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Home province of leader Haider National support peaked in 1999BERLIN—The party of the Austrian far-right leader Joerg Haider won regional assembly elections in his home province of Carinthia yesterday, a result likely to give Haider a new term as governor of the province and renewed influence in Austrian politics. Haider's Freedom Party took 42.4 per cent of the vote, compared with just over 38 per cent for the Socialist Party, according to final results. If Haider can form a coalition with another party, he will become head of the provincial government. The Freedom Party's fortunes peaked in 1999 when it...

Controversial Rightist Wins Re-Election, Hopes to Regain National Prominence Mar 7, 2004 By George Jahn/ Associated Press Writer VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Joerg Haider brought his party a stunning victory in his home province Sunday, confounding pundits and increasing the odds for a national comeback for the rightist known for anti-Jewish slurs and friendship with Saddam Hussein. With Haider's Freedom Party polling more than 10 percentage points behind the Socialists just weeks before legislative elections in Carinthia province. Most predicted a Freedom Party loss after a string of defeats elsewhere over the past two years. While the voting was restricted...

Jubilant Haider looks for return to power of the far Right By Michael Leidig in Vienna (Filed: 08/03/2004) Austria's far-Right nationalist Jörg Haider's Freedom Party looked set to grasp a surprise victory in an election in the Alpine province of Carinthia, according to early returns yesterday. Polls had predicted that Haider might lose his power base but a partial count reported on Austrian state television, based on more than a quarter of votes cast, showed that Mr Haider's party had won 43 per cent of the vote to the Socialist Party's 38 per cent. Jörg Haider looks set to retain...

VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- Joerg Haider brought his party a stunning victory in his home province Sunday, confounding pundits and increasing the odds for a national comeback for the rightist known for anti-Jewish slurs and friendship with Saddam Hussein. With Haider's Freedom Party polling more than 10 percentage points behind the Socialists just weeks before legislative elections in Carinthia province. Most predicted a Freedom Party loss after a string of defeats elsewhere over the past two years. While the voting was restricted to Carinthia, its significance extended beyond Austria's southernmost province. Beyond assuring his reappointment as governor, the win increased...

Haider maintains its comparison between George W Bush and Saddam Hussein The strong Joerg Haider, Austrian line man extreme, maintained Friday his comparison between Saddam Hussein and the American president George W Bush, by referring to Adolf Hitler indirectly. Mr. Haider had declared on December 16 that it was "difficult for him to choose between Bush and Saddam": "both scorned the international law, both undermined the humans right. But first A behind him power of the United States while second was a weak dictator ". Joerg Haider stressed that it maintained its remarks, which "were well formulated", by receiving...

VIENNA, Austria - Austrian far-rightist Joerg Haider accused U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair of being "war criminals" who violated international law by striking Iraq). In an interview for Wednesday's issue of the Austrian weekly magazine News, the former Freedom Party leader also renewed an offer to give Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri refuge in Haider's home in the southwestern province of Carinthia, where he is governor. Haider, who made two controversial visits to Iraq last year and reportedly met with Saddam Hussein, has spoken out harshly and repeatedly against the U.S.-led war. Bush and...

Filed at 3:11 p.m. ET LONDON (AP) -- Left-leaning governments across Europe are being kicked out by voters worried about ailing economies, crime, illegal migrants and a fear that traditional policies of state control don't work. Europeans are turning to conservative, and even far-right parties, for tough economic reforms and law-and-order policies. Many see the left as out of step with ordinary people. Left-of-center governments have fallen in Italy, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands. France's Socialists lost power in Sunday's parliamentary elections, according to exit polls, while Germany's once popular Social Democratic government is the underdog in September's elections. In...