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EU election: Lena Schilling confirmed with 96.6 percent
On Saturday, the Greens elected 23-year-old environmental activist and "Krone" columnist Lena Schilling as their EU lead candidate with an overwhelming majority. In her speech before the election, Schilling once again positioned herself as a candidate "for the climate and against the right".
In her speech to the 250 or so delegates, Schilling emphasized that she was not just taking the step into politics now, as she had already been involved in politics as an activist for "Fridays for Future" and "Lobau bleibt", from the streets. "Every citizens' initiative, every protest - all of that is also politics. And that's exactly where I come from - from civil society, from the climate movement. And I want to represent this more strongly in the European Parliament," explained Schilling. The Greens are the only party that can be relied on when it comes to climate protection, she argued in support of her candidacy.
"Climate catastrophe as a historic challenge"
The climate catastrophe is "a historic challenge", said Schilling. For example, we are currently living through the greatest extinction of species since the time of the dinosaurs. She called the fact that Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) had illustrated the mobility section of his plan for Austria with a four-lane highway "fucking cynical".
However, the climate issue is also "the social issue of our time", because the climate crisis hits the people with the least money, those who can do the least, the hardest. The richest ten percent were responsible for more than half of greenhouse gas emissions, Schilling said. "The problem is not family vacations in Italy. The problem is private jets." Schilling was convinced that he was in the right place in the EU Parliament to make trend-setting decisions.
Schilling clearly against Kickl
Schilling identified the right-wing as the second threat that needed to be countered. FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl spoke of wanted lists on which he wanted to put political opponents, and she wondered where this would lead - would they be silenced, locked up or taken out of the country, Schilling asked.
For years, "never again" had been a phrase, and now things were getting serious, Schilling said, we now had to defend ourselves and be loud. Because Kickl, "his friends in the AfD and his comrades in the Identitarians" were threatening the common Europe. The speech was obviously well received by the delegates, as Schilling received a standing ovation and much applause.
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