Lena Schilling

Lena Schilling (born 8 January 2001 in Vienna) is an Austrian climate activist. She was the Austrian Green Party's top candidate for the 2024 European Parliament elections.

Life
Schilling studies political science at the University of Vienna. She was a climate activist in the Fridays for Future movement. In 2019, she appeared at the Austrian Association of Municipalities conference, alongside the Federal President, the Federal Chancellor and the President of the National Council. She founded the youth council, which protested, occupying the Vienna Lobautunnel construction site. She is the spokesperson for the “Austrian Supply Chain Act Initiative” with Veronika Bohrn Mena and Daniela Brodesser. At the beginning of 2021, she was described on FM4 as “perhaps the most politically active young woman in the country.” At the end of 2021, she took part in a  panel discussion in the “Im Zentrum” series.

On 22 January 2024, she was selected by Werner Kogler, and on 24 February confirmed by the Green Federal Party Congress as the top candidate of the Austrian Greens for the 2024 European Parliament elections.

In May 2024 Schilling dropped to the second last place in Austria´s APA-OGM politician confidence index, after it became public that she had talked to associates about leaving the Greens and switch to the Left party after the upcoming 2024 European Parliament elections. Schilling denied the allegations.

As of May 2024, Schilling states her official occupations as author and dancing instructor.

Controversy
Since a report by the newspaper Der Standard, Lena Schilling has been under criticism regarding integrity.

On 7 May 2024, Der Standard published several allegations against Schilling following extensive research. The investigation uncovered that Schilling falsely claimed that the partner of her former friend was to blame for a miscarriage due to domestic violence. A court injunction was signed by Lena Schilling. In another case, Schilling allegedly accused a TV journalist of sexual harassment; this was refuted by internal investigations. Schilling is also said to have invented her own love affair with a television journalist. When this was refuted, she accused the journalist of having relationships with other Green Party members.