Sebastian Kurz's audacious gamble to lead Austria pays off

[brooklynite]

Source: The Guardian

By handing a convincing victory to the centre-right party of 31-year-old Sebastian Kurz on Sunday, Austria rewarded one of the most audacious political gambles in its recent history.

Until Kurz was announced as a candidate for chancellor in June, his Austrian People’s party (ÖVP) had been trailing by some distance in polls behind its senior partner in the governing coalition, the centre-left SPÖ, and behind the far-right Freedom party (FPÖ).

But on Sunday evening the man Austrian tabloids have affectionately dubbed wunderwuzzi or “wonderkid” could hardly make himself heard over deafening cheers as walked on to the stage at Vienna’s Kursalon, draped in the turquoise colours of his “movement”.

With the ÖVP winning more than 30% of the vote, Kurz is in a position to choose whether he wants to continue the “grand coalition” of the past decade under his leadership or enter an alliance with the nationalist FPÖ.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/15/sebastian-kurz-could-31-year-olds-audacious-bid-to-lead-austria-pay-off

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Social Democrats just beat the far right FPO, but it looks like the FPO could be in the coalition

Projections on Sunday evening saw the centre-right ÖVP, led by 31-year-old Sebastian Kurz, coming out top with 31.7% of vote. The Social Democrats managed 27% while the far-right FPÖ failed to match its best-ever result, with 25.9%.
...
Kern, a former head of the country’s state-run railway operator who took over as chancellor in May 2016, has previously indicated that he would prefer to go into opposition if his party came second in polls. On Sunday, he stated that he expected Kurz to quickly come to a coalition agreement with the FPÖ.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/15/sebastian-kurz-on-track-to-become-austrias-next-leader-projections-show

[paleotn]

2. What the hell is wrong with Austria?

Can immigration be the sole cause of this move the the extreme right?

[FakeNoose]

3. So, he's colluding with Putin, right?

Somebody hacked their election and they'd better get to the bottom of it.

[YOHABLO]

4. Immigration is a major part of countries like Austria moving right. To the above comment.

[romanic]

5. Yep.

The cost to "open borders" and the problems that came with it came at a cost and now its time to pay up.

[Fluke a Snooker]

6. Adolf Hitler 2 n/t

[dalton99a]

7. Putin's little wundernazi.