Austria's heirs to Hitler

THE MAN who once praised Hitler's employment policies is tipped to regain the governorship of Carinthia, Austria's southernmost province.

Opinion polls suggest that Joerg Haider, leader of the far right populist Freedom Party,will emerge as the state's strongest political force.

Elections are also taking place in Salzburg and Tyrol, but the spotlight is on the Freedom Party's stronghold of Carinthia, where Haider's xenophobia and ambiguous statements on the Nazi era and the Holocaust strike a chord with the region's farmers and middle classes.

Many fear a united Europe and the loss of Austrian identity. They resent the destruction of post-war Austria's founding national myth: that the country was a victim of the Third Reich, not Hitler's willing accomplice.

Austria has failed to shake off the legacy of the Nazi era, a heritage of hate that stretches back to the Anschluss in 1938 when thousands of cheering Viennese lined the streets to greet the Nazi legions as they marched in and rounded up their Jewish neighbours.

Jewish organisations view Haider's likely return to the political stage with horror. He was forced to resign the governorship of Carinthia in 1991 after praising Hitler's employment policies.