According to Austrian media local time on the 9th, Austrian Labor Minister Ashbach announced his resignation that night, saying that he “has always made efforts to obtain a degree based on knowledge and belief and trusted the evaluation of well-known professors”.
She firmly denied the allegations of plagiarism in the papers she wrote during her ministerial term, stressing that she “want to be judged fairly like everyone else.”
Previously, due to the outbreak of plagiarism in the paper, there was a growing demand for Ashbach’s resignation from Austrian opposition politicians.
Some degree anti-counterfeiting accused Ashbach of “plagiarism, miscitation and German language proficiency defects” in his 2006 academic paper.
Aschbach said on the 9th that various negative news and political hostile attacks had affected her children “unbearably”, so in order to protect her family, she decided to resign to prevent this from continuing.
According to Ashbach, she had personally informed Austrian Chancellor Kurz earlier in the day.
Analysts believe that in view of Austria’s current record unemployment rate, finding Ashbach’s successor early may be one of the major challenges for the Kurz-led government in 2021.
