Austria swears in Europe’s youngest leader, 31-yr-old Sebastian Kurz as Chancellor

Sebastian Kurz was sworn in Monday, December 18th, 2017 as Austria’s new chancellor, making him Europe’s youngest leader at age 31, after his Austrian People’s Party formed a coalition with the nationalist Freedom Party that is expected to move the country’s politics to the right.

About 6,000 people protested outside President Alexander Van der Bellen’s office with signs like “we don’t want any Nazi pigs” and “Nazis out” as Kurz and his new Cabinet were sworn in.

The two parties have pledged to tighten the country’s asylum and immigration regulations while maintaining a firm commitment to the European Union.

 Sebastian Kurz and his girlfriend Susanne Thier leave the presidential office after he was sworn in as Austrian Chancellor in Vienna, Austria, December 18, 2017. (REUTERS Photo)

Kurz has moved his traditionally centrist party to the right, particularly on the issues of migration and Muslims, but has avoided the inflammatory rhetoric of the Freedom Party, which itself has publicly disassociated itself from decades of covert anti-Semitism, but continues to attract a neo-Nazi fringe.

Kurz served as foreign minister in the outgoing government led by Chancellor Christian Kern, a Social Democrat. He has stressed the importance of a pro-European direction and is expected to continue to take the lead on European issues even though the Freedom Party, which has traditionally been strongly euroskeptic, will have the Foreign Ministry.

Both Kurz’s conservatives and the Freedom Party campaigned on the need for tougher immigration controls, quick deportations of asylum-seekers whose requests are denied and a crackdown on radical Islam.

Source: Associated Press