He always flies economy, even to New York to address the UN. With his boyish grin, he looks like any other upwardly mobile millennial. But there’s nothing ordinary about Sebastian Kurz, Austria’s new Chancellor, the youngest national leader in the world.
Kurz is only 31, and could pass for ten years younger. But his baby-faced appearance is the least extraordinary thing about him. What’s far more exceptional is the way he has transformed Austrian, and European, politics by bridging the divide between centrist and populist right.
When Kurz became leader of the Austrian People’s Party ten months ago, Austrian politics was gridlocked. The People’s Party was in government in a so-called ‘grand coalition’ with the Social Democrats — an alliance that left a lot of voters disenchanted. The main beneficiary of their disenchantment was the hard-right Austrian Freedom Party, founded by former Nazis (among others) after the second world war. When Kurz became leader his centre-right People’s Party was third in the polls, on 20 per cent.
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