Austria's Nationalist Vice Chancellor Quits Over Video Scandal

[mountaineer]

Austria's Nationalist Vice Chancellor Quits Over Video Scandal
By Boris Groendahl
May 18, 2019, 4:02 AM EDT Updated on May 18, 2019, 7:58 AM EDT
Full story at Bloomberg

Austria may be headed for snap elections after the center-right government stumbled over a video showing its deputy leader promising government contracts in return for campaign funding.

The ball is in the court of conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz after Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache, from the nationalist Freedom Party, stepped down on Saturday, calling his own actions “dumb” and “embarrassing.” Kurz is set to give a statement later in the day. ...

The turmoil is hitting Austria a week before European Parliament elections. Polls suggest Kurz’s party will win the most votes in Austria ahead of the Social Democrats. Polls before the latest turn of events suggested Strache’s Freedom Party would take four of Austria’s 18 seats in the European chamber.

The footage from a 2017 meeting in Ibiza with a woman claiming to be the niece of a Russian oligarch was obtained by German publications Der Spiegel and Sueddeutsche Zeitung. Spiegel didn’t disclose how it obtained the video and said it doesn’t know the motives of the people who made it. ...

[mountaineer]

Perhaps someone was trying to ensnare him in a "Russia collusion" trap.

Heinz-Christian Strache: Vice-chancellor caught on secret video
    4 hours ago


Austria's Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache has been filmed appearing to offer government contracts in exchange for political support.

The video, filmed secretly shortly before Austria's election in 2017, shows Mr Strache speaking to a woman who claims to be a Russian investor.

Mr Strache also appears to hint at a potentially illegal donation system for the far-right Freedom Party he leads.  ...

The secretly-filmed video shows Mr Strache and Johann Gudenus - also a Freedom Party politician - talking to a woman who claims to be a wealthy Russian citizen looking to invest in Austria.

The meeting reportedly took place at a villa on the Spanish island of Ibiza, in a private room with both politicians relaxing on sofas, smoking and drinking.

In the footage, the woman says she is the niece of a powerful Russian oligarch. She offers to buy a 50% stake in Austria's Kronen-Zeitung newspaper and switch its editorial position to support the Freedom Party.

In exchange, Mr Strache said he could award her public contracts, explaining that he wanted to "build a media landscape like Orbán", a reference to Hungary's far-right prime minister. ...

More at BBC News


Strache

[mountaineer]

From Twitter:

David Carroll 🦅   Verified account @profcarroll

Austria’s chancellor resigns less than 24hrs after undercover video released revealing deep corruption. Textbook Russian interference. Deal-dangle, dark money, kleptocratic kompromat.
4:51 PM - 18 May 2019