“Austria’s former vice-chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache was convicted Friday over graft charges linked to the giant ‘Ibiza-gate’ scandal, which is still roiling national politics two years after it broke. The scandals can be traced back to a meeting in 2017 on the Spanish resort island of Ibiza between Strache, then leader of the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe), and a woman posing as the niece of a Russian oligarch. Strache was filmed promising the woman state contracts in exchange for helping his party to campaign for elections on an anti-migration, anti-Islam platform.”
“Strache also discussed the possibility of the woman buying Austria’s most-read tabloid, Kronen Zeitung, and making its editorial line more pro-FPOe. He did not know the meeting was a sting and that he was being filmed. The video surfaced in German media in May 2019 and led to the collapse of a coalition government composed of the FPOe and the centre-right People’s Party (OeVP) of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. Strache claimed in the video that several high-profile billionaires, as well as international gambling company Novomatic, had funded political parties through illegal donations to associations. All those named by Strache deny any wrongdoing” – AFP.