Blogroll Me! How This Old Brit Sees It ...: Haider finally does something good for humanity

11 October 2008

Haider finally does something good for humanity

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Jeorg Haider

Jeorg Haider, Austria's most prominent fascist, has done something I can support:

Austrian far right leader Joerg Haider was killed in a car accident on Saturday, the national news agency APA reported. It quoted police as saying Haider died after suffering severe head and chest injuries when a car he was driving went out of control and rolled over several times outside the southern city of Klagenfurt. APA said he was alone in the car.

Rightist groups surged to a combined 30 percent of the vote in a national parliamentary election last month, with Haider's smaller Alliance for Austria's Future tripling its support to around 12 percent.

Haider made headlines by campaigning on an anti-immigration ticket and with verbal gaffes. He once reproached Austria's government by citing the "proper labor policies" of the Third Reich. On another occasion he referred to concentration camps in a parliamentary debate as "penal camps." Haider was also widely condemned for meeting Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in 2002, which he said was a "purely humanitarian" matter.

Born in Upper Austria, his father was a former member of Adolf Hitler's brown-shirted storm troopers. His mother was a teacher who had been a Hitler Youth leader.
(cross posted at appletree)

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3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I had to smile when I saw this. I'd just completed a short article on Haider in Sparrow Chat, and guessed you'd have already picked up the story. Good riddance, in many ways, though it may prove a mixed blessing for Austrian politics.

2:24 am  
Blogger Frank Fish said...

Yes, most amusing, this cheered me up no end - what a tragic loss for the Austrian people, and for humanity in general. We in Britain certainly shed a tear over this one...

7:10 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm led to understand the ar$hole was ar$holedat the wheel.
Anyway, good riddance.

5:17 pm  

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