Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz addresses the media Saturday in Vienna. (Leonhard Foeger/Reuters)BERLIN — Conservative Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz called for new elections on Saturday, hours after his far-right vice chancellor and head of the Freedom Party, Heinz-Christian Strache, announced his resignation from both offices. The breakdown of Austria’s coalition between Kurz’s mainstream conservative party and Strache’s far-right Freedom Party marked the end of a political venture that faced fierce criticism from the start. The videos that triggered Saturday’s dramatic moves were made before the Freedom Party formed a coalition with the mainstream conservatives, led by Kurz. (Leonhard Foeger/Reuters)The far-right party could still prove to be a major obstacle to forming a new, more moderate coalition after new elections expected to be held later this year.

Source: Washington Post May 18, 2019 13:28 UTC