Minggu, 19 Mei 2019

Switzerland Votes ‘Yes’ to Being Tax Home for Big Business - Bloomberg

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  1. Switzerland Votes ‘Yes’ to Being Tax Home for Big Business  Bloomberg
  2. Swiss voters approve tax and pension overhaul: TV  Reuters
  3. Switzerland votes in referendum on tighter gun laws  The Guardian
  4. Swiss Set to Back Tax Reform, Gun Control in Sunday Referendums  Bloomberg
  5. Gun-loving Swiss asked to toughen laws or risk EU tension  BBC News
  6. View full coverage on Google News

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-19/switzerland-votes-yes-to-being-tax-home-for-big-business

2019-05-19 10:10:00Z
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Voting Is Ending in India. Here’s What to Expect. - The New York Times

After 39 days of polling involving as many as 900 million voters, balloting in India’s vast parliamentary election is coming to a close on Sunday, starting a countdown to the announcement of final results on Thursday.

After sweeping to an outright majority during the last elections in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., are widely expected to lose seats this time.

Deepening concerns about the economy, and about accusations that the B.J.P.’s Hindu-first conservative creed is putting Muslims and other minorities at risk, have led many Indians who voted for Mr. Modi’s party last time to say they might switch. The biggest beneficiary of such a shift would be the Congress party, led by Rahul Gandhi.

But Mr. Modi’s popularity remains vast, particularly among India’s Hindu majority, and many Indians credit him with programs that have helped the poor and cut through red tape and corruption.

No one is counting out the B.J.P. just yet. And some analysts believe it is still possible that the party will win another majority, or at least be within striking distance of a coalition that would put Mr. Modi back in the prime minister’s office.

[Read news and opinion coverage of India’s elections by The New York Times.]

Here’s a look at how the world’s biggest election unfolded and what to expect in the next few days.

Image
Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking at a rally in Kolkata last month.CreditAtul Loke/Getty Images

Exit polls will start being released soon after the polls close Sunday evening, but the official results will not be released until Thursday. In the meantime, the surveys will drive big headlines in the Indian news media that either the B.J.P. or Congress — or both parties — will seize on as evidence of impending victory.

“In the majority of the cases, exit polls have depicted the true picture,’’ said Josukutty Cheriantharayil Abraham, an assistant professor of political science and director of the survey research center at the University of Kerala. “It may not be correct in terms of the number of seats or vote percentage, but it could definitely show the trends, who is likely to win and lose. In the past, that's been true for the majority of the cases, but there are cases it has gone wrong.”

It also bears remembering that this is a parliamentary election — it’s about parties, not a simple choice between Mr. Modi and Mr. Gandhi. Local issues and rivalries always loom large in Indian elections. And deal-making with smaller parties organized around region or identity may yet play a big role in determining who will become prime minister.

The vote itself has taken more than five weeks, conducted entirely on hundreds of thousands of computerized voting machines that were hauled from state to state across India’s vast territory.

But the official counting will take just part of the day on Thursday, because the totals are already noted in the voting machines themselves. The votes will be analyzed, and in some cases verified against printed ballot copies generated by each voting machine, starting at 8 a.m. on Thursday. The official results are expected to be announced around noon local time.

Image
Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi of the Congress party in the Kerala district of Wayanad last month.CreditAtul Loke/Getty Images

It’s very possible that the B.J.P. will not win 272 or more out of 543 parliamentary seats being voted on this year. If that happens, it will come down to deal-making to form a coalition.

“Every leader of a major regional front knows that he or she might be able to provide the seats that will put the party over the top,” said Milan Vaishnav, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. “Many are waiting by the phone should their number be called on May 23.”

Here are three of the most influential regional parties waiting for that call.

  • Bahujan Samaj: The party counts Dalits, or low-caste Indians, as its core constituency. Mayawati, the party’s leader, has not announced whom she would back in a coalition scenario, though many believe she is amenable to the B.J.P. if the party offers her a senior role in the government.

  • Telangana Rashtra Samiti: Based in Telangana, a state in southern India, the party has no regional political rivals and is likely to win around 17 seats. The party’s leader, K. Chandrashekhar Rao, has already announced that it would join an alliance under the right terms.

