http://www.latimes.com/news/printedi...,4284135.story
Austrian far-right leader Joerg Haider was killed in a car accident early today, the national news agency APA reported.
It quoted police as saying that Haider died after suffering severe head and chest injuries when the car he was driving went out of control and rolled several times outside the southern city of Klagenfurt. APA said Haider was alone in the car.
Rightist groups surged to a combined 30% of the vote in parliamentary elections last month, with Haider's smaller Alliance for Austria's Future tripling its support to about 12%.
Haider, 58, governor of Carinthia province, had been active in politics since his teen years. He became a full-time politician in 1977 for the right-wing Freedom Party.
He caused an international backlash when the Freedom Party formed a coalition government with the conservative People's Party in 2000, triggering widespread condemnation and European Union sanctions. The deal fell apart, leading to an early election in 2002 in which the Freedom Party lost heavily, followed by a remake of the coalition.
After struggles within the Freedom Party, Haider formed the breakaway Alliance for Austria's Future in 2005. His new party only just scraped past the 4% threshold to enter parliament in a national election in 2006.
Haider made headlines with his anti-immigration policies and verbal gaffes.