Austria's FPO To Support Vote Of No Confidence In Chancellor Kurz - Senior Party Member

The right-wing Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) is going to support a motion of no confidence in conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz if one is proposed in parliament following the leader's decision to end his party's ruling coalition with the FPO in the wake of the resurgence of a major political scandal that brought down Vice-Chancellor and FPO leader Heinz-Christian Strache, Austrian Interior Minister and FPO member Herbert Kickl said

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st May, 2019) The right-wing Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) is going to support a motion of no confidence in conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz if one is proposed in parliament following the leader's decision to end his party's ruling coalition with the FPO in the wake of the resurgence of a major political scandal that brought down Vice-Chancellor and FPO leader Heinz-Christian Strache, Austrian Interior Minister and FPO member Herbert Kickl said.

On Monday, Kurz suggested that Kickl be dismissed from his post, explaining that he was the party's secretary general when a damaging video recording involving Strache, which surfaced last week, was made and therefore responsible for reviewing the FPO's financial activities at the time. The footage in question reportedly showed Strache discussing exchanging state construction contracts for political support ahead of Austria's 2017 general election with the alleged niece of a Russian oligarch.

"It was naive on Kurz's part to believe that we, the Freedom Party, will not distrust Kurz after he [showed] distrust in us. Regardless of when the extraordinary session happens, those who show trust will get trust. Those who show distrust will get distrust," the minister told the Oesterreich newspaper in an interview, published on Tuesday.

Reports about the meeting between then-FPO leader Strache and a purported Russian woman in Spain's Ibiza in 2017 emerged on Friday, a week before Austria was due to participate in the European Parliament elections.

The politician, whose party has been supporting the lifting of Russia sanctions and normalization of relations with Moscow, was forced to resign as vice-chancellor and FPO leader last week over the video.

Over the weekend Kurz called for snap parliamentary elections, refusing to maintain a government coalition with the FPO.