Sebastian Kurz, 35, and nine others are under police investigation.
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The pressure was too great on the 35-year-old head of government in Austria.
The day after coalition partner The Greens demanded his resignation as prime minister, he announced his resignation.
“The country is more important than my person,” Kurz said at a press conference on Saturday night.
Kurz and nine others are being investigated by the country’s ecocrime for abuse of power and bribery. On Wednesday, the police acted against his office.
More investigations
Kurz and his staff are suspected of having used public funds to ensure that the Prime Minister received positive publicity in the press in 2016.
The following year, he was elected prime minister. He has led several different coalition governments. The current government consists of Kurz’s conservative party ÖVP and the Greens.
Kurz is also a suspect in another case. In May, the country’s ecocrime launched an investigation against him for lying to a commission in the National Assembly.
The commission investigated whether the prime minister had used his position to ensure that party loyalist Thomas Schmid was allowed to lead the country’s state management fund.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs takes over
On Friday, Sigrid Mauer, parliamentary leader of the Greens, demanded that Kurz resign.
“It is quite clear that such a person is no longer fit to steer,” Mauer said.
The Austrian president has now asked Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg to take over as interim prime minister, according to Kurz.
In his speech on Saturday, Kurz claimed the allegations were untrue, but stressed the need for political stability.
“I have to make room,” said the Prime Minister.
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