BERLIN, May 20 (Xinhua) -- The German government considered the actions of Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz in the wake of the so-called Ibiza affair to be "understandable", deputy government spokesperson Martina Fietz said on Monday.

On Friday, the German newspapers Spiegel and Sueddeutsche Zeitung had published excerpts of a video that was filmed in Ibiza in 2017 which showed two Austrian politicians of the right populist Freedom Party (FPO) meet with an alleged Russian investor, offering her the prospect of government contracts if she helped the FPO succeed in the election campaign.

The video has led to not only former vice-chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache´s resignation but also the break-up of Austria's right-wing conservative government coalition and the announcement of new elections scheduled for September.

The video showed "a false approach to politics that is not ours," said Austrian Chancellor Kurz from the ruling Austrian People's Party, promising that "everything would be done to completely clear up all suspicious facts."

The actions by Strache had "destroyed the cooperation of the government," said Kurz, who told the German newspaper Bild that he considered criminal consequences "to be possible."

Germany's government "has taken note of the decision of Austrian Chancellor Kurz to seek new elections as a consequence of recent events and Chancellor Kurz's decision is understandable," said deputy government spokesperson Fietz on Monday.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and former President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz from the German Social Democrats (SPD) both blamed the Austrian Chancellor for entering a coalition with the right-wing populist party.

"At the moment it clearly looks as if it had been a mistake" for Kurz to enter a coalition with the populist FPO, said Maas in an interview with Bild.

Martin Schulz from SPD told Bild that the effects of Strache's actions would "shake the confidence in public officials."

Schulz, who ran for German chancellor against Merkel in 2017, felt that "Kurz clearly bears a share of the responsibility" because Kurz "brought him into the government, he courted him." Enditem

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