All Austrian Freedom Party Ministers To Quit Cabinet Amid Video Scandal - Reports

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st May, 2019) All ministers from the right-wing Austrian Freedom Party (FPO) will leave the government following Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's proposal to remove Interior Minister Herbert Kickl from his post, according to Austria's Kurier newspaper.

Before eruption of the current video scandal, former FPO leader Heinz-Christian Strache was the country's vice-chancellor. The government also includes following FPO members: Interior Minister Kickl, Defense Minister Mario Kunasek, Minister of Labor, Social Affairs, Health and Consumer Protection Beate Hartinger-Klein, Minister of Transport, Innovation and Technology Norbert Hofer as well as State Secretary in the Finance Ministry Hubert Fuchs.

Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl is not an FPO member but was nominated by this party.

The scandal around Strache erupted on Friday, just over a week before the European Parliament elections, when Der Spiegel and Suddeutsche Zeitung reported, citing a video recording that they obtained, that in 2017, Strache discussed the possibility of an acquisition of the Kronen Zeitung newspaper by an alleged niece of a Russian oligarch in order to secure help in the coming parliamentary election.

The outlets claimed that million-euro deals were also discussed at the meeting in Ibiza, Spain, including access to government contracts.

Amid the scandal, Kurz called for holding snap parliamentary elections, refusing to maintain a government coalition with the FPO. The scandal also resulted in Strache's resignation as the FPO leader and country's vice-chancellor.

After announcement of his resignation, Strache said that the woman he talked to was a Russian-speaking Latvian citizen and described the whole situation as a trap and "political assassination."