Carinthian BZÖ Governor Gerhard Dörfler has lashed out at opponents of the proposed monument to late Carinthian Governor and BZÖ leader Jörg Haider, calling them “evil.”
Dörfler said today (Weds) the monument to Haider would be erected at the site of his fatal car accident last 11 October in Lambichl bei Klagenfurt in Carinthia’s Klagenfurt Land district.
Dörfler added a special bank account would be established to which people could send donations.
The governor said many people had urged him to spearhead the effort to erect a monument to Haider. “Many have told me they are astonished there are people who reject the idea of a monument to Haider,” Dörfler said. He said opponents of a monument were “evil.”
Dörfler said contributions in excess of the 30,000 Euros a monument would cost would be spent on another appropriate project. “Perhaps Claudia Haider (Jörg Haider’s widow) has a good idea,” he speculated.
Haider died when he lost control of his car while driving at high speed under the influence of alcohol and hit an abutment. The car skidded out of control and rolled over several times before coming to rest in the middle of the road.
Dörfler had announced the provincial government’s intention to have a memorial to Haider erected in late December. The governor also said the province’s largest bridge would be renamed in Haider’s honour and a museum in memory of him would be built.
Dörfler said nearby residents who had been moved by the hundreds of candles and personal letters people kept leaving at the site of Haider’s fatal accident had sold the provincial government the land necessary for the memorial.
The Haider family has chosen sculptor Giselbert Hoke, 81, as the artist who will design the memorial.
The provincial government will rename Lippitzbach Bridge in Völkermarkt District “Jörg Haider Brücke” on January 29, which would have been Haider’s 59th birthday. Dörfler said Haider had been responsible for construction of the bridge.
The governor added he was having the things people left daily at the site of the accident collected and stored on a regular basis to prevent them from being lost and to enable them eventually to be placed in a Haider museum.
Haider’s widow Claudia is said to be fully involved in the three projects.
The BZÖ is planning to make memories of Haider a key aspect of its provincial election campaign early this year. The election will occur on 1 March.
Native Upper Austrian Haider headed the Freedom Party (FPÖ) from 1986 to 2000. After becoming Austria’s second-strongest party at the 1999 election, the FPÖ formed a government with the conservative People’s Party (ÖVP) – a step leading to eight months of EU sanctions on Austria.
In the wake of massive losses at general and provincial elections, Haider left the party he had turned into a vital force to found the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) in 2005.
At the general election on 28 September last year, the BZÖ overtook the Greens with 10.7 per cent of the vote, a sensational success as Haider had always made clear he would leave Carinthia, where he was an immensely popular governor, only if he could become chancellor.
Haider was under permanent fire for not fully disassociating himself from the Nazi mindset. On the other hand, the father of two was praised for knowing how to use the power of the media as no other Austrian politician did.
http://www.austriantimes.at/index.php?id=10570
The Carinthian BZÖ has decided to buy the VW Phaeton in which former Carinthian Governor and BZÖ leader Jörg Haider died in an accident on 11 October 2008.
