Austria’s chancellor calls for new election after corruption scandal

Austrian chancellor has called for new elections after the country’s vice chancellor stepped down Saturday in corruption scandal. 

Sebastian Kurz advocated for a snap election after Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache resigned, according to the BBC. 

Strache, a member of the far-right Freedom Party,  announced that he would step down Saturday after two German news outlets published a video of him allegedly offering government contracts to a woman who claimed to be a Russian investor who is related to an oligarch.

Strache reportedly denied doing “anything against the law” and called reports “a targeted political attack,” at a Saturday news conference. He said, though, that he wanted to “apologize to everyone I have disappointed with my behavior.”

The Freedom Party (FPO) and Kurz’s  conservative People’s Party together form Austria’s ruling coalition.

It was not clear who recorded the footage,  which took place in 2017 ahead of the Austrian elections, according to news outlets Der Spiegel and Süddeutsche Zeitung which published it. 

The woman in the video reportedly said she would invest in Austria’s Kronen-Zeitung newspaper to make sure it supported Strache’s party.

Strache’s resignation comes ahead of the European Parliament elections set to take place later this month.