Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz on Monday lost a no-confidence vote in parliament, removing him and his cabinet from office over a corruption scandal that brought has down his coalition government.
“An application (by the Opposition Social Democrats) has been accepted, so he has lost the confidence” of parliament, deputy speaker Doris Bures said.
The move comes just after Kurz celebrated a big win for his conservative People’s Party (OeVP) in Sunday’s European elections, which is projected to gain 34.9 percent of the vote and two extra European parliament seats.
It comes in the wake of the so-called “Ibiza-gate” scandal, which saw FPOe leader and Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache resign from both posts after he was caught appearing to offer public contracts in return for campaign help from a fake Russian backer.