Austrian president demands that government restore trust

Austria’s president has welcomed Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s resignation and demanded that the country’s politicians work hard to restore voters’ trust after a several-day drama that brought the government to the brink of collapse. President Alexander Van der Bellen said he will swear in Alexander Schallenberg, currently Austria’s foreign minister, as chancellor on Monday. Kurz announced Saturday that he would step aside to defuse a political crisis triggered by prosecutors’ announcement that he is one of the targets of an investigation into suspected bribery and breach of trust. He denies any wrongdoing. The conservative Kurz’s junior coalition partners, the Greens, had demanded his replacement.