TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Austria's Kurz steps down over corruption probe to save coalition
The move by Kurz, who denies wrongdoing, satisfied the demand by his junior coalition partner, the Greens, that he go even though he plans to stay on as his party's leader and become its top lawmaker in parliament, positions from which he can continue to influence government policy.
Change Size
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (L) and Defense Minister Mario Kunasek give a press conference in Vienna, Austria, on November 9, 2018, to comment on the case of a retired colonel in the Austrian army suspected of having spied for Russia for several decades. Kunasek said that the case came to light (AFP/Helmut Fohringer)
A
ustria's conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz resigned on Saturday to end a government crisis after his coalition partner said he was unfit for office because he has been placed under investigation on suspicion of corruption.
The move by Kurz, who denies wrongdoing, satisfied the demand by his junior coalition partner, the Greens, that he go even though he plans to stay on as his party's leader and become its top lawmaker in parliament, positions from which he can continue to influence government policy.
"I would therefore like to make way in order to end the stalemate, to prevent chaos and to ensure stability," Kurz said in a statement to the media.
He added that he was proposing to President Alexander Van der Bellen that Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg, a career diplomat backed by Kurz's party, that he take over as chancellor.
Greens leader and Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler indicated he was satisfied, meaning Kurz had succeeded in pulling their coalition back from the brink.
"I believe this is the right step for future government work," Greens leader and Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler said in a statement, adding that he had had a "very constructive" working relationship with Schallenberg.
Prosecutors said on Wednesday they had placed Kurz and nine others under investigation on suspicion of breach of trust, corruption and bribery with various levels of involvement.
Starting in 2016 when Kurz was seeking to take over as party leader, prosecutors suspect the conservative-led Finance Ministry paid for advertisements in a newspaper in exchange for manipulated polling and coverage favourable to Kurz.
Kurz has pledged to defend himself against what he says are false allegations. He had said he was willing to keep governing with the Greens. But the left-wing party said the investigation made Kurz unfit to serveas chancellor and called on his party to name a successor who was "beyond reproach".
The Greens began talks on Friday with Austria's three opposition parties, which have all demanded that Kurz resign and had planned to submit one or more no-confidence motions against him at a special session of parliament on Tuesday.
Austrian media reports before Kurz's announcement had said he would step down only temporarily. While Kurz did not say that he did say he would mount a legal defence: "Above all ... I will of course use the opportunity to refute and disprove the accusations that have been made against me."
"Is it enough?" the leader of the liberal Neos party, Beate Meinl-Reisinger, told a news conference soon after Kurz's statement, referring to the seriousness of the accusations against Kurz.
