Austrian politician Joerg Haider killed in car crash
Saturday, 11 Oct 2008 12:27
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Austrian far-right politician Joerg Haider has been killed in a road accident, local police reports say.
Mr Haider, the leader of the BZOe (Alliance for Austria's Future) party, was driving alone near Klagenfurt when his car veered off the road for unknown reasons.
He suffered severe injuries to the face and chest after the car flipped several times during the crash and died shortly after.
A father-of-two, Mr Haider was governor of Carinthia and leader of the BZOe party at the time of his death.
He had last month helped the BZOe party - only formed in 2005 - to its best general election results, gaining 11 per cent of the vote.
However, this success was markedly below the popularity he won while leading the Freedom Party, the time of his greatest political notoriety.
The party gained 27 per cent of the vote under Mr Haider's leadership in 1999, and
European Union sanctions were imposed on Austria in 2000 after the Freedom Party formed a coalition with the conservative People's Party/
A controversial figure, Mr Haider's political career was marked by headline-making comments and incidents, mot notably when he criticised the Austrian government's employment slant by comparing it to the "proper labour policies" of the Nazi party.
He once referred to concentration camps as "penal camps" and was also roundly attacked for meeting with Saddam Hussein in 2002, though Mr Haider insisted the discussion was for "purely humanitarian" reasons.
Investigations into the crash - which occurred as Mr Haider was travelling to his mother's 90th birthday celebrations - are ongoing.
"For us this is the end of the world," BZOe deputy Stefan Petzner was quoted by Austrian news agency APA as saying.