Spitzenkandidat

Walter Baier (Vienna, 1954) is the Party of the European Left’s spitzenkandidat (lead candidate) for president of the European Commission for the 2024 European election. Coming from an anti-fascist family, he holds a Doctorate in Economy from the University of Vienna, with publications such as The principle of deception: from grand narratives to the new language of politics (2007), The Short Century – Communism in Austria (2009) and Marxism: History and Topics of a Practical Theory (2023).

He became politically active during his university years, being elected chairman of the Communist Student Union in 1977 and contesting in 1981 the candidacy of a neo-Nazi group to the student body elections, which led to a landmark ruling by the Constitutional Court in 1985 and the dissolution of the ANR and NDP.

In 1981, he was a co-organiser of the large peace demonstration Prevent nuclear war – disarm and in 1983 he was a speaker at the 100,000 Peace March.

Baier was National Chairman of the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) from 1994 to 2006 and was the editor of the Austrian magazine Volksstimme. Since 2000, he has worked on dialogue between atheists and Catholics through the project DIALOP, leading in the last years to meetings with Pope Ratzinger and Pope Francis. 

From 2007 to 2022, he was political coordinator and board member of the transform! europe network.

In December 2022 he was elected President of the Party of the European Left. Since then, he has worked for unity and alliances between progressive and democratic forces, and defending the need to transform European politics to address societal and ecological challenges in favour of the majority.