Who is Sebastian Kurz?
Mr Kurz is known to have made exceptional progress in his political career over the course of recent years. In 2013, he claimed the position of being the world’s youngest foreign minister aged just 27, and was then later elected to be chairman of Austria’s ‘People Party’ in May.
Over time, Mr Kurz has effectively constructed a political movement revolving around himself, rebranding Austria’s traditional ‘People Party’ as “The New People’s Party”.
To top the icing on the cake as well, it has newly been predicted that Mr Kurz and his party are set to win more than 31% of the national vote in this year’s Austrian elections, with second position anticipated to be awarded to either the Social Democrats or the far-right Freedom Party.
However, due to the fact that Mr Kurz is not expected to win the majority of the Austrian vote, forecasts says that he will need to form a coalition government in the event that his party ranks first place in the elections. It is predicted that Mr Kurz will therefore join alliances with Austria’s Freedom Party.
The Freedom Party have nevertheless been displaying hostility towards Mr Kurz, accusing the leader of stealing their own party’s policies. Heinz-Christian Strache, candidate of the Freedom Party, has even made the allegation that Mr Kurz is an “imposter”.
What are Kurz’s political intentions?
Sebastian Kurz’s social policies are very much attractive to Austria’s conservative and right-wing voters.
Particularly given the context of the 2015 European refugee crisis, Mr Kurz decided that it was high time for the nation of Austria to tighten its border controls. In doing this, he pledged to introduce caps on benefit payments to asylum seekers and warned that he will shut down the “Balkan” rote that refugees were using to get to Europe.
Mr Kurz even blamed Italy for not being efficient enough in stopping migration, calling on the nation to tackle the situation practically.
“If Italy were to continue its transfers to the mainland, not only will Central Europe be overwhelmed, but drownings will continue”, he said.
“It is not an Austrian phenomenon,” he also conveyed. “Luckily Europe, step by step, recognized that these mass refugee movements to Europe cannot work.”
The aftermath of Sunday’s polls
Following the announcement that Mr Kurz is set to win in the Austrian elections, he addressed citizens in Vienna by stating that “there is a clear mandate for change”. The leader furthermore added:
“We’ve got a lot of work to do. We need to create a new political style and a new political culture.”
"I'm overwhelmed, I am happy, and I look forward to working for Austria,”
As for Mr Kurz's opposing parties, there has been speculation that Austria’s Social Democrat leader Christian Kern could may well lose his position after allegations surrounding him.
Kern however assured media on Sunday that he will remain a political leader. "I have said I will stay in politics for 10 years and there are nine years to go," he said.
Sources – BBC News, Vox, The Telegraph
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