Beginnings In the school year 2012/13, she was the
Upper Austrian state school spokesperson for the
AHS area, and in 2013/14, she acted as state chairwoman of the ÖVP-related Union of Higher Students (UHS). Since February 2015, she has been the deputy district chairwoman of the
Young ÖVP in the
Urfahr-Umgebung District. In October 2016, she was elected regional chairwoman of the Young ÖVP Upper Austria, in April 2019, she was re-elected for three years. Since the municipal council and mayoral elections in Upper Austria in 2015, she has represented the ÖVP in the municipal council of Walding, and since 2016 she has also been part of the state party executive of the ÖVP Upper Austria.
National Council On 9 November 2017, at the age of 22, she was the youngest member of the
XXVI. Legislative period for the Austrian National Council promised. In the course of the formation of the
federal government shortly after the National Council election, she negotiated on the ÖVP side in the Family and Youth Section. At the Bundestag of the Young People's Party on 25 November 2017, she was elected Deputy Federal Chairman. In the ÖVP parliamentary club, she acts as a youth spokesperson. In the
2019 National Council election, she ran behind ÖVP top candidate
August Wöginger in second place in the list in the
Upper Austria electoral district. Bauer was re-elected to the committee, but in the
XXVII. Legislative period, she is no longer its youngest member. Yannick Shetty of
NEOS now holds this status. As part of the coalition negotiations for the formation of a government in 2019, she negotiates in the main group Social Security, New Justice and Poverty Reduction. In June 2020, she was designated as the successor to
Stefan Schnöll as federal chairwoman of the young ÖVP. On 15 May 2021 she was elected with 94.39 percent of the vote for successor of Schnöll.
State Secretary On 6 December 2021 she was sworn in as a member of the
Nehammer federal government as State Secretary for Youth and Generations in the Federal Chancellery. Her National Council mandate went to Andrea Holzner.
Minister In 2025 Bauer became Minister for
Europe,
Integration and
Family in the
Stocker government.
Criticism Bauer's planned
headscarf ban for girls under 14 years of age at
state schools has been criticized by the largest official representation of
Islam in Austria (
IGGÖ – Community of Muslim Believers in Austria). ==References==