  • Biju Janata Dal: A powerful party in Odisha, a state in eastern India, the B.J.D. faces competition from the B.J.P. on its home turf. It has allied with the B.J.P. before, but may think twice if its political independence is threatened.

Image
Waiting to cast votes in Neemrana, in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan, this month.CreditManish Swarup/Associated Press

For the first time, female voters are expected to cast as many as half the total ballots — and perhaps more. Given that officials expect up to 900 million total votes nationwide, that’s a huge number. But more important, it means that Indian women’s votes will at last be proportional to their numbers — even if they are not yet fairly represented in the number of parliamentary seats they hold.

[Read about how female candidates have struggled in India’s long election season.]

Both in the number of female voters, and in total turnout across the country, the 2019 elections are expected to set records, further expanding India’s role as the world’s largest democracy. Watch here for updates on turnout numbers as they are announced.

Image
The aftermath of clashes between rival groups at a campaign rally held by Amit Shah, president of the governing Bharatiya Janata Party, in Kolkata on Tuesday.CreditAgence France-Presse — Getty Images

Violence has almost always played a role in Indian elections, whether between parties or gangs, or on a larger scale in the form of communal violence between religious or caste groups.

[Our reporters visited a village in West Bengal State where homes were burned over sectarian tensions.]

This election has been relatively peaceful compared with previous ones. But since voting began last month, one person has been killed and several candidates have been attacked, among other clashes between supporters of various parties, according to local news reports.

The prime minister spent the last night of the election meditating in a remote Himalayan cave.

At Kedarnath Temple in the northern state of Uttarakhand, Mr. Modi honored the Hindu god Shiva with a traditional offering of milk, honey, clarified butter and curd. The ceremony is believed to help to achieve goals and defeat enemies.

The shrine’s chief priest told Indian news channels that he had blessed Mr. Modi with at least three terms as prime minister and a Nobel Prize.

On Twitter, Mr. Modi shared photographs of the “majestic” mountains and of himself praying at the temple, which was built in the eighth century and sits almost 12,000 feet above sea level. The Uttarakhand B.J.P. also posted images of Mr. Modi, dressed in a saffron robe, meditating in a nearby cave. (He was reported to still have Wi-Fi as part of a portable prime minister’s office.)

Mr. Modi meditated for 17 hours, the Indian news media reported, emerging Sunday morning to visit another shrine, Badrinath, before returning to New Delhi in the afternoon.

Political opponents said Mr. Modi had violated election rules by speaking to the news media at Kedarnath after the end of the campaign period. At least one party, the All-India Trinamool Congress, complained to the Election Commission.

Jeffrey Gettleman and Ayesha Venkataraman contributed reporting.

Modi Promised Better Days and Bridges. India’s Voters Are Still Waiting.
Under Modi, a Hindu Nationalist Surge Has Further Divided India
In India Election, False Posts and Hate Speech Flummox Facebook

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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/19/world/asia/india-election-results.html

2019-05-19 10:07:30Z
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Voting Is Ending in India. Here’s What’s to Expect. - The New York Times

After 39 days of polling involving as many as 900 million voters, balloting in India’s vast parliamentary election is coming to a close on Sunday, starting a countdown to the announcement of final results on Thursday.

After sweeping to an outright majority during the last elections in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., are widely expected to lose seats this time.

Deepening concerns about the economy, and about accusations that the B.J.P.’s Hindu-first conservative creed is putting Muslims and other minorities at risk, have led many Indians who voted for Mr. Modi’s party last time to say they might switch. The biggest beneficiary of such a shift would be the Congress party, led by Rahul Gandhi.

But Mr. Modi’s popularity remains vast, particularly among India’s Hindu majority, and many Indians credit him with programs that have helped the poor and cut through red tape and corruption.

No one is counting out the B.J.P. just yet. And some analysts believe it is still possible that the party will win another majority, or at least be within striking distance of a coalition that would put Mr. Modi back in the prime minister’s office.

[Read news and opinion coverage of India’s elections by The New York Times.]

Here’s a look at how the world’s biggest election unfolded and what to expect in the next few days.

