The Austrian government is on the verge of collapse after a corruption investigation that ensnared Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz led his Green Party allies to suggest they might abandon the ruling coalition.
The embattled leader told reporters in a brief remark that he would fight on.
He survived a sleaze scandal two years ago that ended his earlier coalition with the far right.
Photo: AP
However, this time it could play out differently, as Kurz is more directly implicated.
Prosecutors raided the offices of several staff member’s of Kurz’s office this week for their alleged role in funneling federal funds to a newspaper publisher to orchestrate Kurz’s rapid rise in government.
Now, the Greens, junior partner in a fragile two-year coalition with Kurz’s conservative People’s Party, has questioned his ability to continuing governing.
“We cannot just go back to business as usual. The allegations made weigh heavily; there is corruption in the room,” Austrian Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler, who also leads the Greens, wrote on Twitter.
Kurz, 35, spoke briefly with reporters on Thursday before a hastily-arranged meeting with Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen.
“We stand by this government and the government agenda, and all the things that we have planned to do,” Kurz said, adding that the People’s Party won Austria’s past two elections, but seemed resigned to the potential for his coalition to break apart.
“If the Greens don’t want to continue this cooperation any longer and want to look for other majorities in parliament, then that has to be accepted,” Kurz said.
An extraordinary session of parliament has been called for Tuesday, at which the opposition might introduce a non-confidence motion in the chancellor.
Kurz on Thursday postponed a planned trip to Israel.
Kogler on the same day spoke with Van der Bellen, who is a former Green Party official, and was set to meet with representatives of all other parties yesterday to find a way forward.
State representatives from Kurz’s party have pledged support for their embattled leader, and several Cabinet members released a letter saying that they would only be part of a government led by him.
In laying out their case, Austrian prosecutors said that evidence suggested the chancellor knowingly collaborated in efforts to plant political advertising camouflaged as poll data.
The investigation involves communication between senior government officials from 2016, when Kurz was Austrian minister of foreign affairs.
Kurz has denied any wrongdoing and said it was part of political efforts to remove him from power.
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