SPÖ maps leadership transition as Babler becomes party chief on borrowed time

Austria’s Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) has agreed on a leadership transition that will leave Andreas Babler as party leader only temporarily, ORF reports. Vorarlberg SPÖ chief Mario Leiter called the outcome a solution everyone could accept after a crisis meeting in Vienna on Sunday.

Finance Minister Markus Marterbauer is expected to become vice-chancellor at the start of 2027, with the timing dependent on his recovery. He is receiving treatment for cancer. Babler is to remain a minister.

SPÖ women’s leader Eva-Maria Holzleitner and parliamentary group leader Philip Kucher are due to join Babler this week. They are expected to take over the party leadership from the beginning of 2027. A party congress in spring 2027 will elect a new leader.

Leiter said the agreement had created unity and would allow the party to keep working. The meeting had been scheduled to last three hours but continued into the evening, forcing Leiter to cancel his overnight train back to Vorarlberg. He planned to return on Monday and brief the state party executive.

The talks did not address media executive Gerhard Zeiler, Leiter said. Zeiler has said he intends to seek the party leadership, criticised Babler’s political course and argued that the SPÖ should move back towards the centre.

The party is facing weak polling, with surveys putting it at 15 to 17 per cent if a national election were held now. It won 21.14 per cent in the last national election, behind the Austrian People’s Party and the Freedom Party.

Leiter said he expected the federal party to continue providing professional and substantive support to the Vorarlberg party organisation.