Austria’s conservative party set to win national elections

Austria’s 31-year-old foreign minister, Sebastian Kurz, is set to become the country’s youngest leader after his party emerged with the most votes in Sunday’s national elections. Preliminary results place Kurz’s People’s Party ahead with 31.4 percent, while the right-wing Freedom Party came in second with 27.4 percent. The center-left Social Democratic Party, which currently governs in a coalition with the People’s Party, won 26.7 percent. Kurz now faces the task of negotiating another coalition government to reach a majority. The young politician’s campaign centered on calls for tougher external border controls and an end to illegal migration. Kurz called the election outcome a “historic victory,” since his party has won against its rival Social Democrats only twice since the end of World War II.