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Austria Set To Elect World’s Youngest Leader

Austria’s Foreign Minister, Sebastian Kurz is set to become the country’s next Chancellor and also the world’s youngest head of state ahead of North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and San Marino’s Enrico Carattoni.

The 31 year old was declared victory after near-final results from Sunday’s snap election, which put his People’s Party on 31.4%.

This figure, however, is not enough for an overall majority and in order to become the chancellor, Kurz would have to form a coalition or a minority government.

According to the ORF, an Austrian national public service broadcaster, the populist Freedom Party came in second place after garnering 27.4% of the votes leaving the centre-left Social Democrats at third with 26.7%.

The Freedom Party and People’s Party under the leadership of Kurz have been campaigning on concerns involving immigration issues and Islam.

Following his declaration of victory, Kurz said that he may be prepared to establish a minority government.

“I would of course like to form a stable government. If that cannot be done then there are other options,” he said.

Kurz also planned to have talks with all the political parties in parliament, but he would first wait for the postal ballots to be counted.

As of now, Austria is governed by a coalition of Social Democrats and the People’s Party, with Kurz currently holding the position of Foreign Minister.

If elected as Chancellor, Kurz would also beat Carattoni, 32, and Jong-un, 33, as the world’s youngest leader, and the young politician promised the voters that he would bring “real change” to the nation.

Kurz became the world’s youngest serving Foreign Minister in 2013 at the age of 27.

Previously, he was accused of being “hard-hearted” by Germany’s Die Welt newspaper after calling for a more robust outer EU border, and for an end to the charity rescues of refugees in the Mediterranean.

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