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Norbert Hofer, interim head of the FPÖ, here on 23 August 2019, on a campaign poster for the general elections in Vienna. REUTERS / Lisi Niesner

The FPÖ, party of the Austrian far right is meeting in Congress this Saturday, September 14, in Graz, in the south of the country to elect its new leader. Unsurprisingly, it will be Norbert Hofer, the former unfortunate candidate for the Austrian presidency. A two-week election of the early legislative elections on September 29, following the outbreak, May 18, of the coalition between the traditional right and the extreme right, led by the young Conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.

With our correspondent in Vienna, Christian Fillitz

This congress was made necessary by what is called here Ibazagate . A scandal triggered by the publication on May 17 of a video shot illegally two years earlier in a villa in Ibiza. Heinz Christian Strache , then head of the FPÖ and number 2 of the government, with one of his lieutenants, offering to a so-called niece of a Russian oligarch lucrative public markets in Austria, in exchange for financial aid to his side .

The next day, Strache resigns and the coalition breaks out. Since then Norbert Hofer has been acting, assisted by Herbert Kickl, Minister of the Interior of the outgoing government.

The FPÖ credited with 20% in the next legislative elections

A shock duo: Hofer always smiling and affable, Kickl provocatively provocative, the man with brittle formulas. No question of seeing two currents they emphasize: the party, credited with 20% in the legislative, remains united.

We will know more after the vote of the delegates, but already both agree not to sanction members of the FPÖ close to identity movements, threatened with prohibition .

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