Three confidants of former FPÖ leader Heinz-Christian Strache have founded a new party in Austria and hope for a political comeback of the controversial right-wing populist. The Vienna state parliament delegates left the FPÖ and then called The Alliance for Austria (DAÖ) to life. Co-founder Karl Baron confirmed that they had contacts with Strache.
"For us it is clear that this step was planned for a long time," reacted FPÖ boss Norbert Hofer on the re-founding. On Friday, the party judge ex-chief Strache will listen, inter alia, because of allegations in the expenses scandal and decide on a party exclusion. "I'm curious if he also appears," said the Vienna FPÖ chairman Dominik Nepp.
The former Vice Chancellor Strache was overthrown in early October over the so-called Ibiza affair. The SPIEGEL had reported on secretly recorded videos that show how Strache of an alleged Russian millionaire prospect for their potential help in the election campaign public contracts. He then resigned from all offices, the government of FPÖ and conservative ÖVP broke. Strache is also being investigated because he could have embezzled party grounds. He rejects the allegations so far vehemently.
"The FPÖ has become an anti-Strache party," said Baron the founding of the new party DAÖ. Should Strache officially join the DAO and be available as a top candidate, he could win at least one respectable victory in the state election in Vienna 2020.
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Political consultant Thomas Hofer described the founding of the new party as a "bad news" for the FPÖ. At the latest when the new movement should establish itself at the federal level, parallels could be raised with the splitting of the FPÖ in 2005. At that time, FPÖ leader Jörg Haider founded the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) as an alternative to the FPÖ. Strache took over the lying on the ground FPÖ and led them later to spectacular electoral successes and in the government.