Andreas Babler | |
|---|---|
 Babler in 2025 | |
| Vice-Chancellor of Austria | |
| Assumed office 3 March 2025 | |
| Chancellor | Christian Stocker |
| Preceded by | Werner Kogler |
| Minister for Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport | |
| Assumed office 3 March 2025 | |
| Chancellor | Christian Stocker |
| Preceded by | Werner Kogler |
| Chair of the Social Democratic Party | |
| Assumed office 6 June 2023 | |
| Preceded by | Pamela Rendi-Wagner |
| Mayor ofTraiskirchen | |
| In office 29 April 2014 – 24 October 2024 | |
| Preceded by | Friedrich Knotzer |
| Succeeded by | Sabrina Divoky |
| Member of the Federal Council | |
| In office 23 March 2023 – 23 October 2024 | |
| Affiliation | Social Democratic Party |
| Member of the National Council | |
| Assumed office 24 October 2024 | |
| Affiliation | Social Democratic Party |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Andreas Babler (1973-02-25)25 February 1973 (age 52) Mödling, Austria |
| Political party | Social Democratic Party |
| Education | University for Continuing Education Krems (MSc) |
| Website | Official website |
Andreas "Andi" Babler (born 25 February 1973) is an Austrian politician who has been the leader of theSocial Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) since June 2023. Since March 2025, he isvice-chancellor of Austria and minister for housing, arts, culture, media and sport. He has been described as being aleft-wing populist.
Babler grew up in aSemperit family in Möllersdorf, part of the municipality of Traiskirchen. He went to technical college in Mödling and subsequently worked in machine construction, as a warehouse labourer, and in a mineral water bottling plant.[1][2] After starting his career in politics, he studiedpolitical communication at theUniversity for Continuing Education Krems (MSc).[3]
In 1989, Babler joined theSocialist Youth Austria (SJÖ), where he rose to become the state secretary for the SJLower Austria, then the federal secretary of the SJÖ, and lastly vice president of theInternational Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY). In 1995, he became a member of thetown council of Traiskirchen. He became mayor of Traiskirchen in 2014. In his first election he received the best election result for the SPÖ in Traiskirchen since 1945: 73.1 percent, an increase of 4.2%.[4]
Babler has received regular nationwide attention due to theTraiskirchen refugee camp, the largest refugee camp in Austria and one of the largest in Europe.[5][6] In the2023 Lower Austrian provincial election, Babler received 20,000 preferential votes.[7] Traiskirchen was one of very few towns with increases for the SPÖ.[8] Subsequent to this success, he was named thechairperson of a reform commission of the Social Democratic Party of Lower Austria.[7] Following his success in the Lower Austrian provincial election in 2023, Babler was appointed member of the upper chamber of theAustrian Parliament, theFederal Council (Bundesrat), as a representative for Lower Austria in March 2023.[9][10]
On 23 March 2023, Babler announced his candidacy for the2023 Social Democratic Party of Austria leadership election as a surprise candidate.[11][12][13] The results of the membership election were announced on 22 May 2023 and Babler came in second with 31.5% of the votes.[14] Babler and other party members requested that a run-off among the party members should be held between him andHans Peter Doskozil, who came in first at 33.7%; the SPÖ leadership decided in a vote of 25–22 against it. Instead, an election for the party chair with the candidates Doskozil and Babler was held among 603 delegates at an extraordinary party congress on 3 June 2023.[15] According to the first counting of the ballot on 3 June 2023, Doskozil won over Babler with 53% versus 47% of the votes.[16] As the ballot was recounted on 5 June 2023, it was found that during the first counting the votes for Babler erroneously had been attributed to Doskozil and that vice versa the votes for Doskozil erroneously had been attributed to Babler. Babler accepted his election as party leader on 6 June 2023.[17][18][19]
In the 2024 legislative election, the SPÖ received 21.1% of the vote, down by 0.1%, however, they gained a seat, going from 40 to 41. Five months after the election, the SPÖ joined theStocker government, acoalition government coalition government with theAustrian People's Party (ÖVP) andNEOS, with Babler becoming vice-chancellor and minister for housing, arts, culture, media and sport.[20][21]
Babler has described himself as aMarxist,[22][23][24] but has said that he did not stand for concepts such asexpropriations and adictatorship of the proletariat.[24] He had previously ruled out a coalition government with ÖVP,[25] but backtracked in 2024.[26] He is a former member of the SPÖ'sMarxist–Leninist Stamokap wing, and was criticised in the run-up to the 2023 SPÖ congress for a video in which he had described theEuropean Union (EU) as "the most aggressive foreign policy alliance that ever existed" and "worse thanNato", adding the EU was as an "imperialist project with a few social standards".[27][28] Babler said he did not advocate an Austrian exit from the EU but was in favour of a socially minded reform of theEuropean treaties.[29]
Babler has been described as being a left-wing populist.[30][31] Early in his tenure as leader in June 2023, Babler welcomed further arms deliveries from the European Union to Ukraine, withJacobin noting his moderation in governing compared to his leadership campaign.[26]Der Standard said he had changed since the 2024 national elections: "When he appears before the press these days, he speaks calmly, much more slowly than before, with few emotions, no more open talk of class warfare. The new SPÖ leader now uses words like 'constructive' and speaks of a coalition that 'must be defined from the center.'"[32]
He told Austrian media in one interview: 'I am a Marxist', but said in a follow-up interview that he did not stand for concepts such as expropriations and a dictatorship of the proletariat.
Unlike Doskozil, Babler has ruled out forming a "grand coalition" with Austria's conservatives.
Babler, a former member of his party's Marxist-Leninist 'Stamokap' wing, drew fire in the run-up to the party congress for a two-year-old video in which he had described the EU as 'the most aggressive foreign policy alliance that ever existed' and 'worse than Nato'. He described the EU as an 'imperialist project with a few social standards'.
During the leadership election, comments he made in 2020 in which he referred to the EU as the 'most aggressive military alliance that has ever existed' and argued that its doctrine was 'worse than NATO' surfaced.
Babler said he did not advocate an Austrian exit from the bloc of nations but was in favour of a socially minded reform of the European treaties.
(in German)| International | |
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| People | |
