Austria’s conservative Chancellor-elect Sebastian Kurz threw his support behind Greece over the migration crisis which he accuses Turkey of weaponising for political leverage.

Kurz made the comments in an interview with the German newspaper “Bild” published on Sunday, saying that the European Union’s agreement with Turkey on migration “is not working properly,” while adding that “Greece has our full support”.

The Chancellor-elect also asked for a tougher stance toward Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the refugee-migration issue, saying that Turkey was trying to use migrants and refugees as weapons.

Asked whether this would require sanctions against Turkey, he replied that there “are always many paths, one works through cooperation, the other through pressure”. The EU has a number of possibilities for putting pressure on Erdogan, he pointed out, “and we should think about this equally well.”