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ELECTION

Why Austria’s ‘wonder boy’ Sebastian Kurz is on course to win election

Tall, tanned and only 31, Austria's rising political star Sebastian Kurz oozed confidence as he strode to blaring pop music into Graz's main square -- seemingly with good reason.

Why Austria's 'wonder boy' Sebastian Kurz is on course to win election
Sebastian Kurz greets voters in Graz on September 4th. Photo: AFP

“October 15 is our chance for change in this country,” Kurz told the recent election rally in Austria's second city, white-shirted and tieless in his trademark slim-fit suit.

“And dear friends, to be honest, it is time for change.”

Kurz looks on course to become the European Union's youngest head of government when this wealthy but increasingly disgruntled Alpine country of 8.75 million people votes in a month's time.

Since becoming head of the centre-right Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) in May, Kurz has re-branded it — in turquoise — as his personal “movement”.

Bringing in candidates from outside politics — including a quadriplegic former pole vaulter and an organiser of Viennese balls — Kurz has promised a “new style” and to jumpstart the economy.

Since he took charge, the ÖVP — the party name is absent from campaign posters — has leapfrogged the two other main parties and now has an opinion poll lead of around nine points.

Kurz's nickname, the tough-to-translate “Wunderwuzzi”, means someone who can “walk on water”, political analyst Thomas Hofer told AFP.

Calling him Austria's most talented politician since Jörg Haider in the 1980s and 90s, he said: “This is now a race for Mr. Kurz to lose.”

“I think he is a very young and dynamic person who wants to bring a new style into politics,” said captivated party volunteer Michael Schellnegger, 22, his T-shirt and even his trainers in turquoise.

READ ALSO: This is Sebastian Kurz: Austria's 'messiah' to his fans, 'mini-dictator' to detractors

Moving right 

The appeal of the “change” message is remarkable considering that Kurz is part and parcel of the cosy political establishment that he wants to shake up.

The former head of the party youth wing has been in the government since 2011 and the ÖVP has been in power for 30 years — almost as long as Kurz has been alive.

Part of his success has been because Kurz has taken a hard line on immigration, attracting voters away from the far-right who until recently topped the polls.

As integration and foreign minister, Kurz claims credit for closing the Balkan migrant trail in 2016 and wants to cut social security benefits for immigrants — even those from the EU.

“We were right to close the Balkan route and I will fight for the Mediterranean route to be closed too,” he said in Graz, generating the biggest cheer of the evening.

One supporter, a 55-year-old nurse called Barbara, reflects the views of many Austrians when asked what her number one concern is.

“Asylum-seekers,” she shoots back.

Kurz's rightwards tack has incensed the FPÖ, which came close to winning the presidency last year. Many of the two parties' policies, and even their slogans, are almost identical.

According to FPÖ head Heinz-Christian Strache, 48, Kurz is “ruthless and dishonest”. His plans are “political plagiarism,” thunders its chief strategist.

Its response has been to move leftwards of the Social Democrats (SPÖ) and the increasingly hapless-looking Chancellor Christian Kern, 51, on some social issues.

Strache and Kern's last chance to turn things around may be their only three-way debate with Kurz in Linz on Friday, experts say.

Haider 2.0? 

But the FPÖ is far from out. To become chancellor Kurz could well form a coalition with them after the ÖVP's two successive and unhappy “grand coalitions” with the centre-left SPÖ.

The last time this happened was in 2000 when the FPOe was led by the flamboyant but controversial Haider, prompting outcry in Israel and ostracism in Europe.

This time though, the reaction is likely to be muted, thanks to a softening of the FPÖ's message and also the rise of other populist parties across Europe.

The FPÖ “weren't a bad partner then and they can be a partner again in the future”, Andreas Kinsky, 50, ÖVP party chief in the town of Weiz, told AFP.

SEBASTIAN KURZ

Austria Chancellor facing investigation over ‘false statement’ to MPs

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz announced Wednesday that prosecutors had started investigating him after the opposition accused him of making false statements to a parliamentary committee on corruption.

Austria Chancellor facing investigation over 'false statement' to MPs
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. Image: Joe Klamar/AFP

“I wish to inform you that… prosecutors have opened an investigation against the head of my office,” Bernhard Bonelli, “and against me”, Kurz told reporters before a cabinet meeting.

Kurz denied any wrongdoing, saying: “I always answered all (the committee’s) questions truthfully.”

He said the investigation would have no impact on his work and that he would not resign.

The investigation comes after the opposition Social Democrats (SPOe) and NEOS parties accused Kurz of not telling truth in front of the committee of MPs, who are investigating the fallout from the so-called “Ibizagate” scandal that brought down Kurz’s previous government in 2019.

READ MORE: Alleged mastermind in Austria’s ‘Ibiza-gate’ video arrested in Berlin

Kurz’s then vice-chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache from the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) had to resign after a video emerged showing him in a luxury villa in Ibiza offering political favours to a woman he thought was a Russian oligarch’s niece, in exchange for financial support.

The parliamentary committee looking into the scandal has since broadened its focus to include other accusations of wrongdoing, including by politicians from Kurz’s People’s Party (OeVP).

The latest investigation comes as the OeVP’s party financing and other practices have increasingly come under the spotlight.

In February OeVP Finance Minister Gernot Bluemel’s home was raided as part of a separate probe into possible party financing offences.

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