Austria: A Chancellor for Europe?
Analysis by Morgan Guérin, Head of Europe program
/ressources/favicon.ico
Institut Montaigne
From 1 July, Austria will chair the Council of the European Union (EU) for a period of six months, succeeding Bulgaria. As an exceptional European mini-summit on migration happened last Sunday in Brussels with no agreement being reached, the conservative Austrian government will very soon be in a prime position to influence European power balances and the continent's political-media calendar.

The Member State holding the presidency of the Council of the EU is responsible for preparing and chairing all 10 different Council configurations, with the exception of meetings of foreign ministers chaired by the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. The presidency of the European Council - the meeting of all EU Heads of state and government - is held by a political leader elected for a renewable period of two and a half years.

At the center of the game

The youngest European head of government, Sebastian Kurz (31), who heads a coalition between his party, the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), and the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), has in recent weeks increased exchanges with its European partners. Whether with its allies in the Visegrád group (the V4: Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic), or its two powerful neighbors - Italy, governed for several weeks by a coalition between the Five Star Movement and the League, or Bavaria, led by the Minister-President Markus Söder of the Christian Social Union (CSU) - Austria is at the center of discussions. With a simple objective: to bring together all opponents of the current European migration policy and to have the EU adopt stronger measures to limit the arrival of migrants on European territory.

In January 2018 and only in power for a few weeks, Sebastian Kurz declared during a visit to Vienna by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán that he wanted to be a "bridge" between East and West. Between the countries of Visegrád and the great nations of Western Europe. On Wednesday 13 June, the young chancellor himself announced the creation of an "axis" between his government, the Italian Minister of Interior Matteo Salvini and his German counterpart Horst Seehofer of the CSU. This was the first victory on the European stage for Sebastian Kurz, who is believed to have participated in the current destabilization of the alliance between the CDU and the CSU in Germany. But the political and ideological influence of Sebastian Kurz seems to go even further. According to the German daily Die Welt, Bavaria's Minister-President Markus Söder reportedly asked Chancellor Angela Merkel not to come in Bavaria support his CSU ally, to which he belongs, during the election campaign for the regional parliamentary elections in October 2018. Instead, he would prefer the visit of Sebastian Kurz, whose political line on migration seems more likely to limit the rise of the Eurosceptic party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD).

In addition to the alliance with the Visegrád group - some commentators have speculated that Austria might become the fifth member - the formation of strong alliances with the Italian government, as in the German coalition government, seems to place Austria at the center of the complex European political game.

A presidency coming at the right time

The Austrian government has published a document of almost 70 pages presenting the program and priorities of its presidency. Sebastian Kurz adroitly chose as his motto for his presidency "A Europe that protects", thus following on from Emmanuel Macron's presidential campaign and his great European speeches. For the young chancellor, Europe must do more to protect its citizens in three priority areas: security and migration, prosperity and competitiveness through digitization and stability in the European neighborhood, thus bringing not only the Western Balkans, but also southern and eastern Europe, closer to the EU.

Like its populist and conservative allies in the Visegrád Group, the Austrian government in no way advocates leaving the Union. From the very first lines of the Austrian presidency's program, they affirm that the European states "face new challenges, to which no country can respond effectively on its own", thus taking up the main argument of the defenders of the European project since its creation. Unlike the French Eurosceptic parties which more or less aim for European deconstruction, Austria under Chancellor Kurz, like many of the governments in the region, recognizes the need for their country to be a member of the Union. Recently, the Hungarian Prime Minister, in a tribute speech to Helmut Kohl, said: “Hungary has become a member of the European Union. We are grateful to Germany for this.”

Sebastian Kurz is in a strong position to begin his presidency, thanks to his political skill, a moderate and modern image among the public and some of the European ruling classes, but also to a very favorable European political context.

For what political objectives?