The Friendly Face Of Europe's New Right

Chancellor Sebastian Kurz couldn’t beat Austria’s populist insurgents. So he offered them a seat at the table.

- Simon Shuster

HE MADE IT ALL APPEAR SO EASY. THE FEAR, THE hate, the insecurity in Europe started to seem like petty problems when Sebastian Kurz, the Chancellor of Austria, was on the stage in his hometown of Vienna, looking more like a class president in front of his high school reunion than a man who casts himself as Europe’s last best hope.

It was Oct. 13, almost exactly a year since Kurz had won the elections in Austria at the age of 31, becoming the youngest Chancellor in the country’s history, as well as the youngest democratic leader anywhere in the world. To mark the anniversary, he gathered a few hundred friends and fans in Vienna for a modest celebration. No music, no colored lights. Just the friendly new face of the European right, with a banner that read THE CHANGE HAS BEGUN.

The changes Kurz stands for were clear in his speech: harder borders and a tougher defense of Austria’s national identity. As he put it to his audience that day, “Those who do not put clear limits on migration will soon start to feel like strangers in their own land.” Such fears are changing Europe’s political landscape. And Kurz, who leads Austria as it holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, has emerged as a champion of transformation (or as others might argue, regression).

From France and Germany to Italy and Sweden, parties that had ruled from the center for decades have been weakened and pushed aside by populists and demagogues who speak the language of division: nationalism against globalism, the patriots against the traitors, the people against the Establishment. It’s the same language spoken by U.S. President Donald Trump, whose rise helped give these groups legitimacy and a sense of momentum.