Key points in this article:

• Austrian PM Sebastian Kurz opposes the EU’s haphazard refugee intake
• He aims for a government where hard work pays off with cuts in taxes and government assistance
• The Kurz administration will bring radical changes to Austria

Conservative movement in Europe is getting attention following the U.S.

In Austria, the centre-right Austrian People’s Party, led by Sebastian Kurz and the far-right Freedom Party, struck a coalition deal, media reported. Kurz became Austria’s Prime Minister in December 2017 at age 31.

While media lament that Kurz’s election signals the Austrian drift to the right, this article will provide an assessment of his actual policies.

The Refugee Problem Can Only Be Solved By Decreasing Refugees

Kurz’s first policy is to terminate the disorganized refugee intake.

Due to Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel’s idea of the EU migrant quota, Austria was given a quota of 150,000 refugees between 2015 and 2017. As a result, the political stability and state finances began to decline.

Many of the refugees who come to Europe come from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq where political and social strife induce people to look for a safer place to live. Kurz suggests that rather than accepting refugees haphazardly, Europe should provide military aid so these refugees can live in “safe areas” in their homeland.

He holds that the EU should do what it can to reduce the number of countries producing refugees.

In order to revive state finances and political stability, Austria will cut refugee financial aid and commence mobile phone investigations for proof-of-identity.

A Society Where Hard Work Pays Off

Next, Kurz’s plans tax cuts.

He vowed not to introduce any new taxes and citizens can expect a drop in the total taxes taken from their income from 43% to 40%. Kurz also plans to revise the income of civil servants and politicians and cut any unnecessary financial assistance. He aims for small government: a society where hard work always pays off.

Aside from these changes, he also plans to review the education curriculum.

The Backbone of Kurz’s Policies

It is probably Kurz’s Catholic faith that forms the backbone of his policies.

In February 2017, he told Wiener Kirchenzeitung (a Catholic newspaper) about his faith:

“Faith plays an important role for me. Due to my job, I have, unfortunately, very seldom enough time to attend mass, but attending on holidays together with my family is very important for me. Faith and Christian values were also always important in my parents’ home.”

He said he seeks to live each day by the counsel from a priest who told him: “As a human being, one must never lose one’s compassion for one’s neighbor”. “As a politician, one must, however, never lose sight of reality. And what one should always preserve as a politician is the determination to make the necessary decisions, even if they are difficult,” he added.

His ideas for strengthening the border security force to ultimately resolve the refugee problem and his effort to protect the interests of his country are a fusion of his compassion as a believer and his vision of reality as a politician. Tax cuts, cuts in government assistance, the abolition of bureaucracy, small government, Kurz clearly believes in the inherent potential of humankind.

While the media may report about Kurz in a negative light, we must actually look at his policies and the backbone behind them. There is much to be expected from the European revolutionary.