Due to the scandal with the niece of a billionaire in Austria, the ruling coalition broke up. The country will hold new elections

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurtz announced the need for early parliamentary elections after a scandal involving Vice Chancellor Hinz-Christian Straha. President Alexander Van Der Bellen supported this decision. Kurtz uses a scandal to get rid of the contradictory coalition with the offense of the “Austrian Party of Freedom” (APS), which was headed by Straha, and rule the country on his own.

Chancellor Austria Sebastian Kurtz. Photo: from the Kremlin website

Kurtz announced the impossibility of continuing with the nationalists immediately after the publication of the record, on which the deputy promises him allegedly to his niece of billionaire Igor Makarov State contracts in exchange for financing his campaign. Straha himself immediately resigned , promising to prove that the whole operation against him was planned “political murder”. “Enough means enough,” Kurtz said on Saturday evening, adding that he wants to hold new elections as soon as possible.
This is a shame for Austria, and you can restore trust only with the help of elections, the president agreed.
The elections can go the earliest - in August.

Scandal. Vice-Chancellor Hinz-Cristian Strahe fired after publishing a video of his conversation with a girl presented as Alena Makarova, niece of the former owner of the ITER gas company, and now-the president of the AREI Group of Companies Igor Makarova (48th place in the Forbes rating, the status assessment-$ 2.1 billion). The video was shot two years ago before the next parliamentary elections. On it, the politician discusses financial support for the APS in exchange for state contracts.

A day later, on May 19, businessman Igor Makarov denied acquaintance with the “niece” from the Austrian video. “It is widely known that I was the only child in the family and, accordingly, I have no nieces. With a woman who calls himself Alena Makarova, I have no related connections and do not know at all, ”Makarov told reporters and added that his representatives use all legally acceptable methods to find out who is behind the wrong use of his name.
Hinz-Christian Strache became Vice-Chancellor and Minister of Sports of Austria in the office of Sebastian Kurtz in October 2017, when the APS took third place in the elections, becoming one of the most successful populist parties in Europe.

Former Vice Chancellor Austria Hinz-Christian Strache. Photo: Wikipedia

Interests. The 32-year-old Kurtz, the youngest leader in the European Union, does not hide that he would like to rule the country on his own, although traditionally the power in Austria receives a parliamentary coalition. Kurtz already made it clear that he would like to serve the “beautiful” Austria and further, but without such incidents and scandals-and that he does not think that now it is possible to achieve this with any of the potential partners, writes Bloomberg, warning him to agree on a coalition with other remaining parties.