Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen yesterday 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, Austrian vice chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache was forced to resign in disgrace on Saturday following explosive revelations from a hidden camera sting.
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz — whose 18-month conservative coalition with the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) had been held up as a European model — reacted by pulling the plug on their union.
Photo: AFP
“My preference is for early elections in September, if possible the beginning of September,” Van der Bellen told journalists after holding talks with Kurz.
The president will hold further talks with other party leaders in the coming weeks to fix a date.
The dramatic developments followed the publication on Friday by two German newspapers of footage from a sophisticated hidden-camera sting months before Austria’s last parliamentary elections in 2017.
In the tapes — of unknown provenance — Strache is seen openly discussing the possibility of awarding public contracts in return for campaign help for the FPOe from a woman posing as the niece of a Russian oligarch.
The woman says she specifically wants to gain control of the country’s largest-circulation tabloid, the Kronen Zeitung.
Strache is seen suggesting that new owners could make staff changes and use the paper to help his party in its election campaign.
Kurz on Saturday said the latest revelations were the final straw after a string of FPOe-related scandals dogging the government.
“Enough is enough,” he told a news conference in Vienna.
Strache insisted in his emotional resignation statement that he had been the victim of a “targeted political attack,” but also described his own actions as “stupid” and “irresponsible.”
The FPOe was also due to meet yesterday to confirm leadership changes after Strache’s exit.
Neither Van der Bellen nor Kurz commented on who would replace Strache in the run-up to elections and whether top FPOe politicians would be allowed to stay in post.
The damning revelations, which saw protesters take to the streets on Vienna on Saturday, broke as the campaign for European Parliament elections that begin on Thursday was nearing its climax.
They risk dealing a blow to a far-right populist alliance marshalled by Italian Minister of the Interior Matteo Salvini and in which the FPOe plays a key part.
The FPOe’s lead candidate, Harald Vilimsky, had been due to attend a rally in Milan on Saturday organized by Salvini, but canceled the trip because of the scandal.
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