Walter Baier (born 9 February 1954) is an Austrian politician for the

Communist Party of Austria The Communist Party of Austria (, KPÖ) is a communist party in Austria. Established in 1918 as the Communist Party of Republic of German-Austria, German-Austria (KPDÖ), it is one of the world's oldest Communist party, communist parties. The KP� ...

(KPÖ). He was his party's federal president from 1994 to 2006. He is the leader of the

Party of the European Left The Party of the European Left (PEL), or European Left (EL), is a European political party that operates as an association of democratic socialist and communist political parties in the European Union and other European countries. It was formed ...

since December 2022 and was the party's lead candidate for the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

in the 2024 election.

Biography

Born in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, Baier was the son of a communist who was interred at

Dachau concentration camp Dachau (, ; , ; ) was one of the first concentration camps built by Nazi Germany and the longest-running one, opening on 22 March 1933. The camp was initially intended to intern Hitler's political opponents, which consisted of communists, s ...

, but Baier did not ascribe to communism until into his adult years. Baier was the federal president of the KPÖ from 1994 to 2006. In October 2004, Baier sold the Ernst-Kirchweger-Haus, a Vienna building owned by the party and rented out to communal groups for a symbolic rent of one

Austrian schilling The schilling (German language, German: ''Schilling''; ) is a former currency of Austria from 1925 to 1938 and from 1945 to 1999, and the circulating currency until 2002. The euro was introduced at a fixed parity of €1 = 13.7603 schilling t ...

a year. The running of the house had cost €17,000 a year. He faced criticism from some on the Austrian left, including

Nobel Prize in Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...

laureate

Elfriede Jelinek Elfriede Jelinek (; born 20 October 1946) is an Austrian playwright and novelist. She is one of the most decorated authors to write in German and was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Literature for her "musical flow of voices and counter-voices ...

. The criticism intensified when the buyer turned out to be a real estate company whose director shared a name and possibly an address with a man doxed as a neo-Nazi in 1977; the house was named after an Austrian communist murdered by Nazis. In 2009, a lawsuit against Baier by the writer on far-right politics was dismissed in the Vienna Commercial Court. Purtscheller had said in an interview with ''

Der Standard ''Der Standard'' () is an Austrian daily newspaper published in Vienna. It is considered a newspaper of record for Austria. History and profile ''Der Standard'' was founded by Oscar Bronner as a financial newspaper and published its first editio ...

'' that Austria's three main parties after World War II, including the KPÖ, had specialist units for former Nazis. In his history of the party, Baier called Purtscheller's claim a distortion of history, and Purtscheller sued to prohibit the sale of Baier's book. The court dismissed the suit, citing Baier's freedom of speech. In 2011, Baier was one of four atheists invited by

Pope Benedict XVI Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as p ...

to the Inter-Faith Summit in

Assisi Assisi (, also ; ; from ; Central Italian: ''Ascesi'') is a town and comune of Italy in the Province of Perugia in the Umbria region, on the western flank of Monte Subasio. It is generally regarded as the birthplace of the Latin poet Prope ...

, Italy. The others were ,

Julia Kristeva Julia Kristeva (; ; born Yuliya Stoyanova Krasteva, ; on 24 June 1941) is a Bulgarian-French philosopher, literary critic, semiotician, psychoanalyst, feminist, and novelist who has lived in France since the mid-1960s. She has taught at Colum ...

and Remo Bodei. Baier was elected leader of the

in December 2022. In his first speech, he called for Russian withdrawal from Ukraine and an end to the war through negotiations, while also championing anti-racism, feminism and climate action. Baier was elected unopposed as the party's lead candidate in the

2024 European Parliament election The 2024 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 6 and 9 June 2024. It was the tenth Elections to the European Parliament, parliamentary election since the 1979 European Parliament election, first direct electio ...

, seeking election to the

, but was not put on any electoral list to be elected to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baier, Walter 1954 births Living people Politicians from Vienna Communist Party of Austria politicians 20th-century Austrian politicians 21st-century Austrian politicians Austrian atheists