Austrian vice chancellor resigns after skandalvideo

the Scandal, which received the Austrian vice chancellor in the case is like something out of a political thriller. It began something like this: a woman attracts two senior politicians from the right-wing populist freedom party FPÖ, to a luxury villa on semesterön Ibiza. She claims to be a close relative of a Russian oligarch and say they want to invest billions in the country. The FPÖ-leader Heinz-Christian Strache leads at this time the largest opposition party and will be happy to help to arrange the contracts – in exchange for a boost in the forthcoming election campaign.

What he doesn't know is that the villa is equipped with several hidden cameras that record everything that is said during the six-hour long meeting. It takes place in the summer of 2017, just three months before Austria goes to the parliamentary elections. After the election, takes the man who köpslagit with who he thinks is a Russian courier in the new right-wing government as the country's vice chancellor.

Read more: Political scandal shakes Austria after the secret video from Ibiza

it has now cost him the job.

" I have offered my resignation as vice chancellor, and it has the chancellor accepted, said Strache during a press conference in Vienna at lunchtime on Saturday.

He asked if also apologize to those he hurt and offended by his conduct in the house, including his wife and the chancellor Sebastian Kurz.

"It was stupid, it was irresponsible and it was wrong," he said.

Strache repeated several times to have been tricked into a trap and secret video recording is illegal. He sees it as a political attack by ”the aim to blow up the government”.

Strache leaves the now over both the presidency and the post as vice-chancellor to Norbert Hofer, who is a minister in the government. Hofer lost by a narrow margin the presidential election this year.

far from over. Skandalvideon can get cost also chancellor Sebastian Kurz the job.

Then a year and a half leading Kurz the fragile coalition government between his center-conservative party ÖVP and the FPÖ. After having seen the secret recordings published by the German newspapers Süddeutsche Zeitung and Der Spiegel regret he enough to be invited the FPÖ in the government.

the Chancellor was faced now with a difficult choice: should he continue the cooperation with the FPÖ or dissolve the government?

the Requirements to announce a new election eker everything higher from the opposition, and later, on Saturday, is expected to Shortly make a statement.

Image 1 of 2 Heinz-Christian Strache during Saturday's press conference. Photo: Helmut Fhringer/APA/AFP Slide 2 of 2 Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz is pressed by the Ibiza-the store. Photo: Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP Slideshow

The young gun Sebastian Kurz tend to be highlighted as a framtidsnamn for the european right. He went to the election to introduce a ”new style” in politics: instead of rumors, personal attacks and fulspel would politics be about the issues.

Now he leads a government where the vice-chancellor shown himself ready to take the help of a Russian courier to take to the power. Remain to see how he'll manage to explain it to the voters.

Kurz has several times before been forced to distance themselves from statements that regeringskollegorna done.

to influence the EU elections have been plenty during the ongoing election campaign. In the week there were reports about how including false news and trollfabriker used to create division in order to affect the outcome of the presidential election. But Ibiza-bands reveals something else. This is thus a vice chancellor from one of the EU's member states and bargain about the interests of the country.

the Woman suggests several times that the billion she wants to invest black money, but it does not prevent Heinz-Christian Strache to discuss possible trades.

They discuss, among other things kasinolicenser, the sale of a luxury hotel and the mission to build highways. The most interested is that she must buy the tabloid Kronen Zeitung, one of Austria's most influential newspapers.

as the FPÖ ports under fire for its dealings with Russia. DN has earlier told about the trip to the Kremlin in 2016, when the party signed the ”vänskapsavtal” with president Vladimir Putin's party United Russia.

In the agreement promises the parties to inform each other about current issues in both countries, as well as to work for ”for the upbringing of the young generation in a spirit of patriotism and job satisfaction”. On the trip were, among others, Heinz-Christian Strache and Johann Gudenus, who today is the FREEDOM party's group leader in parliament and also was with during the meeting in the villa on Ibiza.

the Party's close ties to the Kremlin and the fact that the extreme right controls the Austrian security services have also caused concern among other countries ' security services. DN could recently tell you that several foreign secret services alleged to have stopped the sharing of the secret information to Austria, following suspicions that the country's security service will leave it on to Russia.

the recordings from the Ibiza ports, the issue of valpåverkan in a new light.

there Are more and more european politicians who are prepared to bargain in order to come to power?

the video recordings also raises other questions. Who is behind the recording and why have the links been leaked to the press? Obviously, they have both the FPÖ-politicians caught in a trap.

And why does placing the links right now – almost two years after they were recorded and just over a week before the EU-elections?

We have probably not seen the end of this story.