Haider wins poll in home province

Published on Monday 8 March 2004 00:00

JOERG Haider, the Far-Right politician whose views on immigrants and Jews led to Austria’s partial international isolation, took a step towards political rehabilitation last night after his party won elections in his home province.

With 90 per cent of all votes counted, Mr Haider’s Freedom Party had 42 per cent of the vote, compared with the rival Socialists’ 38 per cent.

That cleared the way for his reappointment as governor and Mr Haider said yesterday he was "satisfied" with the result.

"Nobody figured we had a chance again of being number one," he told the Austria Press Agency.

Mr Haider hopes the fortunes of his ailing party, which has less than 10 per cent support nationally compared to close to 30 per cent just four years ago, will improve. However, a poor result in another election in Salzburg province suggested the win in Carinthia was solely due to Mr Haider and not the start of a national trend.

Mr Haider’s sharp attacks on traditional political parties, along with bursts of xenophobia and immigrant-bashing, powered his party into the Austrian government in 2000. But setbacks soon followed.

Mr Haider stepped down as party leader in 2000 to ease the diplomatic pressure on Austria, but the European Union still slapped temporary sanctions on the country. His subsequent attempt to run things from the sidelines provoked early elections, alienating huge numbers of supporters.

Many blame the party’s demise on Mr Haider, notorious for remarks that sounded sympathetic to the Nazis, a meeting with Saddam Hussein on the eve of the Iraq war and a friendship with Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi when Libya was still an international pariah.

His countrymen will be watching closely to see what he does next.