By IRNA,
Vienna : Austrian politician Joerg Haider was pronounced dead in a hospital on Saturday shortly after his Volkswagen Phaeton veered off the road in southern Austria and overturned several times after he had passed another car.
At the time of his death, Haider was governor of the province of Carinthia and leader of the Alliance for the Future of Austria — a party he formed after breaking away from the far right Freedom Party in 2005.
In 1999, Haider received 27 percent of the vote in national elections as leader of the Freedom Party, which ran an anti-immigrant campaign critical of European Union goals of opening membership to Eastern European countries.
Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer described the longtime politician as someone who had shaped Austria’s domestic political landscape over decades.
Austrian President Heinz Fischer described Haider’s death as a “human tragedy.”
Earlier this week, Haider announced that had set up a facility in the remote mountains of southern Austria to handle asylum seekers suspected as criminals, saying they need to be isolated to protect the people in the area.
Haider had a history of taking a strong stand on asylum seekers, saying criminals among them drain the country’s resources and should be expelled.
Human rights experts expressed concern about the holding facility.