Austrian far-right crashes out of government after FPO ministers quit

The president backed Chancellor Kurz after a corruption scandal felled the government

Austrian far-right crashes out of government after FPO ministers quit Austria's President Alexander Van der Bellen (right) and Chancellor Sebastian Kurz | AFP

Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen backed Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and sacked the Freedom Party's Interior Minister Herbert Kickl amid a corruption scandal. The move prompted the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) to quit the coalition government on Tuesday.

The FPO has threatened to back a no-confidence motion in parliament against Kurz, leaving the young leader's fate hanging in the balance. 3

A snap election is expected to be held in September. Meanwhile, Kurz would be looking to fill the posts of the ministers who quit the Cabinet. Kurz, whose centre-right People's Party (OVP) is the largest in parliament, said he would propose civil servants to fill the posts.

READ: Walking on water―Sebastian Kurz becomes the world’s youngest head of government

President Van der Bellen approved Kurz's request to dismiss Kickl following a power struggle between the chancellor and his coalition partners. The scandal came to light when a video footage emerged of FPO leader Heinz-Christian Strache, offering to fix state contracts in exchange for campaign help from a Russian backer he met on the island of Ibiza in 2017. The scandal is being dubbed the Ibiza scandal.

Protesters took to the streets in Vienna after the scandal came to light. Strache was forced to resign amid the scandal as Kurz ended their alliance. Kurz has pledged a full investigation into any crimes or wrongdoing arising from the footage. 

Kickl, in the meantime, has said the FPO would back a no-confidence motion. “It would be almost naive for Kurz to assume that we, the FPO, have no distrust of him following his distrust in us,” Kickl told tabloid Oesterreich.

New FPO leader Norbert Hofer, however, has said that the party had not yet decided.

A motion of no confidence is likely to be put forward in parliament after the European Parliament elections this weekend.

(With inputs from agencies)