AUSTRIA - After all, it was not just the brazen self-confidence of Austria's political superstar that got him into the chancellery. Kurz has an instinct for populist sentiment and, above all, he is willing to make deals from which others would shy away. In fact, his governing coalition with Austria's far-right Freedom Party FPÖ – close allies of French far-right firebrand Marine Le Pen's National Front – is exactly the kind of deal that prompts Merkel to turn away in disgust. Any cooperation with the FPÖ's German equivalent, the far-right "Alternative for Germany" (AfD), is in her view simply unthinkable. Now Austria has become Germany's latest ally to lean to the political far-right. Merkel has already paid dearly for refusing to go with this political trend.