AUSTRIAN officials are hoping the family of far-right extremist Joerg Haider will hold a private funeral to prevent neo-Nazis turning any public burial into a pilgrimage of hate.
Vienna has announced that public buildings in the capital will be draped in black flags when the body of Mr Haider, 58, is interred.
However, yesterday it was still unclear whether national government representatives would be attending any funera
l or remembrance service for Mr Haider, who died in a car crash early on Saturday morning.
Mr Haider courted controversy by praising aspects of the Third Reich and was a hero of ultra-rightists across Europe.
One Austrian civil servant said: "The spectre of thousands, or even tens of thousands, of his supporters marching on Carinthia (the state where he was governor] to say farewell to him would be as unwelcome as it would be dangerous."
The populist right-winger – architect of the Alliance for the Future party, which scored 11 per cent of the vote in Austria's general election two weeks ago –
was driving at nearly 90 mph, more than twice the speed limit, when he crashed, it was revealed last night. He was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash by emergency workers.
His death came as Austrian political parties were still horse-trading about how to govern the country following no clear victory for any single bloc. The Freedom Party that Haider brought into government in Austria in 2000 won, together with his new party, almost a third of the vote, making them a potent force.
Police rejected "wild" conspiracy theories swirling around the cause of the crash. They say the car was "virtually obliterated" after it smashed against a concrete post and a fire hydrant.
Thomas Koperna, director of the hospital where Haider's body was taken, said he suffered a broken spine, a virtually severed left arm and massive chest and head injuries.
The full article contains 326 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
