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Austrian far-right leader leaves gay bar, dies in car crash

by Rex Wockner

Joerg Haider, governor of Austria's Carinthia province and a leader among far-right European politicians, crashed his car and died after leaving a gay bar in the city of Klagenfurt on Oct. 11.
Police said his blood-alcohol level was more than three times the legal limit for driving.
Haider, 58, was married with children, though rumors had swirled for years that he was secretly gay. He had been outed by gay activists and newspapers that included Britain's The Guardian, Germany's Die Tageszeitung and Austria's Der Standard.
Britain's Telegraph said Haider's "charismatic populism was instrumental in moving anti-immigrant politics from Europe's fringes towards the mainstream and breaking the grip on government of established centrist parties which he said had lost touch with the people."
From 2000 to 2002, the Freedom Party, which Haider briefly headed during that period, was half of a governing coalition in Austria.
Critics viewed Haider as an ultranationalist, extremist, racist xenophobe. In 1995, the U.S. Anti-Defamation League accused him of making "numerous statements utilizing Holocaust terminology or legitimizing Nazi policy and activities."
Haider routinely disparaged the European Union, of which Austria is a member.

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