How One 'Political Wunderkind' Is Outmaneuvering the Far Right

VIENNA—“Thank you. Because you’ve shown that even today, in these times, you can win elections as a conservative.” These words of gratitude, directed at Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, were spoken Friday night at a campaign event in the German state of Bavaria. Bavarian Premier Markus Söder was addressing his “friend” Kurz, who had come to stump for the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian counterpart of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives, ahead of a Sunday election there. Standing before hundreds of CSU supporters, Söder described the 32-year-old Kurz as an inspiration to conservative parties across Europe.    

Although the CSU ended up in Sunday’s election, the party’s choice to bring in Kurz to bolster the final days of its difficult campaign made perfect sense. Ever since last October, when Kurz and his rebranded Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) recovered from dismal polling numbers to overtake the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) in the polls and win Austria’s parliamentary elections, Kurz has whose success could serve as an example for ailing center-right parties across Europe. —a combination of personality-driven, Emmanuel Macron–style “movement” rhetoric and a sharp turn to the right on immigration—represents one view on how such parties can fight off (and, in Kurz’s case, ultimately work in harmony with) their far-right populist challengers.