Austria’s Kurz ‘reassures’ Europe after coalition pact

Bloomberg

Austria’s new right-wing government sought to dispel concerns over its future in Europe, pledging to remain an “integral part” of the European Union and the euro currency and ruling out a Brexit-like vote
for the public.
Chancellor-designate Sebastian Kurz, 31, of the conservative People’s Party, told journalists in Vienna that he’d like to “remove worries” abroad about the course of his coalition with the nationalist Freedom Party, which in the past has toyed with the idea of a referendum on Austria’s EU membership.
“This is a coalition of two parties who want to actively shape European policy,” Kurz said in a hotel on a hill overlooking the capital.
“EU law is in force 100 percent, we’ll fight for our interests, for
our views, in the EU but we will
respect decisions.”
Kurz is set to be sworn in as chancellor by President Alexander Van der Bellen on Monday after forming a government with the help of the Freedom Party. Two months ago, he won an election amid public discontent about immigration and border control. The new administration vows to harden immigration policy, give Austrian voters more say on policy through referendums, cut taxes and provide greater incentives to businesses.
Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache, who will be vice chancellor after leading his populist movement into government after 12 years as the opposition, said
that he agreed to exclude EU
membership from possible referendums even as his group was ag-gressively pushing to make it easier to let the public vote on laws,
bypassing parliament.
“It was a very important demand of the People’s Party that the exit from the EU should be exempted, and we agreed to that,” Strache said standing alongside Kurz. “We could have imagined to keep it broader but that’s something one has to
accept in a partnership.”
Austria’s drift to the right is part of Europe’s shifting politics after a year of populist challenges at the polls, including an anti-immigration party that drew voters away from Angela Merkel. The German chancellor called the Freedom Party’s strong showing in October a “major challenge” after the election in neighboring Austria.

IMMIGRATION, TAXES
The Freedom Party’s return into government will lead Austria to further tighten immigration policy and heralds tax cuts, looser labor laws and more conservative social
policies. Even without going on a path to leave the EU or abandon the euro, the new government will try to restrict the EU to fewer policy
areas, Kurz said.
“We want a stronger EU in the areas where cooperation is needed — protection of the outer borders, currency and economic policy — but also an EU that retreats in areas where national rules exist,” he said.
The government’s program presentation took place at the Kahlenberg, a hill that was the scene of the 1683 Battle of Vienna that helped end the second Turkish siege, a historical event still very present in Austria’s national mythology. Kurz said he hadn’t picked the location and mostly liked it because of its formidable views.