VIENNA: Austria deported an Afghan national back to his home country on Tuesday for the first time since the Taliban seized power there four years ago, and the conservative-led coalition government in Vienna said that more would follow soon.

The government has made fighting illegal immigration a top priority, apparently seeking to erode support for the far-right Freedom Party, or FPO, by focusing on one of its core issues.

The three-party ruling coalition of centrist parties took office in March after the FPO won a parliamentary election but failed to form a governing alliance. The FPO has maintained its lead in opinion polls.

“This morning, a man convicted of serious crimes was deported to Kabul — the first deportation to Afghanistan since 2021,” Chancellor Christian Stocker of the conservative Austrian People’s Party wrote on X.

“Austria is thus sending a clear message: zero tolerance for anyone who has forfeited their right to remain by committing criminal offences,” he added.

In July, Austria became the first European Union country to deport a Syrian back to their home country since the civil war there broke out, despite objections by human rights groups that it was too soon to know if it was safe to do so.

Austria has been saying for months that it hopes to resume deportations to Afghanistan despite similar objections.

Amnesty International said in a statement that Afghanistan remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world.

“Anyone who deports people to a state that commits crimes against its own people is deliberately denying protection and breaking the law,” it said, adding: “This betrayal of human rights must be stopped immediately!”

Syria and Afghanistan are the top countries of origin of asylum-seekers in Austria. The government has said that initially those deported will primarily be criminal offenders.

“The Interior Ministry under Gerhard Karner is preparing further deportations,” Stocker said.

The deportation comes just a day after the European Union said that it has “initiated exploratory contacts” with the Taliban regime to boost deportations of failed asylum seekers.

A majority of EU nations had urged Brussels to reach out to Kabul to boost expulsions.

In a letter initiated by Belgium, 20 EU member states urged the European Commission to take action to enable both voluntary and forced returns of Afghans with no right to stay.

• Takaichi becomes Japan’s first female prime minister.
• Takaichi’s election marks a shift to the right in Japan.
• Equity markets optimistic about Takaichi’s economic policies. 

Hardline conservative Sanae Takaichi was elected Japan’s first female prime minister on Tuesday, shattering the political glass ceiling and setting the country up for a decisive turn to the right.

An acolyte of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and an admirer of Britain’s Margaret Thatcher, Takaichi is expected to return to Abe-style government stimulus as she attempts to jumpstart an economy saddled with slow growth and rising prices. 

While her victory marks a pivotal moment for a country where men still hold overwhelming sway, she named just two women to her cabinet, far fewer than what she had promised.

Takaichi is also likely to usher in a sharp move to the right on issues such as immigration and defence, making her the latest leader in tune with the broader rightward shift in global politics. 

She received 237 votes in the election in parliament’s 465-seat lower house on Tuesday and then won a similar vote in the less powerful upper house.

Her victory was secured after her Liberal Democratic Party, which has governed Japan for most of its postwar history, agreed on Monday to form a coalition with the right-wing Japan Innovation Party, known as Ishin.

Together, the parties are two seats short of a majority in the lower house. That means Takaichi’s success will depend on her winning the cooperation of more opposition lawmakers, said Tadashi Mori, a professor of politics at Aichi Gakuin University.

“The two parties do not command a majority in either chamber, and to ensure a stable government and gain control of key parliamentary committees, they will need to secure more than half the seats,” he said.

Previous coalition broke up after quarter-century

Takaichi takes over when Japanese politics appears more fractured than at almost any other time in recent memory, thanks in part to the rise of the smaller, hard-right Sanseito Party, which has siphoned voters away from the LDP.

“Since former Prime Minister Abe passed away, we’ve felt that both national politics and the LDP itself have drifted leftward,” Sanseito head Sohei Komiya told broadcaster NHK, adding he hoped Takaichi would steer national politics back to the middle.

“While we won’t hesitate to oppose her when necessary, we intend to maintain a friendly working relationship,” he said.

The LDP’s former coalition partner, the more moderate Komeito, broke up their 26-year-old alliance this month after the LDP chose the right-wing Takaichi as its new leader.

No ‘Nordic’ cabinet after all

Takaichi named just two women to her cabinet: fellow Abe disciple, Satsuki Katayama, became the country’s first female finance minister, while Kimi Onoda became economic security minister.

In her leadership campaign, she promised to boost the number of women in the cabinet to match socially progressive Nordic countries. The percentage of female ministers in Nordic governments ranges from Denmark’s 36% to Finland’s 61%. Under Takaichi, women will make up 16% of Japan’s cabinet, including her.

