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Austria: Sebastian Kurtz announces his retirement from political life

LAST UPDATE: 13.37

Former conservative Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurtz announced today that he is retiring from political life, while he is the target of a corruption investigation that had cost him his position as chancellor in October.

“A new chapter in my life is opening today,” Kurtz told reporters in Vienna, adding that he wanted to spend time with his family.

Kurtz has been the dominant figure in his People’s Party and in Austrian politics since 2017, when he became party leader and then chancellor, winning parliamentary elections and forming a coalition with the far-right Freedom Party. Reuters notes that his departure leaves a power vacuum in his party.

It is recalled that Kurtz had left the chancellery in October after the start of the investigation against him for corruption, but remained in the leadership of the party and head of his parliamentary group.

He was replaced at the chancellery by former Foreign Minister and close associate Alexander Salenberg.

In mid-November, the Austrian parliament lifted its parliamentary immunity.

Sebastian Kurtz denies the allegations.

The scandal erupted in October, when inquiries were made into the chancellery, the finance ministry and other government offices on suspicion of embezzling public funds between 2016 and 2018. The aim was to finance the publication of polls and praise for Sebastian’s Sebastian Austria.

Kurtz was the youngest prime minister in the world when he took office at the age of 31.

The far-right ruling coalition collapsed in 2019 when its partner was at the center of a corruption scandal.

New elections allowed him to return to the chancellery, this time leading a coalition with the Greens, until his resignation.

SOURCE: AMPE

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Source From: Capital

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