Joerg Haider

Haider, 54, was seeking to cling to his post as governor of the southern province in the face of fading popularity for his Freedom Party since forming a national coalition with Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel's conservative People's Party in 2000.

Haider had stepped down as leader of the Freedom Party in 2000 but remains its strongman.

Haider, the son of a former Nazi party official, is 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 an international pariah.

He has built his career on nationalist, anti-Europe, anti-immigrant policies that resonate well in a Central European country where people have fears -- mainly for their jobs -- about letting former communist bloc countries into the European Union.

The Japan Times Weekly: March 13, 2003
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