Europe’s Agenda Is in the Hands of a 31-Year-Old

Meidling, a district in the southwest of Vienna, is known for its residents’ distinct pronunciation of the letter “l.” Whereas many people form the sound with just the tip of their tongue against the palate, the “Meidlinger l,” which can also be heard in working-class neighborhoods all over Vienna, involves using almost the entire tongue, making the letter sound almost thick. Today, the typical, soft Viennese German is nowhere near the only language heard on the streets there. Almost every other Meidling resident, 45 percent of the district’s population, was either born abroad or holds a foreign citizenship.

Meidling is where Sebastian Kurz, Austria’s 31-year-old chancellor in the conservative People’s Party (ÖVP), grew up—although in the early days of his political career he was often mistaken for someone from Hietzing, the adjacent and more upper-class district. This is because Kurz doesn’t do the “Meidlinger l;” instead, his voice is nasal, and cadences of his speech sound more like French than German, which is typical of Hietzing.

Meidling is considered working-class, which Kurz isn’t. His mother is a high school teacher, his