Quick-rising Austrian is likely Europe’s 1st millennial leader
VIENNA — Austria’s 31year-old foreign minister declared victory for his party Sunday in an election that set him up to become Europe’s youngest leader and put the country on course for a rightward turn.
Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz claimed the victory as final results announced by the Interior Ministry showed his People’s Party had a comfortable lead with almost all the ballots counted.
Noting that his centerright party had triumphed over the rival Social Democrats only twice since the end of World War II, Kurz called it a “historic victory.”
“Today is not the day of triumph over others, but today is our chance for real change in this country,” he told cheering supporters.
Still to be counted are more than 800,000 absentee ballots and ones cast by voters outside of their home districts. The outstanding votes are due to be tallied by mid-week.
However, the votes counted so far show that Austria, where moderate policies have been the norm for decades, will have a government with a harder line on migration and Muslims than one running the country now.
Both Kurz’s party and the right-wing Freedom Party — Kurz’s most likely government coalition partner — campaigned on the need for tougher immigration controls, quickly deporting asylum-seekers whose requests are denied and cracking down on radical Islam.
Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said the People’s Party received 31.4 percent of the vote, a gain of more than 7 percentage points from the 2013 election. Kurz described that as the biggest jump in support in the party’s history.
The Social Democratic Party of Austria, which now governs in coalition with People’s Party, had 26.7 percent, while the Freedom Party had 27.4 percent.
The election returns suggest a harder line on immigration resonated with voters more strongly than Social Democratic calls for social equality. Social Democratic Chancellor Christian Kern acknowledged as much, saying Sunday’s results reflected “a push to the right.”
Becoming head of government would be the next leap in a political career that started eight years ago when Kurz, then studying law, was elected chairman of his party’s youth branch.
He was appointed state secretary for integration, overseeing government efforts to make immigrants into Austrians, in 2011.
After a Social Democratic-People’s Party coalition was formed four years ago, Kurz, then 27, became Austria’s foreign minister — the youngest top diplomat in Europe.
When a new wave of migrants and refugees seeking to relocate to Europe became a continentwide concern in 2015, Kurz recognized Austrian voters’ anxiety over unchecked immigration involving large numbers of Muslim newcomers. He called for tougher external border controls, better integration and stringent control of “political Islam” funded from abroad. He also organized the shutdown of the popular overland route through the West Balkans.