Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz calls for snap elections amid video scandal Saturday May 18,2019

Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has called for fresh elections after his ruling coalition collapsed following an apparent video sting that forced his deputy to step down

 

In a statement on Saturday May 18,2019, Kurz said he would ask the country's President Alexander Van der Bellen to hold a new vote "as soon as possible"

The call came hours after Heinz-Christian Strache, the vice chancellor and leader of the far-right Freedom Party (FPO)resigned over a covert video that appeared to show him offering government contracts to a Russian woman in exchange for campaign help

Kurz, a conservative who formed a coalition with the FPO a year and a half ago, said the sting was the last straw in the relationship

"Enough is enough ... The serious part of this [video] was the attitude towards abuse of power, towards dealing with taxpayers' money, towards the media in this country," said the chancellor, who heads the centre-right People's Party

Kurz said he could not reach an agreement with the leadership of Strache's FPO on carrying forward the coalition, adding that a possible coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats would derail the government's programme of limiting debt and taxes.

Shortly after Kurz's statement, Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen expressed support for a snap vote and said he would meet with the chancellor again on Sunday to talk over the next steps.

Opposition parties including the Social Democrats, the liberal Neos party and the Greens have also called for fresh elections in the wake of the scandal.