Austrian chancellor resigns

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz on Saturday announced that he would step down amid allegations of financial impropriety against his office, Report informs, via DW.

Kurz said he would move to parliament as leader of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP). Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg will replace him as chancellor, he said.

"What we need now are stable conditions,'' he told reporters in Vienna. "So, in order to resolve the stalemate, I want to make way to prevent chaos and ensure stability."

Earlier this week, Austrian prosecutors said the chancellor and nine other individuals were being probed for bribery after investigators carried out raids on the offices of his ruling party.

Though the ÖVP backed him against the allegations, the junior coalition partner, the Greens, demanded his resignation on Friday.

Vice-Chancellor and Greens leader Werner Kogler argued that Kurz was "no longer fit for office" and called on the ÖVP to nominate an "irreproachable person" to replace him.

Kurz and his associates are accused of using public funds from the Finance Ministry to "finance partially manipulated opinion polls that served an exclusively party political interest" between 2016 and 2018.