Austrian Chancellor calls new elections after corruption scandal
VIENNA (DPA), 19 MAY, 2019Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has called for fresh elections “as soon as possible” after a corruption scandal forced his deputy - the leader of the far-right Freedom Party (FPOE) - to step down.
Kurz told a press conference in Vienna that his conservative People’s Party (OEVP) could no longer work in a coalition with the FPOE.
Kurz said he had made his position known to Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen, who later said a new election was necessary to regain the trust of the Austrian public.
The announcement comes one day after two German media outlets showed footage of FPOE leader Heinz-christian Strache offering government contracts in return for financial backing from a woman posing as a potential party donor and niece of a Russian oligarch.
The video was secretly recorded during an alcohol-fuelled evening in Ibiza in July 2017 - only a few months before an election that saw Strache’s party garner enough votes to form a coalition government with Kurz’s OEVP.