Austrian far-right leader Haider killed in crash

VIENNA (Reuters) - 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, polarized 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 toward 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.

POWER STRUGGLE

Haider sparked criticism by making foreign trips to see leaders like Iraq's Saddam Hussein and Libya's Muammar Gaddafi.

In the 1990s, he reproached Austria's government by citing the "proper labor policies" of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. On another occasion he referred to Nazi concentration camps in a parliamentary debate as "penal camps." He once praised veterans of the murderous Waffen SS as "decent men of character."

Israel withdrew its ambassador from Austria for three years in protest. Haider denied harboring Nazi tendencies and later expressed some regret for the remarks.

In 2000, he led the Freedom Party with a shock 27 percent of the vote into a governing coalition with the conservative People's Party. His triumph stirred widespread condemnation and temporary European Union sanctions against Austria.

After power struggles within Freedom, Haider bolted to form a somewhat more moderate Alliance for the Future of Austria in 2005. It remained junior partner in the governing coalition, while Freedom took a hardline right course into opposition.

In an election in 2006, the Alliance, whose reins Haider had given to a protege while he turned to Carinthian affairs, scraped past the 4 percent threshold to enter parliament.

Haider returned as party chief this year and, sticking to an outwardly conciliatory approach open to coalitions with any party, led the Alliance to 10.7 percent of the vote in the September 28 election behind Freedom's 17.5 percent.

The result could remake Austrian politics with the Social Democrats, returned as the largest party but falling under 30 percent for the first time, likely to struggle to form another coalition with only the similarly weakened conservatives.

"I'm a long-distance runner. We changed a lot of things in Carinthia and we'll do that in Austria at large too. And I won't have to become chancellor (prime minister) for that to happen," Haider said in an interview in the regional Kleine Zeitung daily that hit newsstands hours after his death.

In a comment echoed by many, President Heinz Fischer, a Social Democrat, said Haider was "a politician of great talent" who both enchanted and repelled his contemporaries.

Current Freedom leader Heinz-Christian Strache, who accused ex-mentor Haider of "selling out" to keep power, said: "Whatever differences we had, one has to accord Haider recognition and respect. Austria has lost a great political figure."

Haider's father was once a member of Hitler's Storm Troopers. His mother was a teacher who had been a Hitler Youth leader. A marathon runner as well as passionate skier, Haider was married with two grown daughters.

(Writing by Mark Heinrich; Editing by Charles Dick)