As soon as possible': Austria's Kurz on snap elections following leaked video scandal
The development follows a scandal that involved Austria’s Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache, who is a member of the Freedom Party (FPO) – a junior member of Kurz’s right-wing coalition. On Friday, the German newspapers Spiegel and Suddeutscher Zeitung broke a story centered around a leaked secret 2017 recording showing Strache and another high-ranking FPO member talking to a woman who was described as a “niece of a Russian oligarch.”

The politicians discussed the ways the woman could support their election campaign ahead of Austria’s 2017 general vote in exchange for future preferences in acquiring government contracts in the field of construction. They particularly discussed the possibility of her buying a majority share in an Austrian tabloid newspaper and using it as a platform to support the FPO.

Following the reports, Strache announced his resignation both from the post of vice-chancellor and the post of the FPO leader while calling the leak “political assignation.”

However, he did not dispute the video’s authenticity, arguing instead that it should be made public in full and adding that he maintained during that meeting at “everything must be within the law.”

The scandal rocked the Austrian society with thousands of people taking to the streets to demand snap elections. Some 5,000 protesters joined a spontaneous rally outside of the Chancellor’s Office in the Austrian capital of Vienna.
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