Given that Strache achieved more votes in the elections last month, the question is more if he can 'fill the gap' in Carinthia.

Actually, what I fear is that the Austrian far-right now has its sole Führer to unite behind.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

Haider rose up in the Liberal Party of Austria (Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs = FPÖ). This party had a wing with a brand of liberalism common in Central Europe but less elsewhere: national liberalism, with a focus on collective rather than individual freedoms. However, from the start, this wing was tainted by ex-Nazi members.

Still, it was only after Haider achieved party leadership in 1986 that the FPÖ was transformed into a far-right party. While Haider hit headlines in international media chiefly with his sops for former Nazis (like his appearance at a veterans' meeting of former Waffen SS), domestically, he got votes with a more modern populism.

One element was virulent xenophobia: against immigrants, against ther EU, against Turkey. Another was Haider taking the pose of the defender of 'little men', attacking the Social Democrat and conservative establishment. He also exploited his good looks, playing the part of the healthy young country boy.

The recipe worked best in his home state of Carinthia (which is not only more rural, but a small Slovenian ethnic minority and the memory of post-WWI teritorial losses to Slovenia was opportunity for more xenophobia). Also, the FPÖ's federal election success increased steadily under Haider, and then became his undoing.

In 1999, the FPÖ even beat the conservatives by 415 votes, and wanted power, and got it at the price of giving the chancellorship to conservative Wolfgang Schüssel. But Schüssel was a cynical tactician, and first engineered Haider's departure from the national government, then directed all blame for government failures to the FPÖ, and finally instigated internal conflict.

A series of election losses and high-profile desertions followed. When to boot, the FPÖ's local leader in Vienna showed lusat for power, Haider had enough. He decided to 'elect off' his old party and re-establish it as BZÖ.

But that didn't really work out. Haider could only keep his local base in Carinthia. Most of the FPÖ remained loyal to the new leader, that guy from Vienna, Heinz-Christian Strache. This past elections, the far-right rebounded, but Strache's FPÖ again beat Haider's BZÖ.

Now Strache is a younger, even more hardcore (he had connections to a neo-Nazi group in his youth) and even more vicious edition of Haider. So Haider is gone but the poison from Austrian political life not.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

I heard on the radio that Haider was driving back home from a late dinner, alone in his car and "driving very fast".

Almost 20 years ago, on November 5, 1988, another far-right politician died in similar circumstances: Jean-Pierre Stirbois was a prominent member of France's Front National, seen as FN number 2 right behind founder Jean-Marie Le Pen and the main rival of fellow FN politician and numero uno wannabe, Bruno Megret.

On November 5, 1988, then, Stirbois was driving back home from a late dinner, alone in his car and killed himself in a fiery crash. Investigation would conclude to speeding and alcohol as the main causes of the fatal crash.

Hearing about Haider has let me wondering whether far-right political leaders are more prone to late night reckless driving while intoxicated than the average. Not enough samples to be statistically significant, I guess...

And the top investigator felt necessary to declare that there is no sign of any tampering on the car... in response to paranoia from Haider fans.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}