Loaded legacy
October 11, 2009
Joerg Haider's supporters have held a number of ceremonies across Austria on Sunday, to honor the controversial figure a year after his death in a car accident.
Special events included a Mass at Klagenfurt Cathedral and the inauguration of a road-side monument at the site of his accident, which has already become a destination for pilgrims seeking to pay tribute to the former far-right leader.
On Friday, a special exhibit dedicated to Haider was opened at a museum which will eventually be devoted entirely to the divisive figure. Its organisers say it focuses more on Haider's personality than his politics. It features childhood toys and some of his stylish clothes, praises him as "disciplined" and "human," and avoids the more controversial themes of his life, such as his admiration for some aspects of Nazi rule.
Off the rails
Joerg Haider died in a car accident on October 11 last year. He was 58 at the time, married, a father of two daughters and governor of Carinthia.
Investigators found that he had three times the legal limit of alcohol in his blood when he lost control of his vehicle on a road near Klagenfurt in the early hours of the morning. He had been returning from a party at a gay bar and was travelling at around 140 kilometres per hour, or roughly twice the local speed limit.
Those circumstances did nothing to dent Haider's popularity, and conspiracy theories of the crash abound in his home province.
One year on from his death, his Alliance for the Future of Austria party enjoys unprecedented levels of support in Carinthia. Earlier this year it won regional elections with 45 percent of the vote. However, it has disappeared from other provincial parliaments and may be losing ground to its main rival for the far-right vote across the rest of the country.
Far right gains
Haider's Alliance for the Future of Austria party emerged in 2005 when its founders split from the Freedom Party, which Haider led throughout the 1990s.
Austria's two far-right parties won roughly 27 percent of the vote between them at last year's legislative elections. Together, they now control 54 of the 183 seats in the country's national parliament and form the biggest opposition to the ruling coalition of Social Democrats and the centre-right People's Party.
As well as campaigning against accepting immigrants, the far right parties oppose Turkey's membership of the European Union and reject EU influence in Austrian affairs.
The Alliance for the Future of Austria is now led by Josef Bucher, after a brief stint by the man believed to be Haider's former lover, Stefan Petzner. Petzner suggested he had a homosexual relationship with Haider at a press conference shortly after the man's death last year.
The Freedom Party is currently led by Heinz-Christian Strache, who has been more successful than the Alliance in emulating his former rival's appeal to younger voters and use of anti-immigrant slogans.
Bad blood
Haider had a long history of making provocative statements, which tapped into an undercurrent of support among many Austrians.
In 1991 he was forced to stand down as governor of Carinthia - a post he later reclaimed - after saying the Nazis had a "proper employment policy." On another occasion in 2005 he triggered international outrage when he paid tribute to the Waffen SS, telling a gathering of Axis war veterans that the Nazi military force had been a group "of honest citizens" who stayed "true to their convictions."
Haider's inclusion in an Austrian conservative coalition government - which lasted from 2000 to 2006 - led temporarily to a number of EU countries imposing diplomatic sanctions on Austria.
nw/AFP/dpa
Editor: Andreas Illmer