Truemors
Austrian far-right leader Joerg Haider has been killed in a car accident, according to a report from the APA news agency.
"The governor of Carinthia and leader of the BZOe (Alliance for Austria's Future) Joerg Haider died after a car accident early Saturday in Klagenfurt", the capital of his home state, the agency said.
Haider, 58, was at the wheel of his official car in the south of Klagenfurt when it veered off the road for unknown reasons.
He suffered serious injuries to his head and chest and died shortly after the accident, APA added.
Haider, Austria's most notorious post-war politician, headed the Alliance for Austria's Future after turning the country's Freedom Party (FPOe) into a political force in the 1980s and 1990s and prompting EU sanctions against Austria in 2000.
According to Austria's Der Standard, police said that Haider, driving a VW Phaeton, had overtaken another car shortly before the crash. The female driver of the other car reported the crash. You can read the original report here (in German).
Haider was a controversial and often divisive figure.
In 1991, his term as governor of the province of Carinthia was interrupted, after he made comments praising employment policies of Nazi Germany.
But he was re-elected in 1999 and 2003.
In 2000, the EU imposed sanctions against Austria in a protest over his party's role in government.
In 2005, Haider founded the Alliance for Austria's Future, which scored its best result so far in recent elections, gaining 11% of the vote.
This was, however, well below the 27% which the Freedom Party won under his leadership in 1999 - a high mark in Haider's electoral career at national level.
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