Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen on Sunday recommended a new election be held in early September.
He said he wanted to restore trust in the government after a video scandal led to the resignation of the vice chancellor.
Chancellor Sebastian Kurz resigned, after just 18 months in power, and called for a snap election on Saturday after his deputy, Heinz-Christian Strache, the leader of the far-right Freedom Party, quit over a video showed him discussing fixing state contracts in return for favours.
German magazine ‘Der Spiegel’ and newspaper ‘Sueddeutsche Zeitung’ published on 17 May 2019 a secretly recorded video which appeared to show Strache in Ibiza, Spain, in July 2017, meeting an alleged niece of a unknown Russian oligarch who wanted to invest large sums of money in Austria. In return for election campaign donations, Strache is alleged to have promised public contracts in the event of his party joining the government.
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (R) and Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen (L) deliver a statement after a meeting at the Presidential office in Vienna, Austria, 19 May 2019. Photos: EFE/CHRISTIAN BRUNA
Van der Bellen and Kurz said at their joint news conference that stability was a main priority for them for the coming months.
In a statement, President Alexander van der Bellen said it is most important that Austrians are given the chance of a new start to rebuild trust in its government.
Strache for his part has described the video sting as a “targeted political assassination” and said it never led to any money changing hands. He insisted the only crime that took place was illegally videotaping a private dinner party.
