Kurz on path to lead Austria

Continued from Page 1 turquoise T- shirts chant his name, women ask if they can hug him.

Selfie sessions with Kurz, always in slim- cut suits and tieless white shirts, last over two hours.

Observers say there hasn’t been this much euphoria over a politician since Joerg Haider, the magnetic but controversial FPOe leader who died in a drink- driving car crash in 2008.

Kurz’s appeal as an agent of change is remarkable given that he has been a key cog in the political machine he now seeks to overhaul.

The only child of a secretary and a teacher, Kurz joined the OeVP’s youth wing in 2003.

As its chief, he drew ridicule with a 2010 council election campaign featuring the slogan “Schwarz macht geil”, or “Black makes you hot”.

Kurz posed with skimpily clad girls on top of a black Hummer, the socalled “hot- o- mobile”, and distributed black condoms.

This blunder notwithstanding, the former law student enjoyed a meteoric rise, becoming secretary of integration in 2011 and foreign minister two years later, aged just 27. Kurz claims credit for closing the Balkan migrant trail in 2016 to halt a record influx of migrants to Austria and other wealthy EU member states.

The move saw him named one of the most influential Europeans by news website Politico.

Full of praise for Hungary’s populist premier Viktor Orban, Kurz wants to slash benefits for all immigrants and shut Islamic kindergartens.

The notoriously private politician — he’s seldom seen in public with longterm girlfriend Susanne — left “nothing to chance” and ran a campaign as immaculate as his trademark gelled- back hair, observed Der Standard newspaper.

The skilled orator is also a sharp opponent in televised debates. But critics have accused him of being a “mini- dictator” running a “one- man show”.