies (Landtag) of Austrian federal states and communal governments.

Only in 2004 were the Carinthian Greens finally able to take their seats in the federal state assembly, where they are represented by cabaret artist Rolf Holub and Barbara Lesjak.

On a regional level, for example in the federal state capital Klagenfurt, the Carinthian Greens have already played a political role for a longer time.

In the Klagenfurt city council, the Greens are represented by Andrea Wulz, Matthias Koechl, Angelika Hoedl and Reinhold Gasper.

Since the local election in 2003, the Klagenfurt Greens were able to take one of nine seats in the proportional city-government, Andrea Wulz is the town councillor for issues relating to women, family matters and social housing projects.

In the federal state elections in 2003 the Greens received 7.22% and thus won four mandates, which enabled them to form a parliamentary group - called club in Austrian politics - in the assembly.

With Madeleine Petrovic, the Lower Austrian Greens have a former federal spokeswoman and one of the most outspoken animal activists of Austria as their leader (Klubobfrau).

Under the leadership of Cyriak Schwaighofer the Greens performed under their expectations in the 2004 federal state elections and could not achieve the desired club status of at least three mandates.

As voter-current analyses showed, the small increases in votes were largely due to former voters of the Liberal Forum (LiF), which did not run in the Salzburg elections.

In the Graz city-council the Greens are represented by Sigi Binder, Lisa Rücker, Hermann Candussi and Christina Jahn.

The Tyrolean election result also meant that the Greens could for the first time in history nominate a member to the Upper House of Parliament.

Since 2003 the Green delegate to the Federal Council (Bundesrat) of Parliament is Eva Konrad, former chairlady of the Austrian National Union of Students (Österreichische HochschülerInnenschaft) of the University of Innsbruck.

This heavy-duty traffic has devastating effects on the fragile alpine environment and decreases the quality of life for the inhabitants.

Since the entry to the European Union, Austria had to give up any quota limitations on how much international traffic coming from EU-countries is allowed to pass through its territory.

The Greens of the state capital of Linz under the leadership of city councillor Jürgen Himmelbauer were most against this black-green project.

The charismatic alpine farmer Kaspanaze Simma from Bregenzerwald was the leading candidate, it was mainly due to his efforts why the party was so instantly successful.

Because of their strength, the Greens were allowed to form their own parliamentary fraction (Klub), which caused some logistical problems as the newly constructed Landtag building in 1981 only provided space for the traditional three parties (ÖVP, SPÖ, FPÖ), not four.

Since the traditional organic farming sector is important in the western Austrian regions, the Greens were able to gain support.

The results of 2001 also allowed the Viennese Greens to nominate Stefan Schennach as federal councilor to the Upper House of Parliament (Bundesrat).

But despite the strong gains, the Greens were not able to enter into a coalition government with the SPÖ, since the social-democrats were able to win an absolute majority.

The Green delegates to the Viennese Gemeinderat or Landtag as of 2006 were: Maria Vassilakou (club-chairlady [Klubobfrau]), Waltraut Antonov, Heidi Cammerlander, Christoph Chorherr, Sabine Gretner, Susanne Jerusalem, Alev Korun, Rüdiger Maresch, Martin Margulies, Sigrid Pilz, Ingrid Puller, Marie Ringler, Marco Schreuder, Claudia Sommer-Smolik.

The 2010 results meant that the SPÖ was unable to hold the majority of seats in the Vienna city council and therefore had to rule together with the Greens performing for the first time as coalition partner.

[18] The results of the Viennese Gemeinderat elections: 1 ran as Alternative Liste Wien (ALW) In 2004 the Greens had about 3,000 members nationwide, although at present there are no uniform regulations for membership.

The extended federal executive (Erweiterter Bundesvorstand) consists of a smaller number of delegates from each state and meets at least once a month.

Michaela Sburny, successor of Franz Raft since June 2004 as the Greens' federal chairperson, was allowed to keep her National Council mandate.

Among the most notable founding members and mentors are or were Professor Alexander Tollmann, the painter Friedensreich Hundertwasser, actor Herbert Fux, the mayor of Steyregg Josef Buchner (the first Green mayor in Austria – in 1987 excluded from the Green parliamentary club), Freda Meissner-Blau and Günther Nenning, with Nobel Prize laureate Konrad Lorenz supporting the 1984 protests at Hainburg.