Shortly before the Ibiza scandal

How FPÖ bosses fed right-wing media with money

ÖVP parliamentary group leader Andreas Hanger (left) also wants to question FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl about controversial chats between Heinz-Christian Strache, Christian Hafenecker and Norbert Hofer.(Bild: Reinhard Holl, APA, Krone KREATIV)

The "election campaign committee" goes into the next round this week. The ÖVP around parliamentary group leader Andreas Hanger invited FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl to the committee on Thursday. He will not only be questioned about his suspected contacts with Russia, but also about the placement of advertisements in what the ÖVP calls "right-wing extremist media". Explosive chats obtained by the "Krone" reveal how the then FPÖ grandees Heinz-Christian Strache, Herbert Kickl, Norbert Hofer and Christian Hafenecker understood blue media politics. The FPÖ, meanwhile, is ready to counterattack.

The year is 2019 and it is April 14. Heinz-Christian Strache is still FPÖ leader and Vice-Chancellor for a few more weeks, Herbert Kickl is Interior Minister, Norbert Hofer is Transport Minister and Christian Hafenecker is Blue Secretary General. Unaware of the scandal that would soon shake the entire country and blow up the government, at least three of the four people mentioned were discussing completely different things in a chat group. Specifically, among other things, with a story about the Identitarian movement that was apparently written too kindly to the FPÖ, which, as the chats also show, was apparently seen as political competition at the time.