Image
Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking at a rally in Kolkata last month.CreditAtul Loke/Getty Images

Exit polls will start being released soon after the polls close Sunday evening, but the official results will not be released until Thursday. In the meantime, the surveys will drive big headlines in the Indian news media that either the B.J.P. or Congress — or both parties — will seize on as evidence of impending victory.

“In the majority of the cases, exit polls have depicted the true picture,’’ said Josukutty Cheriantharayil Abraham, an assistant professor of political science and director of the survey research center at the University of Kerala. “It may not be correct in terms of the number of seats or vote percentage, but it could definitely show the trends, who is likely to win and lose. In the past, that's been true for the majority of the cases, but there are cases it has gone wrong.”

It also bears remembering that this is a parliamentary election — it’s about parties, not a simple choice between Mr. Modi and Mr. Gandhi. Local issues and rivalries always loom large in Indian elections. And deal-making with smaller parties organized around region or identity may yet play a big role in determining who will become prime minister.

The vote itself has taken more than five weeks, conducted entirely on hundreds of thousands of computerized voting machines that were hauled from state to state across India’s vast territory.

But the official counting will take just part of the day on Thursday, because the totals are already noted in the voting machines themselves. The votes will be analyzed, and in some cases verified against printed ballot copies generated by each voting machine, starting at 8 a.m. on Thursday. The official results are expected to be announced around noon local time.

Image
Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi of the Congress party in the Kerala district of Wayanad last month.CreditAtul Loke/Getty Images

It’s very possible that the B.J.P. will not win 272 or more out of 543 parliamentary seats being voted on this year. If that happens, it will come down to deal-making to form a coalition.

“Every leader of a major regional front knows that he or she might be able to provide the seats that will put the party over the top,” said Milan Vaishnav, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. “Many are waiting by the phone should their number be called on May 23.”

Here are three of the most influential regional parties waiting for that call.

  • Bahujan Samaj: The party counts Dalits, or low-caste Indians, as its core constituency. Mayawati, the party’s leader, has not announced whom she would back in a coalition scenario, though many believe she is amenable to the B.J.P. if the party offers her a senior role in the government.

  • Telangana Rashtra Samiti: Based in Telangana, a state in southern India, the party has no regional political rivals and is likely to win around 17 seats. The party’s leader, K. Chandrashekhar Rao, has already announced that it would join an alliance under the right terms.

  • Biju Janata Dal: A powerful party in Odisha, a state in eastern India, the B.J.D. faces competition from the B.J.P. on its home turf. It has allied with the B.J.P. before, but may think twice if its political independence is threatened.

Image
Waiting to cast votes in Neemrana, in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan, this month.CreditManish Swarup/Associated Press

For the first time, female voters are expected to cast as many as half the total ballots — and perhaps more. Given that officials expect up to 900 million total votes nationwide, that’s a huge number. But more important, it means that Indian women’s votes will at last be proportional to their numbers — even if they are not yet fairly represented in the number of parliamentary seats they hold.

[Read about how female candidates have struggled in India’s long election season.]

Both in the number of female voters, and in total turnout across the country, the 2019 elections are expected to set records, further expanding India’s role as the world’s largest democracy. Watch here for updates on turnout numbers as they are announced.

Image
The aftermath of clashes between rival groups at a campaign rally held by Amit Shah, president of the governing Bharatiya Janata Party, in Kolkata on Tuesday.CreditAgence France-Presse — Getty Images

Violence has almost always played a role in Indian elections, whether between parties or gangs, or on a larger scale in the form of communal violence between religious or caste groups.

[Our reporters visited a village in West Bengal State where homes were burned over sectarian tensions.]

This election has been relatively peaceful compared with previous ones. But since voting began last month, one person has been killed and several candidates have been attacked, among other clashes between supporters of various parties, according to local news reports.

Jeffrey Gettleman and Ayesha Venkataraman contributed reporting.

Modi Promised Better Days and Bridges. India’s Voters Are Still Waiting.
Under Modi, a Hindu Nationalist Surge Has Further Divided India
In India Election, False Posts and Hate Speech Flummox Facebook

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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/19/world/asia/india-election-results.html

2019-05-19 08:48:45Z
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India elections 2019: Final round of voting under way in 59 seats - Aljazeera.com

Indians are voting in the seventh and final phase of national elections, wrapping up a six-week-long campaign season with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seeking re-election for another five years.

