Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz called for snap elections after a two-year-old video was released in the German press showing coalition partner Heinz-Christian Strache discussing contracts with a woman posing as a Russian oligarch’s niece.
From our source in Vienna…
Here is a first account from my cousin, translated
The Austrian right-wing government has resigned — as soon as possible new elections are pending.
The German media released a two-year-old video, which they leaked, anonymously. The video shows a conversation between two gov’t politicians (the Vice Chancellor and one more) while on vacation in Ibiza. The conversation was secretly filmed. NOW, after 2 years the video was leaked to two German newspapers, two far left newspapers
In the video, the two politicians behave like pubescent adolescents and developed wild political fantasies and claimed support by a few major industrialists…………. Alcohol was in the game and also a beautiful woman.
It was embarrassing to look at it, especially when you know that they are statesmen.
It would be interesting to discover who is behind the video, possibly the Germans themselves – SPD/lefties, or the Vienna SPÖ/lefties? Hopefully it will be announced as soon as possible and BEFORE the elections, but that is not likely.
A political earthquake was triggered, and it was first just the resignation of the FPÖ politicians and now in the evening the resignation of the government.
According to the police, the tape drop was done so professionally that the police suspect (public too) that a Western intelligence service is behind the action.
The newspapers, the two German newspapers, refuse to divulge their sources. It is too strange that exactly ONE week before the EU election the video appears and was not published for 2 years. Who is behind it is deeply repugnant.
Reuters reported:
Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz called on Saturday for a snap election, pulling the plug on his coalition with the far right after its leader was caught on video discussing state contracts with a woman posing as a Russian oligarch’s niece.
The far right Freedom Party’s Heinz-Christian Strache resigned as vice chancellor and party leader after the video was released by two German news organizations. He acknowledged that the video was “catastrophic” but denied breaking the law.
Kurz, a conservative who formed a coalition with the Freedom Party a year and a half ago, said the apparent video sting, in which Strache discusses contracts in return for financial or political favors, was the last straw in the relationship.
