Austrian Vice Chancellor resigns over video footage leak (Updated)
5921 Min Read
Austrian Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache announced his resignation on Saturday after being accused of offering business deals to a woman claiming to be Russian in exchange for her help in Austria’s 2017 election. German media published a recording of the meeting.
The revelations could bring Austria’s government to breaking point amid growing tensions between the far-right party and its coalition partner, the Austrian People’s Party of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.
Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) newspaper and Der Spiegel magazine reported Friday that they had seen a secret recording showing far-right Austrian Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache offering lucrative business deals to a woman posing as a Russian oligarch’s niece.
In minute-long extracts of the seven-hour video, which was reportedly filmed on the Spanish island of Ibiza, Strache, his wife, and fellow Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) politician Johan Gudenus can be seen drinking and talking with the woman and another man.
The meeting took place in July 2017, just months before Austrian national elections that propelled Strache into the government as the junior partner of conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. Süddeutsche Zeitung and Der Spiegel did not reveal the source of the video to protect their identity.
The woman offered to buy a 50 percent stake in Austria’s Kronen-Zeitung newspaper and switch it to a pro-FPÖ line. In turn, Strache said he could award her public contracts.