Nearly a 100 million people are eligible to vote on Sunday in 59 constituencies across seven states - including the politically-critical Uttar Pradesh in the north and West Bengal in the east.

Sunday's voting also covers Modi's constituency of Varanasi, a temple town where he was elected in 2014. He spent Saturday night at Kedarnath, a temple of Hindu god Shiva nestled in the Himalayas in northern India.

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Counting of votes is scheduled for May 23.

The election is seen as a referendum on Modi's five-year rule. He has adopted a nationalist pitch in trying to win votes from the country's Hindu majority by projecting a tough stance against Pakistan, India's Muslim-majority neighbour and archrival.

Modi has played up the threat of Pakistan, especially after the suicide bombing of a paramilitary convoy on February 14 that killed 40 Indian soldiers.

Reporting from Varanasi, Al Jazeera's Sohail Rahman said while the BJP positioned national security as its main poll agenda, the opposition attempted to corner Modi by focusing on issues of development.

"Discourse certainly changed after Pulwama attacks and national security became the issue. However, people and experts that I talked to said actual issues haven't come out, issues like health, education, sanitation and infrastructure, which the opposition used to target the government."

"The incumbent BJP government has been very reluctant to talk about what they have achieved in the last five years," he said.

The Congress and other opposition parties are challenging Modi over a high unemployment rate of 6.1 percent and farmers' distress aggravated by low crop prices.

Some of Modi's boldest policy steps, such as the demonetisation of high currency notes to curb black-market money and bring a large number of people into the tax net, proved to be economically damaging.

A haphazard implementation of "one nation, one tax" - the Goods and Services Tax - also hit small and medium businesses.

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Voter turnout in the first six rounds was approximately 66 percent, the Election Commission said, up from 58 percent in the last national vote in 2014.

The election has taken place in a charged atmosphere as Modi's BJP sought a second term by pushing policies that some say have increased religious tensions and undermined multiculturalism.

The campaigning has been marred by accusations and insults, as well as the unprecedented use of social media.

Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal state and chief of Trinamool Congress (TMC), at a roadshow ahead of the last phase of general election in Kolkata [Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters]

Voting has largely been peaceful but for sporadic violence in the eastern state of West Bengal, where the BJP is trying to wrest seats from the Trinamool Congress, a powerful regional party that is currently governing the state.

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In a drastic and unprecedented action, the Election Commission cut off campaigning early in West Bengal on Thursday after days of clashes in the final stretch of the election.

Pre-election poll surveys by the media indicate that no party is likely to win anything close to a majority in parliament with 543 seats. The BJP, which won a majority of 282 seats in 2014, may need some regional parties as allies to stay in power.

A Congress-led government will require a major electoral upset.

 

SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies

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https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/05/india-election-2019-final-voting-190519031830636.html

2019-05-19 08:00:00Z
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Sabtu, 18 Mei 2019

Austria: Chancellor Kurz calls for snap election - Aljazeera.com

Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has called for fresh elections after his ruling coalition collapsed following an apparent video sting that forced his deputy to step down.

In a statement on Saturday, Kurz said he would ask the country's President Alexander Van der Bellen to hold a new vote "as soon as possible".

The call came hours after Heinz-Christian Strache, the vice chancellor and leader of the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) resigned over a covert video that appeared to show him offering government contracts to a Russian woman in exchange for campaign help. 

Kurz, a conservative who formed a coalition with the FPO a year and a half ago, said the sting was the last straw in the relationship.

"Enough is enough ... The serious part of this [video] was the attitude towards abuse of power, towards dealing with taxpayers' money, towards the media in this country," said the chancellor, who heads the centre-right People's Party.  

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Kurz said he could not reach an agreement with the leadership of Strache's FPO on carrying forward the coalition, adding that a possible coalition with the center-left Social Democrats would derail the government's programme of limiting debt and taxes.

Shortly after Kurz's statement, Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen expressed support for a snap vote and said he would meet with the chancellor again on Sunday to talk over the next steps.

Opposition parties including the Social Democrats, the liberal Neos party and the Greens have also called for fresh elections in the wake of the scandal.

