Austria's Haider dies in accident
From the BBC
Austrian far-right politician Joerg Haider has been killed in a road accident, police reports say.
Haider died near Klagenfurt in Carinthia, his political stronghold.
He was driving alone when his car came off the road and he suffered severe head and chest injuries, police told the Austrian APA news agency.
The 58-year-old was a former leader of the Austrian Freedom Party, and was known for his anti-immigration and anti-EU policies.
Police investigators in Klagenfurt told the BBC that investigations into the crash were under way.
He had reportedly been due to attend his mother's 90th birthday celebrations later in the day.
"For us this is the end of the world," the deputy leader of Haider's Alliance for Austria's Future, Stefan Petzner, told Austrian news agency, APA.
EU sanctions
Haider was a divisive figure, who gained notoriety after he became leader of the Freedom Party in 1986.
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.
Israel has expressed "deep concern" over the massive success of the Austrian far-right in this week's elections.
The combined success of the far-right parties amounted to almost a third of all votes cast in the early elections, called after Austria's coalition collapsed in June. They may now be called upon to help form a new government.
"We regard what happened as a matter for deep concern," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor. "It is extremely preoccupying that elements which promote xenophobia and Holocaust-denial and befriend neo-Nazis are gaining political ground and obtaining widespread support. We will follow developments very closely."
The Freedom Party took 18 per cent of the vote, with its former leader Jörg Haider taking 11 per cent with his breakaway Movement for Austria's Future.
Just weeks ago, Ariel Muzicant, the president of the Austrian Jewish community, said that although Mr Haider's party had formally distanced itself from the Nazis, "if you scratch below the surface, those well-known underground Nazis come out, and in droves".
Mr Haider's Freedom Party came second in the 1999 elections, and its inclusion in a governing coalition the following year led to Israel recalling its ambassador from Vienna.
However, Mr Palmor declined to comment on whether Jerusalem was considering any similar measures.
"It is premature to make forecasts on Israeli actions or even the make-up of the next Austrian government," he said.
Analysts said that the success of the far-right was partly due to protest voting on issues including disillusionment with the main centrist parties.
Published: June 2, 2005 at 3:46 PM
LONDON, June 2 (UPI) -- The Israeli secret service, Mossad, spied on Jörg Haider, the right-wing Austrian populist, The London Times newspaper reported Thursday.
Mossad used Peter Sichrovsky, one of Haidar's closest aides, to gather information on his contacts with Arab dictators. Sichrovsky said he had been a Mossad informant for five years until retiring from politics in 2002.
"I wanted to help Israel and certainly did not do anything wrong," said Sichrovsky, who was secretary-general of Haider's Freedom Party and a member of the European Parliament.
The Austrian state prosecutor said Wednesday he would open an investigation to determine whether Sichrovsky should be prosecuted. Spying for a foreign power carries in Austria a jail sentence of up to three years.
The revelations, in the news weekly Profil, stunned the Austrian political class. The Jewish community had regarded Sichrovsky as a traitor, while anti-Semitic Freedom Party activists made no secret of their distrust.
The Freedom Party became a member of Austria's governing coalition in 1999, prompting a diplomatic boycott by the European Union. Haider had publicly praised the SS and Hitler's employment policies. Israel withdrew its ambassador.
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2005/06/02/Mossad_spied_on_Austrias_Haidar/U...
Any bet as to whether or not the MOSSAD spy went to trial?