Jörg Haider, Austrian far-rightist, killed in car crash - International Herald Tribune

A memorial for the rightist leader Jörg Haider in Klagenfurt, the capital of Carinthia, the province he governed.

This article is a transcription from the Herald Tribune:

Jörg Haider, Austrian far-rightist, killed in car crash - International Herald Tribune: "A memorial for the rightist leader Jörg Haider in Klagenfurt, the capital of Carinthia, the province he governed. (Daniel Raunig/Reuters)

By Nicholas Kulish and Eugen Freund

BERLIN: Jörg Haider, the controversial and charismatic far-right politician who transformed Austrian politics in recent decades, died of injuries sustained in a car accident early Saturday. He was 58.

Haider's sudden death touched off an outpouring of shock and mourning in Austria, and it occurred at a crucial political moment for the country: between the parliamentary election there two weeks ago, in which right-wing parties made tremendous gains, and the formation of the new government.

Haider, the governor of the province of Carinthia and the leader of the right-wing Alliance for Austria's Future, was a populist politician known for his strong anti-immigrant and anti-European Union stances. He was most notorious for a series of outrageous statements, including praising the Waffen-SS and the employment policies of the Nazi government.

Yet in Austria, his legacy may be the way that he helped put an end to the dominance of the two biggest political parties, the left-leaning Social Democratic Party and the conservative People's Party.

"The spectrum in Austria is totally different today from what it was yesterday," said Thomas Hofer, an independent political consultant in Vienna. "This is the end of an era. He was more controversial than any other, but also one of the most politically talented individuals in the country's history."

The two mainstream Austrian parties suffered significant losses in September's election. The Social Democratic Party and the People's Party had been governing together in an uneasy coalition.

Nearly a third of voters voiced their discontent by turning to Haider's former party, the Freedom Party, and his new one, the Alliance for Austria's Future, which placed fourth, nearly tripling its share of the vote to 11 percent from the last vote two years ago.

The result was a political comeback to the national stage for Haider, after leaving the Freedom Party, which he led and raised to prominence in the decades before. But his death also left his party leaderless at a crucial moment. "For us, this is the end of the world," said Stefan Petzner, the party's secretary general.

Austrian news media were filled with photographs of Haider's black sedan, crushed after flipping over several times. Haider was wearing his seat belt at the time of the accident, the police said, but his injuries were so grave that he had died by the time he reached the hospital.

Haider's death has led to an outpouring of emotion hardly ever seen in Austria, compared by some observers to the swell of mourning in Britain after the death of Diana, princess of Wales, in 1997. Petzner openly wept on Austrian television recalling how he had said goodbye on Friday night to his boss. Gerhard Dörfler, Haider's deputy and now the acting governor of Carinthia, said, "The sun has fallen from the sky."

Condolences rushed in from across the political spectrum. President Heinz Fischer, a Social Democrat, called Haider a "politician of great talent," and said he was "deeply affected" by the news.

Even those opposed to Haider mourned his death Saturday. "I did not particularly like him," said Almut Rieken, 67, in the village of Lanzendorf in Carinthia, "but I still feel touched by it."

The political fallout of Haider's death was far from clear. Some analysts said they believed that it would hasten the reconciliation between the major parties; others saw an opening for a right-wing coalition government.

"This will unify the right-wing camp," said Emmerich Tálos, professor of political science at the University of Vienna. Tálos said that Haider's legacy would be the way that he brought the right wing back into the mainstream of Austrian politics, from a position of weakness and marginalization in the 1970s and early '80s.

"He made the right in Austria a truly relevant political factor in the party system," he said.

Jörg Haider was born in Upper Austria, the son of a shoemaker, to parents who were both active Nazis. He went on to study law before becoming active in the Freedom Party.

As leader of the Freedom Party, his greatest success came in 1999 when the party captured 27 percent of the vote. After the conservatives formed a coalition with the Freedom Party in 2000, it provoked international outrage and brought sanctions from other European countries.

He is survived by his wife, Claudia, and two daughters. According to news reports he was planning to celebrate his mother's 90th birthday over the weekend.

Haider speeding before crash

Austrian investigators said Haider was speeding at more than twice the posted limit before the car crash in which he died, The Associated Press reported from Austria.

The police reconstructing the accident in southern Austria said the speedometer in the wreckage of Haider's Volkswagen sedan was stuck at 142 kilometers an hour, or 88 miles an hour.