"Do not speak ill of the dead" is the old saying. But in the case of Jörg Haider I’m willing to make an exception. Haider personified the worst tendencies of Austrian society: the hatred of foreigners, the glorification of the Nazis and the SS, the unwillingness to confront the past. This was the man who called the Nazi death camps "punishment camps", who praised the "sensible employment policies" of the Third Reich, and whose last act as a politician was to create a "Sonderlager" for old and sick asylum seekers, where they could be concentrated prior to deportation. Yet in Austria his death is being treated as a great national tragedy, as if Haider had been a great statesman on the world stage.
Conspiracy theories concerning his automobile accident abound in Austria. The most common theory is that the accident was engineered by the Israeli secret force Mossad. In fact, Haider, the father of three, had been carousing in a gay bar shortly before he drove his car into a concrete barrier at a speed of more than 90 MPH. Haider’s blood alcohol level was several times over the legal limit. "Die Sonne ist vom Himmel gefallen" (The sun has fallen from the sky) said one of his party comrades. "It’s the end of the world (Weltuntergang) was the assessment of his successor – a 27-year old Haider groupie.
Austria is in mourning, and 50,000 are expected to turn out for Haider’s funeral procession today. And not just Austrians: skinheads and fascists from all over Europe are expected:
Behind the scenes, functionaries and volunteers have been working
around the clock sending invitations. Austria’s political elite are
expected to attend tomorrow. But the 50,000 mourners are also expected
to include Belgian nationalist Filip Dewinter, French extremist
Jean-Marie le Pen, Alessandra Mussolini, the granddaughter of the
Italian wartime fascist leader, Umberto Bossi from Italy’s Northern
League, Swiss industrialist Christoph Blocher, and a handful of
Waffen-SS veterans, whom Haider once described as "men of character".
Younger far-right figures have also hinted they will turn up, though
Austrian intelligence is on alert to turn away groups of skinheads or
neo-fascists, to stop the event turning into a rally.
The national outpouring of grief makes it possible to understand the writing of Thomas Bernhard, who had a strong antipathy towards his fellow Austrians. Shortly before his death, Bernhard had modified his will to prohibit all publications, performances, and public readings of his work in Austria. And Haider is also a key to understanding Nobel Prize-winner Elfriede Jelinek, who for years nourished an almost pathological hatred of the politician.
In her essay last spring on Josef Fritzl – the Austrian who kept his daughter locked in a cellar and fathered seven children with her – Jelinek wrote: Österreich ist eine kleine Welt, in der die große ihre Probe hält.
(Austria is a little world where the big world holds its rehearsals.) The spectacle of Haider’s funeral – coming at a time of global economic crisis – makes one wonder. Could Haider become a martyr for a new pan-European right-wing populist movement? Could Austria once again become the cradle of a destructive force that would sweep across the continent?
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Yes, resentment seems to be the fundamental Austrian mind set. Haider knew how to play the politics of resentment.
Multiplying the shock of ordinary Austrians is that Haider had just completed a lively and successful performance on the national level in the recent election. Even an aging Haider radiated youthfulness and vigor. He seemed set to once again become a kingmaker in Austrian politics.
Now, it’s uncertain what will happen to his BZO or “third way” politics in general. Now the less provincial and potentially more dangerous H.C. Strache is the most prominent right-wing opposition figure.