Right-winger Haider bounces back

JOERG HAIDER’S political star appeared on the rise yesterday, with preliminary results showing Europe's most popular rightist holding on to a political post he needs to reclaim national prominence for his party.

While the voting was restricted to Carinthia, its significance extends beyond Austria's southernmost province. Beyond seeking re-election as governor, Haider hopes to use a win to revitalise his ailing Freedom Party, which has less than 10% support nationally compared with close to 30% just four years ago.

Preliminary results released on state television just after polls closed showed Haider's Freedom Party with close to 43% of the vote, compared with just over 38% for the rival Socialists. Many blame the party's national demise on Haider, notorious for past remarks that sounded sympathetic to the Nazis and contemptuous of Jews, a visit with Saddam Hussein on the eve of the Iraq war and a friendship with Moammar Gadhafi when Libya was still an international pariah. More recently, he has obliquely compared US President George W Bush to Saddam and Adolf Hitler.