What is going on over in the European Union? First, the UK decides it wants to leave the EU. French ultra-nationalist and far-right gadfly Marine Le Pen makes it to the final round of presidential voting in her country. There's a far-right leader in Hungary (Orban), who's also no fan of immigration, having quickly erected a border wall to prevent immigrants from passing through or staying in Hungary. And the Poles have basically told the EU it can go hang if it thinks it can force them to accept more immigrants.
Now a 31-year-old millennial, Sebastian Kurz, and his People's Party (OVP) -- tough on immigration, distrustful of taxes and skeptical about any additional entanglements with the EU -- look like they gained enough of an edge that the man is comfortable in declaring victory and, along with it, the presidency of Austria after he and his people form an alliance with the right-wing, and populist, Freedom Party.
Austria's Social Democratic Party -- which made up the largest party in the last government -- looks like it could only gain a third-place finish (26 percent of the vote) behind OVP (at 31.6 percent of the vote) and Freedom Party's 26.9 percent. Together, OVP and Freedom Party would easily swamp the more liberal, more Euro-centric Social Democrats.
I think Kurz and his People's Party can thank Germany's Angela "Mutti" Merkel -- whose decision a couple years ago to throw open the doors of the European Union to millions of immigrants from the Middle East and other parts of Africa and the Mediterranean, and generated a serious backlash among several other EU states in the process -- for their victory, which seems to have deeply shocked the EU today.
Austria election 2017 results - Eurosceptic Sebastian Kurz leads in exit polls | World | News | Express.co.uk
"Politics is just show business for ugly people."
Now a 31-year-old millennial, Sebastian Kurz, and his People's Party (OVP) -- tough on immigration, distrustful of taxes and skeptical about any additional entanglements with the EU -- look like they gained enough of an edge that the man is comfortable in declaring victory and, along with it, the presidency of Austria after he and his people form an alliance with the right-wing, and populist, Freedom Party.
Austria's Social Democratic Party -- which made up the largest party in the last government -- looks like it could only gain a third-place finish (26 percent of the vote) behind OVP (at 31.6 percent of the vote) and Freedom Party's 26.9 percent. Together, OVP and Freedom Party would easily swamp the more liberal, more Euro-centric Social Democrats.
I think Kurz and his People's Party can thank Germany's Angela "Mutti" Merkel -- whose decision a couple years ago to throw open the doors of the European Union to millions of immigrants from the Middle East and other parts of Africa and the Mediterranean, and generated a serious backlash among several other EU states in the process -- for their victory, which seems to have deeply shocked the EU today.
Austria election 2017 results - Eurosceptic Sebastian Kurz leads in exit polls | World | News | Express.co.uk
"Politics is just show business for ugly people."