The head of Austria’s conservative People’s Party Sebastian Kurz is on track to become the world’s youngest leader. <br /><br />Projections in the country’s general election showed the 31-year-old was set to take just over 31 percent of the vote. <br /><br />But despite jubilant scenes among his supporters, the initial result puts Kurz’s party well short of a majority, potentially pushing him into bed with the far-right. <br /><br />Speaking after the projected results were announced Kurz said: “We have made the impossible possible, thank you for your commitment and for this historic success.”<br /><br />He added, “It is our task to talk and work with all the others for our country and it is our task to change the country for the positive.”<br /><br />As counting continued the Social Democrats of current chancellor Christian Kern were battling it out with the far-right for second place.<br /><br />Lamenting Austria’s lurch to the right, Kern said:“We have seen a massive shift to the right in the country. During the last 24 months here, possibly more – there has been a constant and brutal right-wing political agenda carried out by political parties but honestly we cannot exclude the media from this either.” <br /><br />For the far-right led by Heinz-Christian Strache it was a memorable night.<br /><br />Delivering one of its strongest performances in an election his anti-immigration Freedom Party was tipped to take just over a quarter of the vote, putting it in a position to rejoin government after a 12-year absence. <br /><br />Strache had accused Kurz during the campaign of stealing his policies after the later had pledged to shut down migrant routes in the wake of Europe’s 2015 refugee crisis.<br />
