October 23, 2019 - 7:57 AM
BERLIN - Austria's far-right Freedom Party has thrown out Philippa Strache, wife of party ex-leader and former Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache, after she accepted a parliamentary seat won in last month's election.
A terse party announcement Wednesday said Philippa Strache was expelled following her acceptance of the seat in a statement in which she complained of a "campaign of defamation." It said her statement was damaging to the party.
Her acceptance of the seat followed a back-and-forth over whether the party could prevent Strache from taking it following the Sept. 29 election.
That election was prompted by a scandal centring on Heinz-Christian Strache that brought down Austria's last coalition government.
The Freedom Party suspended the former vice chancellor after the election, in which it suffered heavy losses.
News from © The Associated Press, 2019