Sebastian Kurz will become Austria's youngest ever chancellor | Thomas Kronsteiner/Getty Images Opinion Germany needs its own Sebastian Kurz Austria’s election is a stark reminder for German conservatives of how to win elections: Move right.

BERLIN — Germany’s conservatives are watching Sebastian Kurz closely. For some in the center right, the 31-year-old Austrian politician’s rise to the chancellorship offers a blueprint for revival.

For years, German Chancellor Angela Merkel brushed off accusations that the party has left its right flank exposed. She did so again after September’s election — when her conservative alliance lost close to 10 percentage points and handed the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) a ticket to the national parliament.

The election’s biggest winners were parties that offered a more attractive conservative profile — the German Liberals (FDP), with their promises of a rightward swing on economic policy, and the AfD with its focus on preserving German identity.

Sebastian Kurz’s election win in Vienna on Sunday hammered that point home.

On the same day that his Austrian People’s Party clinched victory in the federal election, the CDU suffered a major defeat in a key German regional election in Lower Saxony, finishing 3 percentage points behind the Social Democrats.

For some, it was a stark illustration of two options for Germany’s conservatives. Lose elections by following Merkel’s centrist course — or win by staking out a more clearly conservative stance.

If Dutch and Austrian politics move to the right, Europe might catch a cold; if French or German politics take a nationalist turn, the bloc might have to be hospitalized.

Merkel’s conservative detractors are forming a new faction around outgoing Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble (soon to be president of the national parliament), his deputy Jens Spahn and Merkel’s Bavarian sister party, the CSU, which has long called for a tougher line on migration. Under their growing influence, German politics could soon look very much like Austria’s.

Up until a few years ago, German politics was defined by a very weak Social Democratic Party that was bound to the CDU/CSU in a grand coalition. With no major opposition player in sight, Merkel’s administrative, unemotional style of governance was popular among voters.

Things changed with the migration crisis. And September’s election dealt it a final blow, providing ammunition to Merkel’s critics.

Now, with the SPD in opposition and the AfD newly installed in parliament, Merkel’s likely new coalition — the so-called Jamaica coalition, with the Liberals and the Greens — will face heavy attacks from both left and right.

With eurozone and immigration reforms at the top of the agenda, the debate will be polarized and the idea of national identity will be front and center.

Moving further to the left — as the German chancellor appears to want to do — could neutralize the Social Democrats, but it would only boost the liberals (who will attack the CDU on economic issues) and the AfD.

The alternative is to move to the right on both the economy and social issues. That would let the CDU reclaim its dominance — and keep in check conservative dissenters nervous about losing voters to the far right. For most of the party the answer is clear. The question, really, is not if the CDU/CSU will move to the right, but how.

This is where things could get tricky for Europe. Germany is not Austria or the Netherlands; it’s the eurozone’s strongest economy and French President Emmanuel Macron’s most important political partner in his efforts to reform the EU.

If Dutch and Austrian politics move to the right, Europe might catch a cold; if French or German politics take a nationalist turn, the bloc might have to be hospitalized.

As Merkel’s centrist course becomes increasingly untenable within her own party, Germany may soon get its own Sebastian Kurz. For the sake of the EU and the future of Germany, it will be crucial that he or she remains more committed to the European project than the Austrian original.

Timo Lochocki is a transatlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund in Berlin.