Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and his government have lost a no-confidence vote following a corruption scandal prompted by a secretly-filmed video.

Iran Press/Europe: After about three hours of debate, a simple majority of lawmakers stood up in a demonstration of their withdrawal of trust from  the Chancellor of Austria Sebastian Kurz.

Kurz's former coalition partners from the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) said they would support the motion of no-confidence put forward by the Socialist Party (SPÖ) on Monday afternoon. There was no official count for the vote. Instead, a majority of deputies in the chamber stood to indicate their unwillingness to put further trust in Kurz, Iran Press reported.

Kurz, who at 32 is one of the world's youngest leaders, is the first Austrian chancellor since World War II to be defeated by a motion of no-confidence.

Earlier in the evening, Kurz asked his supporters to respect Parliament's decision before adding that he would support the interim government.

"The opposition always had the goal to get rid of Kurz. And today, they succeeded." Kurz told his supporters who were chanting his name in the rain.

"I ask you to recognize this decision, it's a democratic decision and there is no room for anger, sadness or hatred," he added.

Kurz also asked voters to support the coming election race. "I ask you to spend the next month [campaigning] for the support of the people and at the end the people will decide in September."

The removal of  Kurz, just 17 months after he became chancellor, came despite a gain of 8 percentage points for his conservative People’s Party in the European Parliament elections.

New elections are planned for September, although that process could now be accelerated, with the country led by a caretaker government appointed by President Alexander van der Bellen in the interim period. 203/211/213

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