France to recognize Guaido if Venezuela's Maduro does not call vote on Sunday

[Ghost Dog]

1. Kurz...

... Kurz rose to prominence in 2013, when at 27 he became the world's youngest serving foreign minister — looking practically pubescent in photo ops with counterparts of the time, including US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iran's Javad Zarif.

But his political career started in school when, just before taking his A Levels, he joined the youth wing of the conservative Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and became its leader while studying law. With a string of controversial and polarizing local election campaigns in Vienna he helped the conservatives make inroads in a traditionally Social Democratic stronghold. In a show of gratitude, the ÖVP appointed him state secretary for integration in 2011. After a Social Democratic-People's Party coalition was formed four years ago, Kurz became Austria's foreign minister — the youngest top diplomat in Europe.

When a new wave of refugees seeking to relocate to Europe became a continent-wide concern in 2015, Kurz recognized Austrian voters' anxiety over unchecked immigration. He called for tougher external border controls, better integration and stringent control of "political Islam" funded from abroad. He also organized the shutdown of the popular overland route through the West Balkans.

His hard-line positions have prompted observers to call him "hard-hearted," as Gemany's Die Welt newspaper did.

"He is a power-hungry neoliberal," one young voter in Vienna who asked not to be named told DW. "What does he want? The Hapsburg empire back again?"...

https://www.dw.com/en/make-austria-great-again-the-rapid-rise-of-sebastian-kurz/a-40313720