Vienna Election 2025: Green Party Top Candidate Judith Pühringer in Profile

Sometimes it can happen quickly: At the beginning of 2020, Judith Pühringer entered the political stage as a newcomer when she applied for a fixed spot on the list for the Vienna election in the same year for the Vienna Greens. A few months later, she was already a non-executive city councilor, and a year later, co-party leader. In the election on April 27, the 49-year-old is now fighting as the top candidate for the best possible result and the re-entry of the Greens into the city government.

Pühringer's Rise to the Top

That she would one day lead the Vienna Greens as the top candidate in an election was hardly in Pühringer's plans when she switched to municipal politics. Almost exactly five years ago, she was publicly introduced as an outsider. She was brought into the team by the then Green frontwoman, Vice Mayor and Traffic City Councilor Birgit Hebein. Pühringer was elected to the third spot on the list for the 2020 election, securing her entry into the municipal council and state parliament.

Although the Greens achieved their best result to date with 14.8 percent in the last Vienna election, the party was ousted from the city hall coalition after ten years. The SPÖ under Mayor Michael Ludwig chose the NEOS as the new government partner. The consequence: Hebein, who had increasingly alienated the Reds with her idiosyncratic solo efforts, was swiftly removed by her party and received no position in the city hall club.

Just as her mentor's decline began, the outsider's rise started: Pühringer became a city councilor without a portfolio. And after Hebein resigned from the party leadership in anger (and later even left the party), the Greens opted for a dual leadership for the first time. This opened the next door for Pühringer on her way up. In the fall of 2021, she was elected co-party leader of the Vienna Greens - together with Peter Kraus, also a non-executive city councilor. The base confirmed the leadership duo in office last year, with approval of just over three-quarters of the votes.

Grew Up in the 18th District

Pühringer brought her long-standing expertise in the fields of labor, economy, and social affairs into politics. After all, the Viennese born on January 19, 1976, who grew up in Währing and once wanted to be a writer as a child and "write like Astrid Lindgren," studied business administration. As one of the first Erasmus participants, she spent some time at the University of Sussex in Brighton (United Kingdom) in the second half of the 90s and was there "when Fatboy Slim and Cornershop celebrated their release party in a small club," as she proudly notes on her personal website.

Before joining the Greens, Pühringer was active for 15 years as the managing director of the non-profit company arbeit plus and as the chairwoman of the Austrian Poverty Conference, alongside numerous diverse European networks and alliances focusing on labor and social affairs. Among her political role models, she names Rosa Luxemburg, Johanna Dohnal, and Alma Zadić, while outside of politics, she appreciates Patti Smith or Maria Lassnig.

At the party leadership, Pühringer focused more on constructive criticism than on loud frontal attacks. Since the just-ending legislative period was initially overshadowed by Corona and later by crises such as the Ukraine war, the Middle East, or inflation, it was difficult for the Greens in the opposition role and thus also for the current top candidate to gain profile.

"ZiB2" Appearance Before Vienna Election

That she can indeed be self-ironic is proven by Pühringer, for example, when asked about her still rather moderate recognition values. "At the latest after the comment in 'ZiB2', I think it will go steeply uphill," she says in the APA interview, referring to her recent appearance on the ORF news program. Due to a sloppily pronounced half-sentence there, she was falsely accused on social networks and by the tabloids of gendering trees.

About the person: Judith Pühringer, born on January 19, 1976, in Vienna, studied business administration in Vienna from 1994-2006, managing director of the non-profit company arbeit plus and chairwoman of the Poverty Conference from 2004-2020, municipal councilor and non-executive city councilor since 2020, co-party leader since 2021, elected as top candidate in February 2025.

(APA/Red)

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