Austria's Haider dies in car accident

(CNN) -- Austrian politician Joerg Haider, a champion of the far-right who drew criticism for perceived pro-Nazi comments, died in a car accident Saturday, Austrian police said. He was 58.



Haider was driving alone in his official state car on the road out of Klagenfurt, in southern Austria, when the car went off the road early Saturday. Police said Haider had just passed another car when he veered off the road, hit a concrete post, and rolled over several times before coming to a stop in the middle of the road.

The woman driving the car that Haider passed called for help and rescue teams were on the scene immediately, said Johann Melischneg of the Carinthia state police.

Haider suffered head and chest injuries, police said. He was taken to the hospital but was dead on arrival, Melischneg said.

Police said it is too early to say what caused the accident, but that Haider appeared to have been traveling at a high rate of speed.

Haider was governor of the southern Austrian state of Carinthia and chief of the BZO party (Alliance for the Future of Austria).

He had been en route to Baerental in the Black Forest, where his family was going to celebrate his mother's 90th birthday over the weekend, the APA reported.

"With his death, the republic loses a great politician," said Heinz-Christian Strache, head of the Freedom Party, told the APA.

Austrian President Heinz Fischer told Austrian broadcaster ORF that Haider's death is "inconceivable" and a "human tragedy."

Haider was the former leader of the conservative Freedom Party. His first stint lasted from 1986 to 1989, and he was elected again in 1992.

A politician who projected youth and style, Haider appealed to many working-class Austrians, promising to cut their taxes and give money to those with children. Some older Austrians responded to his demands for strict law and order.

But he drew widespread criticism for his anti-immigrant stance and remarks considered anti-Semitic, and in 1991 he publicly praised Nazi Germany's employment policy.

During a parliamentary debate, Haider said, "An orderly employment policy was carried out in the Third Reich, which the government in Vienna cannot manage."

Asked in 2000 about the statement, Haider told CNN the quote was taken from a long speech and that he never praised the Third Reich.

"I apologize (for making) such statements, which hinder me (fulfilling) my obligations for the people," Haider told CNN. He called the statement a mistake and publicly denounced Nazism.

Haider continued to draw attention for his controversial remarks, however. They included an address to veterans of the Waffen S.S., Adolf Hitler's elite soldiers, in which he praised their character.

The address created an uproar after it was broadcast on German television. Haider said he had been speaking to elderly citizens of Carinthia who included some former Waffen S.S. members.

Despite the controversy, Haider said he was not racist: "You will not find any anti-Semitic position in our party program, and you will not find any anti-Semitic speech or statement by me."

The policies of the Freedom Party drew international attention during the 1999 elections. Party campaign posters urged voters to stop the flood of immigration and used the word "over-foreignization," the same word used by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels in 1933 to criticize what he called Jewish influence in Germany.

Haider told CNN he favored restricting immigration simply because of Austria's small size, but that he wanted to keep an open border for refugees.

It was his family background, Haider said, that kept singling him out for criticism.

Haider's parents were activists in the Nazi Party long before Austrian-born Hitler annexed Austria to Germany in 1938. Haider's father, Robert, volunteered for the S.A., the notorious brown shirts who terrorized Jews and others before the war. He then served in the German army.

His biographer, Melanie Sully, said Haider felt a strong sense of loyalty to his parents and those in the war generation.

"He feels that what they sacrificed after the war in rebuilding Austria in very difficult circumstances needs to be honored and that they weren't all criminals," Sully told CNN in 2000.

Under Haider's leadership, the Freedom Party made a strong showing in the 1999 elections, winning 27 percent of the vote and shaking up the traditional two-party system that had ruled Austria since World War II.

After months of negotiations, however, the two main parties could not agree on terms to form a government together, so the Freedom Party was invited to share power.

Haider retired as party leader after that but remained governor of Carinthia.

In 2005, Haider formed the BZO party, taking with him a number of Freedom Party lawmakers. Haider was credited with helping the BZO make significant gains in last month's general elections alongside the Freedom Party, though Austria's two largest parties, the Social Democrats and the People's Party, came out on top.
The vote reflected reflected public dissatisfaction with the two largest parties as well as support for the social populism, anti-European Union and anti-immigrant rhetoric of the BZO and Freedom Party.