Austria votes in snap election after video sting scandal

After the scandal collapsed the former coalition government, Austrians voted in the general election.

The conservative party, headed by former Prime Minister Sebastian Kurz, is expected to account for 37{7be40b84a6a43fc4fae13304fce9a2695859798abfc41afd127b9f8b21c5f9c5} of the political party, but must form a coalition again.

The Social Democrats are expected to get 22.5 percent with the Liberal Party on the right, with 16.7 percent.

Union conversations are expected to be difficult and can last for weeks.

The Liberal Party was a partner of Prime Minister Kurtz in the former coalition.

Parties involved are Green (expected 13.1{7be40b84a6a43fc4fae13304fce9a2695859798abfc41afd127b9f8b21c5f9c5}) and Liberal Neo (7.8{7be40b84a6a43fc4fae13304fce9a2695859798abfc41afd127b9f8b21c5f9c5}).

The polling station opened at 07:00 (05:00 GMT) and closed at 17:00. About 6.4 million people were eligible to vote in the election.

Mr. Kurtz made a brief speech to journalists after his vote on Sunday.

"Our most important election goal will not be a majority [in parliament] "Against us"

Norbert Hofer, leader of the Scandal-hit Freedom Party (FPÖ), told his reporters that after his vote, he told reporters that they had a solid foundation to strengthen FPÖ and work in the government.

Vienna voter Clara Heisinger told the AFP news agency that he hopes the election will be the end of a political drama.

“In the last few months there has been so much chaos.

What was the scandal?

The German press began publishing a video about Vice President Heinz-Christian Stretch in May (FPÖ).

The shooting video was secretly recorded in a villa in Ibiza, Spain, before the 2017 election.

There, Mr. Strache made a promising government contract with a woman who acts as the nephew of the Russian diocese.

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A lawyer in Vienna who said he was involved in stabbing described it as a "civil society-driven project with a rhetorical-journalistic approach."

• Austrian lawyer was part of the most right sting he

Strache stepped down in the "Ibiza Gate" incident, and Kurz ended the alliance between his right Central People's Party (ÖVP) and FPÖ.

The country has been led by the custodian government since June.

But despite the fallout, Mr. Kurtz seems to have been driven out of the scandal.

What are the options?

FPÖ, under new leader Norbert Hofer, hopes to renew its alliance with Kurz.

But while Kurz shares a strong anti-immigration route with FPÖ, the former minister can choose a trilateral agreement with Austria's first Green and Neo.

The BBC's Bethany Bell in Vienna said there would be little coalition with the Social Democrats because of the bad relationship between Kurtz and the central leftist leader.

Who is Sebastian Kurz?

As a son and teacher of the secretary, he became active in ÖVP at age 16.

As a law student in Vienna, he was elected as the youth wing president of the party. At the age of 27 in 2011, he quit his studies to become an internal minister and went to the foreign minister in 2013.

Two years later he announced plans to improve the integration of immigrants. However, he praised the Hungarian populist Victor Orvan and claimed credit for closing the Balkan migration line in 2016.

Elected chairman in May 2017, he rebranded the party as a turquoise movement, then served as prime minister from December 2017 to May 2019 when Ibiza Gate withdrew the union.