Austria’s new chancellor wants his German counterpart to judge his government “on its deeds” and not on his far-right coalition partner. While both sides stress their closeness, it’s hard to ignore what divides them.
Ahead of the game: that’s how Austria’s new chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, likes to see himself. The fact that he became chancellor at the tender age of 31 – even before having managed to finish his law degree – goes a long way in proving that point. On his first official visit to the EU’s longest-serving leader, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, there were signs that he may be getting ahead of himself.
After all, it was not just the brazen self-confidence of Austria’s political superstar that got him into the chancellery. Kurz has an instinct for populist sentiment and, above all, he is willing to make deals from which others would shy away. In fact, his governing coalition with Austria’s far-right Freedom Party FPÖ – close allies of French far-right firebrand Marine Le Pen’s National Front – is exactly the kind of deal that prompts Merkel to turn away in disgust. Any cooperation with the FPÖ’s German equivalent, the far-right “Alternative for Germany” (AfD), is in her view simply unthinkable. Now Austria has become Germany’s latest ally to lean to the political far-right. Merkel has already paid dearly for refusing to go with this political trend. If anything, friends and foes alike have accused her of shifting her Christian Democrats (CDU) too far to the center.
Many argue that’s exactly what got her into the current political mess. After more than 100 days of trying to forge a government, Merkel’s possibly last attempt at a coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD) hangs in the balance. Time is ticking away. At this moment of uncertainty she had to hear her fresh-faced Austrian counterpart talk about how “glad” he is to have a “stable government.” In the current circumstances that sounded like gloating. Stability is also what Kurz – like the rest of Europe – hopes to see “very soon” here in Germany.
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