Austria’s Kurz Announces Resignation Amid Corruption Investigation

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Saturday that he plans to resign in an effort to defuse a government crisis sparked by the announcement by prosecutors that he is the subject of a corruption investigation.

Kurz, 35, said he has proposed that Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg be his replacement. Kurz himself plans to become the head of the parliamentary group of his Austrian People’s Party.

Kurz’s party had closed ranks behind him after the announcement by prosecutors on Wednesday. But his junior coalition partner, the Greens, said on Friday that Kurz could not remain chancellor and demanded that his party nominate an “irreproachable person” to replace him.

Opposition leaders had asked Kurz to leave and planned to submit a no-confidence motion against him to parliament on Tuesday.

(AFP)