Austria may see far-right in government

Austria’s Conservative People’s Party (OVP), led by 31-year-old Sebastian Kurz has declared victory in Austria’s national election, making Kurz the world’s youngest leader yet.

The win was announced on Sunday evening after a projection by pollster SORA showed the conservatives winning with 31.6% of the vote, based on a count of all non-postal ballots. The final results, however, will not be available until later this week due to absentee ballots and ballots cast by votes away from their home districts are counted. Because of this, second place has not yet been announced.

A coalition government is expected. Although Kurz has formed his party’s ideas around those of the far-right Freedom Party, such as a harder line on immigration laws and questioning the role of Islam in Austria, he has so far declined to say which coalition he favoured. Kurz said he wanted to await the final results of the second place.

A right-wing coalition in Austria would follow the ways of Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Poland’s Law and Justice (PiS) government in demanding a harder European stance on on border control, refugees and migration.

“Today the voters, men and women in this country, gave us a great mandate," Kurz has since stated, adding that voters handed his party the opportunity to bring about change.

"We will use all of our strength and all of our fight to bring about change in this country," he said.