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29 September 2019

Kaiser Sebastian Kurtz, Austrian political recordman, returns to the throne in Vienna. The young leader of the popular party, born in 1986, collected a long series of records within a few years: at 24 he was the youngest undersecretary, at 27 he was the youngest foreign minister and at the age of 30 he took the lead of the Oevp. It was a big mistake by those who thought that his ascent would stop there and that his fall was just as sudden. Many predecessors of Kurz were in fact impallinati by the fire friendly of the comrades of the party. Not so 'Basti Fantasti', the fantastic Sebastian, as his most ardent supporters call him.

More a Leopard than a Scrap, he changed color to Oevp, not only metaphorically, abandoning the black - which after the war marked the party - for turquoise, much smarter and youthful. And all this with the placet of the three powerful souls of the Volkspartei (farmers, entrepreneurs and employees). By now it was under everyone's eyes that Kurz was aiming for another record: to become the youngest Bundeskanzler, or chancellor, a goal he reached in 2017, at the age of 31 years.

The dizzying ascent was followed, as often happens, by a bad setback. In the spring, after just 525 days, his government falls because of the Ibiza-Gate, on which the coalition partner, the ultra-right Fpoe stumbles. Reluctantly, Sebastian collects two new records, certainly less prestigious: that of the less long-lived chancellor and that of the former younger chancellor of Austria.

However, Kurz did not lose heart. In this long and hot summer he traveled the country far and wide aboard a turquoise coach. The young Viennese really like (elder) voters in rural areas, who see him as the son-in-law that everyone wants. His slogans are short and simple. The fact that one of these ('One who speaks like you') also ended up on the posters of Herbert Kickl, the falcon of the Fpoe hawks, aroused not a little irony on social media, as well as the first official biography of the popular leader . The author, journalist Judith Grohmann - this is the accusation - would get herself a little too enthusiastic, writing in a romance novel style. The one who laughs last laughs well, Sebastian Kurz will think in these hours that he certainly already has the suitcases ready to return as soon as possible to the Ballhausplatz n. 2, the prestigious address of the Federal Chancellery in the heart of imperial Vienna.