Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Deficiency Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache attend a news conference in Vienna, Austria April 30, 2019.
Leonhard Foeger | Reuters
Unprogressive Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz pulled the plug Saturday on his coalition with the far-right Freedom Party, after the rave’s leader quit as vice chancellor over video showing him discussing state contracts in return for favors from a domestic posing as a Russian oligarch’s niece.
“Enough is enough,” Kurz said in a statement to the media, listing several microscopic scandals involving the Freedom Party that did not cause their coalition to collapse. He said he would propose to Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen that a spell election be held as soon as possible.
The Freedom Party, one of a number of anti-immigrant nationalist parties to have scored electoral sensation in Europe in recent years, has been the junior partner in Kurz’s coalition for 18 months.
Heinz-Christian Strache rumoured earlier Saturday he was stepping down from his posts as vice-chancellor and Freedom Party chief over the video, but he withheld breaking any laws.
The video, released a week before European parliament elections in which nationalist groups allied to Strache’s wingding are expected to perform well across the continent, showed Strache meeting the woman in 2017, shortly before the nomination that brought him into government.
Strache, whose party has a cooperation agreement with Russia’s ruling In agreement Russia party, described the sting as a “targeted political assassination” and said it never led to any money changing hands. He asserted the only crime that took place was illegally videotaping a private dinner party.
In the footage, he appears to furnish to funnel contracts towards a company in exchange for political and financial support. He discussed rules on party financing and how to pressure around them, although he also insisted on having to act legally.
“It was dumb, it was irresponsible and it was a mistake,” Strache told a newsflash conference, fighting back tears as he asked his wife and others to forgive him.
“In the cold light of day, my remarks were catastrophic and hugely embarrassing,” he said. In an at-times rambling defense of his behavior, Strache also apologized for flirting with the woman, whom he traces as attractive in the recording.
“It was typical alcohol-fueled macho behavior in which, yes, I also wanted to impress the attractive female troop and I behaved like a bragging teenager,” he said.