Austrian Chancellor calls for snap election

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz on Saturday called for a snap election after his vice-chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache resigned over an alleged corruption video.

Stepping in front of the press 24 hours after the publication of the "Ibiza video", Kurz started his speech with a list of things that have been "done" in this government.

"It was a great success, thank you all members of the government," he said, for this cooperation, however, he added that he had "a lot to accept," from the "Rat Poem" to "recurrent individual cases."

It was not always easy to "swallow everything", according to the chancellor, who had to say "Enough is enough" after the video scandal.

Strache, the former leader of the far-right Freedom Party (FPO), stepped down as the vice chancellor after media published a secret video of him allegedly offering government contracts in return for political support.

The chancellor did not want to make it "easy" and exchange heads or govern with the SPO. "The FPO can not, the Social Democrats do not share my access and the small parties are too small to be supportive," Kurz said.

That's why he suggested that the earliest possible new elections be held and asked for voters' support, according to Kurz.

"What our country needs" are new elections and he wanted to work without isolated cases, incidents and other scandals, Kurz told the press conference in Wien.

The FPO had harmed the reform project and the reputation of Austria with their behavior. "It contradicts the political approach that I have," said Kurz.

Kurz has proposed to the Federal President van der Bellen to hold early elections as soon as possible.