Turns out Russian collusion isn’t a "witch hunt hoax" after all. At least not in Austria.

The country’s government collapsed on Saturday after Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said he was pulling the plug on his ruling coalition after just 17 months in office.

The move came barely 24 hours after the release of a bombshell video showing Heinz-Christian Strache, the far-right leader of his junior coalition partner, trying to trade public contracts for party donations from a woman he believed to be the wealthy niece of a Russian oligarch.

“Enough is enough,” Kurz said in a brief statement to the press from his baroque office in Vienna, describing the many challenges he faced in recent months in dealing with Strache’s Freedom Party, which despite its alignment with the chancellor’s center-right People’s Party on policy issues, remained a lightning rod for criticism with its racist comments and other controversies.

The government crisis was a blow to the youthful chancellor who sees himself as the future of European conservatism and whose international stardom won him a private dinner with Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner in February.

“The Freedom Party has damaged the country’s image” — Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz

Kurz said the content of the video “speaks for itself,” insisting that allegations Strache made against him on the tape — Strache claimed he had information that Kurz engaged in “sex orgies” — did not influence his decision to end the coalition.

“The Freedom Party has damaged the country’s image,” Kurz said, adding that he doesn’t have the impression the party is willing to change.

Coming just days before next week’s European Parliament election, the episode has rocked the political landscape in both Austria and Europe, where the Alpine nation’s non-traditional coalition was seen as an experiment in the viability of alliances that pair mainstream parties with populists.

It would appear they don't work so well.

The incriminating video triggered the resignation of Strache, the government’s No. 2 official, earlier Saturday.

Given the gravity of the scandal — in the video Strache offered to exchange lucrative government contracts for campaign donations with a supposed Russian millionaire and discussed how to hide the payments from authorities — Kurz appeared to have concluded that pulling the plug was the only way he could shield his own party from the affair.

A spontaneous protest by thousands of Austrians in front of his office on Saturday may have helped focus his mind.

“I hope that this government is going to fall and that we can return to being a democracy," said 62-year-old Gerda Brüchner.

“I’m here because the entire Freedom Party is intolerable,” said Florian Gantner, a Vienna resident who was carrying his six-year-old son on his shoulders, whistles in their mouths. “The entire government should step down. We need a new election.”

Kurz under pressure

Officials and commentators in neighboring Germany and other corners of Europe also urged Kurz to ditch the Freedom Party, arguing that his own credibility was at stake.

The sudden turn of events may even help Kurz in the long run.

The chancellor is by far Austria’s most popular politician and could well strengthen his party’s position in a new election if he can win over disgruntled Freedom Party voters. The question is how he would form a government without the Freedom Party in Austria’s increasingly Balkanized political landscape.

Kurz's opponents, however, will likely use the election campaign to question his judgment in choosing to go into government with the Freedom Party in the first place.

The People’s Party holds a clear lead in national opinion polls, securing 33 to 34 percent support every week for the past year, according to POLITICO's poll of polls.

Kurz’s Social Democrat rivals likewise poll at exactly the same 26 percent they achieved a year ago, with the Freedom Party trailing in third on 22 percent. All the polls were conducted prior to Strache's resignation.

President Alexander Van der Bellen joined the widespread condemnation of Strache's behavior and accepted Kurz's call for a new election.

"The images show a disturbing picture, a picture that does not represent our country. This is not who we are. This isn't what Austria is like," he said. “Austrians have the right to have a government they can trust, a government that is esteemed and respected in Europe and the entire world. We need to rebuild this trust, and this rebuilding is only possible with fresh elections."

Cross-border impact

A bigger question is what impact of the scandal could be beyond Austria’s borders. For years, Europe’s far-right parties have faced accusations of cooperating behind the scenes with unsavory Russian actors, a charge the Strache video appears to confirm.

The Freedom Party has a formal partnership with Vladimir Putin’s political party, but has repeatedly denied working to further Russian interests in Austria.

Given that far-right leaders in Italy and France have pursued a similarly Russia-friendly strategy, they could themselves facing uncomfortable questions in the coming days.

