Josef Buchner, Austria’s first Green mayor, dies at 84

Josef Buchner, Steyregg’s former mayor and a pioneer of environmental protection in Upper Austria, died on Wednesday aged 84, ORF reported. He became Austria’s first Green mayor in 1997.

Buchner, known as Sepp, was born in 1942 in Hagenberg im Mühlkreis. After school, he worked first at VÖEST and later as a municipal employee in Steyregg. He initially belonged to the Social Democratic Party of Austria but became known for his environmental activism.

In the late 1970s, Buchner campaigned against severe air pollution from industry in Linz. He founded the Steyregg Citizens’ Initiative for Environmental Protection and spoke publicly about smog and industrial emissions. VÖEST sued him for more than one million schillings; Buchner won the case.

Steyregg Mayor Gerhard Hintringer recalled on Thursday how pollution affected daily life. As a child, he said, he had seen freshly washed laundry become dirty again because of the air. “That only changed when Sepp Buchner fought against air pollution,” Hintringer said.

Buchner’s campaign came at a time when environmental policy had little political influence. His efforts helped prompt industrial facilities to install filters, and air quality in Linz and Steyregg improved significantly, according to the report.

From the 1980s, Buchner was active in the United Greens of Austria. He led the party nationally from 1983 to 1994 and entered parliament in 1986 with the Alternative List, on Freda Meissner-Blau’s list. He was expelled from the Green parliamentary group in 1987 and continued as an independent member until 1990.

Buchner later focused on local politics. His citizens’ initiative won Steyregg’s mayoral election in 1997, and he was re-elected in 2003 and 2009. He remained mayor until 2012. Hintringer said Buchner had done a great deal for the town, across party lines. After leaving politics, Buchner remained in public life, including as a columnist for the Oberösterreichische Nachrichten newspaper.