No-Confidence Vote Ousts Austria's Chancellor

Sebastian Kurz, 32, the Chancellor of Austria, and his interim government, were ousted on May 27 in a no-confidence vote just a day after his center-right party enjoyed a victory in the European elections after opposition politicians lost faith in his handling of a corruption scandal that has engulfed his former far-right coalition partner.

President Alexander Van der Bellen will now appoint an interim government until elections scheduled for September.

Kurz is the first postwar Austrian chancellor to lose a confidence vote, but he is unlikely to be out of power for long.

Kurz’s coalition government with the far-right Freedom Party collapsed after the party’s leader, Heinz-Christian Strache, resigned as vice chancellor on May 18 after a video emerged that showed him promising government contracts to a woman claiming to be a wealthy Russian, in exchange for financial support.

Prosecutors in Vienna said on Monday that they had opened an investigation into who was behind the video.

Under Kurz’s coalition, the government passed numerous measures to crack down on immigration, such as tightening access to apprenticeships for asylum-seekers and effectively cutting child benefits for foreigners who work in Austria but whose children live in poorer countries.

By Thea Morrison