Former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz stunned Austria and left a power vacuum in his governing conservative party on Thursday by announcing he was leaving politics, after coming under criminal investigation for suspected corruption.
Kurz, 35, who was one of Europe's youngest leaders, quit as chancellor in October at the behest of his coalition partner, the Greens, after prosecutors launched the graft inquiry, though he remained head of his People's Party (OVP) and a lawmaker.
Kurz has been the dominant and most polarising figure of Austrian politics since 2017 when he became OVP leader and then chancellor, winning a parliamentary election and forming a coalition with the far-right Freedom Party (FPO).