Vienna, Austria (CNN) Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has recommended that the nation's far-right interior minister be dismissed amid a corruption scandal that could dent the hopes of populist parties across the continent just days before European parliamentary elections.

Kurz called on President Alexander Van der Bellen to fire Herbert Kickl, slating him to become the latest far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) politician ousted after party leader and the country's Vice Chancellor, Heinz-Christian Strache, quit on Saturday

Strache's resignation followed the publication of an undercover video that appears to show him offering government contracts to a woman claiming to be the niece of a Russian oligarch.

The FPÖ is in a ruling coalition with Kurz's conservative People's Party (ÖVP). The ÖVP has been quick to distance itself from its governing partners. On Monday, Kurz took aim at Kickl, a prominent member of the FPÖ, who was the party's secretary-general at the time of the sting in 2017.

"The decision to dismiss a minister is a necessary step, and one you have to think about very carefully," Kurz said at a press conference, citing several factors that contributed to his decision, including that as secretary-general Kickl was responsible for the finances of his party.

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