AUSTRIA’S RIGHT-WING WHIZZ KID

So much for the end of populism, said the FT. After the Dutch held the line against Geert Wilders in March, and Marine Le Pen was defeated in France in May, many thought that the rise of the far-right in Europe had been “contained”. But the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany made big gains in German elections last month, and on Sunday Austria’s openly xenophobic Freedom Party (FPÖ) took 27% of the vote – its best result for two decades. For a time, the polls suggested that it might actually win the election. In the end, though, Austria’s dominant centre-right People’s Party (ÖVP) emerged as the biggest party, taking 31.6% of the vote – but only after itself turning sharply to the Right under the leadership of 31-year-old Sebastian Kurz.

Kurz, nickhamed the wunderwuzzi (whizz kid), has rebranded the ÖVP, said Emily Schultheis in The Atlantic, renaming it “the New People’s Party” and changing its colours from black to turquoise. And his policies and rhetoric have “so blatantly parroted” the Freedom Party that its leaders have accused him of plagiarism. Kurz supported a burqa ban, has taken a hard line on refugees, and argues that EU immigrants should receive fewer state benefits than nativeborn Austrians. Kurz saw his chance to speak for a nation “gripped by border anxiety – and he seized it”, said Daniel Johnson in The Daily Telegraph. The Austrians had previously embraced the EU’S freedom of movement, but in 2015 they “suffered a rude awakening when Angela Merkel welcomed more than a million migrants into Europe”. Most of these came on the so-called Balkan route, via Vienna. Tens of thousands stayed in Austria and sought asylum. Conservatives across Europe now face a similar choice. Those who “ignore border anxiety are doomed to lose power to the populists, as Mrs Merkel knows to her cost”.

“For now, Kurz sits atop Austrian politics,” said Liam Mclaughlin in the New Statesman. But he must make a difficult choice. To form a government, he could renew the “grand coalition” with the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPÖ), which has largely governed Austria since 1945; but this seems unlikely, given his promises of “change”. That leaves the the FPÖ, which is Eurosceptic and “uncompromisingly Islamophobic”, and whose leader, HeinzChristian Strache, is a former neo-nazi. The last coalition between the two, in 2000, was greeted with outrage abroad: the EU issued short-lived sanctions against Austria. In 2000, that coalition was seen as an “aberration”, said William Cook in The Spectator. Today, “it would be a clarion call for populists all over Europe”.