'Catastrophic'

The downfall of the Austrian coalition comes just a week before elections to the European parliament and is a blow to one of the most successful anti-immigrant, nationalist parties that have surged across the continent in recent years. The FPO is a major part of a new nationalist grouping that aims to score record gains in the European vote.

Strache quit as vice chancellor and party leader earlier on Saturday after the video was released by two German news organisations. He acknowledged that the video was "catastrophic" but denied breaking the law.

In the footage - aired by the German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung and weekly Der Spiegel newspapers - Strache was seen meeting a woman posing as the niece of a Russian oligarch in 2017,  shortly before the election that brought him to power. 

Strache and party colleague Johann Gudenus are heard telling the unnamed woman she could expect lucrative construction work if she bought Austria's Kronen Zeitung newspaper and supported the Freedom Party. He is also seen discussing rules on party financing and how to work around them, although he also insisted on having to act legally.

The German publications did not reveal the source of the video. 

Heinz-Christian Strache resigned as vice chancellor on Saturday [Leonhard Foeger/Reuters]

In his resignation statement, Strache apologised but said he was set up in a "political assassination." He conceded his behavior in the video was "stupid, irresponsible and a mistake".

Strache, whose party has a cooperation agreement with Russia's ruling United Russia party, described the sting as a "targeted political assassination" and said it never led to any money changing hands.

He insisted the only crime that took place was illegally videotaping a private dinner party.

Al Jazeera's Sonia Gallego, reporting from London, described the timing of the scandal as "very bad" for Strache's party because of the upcoming European elections. 

"This has been quite an extraordinary downfall for the leader of the Freedom Party … just only a week to go until the European elections," Gallego said, adding the incident had raised "a lot of questions" about how the FPO "finances its own coffers".

EU parliamentarian Hans-Olaf Henkel said the FPO "as well as many other right-wing parties in Europe are apparently much-supported by Russia".

"For the first time, with the Austrian far-right party, we have found a smoking gun and that's why Strache had to resign ," Henkel told Al Jazeera from the German capital, Berlin.

SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies

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https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/05/austria-chancellor-kurz-announces-snap-election-190518170506716.html

2019-05-18 19:58:00Z
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FM Javad Zarif: We don't want war, and no one can confront Iran - Al Jazeera English

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says he does not believe a war will break out in the region as Tehran does not want a conflict and no country has the "illusion it could confront Iran", state news agency IRNA reports.

Concerns about a possible conflict have flared since the White House ordered warships and bombers to the Middle East to counter an alleged, unexplained threat from Iran.

Earlier this week the US also pulled some diplomatic staff from its embassy in Baghdad following weekend attacks on four oil tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

"There will be no war because neither we want a war, nor has anyone the idea or illusion that it can confront Iran in the region," Zarif told IRNA before ending his visit to Beijing.

US deployment 

Meanwhile, Saudi media reported that the kingdom and a number of Gulf states have agreed to a request by the US to redeploy its military forces in Gulf waters and territories.

According to the reports, the approval came on the basis of bilateral agreements between Washington and Gulf countries.

The motive for redeployment, according to the Saudi reports, was to deter Iran from any attempt to escalate the situation militarily, not to engage in a war with it.

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This all takes root in US President Donald Trump's decision last year to withdraw the US from the 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and world powers and impose wide-reaching sanctions.

The move came even as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has verified that Tehran has upheld its obligations under the deal. 

Last week, Time magazine quoted Pentagon officials as saying there was no military plan to confront Iran.

On the Iranian side, the Guardian newspaper reported in an exclusive report on Thursday that Tehran had ordered its militias in the Middle East to prepare for a proxy war.

The deputy commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Saleh Jokar, said on Friday that his country's missiles could easily reach US warships anchored in the Gulf and the rest of the region in case of war.

On the other hand, a senior Iranian legislator, Hashmatullah Falahat Pishe, called for an Iranian-American dialogue in Iraq or Qatar, to de-escalate tensions with Washington.

Amid rising tensions, Bahrain ordered on Saturday all of its citizens to immediately leave Iraq and Iran.

Bahrain's foreign ministry made the announcement via its state-run news agency, citing the "unstable situation in the region and and the grave developments and threats that threaten security and stability".

