Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said Saturday that he will step down in a bid to defuse a government crisis triggered by prosecutors' announcement that he is a target of a corruption investigation.
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Kurz, 35, said he has proposed to Austria's president that Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg become chancellor. But Kurz himself will remain in a key political position: he said he will become the head of his conservative Austrian People's Party's parliamentary group.
Kurz's party had closed ranks behind him after the prosecutors' announcement on Wednesday, which followed searches at the chancellery and his party's offices. But its junior coalition partner, the Greens, said Friday that Kurz couldn't remain as chancellor and demanded that his party nominate an "irreproachable person" to replace him. The coalition government took office in January, 2020.
The Greens' leader, Vice-Chancellor Werner Kogler, welcomed Kurz's decision as "a right and important step. This means that we can continue our work in government," he said.
