Austrian Minister of Labor, Family, and Youth Christine Aschbacher has resigned amid accusations of plagiarism while writing her dissertation. The press service of the department reported.

“My family and I see that the media and political opponents are preventing me from conducting a fair verification process and hastily condemning me in an unthinkable way. (…) For this reason, I am resigning from my post, ”Ashbakher said.

Plagiarism charges against Ashbakher were brought forward by an independent expert. He claims that certain passages of Ashbakher’s dissertation were copied without specific references.