NPR

Austrian Voters Expected To Elect Sebastian Kurz As New Chancellor

The 31-year-old conservative foreign minister has moved his party sharply to the right on issues like immigration and Islam. He is widely expected to become Austria's chancellor after Sunday's vote.
Sebastian Kurz, Austria's foreign minister and leader of the conservative Austrian People's Party (OeVP), arrives at his party headquarters on Oct. 13 in Vienna. The OeVP is currently leading in polls. / Sean Gallup / Getty Images

Update, 12:10 p.m., ET:

Preliminary results show Austrian voters have given the right-leaning party of their 31-year-old foreign minister a mandate to form the next government, but not enough to run Austria without partnering with another party.

Sebastian Kurz, who is likely to become the next Austrian chancellor, would be Europe's youngest leader. The popular foreign minister is said to be an avid hiker and windsurfer.

At a campaign appearance Oct. 13 in his hometown of Vienna, young people jostled to get close to Kurz, a scene Austrian journalist Gernot

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