European Left to pick no-name lead candidate amidst lack of appetite for role

Lack of enthusiasm among national members of the European Left is driving the party to pick a widely unknown politician for its lead candidate in EU elections, echoing a general lack of appetite for the contested Spitzenkandidaten system.

Walter Baier, Austrian communist and president of the European Left Party, is the top contender to be the party’s lead candidate, or Spitzenkandidat, three sources close to the matter told Euractiv. 

The lead candidate (Spitzenkandidat) process allows European political parties to internally elect a leader for their EU election campaign, who then becomes a contender for the role of president of the European Commission.

The final pick will be made by the party’s executive board during the electoral general assembly in Ljubljana on 24-25 February, alongside the manifesto. 

During a meeting of the political secretariat on 13 January in Berlin “his name was proposed”, a high-ranking party source told Euractiv, adding that “he is the only candidacy” that has been brought forward so far. 

The probable appointment of the current party president, widely unknown in Brussels and most of Europe, betrays a lack of appetite and enthusiasm for the lead candidate system within the party, which has struggled to find nominees.

The European Left follows the EU socialists’ announcement last week that Commissioner Nicolas Schmit, also a lightweight profile, would become the party’s lead candidate as he was the only nominee – also confirming the generalised lack of enthusiasm for the lead candidate system. 

Lacking support

While Baier is likely to lead the European Left into the EU elections on 6-9 June, his own party is not willing to place the same trust in him. The Austrian Communist Party confirmed on 23 January that he would not be their lead candidate at the national level.

Without a top spot on the national election list of the Austrian Communists, who don’t hold a single seat in the current European Parliament, it is practically impossible for him to become an EU lawmaker in June, and he is thus likely to disappear from the political stage again once the campaigning is over.

Another name floated earlier was French Manon Aubry, co-president of The Left group in the European Parliament. However, she was blocked from running to avoid infighting between La France Insoumise and the French communists, Baier told Euractiv in an interview.

The fate of the Spitzenkandidat system is under question as, in the 2019 elections, EU countries overrode the European People’s Party lead candidate Manfred Weber in favour of then-German defence minister Ursula von der Leyen, who was confirmed through agreement of 27 national leaders.

Nail in the coffin?

Baier’s nomination could further undermine the European Left’s fight to stay relevant, as there is a growing fear within the party that leftist forces from across Europe may not score enough seats to be able to form a parliamentary group following the elections.

“I’m not even so sure, at this point, that there will be a left-wing parliamentary group in the next legislative period,”  former MEP Fabio De Masi, the lead candidate for BSW, which broke away from Germany’s Die LInke, told reporters earlier this month.

To form a group, a political force needs at least 23 MEPs from seven countries. While left-wing forces would still secure around 37 seats, according to recent aggregated Europe Elects’ polls for Euractiv, they have already lost considerable support in recent months. 

Last June, the Left was still projected to win 50 seats by Europe Elects. 

The support of some of its major national parties has also recently crumbled: Spanish Podemos, Greek Syriza, and the German Die Linke are currently facing an existential crisis, amid in-fighting and breakaway factions. 

Die Linke’s splinter group, the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), is already outcompeting their former party according to recent polls. However, despite their political similarities, they are unlikely to join the European Left Party.

Who is Walter Baier?

Walter Baier was one of the six national party leaders who founded the European Left in 2003. He was voted president of the European Left Party in 2022, securing over 90% of the votes. 

However, he is relatively unknown, even in his home country, where he has not played any political role in almost 20 years and is also unlikely to play one in the future.

Baier led the Austrian Communist Party (KPÖ) between 1994 and 2006 in a fruitless attempt to renew the party’s relevance, after they lost their last seat in the Austrian parliament in the 1950s.

He later left his position as chairman of the KPÖ to pursue a career in the European Left Party, where he acted as coordinator of the left network “transform! Europe” since 2006.

Since Baier took over as president of the European Left, he attempted to forge closer ties with the Catholic Church, as he heads a “Christian-Marxist dialogue project for transversal social ethics”.

Earlier this month, he was received by Pope Francis to open a “new page in the relationship between the Catholic Church and the left in Europe,” Baier said in a statement. 

The European Left Party declined Euractiv’s request for comment.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]

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