© Reuters / Leonhard Foeger
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has proposed calling a snap election after the country's Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache resigned following what he called “political assassination.”
“I have proposed to the president today to hold snap elections in Austria as soon as possible,” Kurz said.
He called on those, who support his reform course and those satisfied with the policies of his government over the last two years to back him during the forthcoming vote.
Kurz also said he could have attempted to avoid snap elections and retain his power as the chancellor but added that it would not be “the right way.”
“With such behavior, the FPO[the Freedom Party] damages the [government’s] reform project and the ‘way of change’,” he said, adding that his coalition partners also “tarnish the image” of Austria.
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| Ex Vice Chancellor Strache |
Kurz also said that he “got an impression” that the FPO is not ready to do much beyond the resignations of Strache and his fellow party member Johann Gudenus to improve its image and change its ways.
The development follows a scandal that involved 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 2017 secret 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 assassination.”
It was more like political suicide. IMHO.
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.”
Is it within the law to negotiate favoritism with a foreign country getting them to interfere with democratic elections?
In his speech, Kurz criticized the leak that led to the scandal by saying that the methods used to expose Strache’s misdeeds were “despicable” and reminded him of a “dirty campaign” waged against Kurz himself back in 2017 by a political adviser Tal Silberstein hired by Social Democrats.
Yet, he also said that nothing justifies the actions of Strache seen in the footage. “What is really problematic and of great importance here is the ideas of power abuse and misuse of taxpayers’ money as well as the approach to the media landscape in our country.”
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.
The protesters that flooded the area near the Chancellor’s Office were seen holding the placards that read: “Snap election now!” and “Mr. Chancellor, what is wrong with you?”
The chancellor also used a significant part of his speech to praise the work of his government and his achievements over the past two years.
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