{{Short description|Austrian politician and editor}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Walter Baier | image = Augsburger_Parteitag_-_Walter_Baier_2.jpg | alt = | caption = Baier at the 2023 Die Linke party conference in Germany| | office = President of the Party of the European Left | term_start = {{start date|2022|12|11|df=yes}}<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hackauf |first=Rainer |date=2022-12-12 |title=Walter Baier neuer Präsident der Europäischen Linken |url=https://www.kpoe.at/walter-baier-neuer-praesident-der-europaeischen-linken/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240814015402/https://www.kpoe.at/walter-baier-neuer-praesident-der-europaeischen-linken/ |archive-date=2024-08-14 |access-date=2025-01-10 |work=KPÖ |language=German |url-status=live }}</ref> | predecessor = Heinz Bierbaum | successor = Incumbent | office1 = President of the Communist Party of Austria | term_start1 = {{start date|1994||}} | term_end1 = {{end date|2006||}} | predecessor1 = Melina Klaus | successor1 = Otto Bruckner | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1954|2|9|df=yes}} | birth_place = Vienna, Austria | party = Communist Party of Austria }}
'''Walter Baier''' (born 9 February 1954)<ref name=baier>{{cite news |last1=Baier |first1=Walter |title=Putin-Besuch: Der Konfrontation folgt Krieg |url=https://www.derstandard.at/consent/tcf/story/2000002497054/putin-besuch-der-konfrontation-folgt-krieg|work=Der Standard |access-date=10 May 2024 |date=30 June 2014 |language=German}}</ref> is an Austrian politician for the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ). He was his party's federal president from 1994 to 2006. He is the leader of the Party of the European Left since December 2022 and was the party's lead candidate for the European Commission in the 2024 election.
==Biography== Born in Vienna, Baier was the son of a communist who was interred at Dachau concentration camp, but Baier did not ascribe to communism until into his adult years.<ref>{{cite news |title="Eine andere Welt ist möglich" |url=https://www.derstandard.at/story/1115646/eine-andere-welt-ist-moeglich |access-date=10 May 2024 |work=Der Standard |date=15 July 2003 |language=German}}</ref> Baier was the federal president of the KPÖ from 1994 to 2006.<ref name=streit>{{cite news |title=Streit um Geschichte der KPÖ vor Gericht |url=https://www.derstandard.at/story/1259282909104/streit-um-geschichte-der-kpoe-vor-gericht |access-date=10 May 2024 |work=Der Standard |date=30 December 2009 |language=German}}</ref>
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 a year. The running of the house had cost €17,000 a year.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Mayr |first1=Peter |title=KPÖ verkauft besetztes Ernst-Kirchweger-Haus |url=https://www.derstandard.at/story/1832060/kpoe-verkauft-besetztes-ernst-kirchweger-haus |access-date=10 May 2024 |work=Der Standard |date=21 October 2004 |language=German}}</ref> He faced criticism from some on the Austrian left, including Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Elfriede Jelinek. 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.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Schmidinger |first1=Thomas |title=Kommunisten und Immobilien |url=https://jungle.world/artikel/2004/48/kommunisten-und-immobilien |access-date=10 May 2024 |publisher=Jungle World |date=24 November 2004 |language=German}}</ref>
In 2009, a lawsuit against Baier by the writer on far-right politics {{ill|Wolfgang Purtscheller|de}} was dismissed in the Vienna Commercial Court. Purtscheller had said in an interview with ''Der Standard'' 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.<ref name=streit/>
In 2011, Baier was one of four atheists invited by Pope Benedict XVI to the Inter-Faith Summit in Assisi, Italy. The others were {{ill|Guillermo Hurtado|es}}, Julia Kristeva and Remo Bodei.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Chua-Eoan |first1=Howard |title=6. The Pope Embraces Atheists — Awkwardly |url=https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2101344_2101371_2101387,00.html |access-date=10 May 2024 |magazine=Time |date=7 December 2011}}</ref>
Baier was elected leader of the Party of the European Left 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.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Weber |first1=Daphne |title=Brot und Rosen, Frieden und Gemeineigentum |url=https://www.links-bewegt.de/de/article/656.brot-und-rosen-frieden-und-gemeineigentum.html |access-date=10 May 2024 |work=Links Bewegt |date=17 December 2022 |language=German}}</ref> Baier was elected unopposed as the party's lead candidate in the 2024 European Parliament election, seeking election to the European Commission, but was not put on any electoral list to be elected to the European Parliament.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Sánchez Alonso |first1=Aida |title=European Left elects little-known Walter Baier as lead candidate for June elections |url=https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2024/02/25/european-left-elects-little-known-walter-baier-as-lead-candidate-for-june-elections |access-date=10 May 2024 |publisher=Euronews |date=25 February 2024}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{Party of the European Left}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baier, Walter}} Category:1954 births Category:Living people Category:Politicians from Vienna Category:Communist Party of Austria politicians Category:20th-century Austrian politicians Category:21st-century Austrian politicians Category:Austrian atheists