Austria Must Find Out Who Ordered Recording Of Video With Ex-Vice-Chancellor - Kurz

VIENNA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th May, 2019) Austria must find out who organized the recording of the scandalous video allegedly featuring attempted collusion between then-chairman of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPO) Heinz-Christian Strache and a purported Russian woman ahead of the 2017 legislative election in Austria, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Sunday.

"Of course, we have to find out how this video emerged and who contracted it," Kurz said at a joint press conference with President Alexander Van der Bellen.

According to the chancellor, the most important thing at the moment was to ensure a thorough investigation and verify all the facts.

On Friday, just over a week before the European elections in Austria, some of the major German media reported, citing the video recording made during a July 2017 meeting in Ibiza, Spain, that Strache discussed state construction contracts in return for political support ahead of the election with an alleged niece of a Russian oligarch.

The Austrian politician later said that the woman was, in fact, a Russian-speaking Latvian citizen. Strache, who became vice-chancellor as a result of the 2017 vote, also described the situation as a trap and a political assassination.

The media reports immediately sparked a major political scandal in the country. The politician, whose party has been supporting the lifting of Russia sanctions and the normalization of relations with Moscow, was forced to resign as vice-chancellor and the FPO leader. The chancellor, in turn, called for snap parliamentary elections, refusing to maintain a government coalition with the FPO.