VIENNA, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- Austrian chancellor Christian Kern strongly criticized some of his country's media, alleging they have run an "unprecedented hate campaign" against him.
The media here has in recent days run numerous stories on Kern and his Social Democrats party engaging the services of Israeli national and former party advisor Tal Silberstein, to run a smear campaign against competitor Sebastian Kurz leading into next week's federal election.
Despite the party distancing itself from Silberstein, and comments from Silberstein insisting Kern had no knowledge of the alleged dirty campaigning, the reports have not quietened down.
In a video uploaded to Facebook on Thursday, Kern said the media's coverage has been "disparaging, untrue, lies, sometimes made up."
The chancellor claims the reasons are simply that some newspapers in the country, as well as Kurz's conservative People's Party, think they "can choose who the chancellor in our country is."
The motivations are largely political, he added, noting as an example his party's efforts to challenge the situation on the real estate market and bringing fairer conditions for people who rent, will not please certain people.
He further said policies that would affect the very wealthy and large corporations have also made him unpopular.
While he did acknowledge his party had made some errors of judgment in its campaigning, he insisted his Social Democrats "have a plan for Austria" and a "concept for the future" that he believes will make the country stronger.
