Austria takes over EU presidency - but with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz at the helm of the bloc. What will the appointment of the right wing populist Chancellor mean for Europe's migration policy?
ADVERTISEMENTAustria has officially taken over its six-month presidency of the European Council from Bulgaria.
It means that Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who is known for his hard-line views on migration, will lead the council until the end of the year.
But what direction will the block, in the midst of a migration crisis, take with Austria at the reins?
It was in a press conference with German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer where Kurz came under fire for controversial comments he made when pursuing harder border policies.
Kurz called for an anti-migration “axis of the willing” with Germany and Italy to push in a bid for heightened restrictive border policies within the EU nations. Raising eyebrows for its apparent similarity to the 1940s Axis of Powers – the military alignment between Nazi Germany, Japan and Italy.
Horst Seehofer, from Angela Merkel’s political sister-party the CSU, has himself been in the headlines recently after he called for Merkel to step down over her supposed open-door migration policy. One of the reasons last week's EU migration summit was tabled.
With questions remaining from the summit and Italy’s new populist government continuing to block migrant ships from docking in its ports – Which way will the populist Chancellor push policy?
Bryan Carter joins us live from Brussels with the latest.