VIENNA, Oct 11: Austrian far-right leader Joerg Haider, a charismatic populist who helped thrust anti-immigrant politics into the European mainstream, was killed in a car accident on Saturday.

Haider, 58, who led the right into a coalition government from 2000 to 2006, polarised Austria and drew international condemnation with his anti-foreigner outbursts and for appearing to endorse some Nazi policies.

Last month, after years of retreat into provincial politics, he helped engineer a surge of Austria’s far right to 30 per cent of the vote in a parliamentary election, mining discontent over feuding mainstream governing parties, inflation and immigration.

His spokesman Stefan Petzner said Haider, who was governor of Carinthia province, had been driving to his rural home near Klagenfurt early on Saturday morning for a family gathering to mark his mother’s 90th birthday when the government car he was driving skidded out of control after he overtook another vehicle. His car hit a concrete traffic barrier and rolled over several times, police said.

Haider was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital.

“This is for us like the end of the world. He wasn’t just my boss but also my best friend,” a weeping Petzner said.

Haider shook up Austria’s political scene with his plain-spoken, engaging manner. He struck a chord with ordinary people and was on good personal terms with political foes.

Austrians of every political stripe voiced shock at his death and said he had influenced public life, for better or worse, as no one else had over the past 20 years.

Mourners began depositing wreaths and condolence letters and lighting candles in front of Carinthia government headquarters even before dawn broke, and a black flag was raised.—Reuters