Sebastian Kurz,31, is set to become the youngest leader in the world as his People’s Party is on the path to victory in Austria’s elections which took place yesterday.
“We made the impossible possible,” Mr. Kurz told supporters who had gathered in the 19th-century Kursalon music hall in Vienna to watch the results after five months of intense campaign
Supporters of the foreign minister, Sebastian Kurz, erupted into cheers as preliminary results showed his party surging ahead of its traditional rival, the center-left Social Democratic Party, for only the second time since 1970. People’s Party comfortably in first place, with 31.4 percent of the vote, the right-wing Freedom Party came in second with 27.4 percent. The center-left Social Democratic Party of Austria, which now governs in coalition with People’s Party, got 26.7 percent.
Kurz stormed onto Austria’s political scene in May, refashioning the party as a movement, swapping out its traditional black color for a more modern turquoise and generating support through a social media campaign focused on the idea of breaking with the consensus-focused politics that has dominated Austrian lawmaking for decades.
“If I am asked, I will carry out talks and try make possible the changes that Austria really needs, first the tax cuts for working people, making our social welfare system more secure and fighting illegal immigration that endangers the order and security in our country,” Mr. Kurz said in an interview. He insisted that despite its focus on limiting immigration, his party remained a centrist force
