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The new leader of the Austrian party FPÖ, Norbert Hofer, in a meeting in Vienna Friday 24 May 3019, the day before the European elections. REUTERS / Leonhard Foeger

End of difficult campaign for the Austrian extreme right party. A video broadcast last week caused the FPÖ to leave the ruling coalition that had been in power since the end of 2017. Advance elections will probably be held next September. But before that, place this Sunday, May 26, 2019 in the European elections. Objective: to limit the damage.

With our correspondent in Vienna, Isaure Hiace

Ultimate meeting of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), Friday evening in Vienna. Acclaimed, Norbert Hofer, the new leader of the party, takes the stand and begins his speech by evoking the video at the heart of the scandal.

In the latter, shot in hidden camera in 2017, the now ex-Vice Chancellor and former leader of the party, Heinz-Christian Strache, is trapped , thinking to negotiate including financial support with the pseudo-niece of a Russian oligarch, in exchange for public contracts.

" Anyone who thinks today that they can, with this video, put pressure on the FPÖ is wrong. We are a FPÖ family, and we will not be divided, "warns Hofer, who reached the second round of the presidential race in 2016.

In front of him, a few hundred activists nod. Most of them prefer to point out an individual fault, that of their former leader and vice-chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache, to better clear the party.

An eye on Kurz's former partner and rival Kurz ÖVP

In the audience of the meeting, Gerhard Buchinger points out " the mistake of one man ", " a very specific situation ", which " does not concern the vast majority of party members ".

A recent poll shows that the FPÖ has lost five points since the scandal, but remains in third place with 18% of the vote behind the conservatives (ÖVP) and the Social Democrats (SPÖ).

Encouraging, in the eyes of Johann Habeler: " This is certainly not the end of the FPÖ . This party represents what I think, but also what many Austrians think. I am really convinced that the FPÖ will not lose any votes in this election. "

All of them will scrutinize this Sunday the score of the former FPÖ partner in the government, the conservative Austrian People's Party of young Chancellor Sebastian Kurz , who could come in first.