Austria’s right-wing ‘rock star’ Kurz at the helm of EU politics

Excerpt:

Feted as a “rock star” by an American ambassador and courted by Angela Merkel’s right-wing critics: it’s a dream start for Austria’s youthful Chancellor Sebastian Kurz as his country takes over the EU’s rotating presidency.

Aged just 31, Kurz is poised to steer the bloc as one of his pet themes -- a tougher migration policy -- rises rapidly up the European agenda again.

Kurz, whose centre-right People’s Party (OeVP) has governed with the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) since December, rarely misses an opportunity to boast of his role in closing the “Balkan route” for migrants in 2016 when he was foreign minister.

He made a clampdown on immigration a central theme of his campaign in last year’s elections.

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