Austria's Kurz Approves Cabinet Reshuffle Amid Video Scandal - Reports
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has approved the list of new ministers who will replace those who resigned over a recent video featuring Austrian Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache allegedly making an illegal deal, local media reported on Wednesday
Strache and all ministers from Kurz's minor coalition partner, the Freedom Party (FPO), except for Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl, resigned on Monday. The decision came in the wake of a recently published video that showed Strache discussing a deal that reportedly could have helped the FPO in the 2017 parliamentary elections with a woman posed as a niece of a Russian oligarch from Latvia.
According to the radio station O3, Austrian Finance Minister Hartwig Loger will serve as the vice chancellor in Strache's place.
Austrian Supreme Court of Justice and former President Eckart Ratz will replace Herbert Kickl as the country's new interior minister, the APA news agency reported, and Austrian military officer Johann Luif will serve as the new defense minister instead of Mario Kunasek.
Media has reported that back in 2017, Strache discussed with an alleged niece of a Russian oligarch a deal that would see her acquire the Kronen Zeitung newspaper and gaining access to several government projects in exchange for favorable media coverage for the politician ahead of the 2017 general election.
Strache has described the video as an attempted political assassination.
The video was made public a week before the elections to the European Parliament, which will begin on Thursday.