Sebastian Kurz

Kurz's maternal grandmother Magdalena Müller, born 1928 in Temerin, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (today Vojvodina, Serbia), is a Danube Swabian who fled from the city and settled in Zogelsdorf (today in Austria) during World War II, after the Yugoslav Partisans and the Red Army started to regain the territory that was then occupied by the Kingdom of Hungary.

Sebastian Kurz (born 27 August 1986) is an Austrian former politician who served twice as the chancellor of Austria, initially from December 2017 to May 2019 and then a second time from January 2020 to October 2021.

On 23 February 2024, Kurz received an eight-month suspended sentence after being convicted of perjury by a court in Vienna over his involvement in a parliamentary inquiry.

Kurz was born and raised in Meidling, Vienna.

He entered politics by joining the Young People's Party (JVP) in 2003 and rose through the ranks there over the following years.

Kurz had been a member of the Young People's Party (JVP) since 2003 and was 'sponsored' by Markus Figl.

He obtained his Matura certificate in 2004, completed compulsory military service in 2005, and began studying law at the University of Vienna the same year.

Later, he dropped out of university and focused on his political career.

Kurz is in a relationship with economics teacher Susanne Thier; they have a son named Konstantin together.

From 2008 to 2012, he was chairman of Young People's Party of Vienna.

Kurz was elected chairman of the Austrian JVP at a federal party convention in 2009, where he received 99 percent of the vote; five years later he was reelected with 100 percent.

From 2009 to 2016, Kurz served as a deputy co-chair of the Viennese People's Party.

As chairman, he led the youth arm of the electoral campaign of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) into the 2010 Viennese state election and coined the electoral campaign's controversial slogan "black makes [you] cool" (Schwarz macht geil), a play on the official party color as well as the colloquial term "geil" which literally translates to "horny".

Kurz used a black painted SUV termed the "Geilomobil" (cool/horny automobile) for official campaign trips in Vienna.

From 2010 to 2011, he was a member of the Viennese State and Municipality Diet, where he focused on "generational equality and fair pensions", before being nominated as state secretary of the Interior Ministry for integration in June 2011, ensuing a reshuffle of the first Faymann cabinet.

As a result of a cabinet reshuffle in 2011, Kurz received his first government mandate as state secretary responsible for socially integrating refugees.

Kurz was brought up in Meidling, the 12th district of Vienna, where he still lives.

After the 2013 legislative election, Kurz became the country's foreign minister and remained its top diplomat until December 2017.

Following the 2013 Austrian legislative election, in which he won the most direct votes of any candidate, he briefly served as a member of the Parliament.

In December 2013, Kurz resigned his parliamentary seat to become the country's youngest foreign minister at age 27.

In May 2017, Kurz succeeded ÖVP chairman Reinhold Mitterlehner and ran as chancellor candidate of his party in the 2017 legislative election.

He campaigned on modernizing the Austrian political and bureaucratic apparatus as well as handling the social and immigration issues the country was facing after the European refugee crisis.

His perceived reformist approach, rhetorical skills and youth were cited as the prime reasons for his landslide victory.

Kurz was subsequently charged with forming his first cabinet.

He opted for a coalition with the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ).

During his first chancellorship, Kurz was credited with mostly following through on his campaign pledges, but his leadership style was widely criticised as uncooperative and hasty.

In 2017, attorney Stefan Schnöll succeeded Kurz as chairman.

Several political scandals, culminating with the Ibiza affair in 2019, ended the ÖVP–FPÖ coalition.

As a result of him no longer commanding the support of Parliament, Kurz and his Cabinet were ousted.

Following the 2019 snap election, he returned to power and formed a coalition with the environmentalist Green Party this time.

Kurz and his second cabinet were inaugurated in January 2020.

Their agenda, however, was swiftly put in limbo by the surging COVID-19 pandemic.

His response to the pandemic included lockdowns and curfews.

An investigation into the Ibiza affair by a parliamentary subcommittee, an unstable Cabinet plagued by resignations, and ultimately a corruption inquiry, forced Kurz to resign the chancellorship in October 2021.

However, remaining party chair and parliamentary leader allowed him to retain control over government affairs, and thus he came to be known as "shadow chancellor".

Two months later, Kurz quit politics entirely and started working as a global strategist for Peter Thiel.

Kurz was the youngest chancellor in Austrian history as well as the youngest head of government in the world for about four years.

His youth and political tenor were credited with revitalizing the traditional conservative movement in Austria, and to a larger extent in Europe.

Kurz was born in Vienna, the only child of Elisabeth (Döller) and Josef Kurz.

His father is an engineer and his mother is a grammar school teacher.