“Only two female ministers, no surprise,” said Yoko Otsuka a professor of welfare policy and gender studies at Ritsumeikan University. “A female prime minister might slightly improve Japan’s Global Gender Gap Index ranking, but the reality barely changes.”

Takaichi trade moves stocks higher

Takaichi’s endorsement of Abe-style fiscal stimulus has prompted a so-called “Takaichi trade” in the stock market, sending the Nikkei share average to record highs, the most recent on Tuesday. But it has also caused investor unease about the government’s ability to pay for more spending in a country where the debt load far outweighs annual output. Both the yen and bond prices have weakened as a result.

Any attempt to revive Abenomics could also run into trouble because the policy was devised to fight deflation, not higher prices, said Aichi Gakuin’s Mori.

Some analysts say Ishin, which has advocated for budget cuts, could restrain some of Takaichi’s spending ambitions.

Takaichi has said defence and national security would be core pillars of any administration she led. She pledged to raise defence spending, deepen cooperation with the United States and other security partners. US President Donald Trump may visit as early as her first week in office.

A frequent visitor to the Yasukuni war shrine in Tokyo that some Asian neighbours view as a symbol of wartime aggression, Takaichi has also called for a revision of Japan’s postwar pacifist constitution to recognise the existence of the nation’s military forces.

Rising political star Shinjiro Koizumi will serve as defence minister while veteran lawmaker Toshimitsu Motegi will be foreign minister.

Takaichi will be sworn in as Japan’s 104th prime minister on Tuesday evening to succeed the incumbent Shigeru Ishiba, who last month announced his resignation to take responsibility for election losses.

French police on Tuesday stepped up the hunt for thieves who stole priceless royal jewels from the Louvre museum, as scrutiny mounted over security at the country’s cultural institutions.

Sunday’s audacious daylight robbery— which lasted just seven minutes— was the latest in a string of thefts from French museums in recent months, and has left authorities scrambling to increase protection measures.

In a separate case, a prosecutor said on Tuesday that a Chinese woman had been charged over taking part in the theft of more than $1 million worth of gold nuggets from another Paris museum last month.

Scores of investigators were still looking for Sunday’s culprits, working on the theory that it was an organised crime group that clambered up a ladder on a truck to break into the museum, then dropped a diamond-studded crown as they fled.

Detectives were scouring video camera footage from around the Louvre as well as of main highways out of Paris for signs of the four robbers, who escaped on scooters.

‘Worrying level of obsolescence’

The heist has reignited a row over the lack of security in French museums, after two other institutions were hit last month.

A report by France’s Court of Auditors seen by AFP covering 2019 to 2024 points to a “persistent” delay in security upgrades at the Louvre. Only a fourth of one wing was covered by video surveillance.

In January, Louvre president Laurence des Cars warned Culture Minister Rachida Dati of a “worrying level of obsolescence”, citing the urgent need for major renovations.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez on Monday said he would tighten security outside cultural institutions.

In Sunday’s heist, thieves parked a truck with an extendable ladder, like those used by movers, below the museum’s Apollo Gallery shortly after it opened, climbing up and using cutting equipment to get through a window and open the display cases to steal the jewellery.

They made off with eight priceless pieces, including an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon I gave his wife, Empress Marie-Louise and a diadem that once belonged to the Empress Eugenie, which is dotted with nearly 2,000 diamonds.

The museum on Tuesday hit back at criticism that the display cases protecting the jewellery were fragile, saying they were installed in 2019 and “represented a considerable improvement in terms of security”.

Chinese arrest 

Just last month, criminals broke into Paris’s Natural History Museum, making off with gold nuggets worth more than $1.5 million.

French authorities announced on Tuesday a 24-year-old Chinese woman has been charged and put in detention in that case after she was arrested in Barcelona, while trying to dispose of nearly one kilogramme (2.2 pounds) of melted gold pieces.

Also last month, thieves stole two dishes and a vase from a museum in the central city of Limoges, the losses estimated at $7.6 million.

“Museums are increasingly targeted for the valuable works they hold,” according to the Central Office for the Fight against Trafficking in Cultural Property.

Labour unions have complained that security staff positions at the Louvre have been cut, even as attendance at the world-famous museum, whose extensive collections include the Mona Lisa, has soared.

“We cannot do without physical surveillance,” on union source said.

The Louvre was shut per its usual schedule on Tuesday, having been closed on Sunday and Monday after the heist, leaving crowds of disappointed tourists.