Extremist Haider gets platform for comeback

Right wing extremist Joerg Haider was easily re-elected governor of the Austrian province of Carinthia today, a formality after his Freedom Party defeated rival Socialists in provincial elections.

Haider received 20 of 22 votes in the provincial assembly, which returned him as governor and put him in a position to stage an eventual national comeback.

The former Freedom Party leader, known for anti-Jewish and anti-foreigner remarks and for professing friendship with deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, has ruled out a quick return to national politics.

The party’s victory in the March 7 elections increased the likelihood that Haider will be able to revitalise the organisation, which now has less than 10% support nationally compared to close to 30% just four years ago.

Many blame the party’s national demise on Haider, notorious for past remarks that sounded sympathetic to the Nazis and contemptuous of Jews, a meeting with Saddam on the eve of the Iraq war and a friendship with Moammar Gaddafi when Libya was still an international pariah.

More recently, he has obliquely compared President George Bush to Saddam and Adolf Hitler.

Sharp attacks on traditional political parties, along with bursts of xenophobia and immigrant-bashing by Haider and his associates, powered his party into the Austrian government in 2000, raising concerns among top European leaders.

Haider stepped down as party leader in 2000 to ease diplomatic pressure on Austria, but the EU still slapped temporary sanctions on the country to protest his party’s government role.