Kurz till åklagaren: ”Jag är inte en fullständig idiot”

The Ibiza affair (German: Ibiza-Affäre), also known as Ibiza-gate, was a political scandal in Austria involving Heinz-Christian Strache, the former vice chancellor of Austria and leader of the Freedom Party (FPÖ), and Johann Gudenus, a deputy leader of the Freedom Party. The scandal was triggered on 17 May 2019 by the publication of a secretly recorded video, which was commissioned by Iranian-born lawyer Ramin Mirfakhrai (Persian: رامین میرفخرایی‎), of a meeting in Ibiza, Spain in July 2017, which appears to show the then opposition politicians Strache and Gudenus discussing their party's underhanded practices and intentions. In the video, both politicians appeared receptive to proposals by a woman calling herself Alyona Makarova, who was posing as a niece of Russian businessman Igor Makarov, discussing providing the FPÖ with positive news coverage in return for government contracts. Strache and Gudenus also hinted at corrupt political practices involving other wealthy donors to the FPÖ in Europe and elsewhere. The scandal caused the collapse of the Austrian governing coalition on 18 May 2019 and the announcement of an early election. In a no-confidence vote on 27 May, Sebastian Kurz was voted out of office as Austrian chancellor by Parliament, and on 28 May a caretaker government was appointed. Elections were set for 29 September. In 2020, a partial transcript of the video was published by the public prosecutor's office. In the new material, Strache had refused the decoy's offer and doing anything illegal.