The affair could also complicate efforts to unite Europe’s far-right parties into a new political alliance after the European election.

The parties are set to post strong gains in next week's election: Euroskeptics are on track to win around 250 of the Parliament's 751 seats.

The Freedom Party was expected to join Italy’s Matteo Salvini, France’s Marine Le Pen (and possibly Hungary's Viktor Orbán) in the biggest Euroskeptic group.

Strache has played a central role in coordinating contacts between the parties, but in the wake of the scandal, the other leaders are likely to try to distance themselves from the Austrians.

The death of Austria's coalition also spells an early end of a controversial political experiment.

After leading the People’s Party to victory in 2017, Kurz decided to join forces with the Freedom Party instead of renewing a grand coalition with Social Democrats.

Kurz justified the move by arguing that the previous grand coalition was hobbled by deep ideological differences and proved incapable of delivering the kind of reforms he believed Austria needed.

Not everyone was convinced. Freedom Party officials repeatedly confirmed those fears over the past 17 months with aggressive anti-asylum policies and by poisoning Austria’s political discourse with overtly racist rhetoric.

The Freedom Party’s provocations included flirtations with the identitarian movement and regular attacks on journalists, whom Strache labeled as "the biggest whores on the planet" in the leaked video.

Through it all, Kurz insisted he could keep the situation under control. He pointed to the government’s success in implementing central elements of its program, including tax reform, a balanced budget and overhauls of social spending programs.

The video raises more questions than it answers. Chiefly, who made the video and why did they wait so long to release it?

Nonetheless, the Freedom Party’s extreme tendencies prompted many observers to speculate the government was destined to collapse.

Few, however, expected the end might come in such spectacular fashion.

The incriminating video, filmed in the summer of 2017 a few months before the last election, was published 6 p.m. Friday, by German magazine Der Spiegel and daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. It shows Strache and Johann Gudenus, the leader of the party's parliamentary group, in a house in Ibiza discussing how their hostess, an unnamed female they believed to be the wealthy niece of a Russian oligarch, could secretly funnel money to their party.

“Very few donate to the party directly because that would go to the auditor general and then it would be public, which nobody wants,” Strache said as he sat smoking and sipping cocktails. “There are some very wealthy individuals who pay between 500,000 and 1.5 million to 2 million. I can name a few who pay not to the party but to a non-profit organization.”

Strache goes on to name his purported donors, including Gaston Glock, the Austrian gunmaker. Glock denied participating in such a scheme, as did the others Strache named.

Strache and Gudenus, who speaks Russian and acted as his interpreter, also discussed the possibility of the woman purchasing a 50 percent stake in the Kronen Zeitung, an Austrian tabloid and the country’s most influential newspaper.

Strache said that under the Russian’s control, the paper could “push” Freedom Party candidates. The far-right leader said he envisioned a media landscape like Hungary’s, that is one under the de facto control of the country’s leadership.

Gudenus, who also resigned Saturday, added in the video: “The Kronen Zeitung would be good for all of us, for you in terms of business and for us politically.”

In return for the help, the pair also suggested they could help the woman secure government infrastructure projects, including highway contracts. “The only thing we would want in return is that we’re treated fairly, that the newsroom’s coverage is accurate,” Strache said, adding that she may also want to make a donation “here or there.”

As he announced his resignation, Strache hinted darkly of a vast conspiracy to undo him.

The video raises more questions than it answers.

Chiefly, who made the video and why did they wait so long to release it? If those who made the video wanted to undermine the Freedom Party, why not release it before the election in 2017?

Der Spiegel and the Süddeutsche Zeitung have declined to say where the video came from.

As he announced his resignation, Strache hinted darkly of a vast conspiracy to undo him. He described his actions as “dumb” and “irresponsible,” but laid most of the blame on those behind the sting.

“It was a carefully planned political assassination, a hit job,” he said.

Strache stressed that in the video he repeatedly said that all dealings with the Russian woman had to be above-board and legal, though the schemes outlined were plainly illegal.

Denise Hruby in Vienna contributed reporting.