European Left elects little-known Walter Baier as lead candidate for June elections

Baier, the current party chairman with little European experience, was the only contender. He was elected in a closed assembly in Slovenia.

Transcript

00:00 The European left chooses an almost unknown leading candidate for the European elections

00:06 in June at a closed assembly in Slovenia. Austrian Walter Bayer, the party`s current

00:12 president, has never been an MEP and is virtually unknown in European politics.

00:19 Frankly speaking, Europe is not only Brussels. Europe is 27 nations and it is hundreds of

00:28 cities and it is millions of citizens. And the European left and the spitzenkandidat

00:34 wants to be the voice of these people of which the voices are very rarely heard in Brussels.

00:41 Bayer will compete with candidates such as the current president of the European Commission,

00:46 Ursula von der Leyen, or the socialist Nikola Schmidt.

00:49 But the electoral prospects for the left are not looking good. The party comes into the

00:55 European elections highly divided.

01:00 [SWOOSH]