THE GUARDIAN: As the leaders of Europe's far-right parties gather for today's state funeral of Austria's most controversial politician, is European fascism once again on the rise?
In their hundreds they stand in line, waiting to pay tribute to their hero. Girls with iPods, skinheads in leather jackets, elderly women with shopping trollies and tanned athletic types in Prada sunglasses shuffle silently forward.
"We wanted the kids to feel the enormity of the occasion. After all, he is our Lady Di and this is our 9/11," says Anton Krem, 45, who is here to pay his last respects to Jörg Haider, the Austrian rightwing populist politician who died in a drunken, high-speed car crash a week ago and whose coffin sits on a pedestal in the Landhaus, seat of Carinthia's regional parliament, the southern province where he was governor.
An after-work crowd of about 300 makes its way through an avenue of huge wreaths. Everyone from the Chamber of Carinthian Chemists to the regional tourist board has sent a display. Klagenfurt, the state capital, is busy preparing itself for today's ceremony, the most emotional state funeral since that of the last Austrian empress, Zita von Bourbon-Parma, in 1989.
Amid a sea of red candles one teenager has written: "To a great man of the nation who fought for his land. Our hero, our fighter, our sunshine." Another note reads: "Our king of hearts". Slipped in between are pictures of Haider, an orange sweater - the colour of his breakaway Alliance for the Future of Austria party (BZO) - draped over his shoulders, glass of beer in hand; another shows the maverick fascist bungee jumping off a bridge.
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.
With state broadcaster ORF planning live coverage, President Heinz Fischer, who will give the main speech, and other politicians have asked for assurances that they will not appear in the same frames as anyone from the far right. "They realise it could get very embarrassing," says Hans Rauscher, veteran writer for Der Standard newspaper.
The fear gripping the elite shows the extent to which Haider managed to impose himself on Austria's political scene, becoming a figurehead for an array of far-right European groups. Particularly at such a sensitive economic moment, when parallels with 1929 and the great depression are drawn every day, the fear is that the extreme right may seek to exploit the symbolic power of such a gathering. >>> Kate Connolly | October 18, 2008
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