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| Austria's conservatives strike deal with far-right party founded by ex-Nazis to form coalition government | Austria's conservatives strike deal with far-right party founded by ex-Nazis to form coalition government |
| (about 20 hours later) | |
| Austria’s far-right Freedom Party has reached a deal with the conservative People’s Party on creating a new coalition government. | |
| The agreement will make 31-year-old Sebastian Kurz the new Chancellor and Europe’s youngest leader. | |
| Austria’s People’s Party finished first in the 15 October election. The party then embarked on coalition talks with the right-wing Freedom Party. | |
| Mr Kurz and Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache announced on Friday that they had finalised an agreement on a new coalition, which will shift Austria to the right. | Mr Kurz and Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache announced on Friday that they had finalised an agreement on a new coalition, which will shift Austria to the right. |
| Mr Kurz is foreign minister in the outgoing government under Chancellor Christian Kern, a centre-left Social Democrat. His party has been the junior partner in that government. | Mr Kurz is foreign minister in the outgoing government under Chancellor Christian Kern, a centre-left Social Democrat. His party has been the junior partner in that government. |
| Before the election, both parties campaigned on the need for tougher immigration controls, quick deportations of asylum-seekers whose requests are denied and a crackdown on radical Islam. | Before the election, both parties campaigned on the need for tougher immigration controls, quick deportations of asylum-seekers whose requests are denied and a crackdown on radical Islam. |
| The Freedom Party was founded by ex-Nazis in the 1950s and waited until last month to stop wearing the traditional blue cornflower, which has links to the Nazi movement of the 1930s. | The Freedom Party was founded by ex-Nazis in the 1950s and waited until last month to stop wearing the traditional blue cornflower, which has links to the Nazi movement of the 1930s. |
| Austria will hold the 28-nation European Union’s rotating presidency in the second half of next year. | |
| Neither leader addressed the new government’s approach to European policy during their brief appearance on Friday evening. | |
| Mr Kurz has stressed the importance of a pro-European direction, while the Freedom Party traditionally has been strongly Eurosceptic. | |
| He said that Austrians had voted “for change in our country, and we want to ensure this change in the next five years”. | |
| He also said it was important to ensure “a new political style in dealing with each other in Austria” after persistent bickering in the old government. |