Austrian far right leader killed in car crash

Austrian far-right leader Joerg Haider, a charismatic populist who helped bring anti-immigrant politics into the European mainstream, was killed in a car accident on Saturday. He was 58.

Haider, who led the right into a coalition government from 2000 to 2006, polarised Austria and drew condemnation abroad with anti-foreigner outbursts and for appearing to endorse some Nazi policies. But he avoided such rhetoric in later years.

Last month, after years of retreat into provincial politics, he helped Austria's far right win about 30 percent of the vote in a parliamentary election, mining discontent over feuding centrist governing parties, inflation and immigration.

His spokesman Stefan Petzner said Haider, who was governor of Carinthia province, had been driving to his rural home near Klagenfurt early on Saturday morning for a family gathering to mark his mother's 90th birthday when the accident occurred.

The government car he was driving skidded out of control after he overtook another vehicle. His car hit a concrete traffic barrier and rolled over several times, police said.

Haider was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital.

"This is for us like the end of the world. He wasn't just my boss but also my best friend," a weeping Petzner said.

Haider shook up Austria's stiff, formal political scene with his blunt and engaging manner. He struck a chord with ordinary people and was on good personal terms even with political foes.

Austrians of every political stripe voiced shock at his death and said he had influenced public life, for better or worse, as no one else had over the past 20 years.

Mourners began depositing wreaths and condolence letters and lighting candles in front of Carinthia government headquarters even before dawn broke, and a black flag was raised.

Along with France's Jean Marie Le Pen, Haider was instrumental in moving the far right from the political fringes towards the mainstream, tapping into fears over rising immigration from the Muslim world and a perceived loss of national identity through European integration,

"Whether you agreed with his positions or not, Haider was a master of political communication. He did break sclerotic habits (of the political establishment)," Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik said on Saturday.