Secret reports

Inside the US, congressional sources on Saturday said officials from Trump's administration would make secret statements about the situation with Iran this week, after politicians from the Democratic and Republican parties asked for more information.

Members of Congress have complained for weeks that Trump's administration has not given them enough information about the current tension with Iran, and some Republicans say they have not been briefed on the issue.

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Relations between Washington and Tehran have been strained in recent days after Trump issued a resolution to try to stop Iran's oil exports completely, and bolstered the US military presence in the Gulf in response to what officials in its administration said were "imminent" Iranian threats to Washington's interests in the region, without explaining the nature of the alleged threat.

Adding to the rhetoric, US diplomats warned commercial airliners flying over the wider Gulf of the risk of being "misidentified" amid the heightened tensions.

The warning relayed by US diplomatic posts from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) underlined the risks the current tensions pose to a region crucial to global air travel.

SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies

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https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/05/fm-javad-zarif-don-war-confront-iran-190518105344169.html

2019-05-18 17:30:00Z
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Austria's Vice Chancellor Quits In The Wake Of A Video Scandal - NPR

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Austria's Vice Chancellor and chairman of the Freedom Party, Heinz-Christian Strache, announces his resignation at a press conference in Vienna on Saturday, following a video scandal. Alex Halada/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

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Austria's vice chancellor has resigned after German media published a video that purportedly showed him offering government contracts to a woman posing as the niece of a Russian oligarch, in exchange for media coverage and political funding.

Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache, who leads Austria's far-right Freedom Party, announced he would step down on Saturday at a press conference in Vienna. Crowds stood outside the chancellor's office in anticipation of Strache's statement.

He described the incident as a "targeted political assassination."

On Friday, German news magazine Der Spiegel and daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung published the calamitous video. It shows Strache sitting on a couch in a T-shirt, discussing potential deals with a Russian investor.

She proposes to buy a 50% stake in Austria's Kronen-Zeitung newspaper and Strache promises her construction contracts if she helps his political party. The group also discusses how to disguise a donation to the party through an association. Their meeting was said to have lasted six hours.

It's unclear who orchestrated the recording. The publications did not reveal their source but said a forensic video expert had verified the footage.

The video was reportedly filmed in a villa with hidden cameras on the Spanish island of Ibiza in July 2017 — just months before Austria's national election in October. Strache's party received 26% of the vote and 51 seats.

Strache told the German publications that he had done nothing illegal; that he said to the woman that Austrian laws must be followed. He said he never gave her government contracts or received donations from her.

In November 2018, Austrian retail and real estate company SIGNA bought 49% of a German media company that holds Kronen-Zeitung — marking its first investment in media.

Strache chalked the exchange up to "alcohol-induced macho talk" that was "probably trying to impress the attractive hostess," according to Deutsche Welle.

Austria's 32-year-old chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, now faces mounting calls by the opposition to hold new elections. His conservative Austrian People's Party governs the country in coalition with the Freedom Party.

The video scandal threatens to collapse the coalition government and comes a week before European Parliament elections.

In the past, Kurz has distanced himself from the Freedom Party following reports of anti-Semitism and racism. The Freedom Party was founded and first led in the 1950s by Anton Reinthaller, a former Nazi.

In recent years, the Freedom Party has built a relationship with Russia. According to the New York Times:

"Mr. Strache first met Mr. Putin in May 2007. In 2014, at least two Freedom Party members took part as election observers during the Russian referendum after the annexation of Crimea. Then in 2016, just seven months before the meeting in Ibiza took place, Mr. Strache traveled to Moscow to sign a formal cooperation agreement between the Freedom Party and Mr. Putin's United Russia party."

Johann Gudenus, another prominent Freedom Party member, was secretly filmed in the Ibiza villa meeting with Strache. That prompted calls for his resignation.

Strache said he would step down from his party leadership position, with Transport Minister Norbert Hofer to replace him.

He also vowed to take legal steps to address the video.

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https://www.npr.org/2019/05/18/724580640/austrias-vice-chancellor-quits-after-video-surfaces-of-meeting-with-russian-inve

2019-05-18 16:27:00Z
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