Extreme right gains in Austrian election

Of course, without Haider observers see little chance of survival for his party outside Carinthia. The BZ?- is a "party dominated by its leader," says Anton Pelinka, one of Austria's leading political scientists. Without Haider, he adds, little remains of the party but the man's myth.

This could be a golden opportunity for Heinz-Christian Strache, the current leader of the FP?-. Strache, a more vulgar version of Haider, now plans to position himself as the only leading figure in the Austrian nationalist camp. Last week Strache announced that BZ?- members of parliament would be more than welcome to join the FP?-. The two parties captured a combined 29 percent of the vote in the recent election, which puts them just below the Social Democrats (SP?-), which won the largest share of votes in the election. However, Haider's death has increased the likelihood that Social Democrats and Christian Democrats will attempt to revive their old coalition. An alliance with the right wing is out of the question, says Werner Faymann, the head of the SP?-, who has been charged with forming a new government. The Austrian People's Party (?-VP) has also said it would be available for a coalition with the Social Democrats -- a repeat of the Grand Coalition that just fell apart paving the way for the vote held in late September.

But many in the ?-VP also see a coalition with the FP?- and the BZ?- as an option. Should the major Austrian parties be unable to come to an agreement, then the right wing will be there waiting for a shot at power. Petzner, the new head of the BZ?-, says that he will do whatever he can to patch together a ruling coalition. One of Haider's primary political aims was that of breaking up the Grand Coalition and Petzner says he would like to carry on that legacy.

There is, however, another Haider legacy. Just what that is has become the subject of intense debate in Austria. Indeed, the debate has become so heated that a number of Web sites have taken the step of limiting access to their reader forums for reasons of decorum.
Many of the things that Haider vehemently criticized were in fact worthy of criticism, says Robert Menasse, including the decades-long backroom wheeling and dealing of the major parties, trade unions and business groups. For Haider's political adversaries, it had become a matter of course to reject anything he said, even it was reasonable, says Menasse.

Haider was popular because he criticized the things that many criticized, and his rivals lost support for defending precisely these deficiencies. His success -- and the country's failure in confronting what he stood for -- created a political climate in Austria in which, despite the country's many parties, only patriotic populism exists, says Menasse.

That, the writer adds, will be the next government's biggest problem. "Haider is dead," Menasse writes, "and all of us have to live with him."

Haider was driven drunken (1.8‰).

“I only had him. Now I am all alone. I would spend nights with him and his family and that was important for me because I often was afraid to be alone in the dark,” he added.