Austrian leader quits after video scandal

Conservative Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz yesterday pulled the plug on his coalition with the farright Freedom Party after a damaging video prompted its leader to step down as vice chancellor.

“Enough is enough,” Kurz said to reporters, listing several lesser scandals involving the Freedom Party that did not cause their coalition to collapse. He said he would propose a snap election be held as soon as possible.

His comments came after Austria’s vice-chancellor and long-time far-right leader Heinz-Christian Strache stepped down over video footage of him meeting a woman posing as the niece of a Russian oligarch in 2017, shortly before the election which brought him to power.

He appears to offer to funnel contracts towards a company in exchange for political and financial support.

The footage was published by German media just a week before European Parliament elections.

“It was dumb, it was irresponsible and it was a mistake,” Strache told a news conference, fighting back tears as he asked his wife and others to forgive him. He maintained, however, that he had done nothing illegal.

“This is the tip of the iceberg,” said Thomas Drozda of the opposition Social Democrats. “I expect the chancellor, who evidently has known about this video for 48 hours, and that his coalition partner is drowning in a swamp of corruption, to speak and explain his position. He has been hiding for 48 hours. He owes the country an explanation.”