Austrian Politician to Become the Youngest World Leader

During elections on Sunday in Austria, the right-leaning parties won big, reports Business Insider.

The conservative People’s Party (OVP) got 31.4 percent of the vote, followed by the nationalist Freedom Party (FPO), with 27.4 percent of the vote, and the center-right Social Democratic Party (SPO), with 26.8 percent of the vote, according to preliminary results from the country’s interior ministry.

The OVP is about 30 seats away from a parliamentary majority, current estimates say. According to Business Insider, the belief is that the OVP will form a coalition with the FPO and create a right-wing, heavily anti-immigrant Austrian parliament.

If the results are correct and confirmed, 31-year-old OVP leader Sebastian Kurz will become Austrian Chancellor and the world’s youngest national leader, according to Business Insider.

Kurz was appointed to the country’s foreign minister at 27-years-old. He took over the OVP leadership this May, Business Insider reports, after former chairman and Austrian Chancellor Reinhold Mitterlehner stepped down. Kurz changed the OVP’s official color from black to greenish-blue, reports Business Insider.

Kurz, who has been referred to as the OVP’s “wonder child,” has “vowed to shake up Austrian politics” though it is unclear what exactly he means. Bloomberg previously reported that the Austrian economy is currently experiencing its fastest economic growth in six years, and the unemployment rate is down. Political analyst Thomas Hofer said Kurz’s vows to shake up politics were a “massive contradiction.”

“The OVP has been in government for more than 30 years running and its posters say ‘Time for something new.’ It’s a massive contradiction but with Kurz it works,” he said, according to Business Insider.

The full official result of the election will be declared Oct. 31.