The EU should abandon talks with Turkey on its prospective membership in the European Union as democratic and economic disparities between the two are too great, Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern said Wednesday.

“We are all well advised to now say we’re pressing the reset button,” Kern told Austrian broadcaster ORF, Reuters reported. “We know that the democratic standards are clearly not sufficient to justify [Turkey’s] accession.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government has arrested or suspended thousands of judges, prosecutors, journalists, teachers and soldiers following an attempted coup last month, increasing concern among EU leaders about democracy in the country.

Kern called accession talks a “diplomatic fiction,” and said Austria would “start a discussion” about ending accession negotiations with Turkey at a European Council meeting September 16.

Kern added Wednesday that “the economic question is at least just as significant because the Turkish economy is too far from the European average.”

Johannes Hahn, the European commissioner for enlargement, said last week that Turkey’s post-coup crackdown had led to legitimate doubts about its future in the bloc.

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