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AFP
Vienna
Austria’s president on Sunday called for fresh elections in September after a corruption scandal embroiling the far-right brought down the coalition government in spectacular fashion.
Just days before key EU elections, Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache was forced to resign in disgrace on Saturday following explosive revelations from a hidden camera sting.
Conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz -- whose 18-month coalition with Strache’s far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) had been held up as a European model -- reacted by pulling the plug on their union.
“My preference is for early elections in September, if possible the beginning of September,” President Alexander Van der Bellen told journalists on Sunday after meeting Kurz.
Van der Bellen said the elections were necessary to rebuild trust in politics.
“The fresh elections were not a desire, they were a necessity,” Kurz said, calling for political stability in the lead up to the poll.
Van der Bellen will hold further talks with other party leaders to fix a date, setting the scene for months of campaigning.
The dramatic developments followed the publication by two German newspapers on Friday of footage from a sophisticated hidden-camera sting months before Austria’s last parliamentary elections in 2017.
In the recordings -- of unknown provenance -- Strache is seen talking to a woman purporting to be the niece of a Russian oligarch.
The pair discuss how she could gain control of the country’s largest-circulation tabloid, the Kronen Zeitung, and install editorial staff who would help the FPOe’s 2017 election campaign.
In return, Strache held out the possibility of awarding public contracts.
Elsewhere in the footage, he discusses remodelling Austria’s media landscape to more closely resemble that of Viktor Orban’s Hungary, and appears to hint at ways political donations could be made to escape legal scrutiny.
Kurz said on Saturday the latest revelations were the final straw after a string of FPOe-related scandals dogging the government. “Enough is enough,” he said.
Vienna
Austria’s president on Sunday called for fresh elections in September after a corruption scandal embroiling the far-right brought down the coalition government in spectacular fashion.
Just days before key EU elections, Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache was forced to resign in disgrace on Saturday following explosive revelations from a hidden camera sting.
Conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz -- whose 18-month coalition with Strache’s far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) had been held up as a European model -- reacted by pulling the plug on their union.
“My preference is for early elections in September, if possible the beginning of September,” President Alexander Van der Bellen told journalists on Sunday after meeting Kurz.
Van der Bellen said the elections were necessary to rebuild trust in politics.
“The fresh elections were not a desire, they were a necessity,” Kurz said, calling for political stability in the lead up to the poll.
Van der Bellen will hold further talks with other party leaders to fix a date, setting the scene for months of campaigning.
The dramatic developments followed the publication by two German newspapers on Friday of footage from a sophisticated hidden-camera sting months before Austria’s last parliamentary elections in 2017.
In the recordings -- of unknown provenance -- Strache is seen talking to a woman purporting to be the niece of a Russian oligarch.
The pair discuss how she could gain control of the country’s largest-circulation tabloid, the Kronen Zeitung, and install editorial staff who would help the FPOe’s 2017 election campaign.
In return, Strache held out the possibility of awarding public contracts.
Elsewhere in the footage, he discusses remodelling Austria’s media landscape to more closely resemble that of Viktor Orban’s Hungary, and appears to hint at ways political donations could be made to escape legal scrutiny.
Kurz said on Saturday the latest revelations were the final straw after a string of FPOe-related scandals dogging the government. “Enough is enough,” he said.
