VIENNA (Reuters) -Austria’s conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz resigned on Saturday to pull his coalition government back from the brink of collapse after the junior party demanded his head because he has been placed under investigation on suspicion of corruption. At the same time, his resignation is more a matter of form than substance in terms of policy. He added that he was proposing Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg, a career diplomat backed by Kurz’s party, take over as chancellor, whom the Greens soon made clear they accepted. Starting in 2016 when Kurz was seeking to take over as party leader, prosecutors suspect the conservative-led Finance Ministry paid for manipulated polling and coverage favourable to Kurz to be published in a newspaper. “Is it enough?” the leader of the liberal Neos party, Beate Meinl-Reisinger, said at a news conference reacting to Kurz’s announcement.

Source: MetroXpress October 09, 2021 18:13 UTC