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epa07582141 (FILE) - Austrian Foreign Minister and the leader of the Austrian Peoples Party (OeVP), Sebastian Kurz (L) and Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen (R) enter the presidential office of the Hofburg Palace ahead of a meeting in Vienna, Austria, 23 October 2017. Media reports on 18 May 2019 state that Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has proposed to President Alexander Van der Bellen that he is to call for a new election as early as possible after his vice Chancellor resigned and Kurz has terminated his Austrian People's Party (OeVP) Coalition with the right-wing populist, The Freedom Party of Austria, (FPOe). Austrian Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache announced he is stepping down from his post after media outlets published allegations of the far-right FPOe's leader's involvement in a corruption scandal. German magazine 'Der Spiegel' and newspaper 'Sueddeutsche Zeitung' published on 17 May 2019 a secretly recorded video which appeared to show Strache in Ibiza, Spain, in July 2017, meeting an alleged niece of a unknown Russian oligarch who wanted to invest large sums of money in Austria. In return for election campaign donations, Strache is alleged to have promised public contracts in the event of his party joining the government. EPA/CHRISTIAN BRUNA *** Local Caption *** 53850360