Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz is still facing a no-confidence vote though his center-right People’s Party (OVP) won a significant victory in the European Parliament elections on Sunday.
According to the provisional final result of election, clear winner is the OVP with 35.4 percent of the vote, and far behind it is the Social Democratic Party (SPO) with 23.6 percent. The Freedom Party (FPO) won 18.1 percent of the vote.
“We have achieved the best result of all time, the biggest lead of all time over the second-placed party,” Kurz told his supporters after the first trend forecast was released.
The OVP has expected the result of the European Parliament elections as a “strong vote of confidence for Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, the stability and ability to act,” said OVP Secretary-General Karl Nehammer.
On Sunday evening, the SPO federal party committee unanimously voted in favor of submitting a parliamentary motion of no-confidence on Monday against Kurz and the entire federal government, local media reported.
Party leader of SPO Pamela Rendi-Wagner made some harsh remarks about Kurz earlier on Sunday. “This country can not be a plaything for a single person,” she said.
If the vote of no-confidence is successful, President Alexander Van der Bellen would have to quickly appoint a transitional chancellor. New elections are planned in September.
The motion against Kurz is the result of a government crisis which started on May 17 with the so-called Ibiza video. The secretly produced recording shows former Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache of FPO talking to a supposed Russian investor about party donations that might be illegal and lucrative government contracts.
The release of excerpts of the video by two German media outlets led to the resignation of Strache from all political offices and the end of the coalition government of OVP and FPO.
