Austrian president dissolves Kurz’s govt after no-confidence vote

Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen on Tuesday officially dissolved Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s government, a day after it lost a no-confidence vote in parliament.

The president has tasked Vice Chancellor Hartwig Loger to serve as chancellor until an interim head of cabinet is appointed, RIA Novosti reports.

The Austrian parliament passed a motion of no confidence against Kurz and his government over the scandal involving the ruling party’s coalition partner and the right-wing Freedom Party (FPO) whose former leader Heinz-Christian Strache was taped allegedly discussing exchanging government contracts.

Kurz, 32, said he would fight to win back his position. He remains popular and his center-right party finished top in Austria on Sunday in the European Parliament election with 34.9 percent support, a gain of almost 8 percentage points over 2014, AP said.