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Andreas Babler, a Marxist who has described the EU as a worse military alliance than NATO
What a strange comparison to make. Of course a world wide military alliance with many countries would be "better" than one that doesn't even have all the countries of one continent? Anyway, I hope he will do some good for Austria.
this is one of those things where i understand how the position comes about (left-wing skepticism to major, Western-dominated institutions) but it's like... is this the best fight to pick or publicly make an issue? even with NATO for example pretty much all of its constituent countries want to be in it, and the benefits to running a campaign of opposition against it are pretty minimal currently. i can't imagine trying to seriously wage a Euroskeptic campaign from the left, given how much the EU does for its constituent countries and their global bargaining power, and given the disaster that Brexit's been.
As an Austrian, I can tell you this: Even though he might be a true marxist at heart, he won't be able to push "too marxist" agendas nor an anti-EU course as the leader of the SPÖ (Socialist party of Austria). That would be political ruin, which is the last thing he needs after taking over the party - which has been in shambles over the last years.
But it is a promising candidate for sure for the left, which have very few options these days. The KPÖ (Communist party of Austria) is on the rise due to its increasing focus on social politics in certain regions. - But the name alone scares many, and also some members have issues with distancing themselves from Putin - which is very unpopular. So getting a mandate at the federal level is pretty hard for them.