3 € bill.

October 24, 2008 10:08 AM

After recently leading his far right wing party, Alliance for the Future of Austria, to shocking gains at the polls, Jörg Haider, was killed this month whilst driving drunk. His 27 year old replacement, Stefan Petzner, was sacked after admitting to having a special relationship with Haider.
posted by gman (52 comments total)

Nice title gman!
posted by Kiwi at 10:11 AM on October 24, 2008

Thanks.
I think this story is fuckin' nuts and I don't know why it hasn't been talked about...
posted by gman at 10:16 AM on October 24, 2008

I haven't gotten through it all, but the "special relationship" picture is ... oddly chosen, given the topic of the news story. Or maybe I'm just being juvenile.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:19 AM on October 24, 2008

Watching the Dutch TV coverage of this I am amazed at the extent to which the guy was reminiscent of Pim Fortuyn, especially in diction and mannerisms. (And Petzner looks a lot like Fortuyn's brother, oddly enough.)

The big difference here is that Fortuyn was openly gay and had been for a long time, and nobody seemed to consider that fact to be at odds with his party's conservative agenda.

It seems that with Haider, however, his party would have had a lot more trouble with his homosexuality.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 10:19 AM on October 24, 2008

Woah. Is it the Austrian equivalent of April fool's day? Because this is just... it's like when Senator Craig got caught in the airport bathroom, you know? I don't know why I'm still surprised when one of these rabidly right wing loons gets caught with his pants down (sometimes literally).
posted by Forktine at 10:21 AM on October 24, 2008

It seems that with Haider, however, his party would have had a lot more trouble with his homosexuality.

Isn't one of their platforms - 'NO Immigrants. NO Fags.'?
posted by gman at 10:22 AM on October 24, 2008

Isn't one of their platforms...
Isn't part of their platform...
posted by gman at 10:25 AM on October 24, 2008

I hear he died while trying to pass on the right.
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:25 AM on October 24, 2008 [13 favorites]

These extreme right politicans aren't really discriminatory at all. They hate everyone, including themselves.
posted by Jakey at 10:26 AM on October 24, 2008 [5 favorites]

As far as i can tell, Haider wasn't exactly popular with the local youth if what they did to his campaign posters says anything.
posted by dunkadunc at 10:27 AM on October 24, 2008

I don't know, gman. I hope someone with more knowledge of Austrian politics will pipe up.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 10:28 AM on October 24, 2008

Do you know who had more knowledge of Austrian politics?
posted by Kiwi at 10:32 AM on October 24, 2008 [7 favorites]

I'm glad goodnewsfortheinsane brought up the Pim Fortuyn resemblance, I was thinking the same thing. I also want to hear someone else weigh in who knows more about Austrian politics. This is a fascinating story.
Last week, my husband was doing his happy dance when he heard that Jorg Heider had managed to get himself killed. I, however will not dance on that grave. Especially not now.
posted by msali at 10:35 AM on October 24, 2008

I don't know, gman. I hope someone with more knowledge of Austrian politics will pipe up.

Stefan Petzner would be the best drop-in EVER. Better than that Thief 1 guy last week.
posted by gman at 10:35 AM on October 24, 2008 [3 favorites]

Do you know who had more knowledge of Austrian politics?

The governor of California?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:11 AM on October 24, 2008 [6 favorites]

Johann Hari had a long article on homosexuality and fascism prompted in part by this news.
The version of Pope Guilty's joke I heard was "Heider; proving even fascists can swerve to far to the right."
posted by Abiezer at 11:14 AM on October 24, 2008

What? A gay Nazi? Never heard of such a thing!
posted by Pollomacho at 11:15 AM on October 24, 2008

The governor of California?

Well, he sure knows more about Austrian politics than he does about Californian politics, anyway.
posted by blucevalo at 11:16 AM on October 24, 2008

Well, I guess a divorced straight guy is more conservative than a gay man with no sense of when to keep his mouth shut.
posted by QIbHom at 11:17 AM on October 24, 2008

Nice post, gman. I'd been following this story since hearing the man died, from his death to finding out he was completely blasted to the reveal of the gay lover. I'm beginning to think the number of closeted gay men outweigh the straights in these right-wing loony groups.
posted by schroedinger at 11:19 AM on October 24, 2008

Man, I really shouldn't find this story as amusing as I do. Reminds me of the Mosley story - fast cars, Nazis, outbursts of unexpected-yet-somehow-appealing-to-the-stereotype sexuality...
posted by mwhybark at 11:23 AM on October 24, 2008

The version of Pope Guilty's joke I heard was "Heider; proving even fascists can swerve to far to the right."

I was thinking maybe it was too subtle.
posted by Pope Guilty at 11:44 AM on October 24, 2008

ObCartoon: The New Gay Stereotype.
posted by GuyZero at 11:45 AM on October 24, 2008

PG: I did see it posted with the handy visual aid of a picture of the smoking wreck, so that helped.
The pleasures of schadenfreude aside, one point made was that the split in the Austrian far right was apparently largely a personality thing between Haider and his erstwhile Freedom Party comrades, so this could end up strengthening the movement overall. But then there's the loss of his personal appeal and the whole hypocrisy thing.
posted by Abiezer at 11:51 AM on October 24, 2008

He isn't gay, he just likes cock.
posted by docpops at 12:23 PM on October 24, 2008 [5 favorites]

I was thinking about making a post about this yesterday and had a difficulties choosing between following titles:

This Charming Man
National Front Disco
Not Gonna Get Us | 200km/h in the Wrong Lane

Abiezer's link is a must read; extreme rightwing populist politics doesn't necessarily mean anti-gay, as comfortable as it would be to think otherwise. I think that exclamations like "Haider is our Lady Di", "Haider is our King of Hearts" show that Austrians were not surprised about this latest turn.

I think that the homoerotic vibe has always been a recognized and quite accepted part of european fascism (=idolating the strong man and his general strong manliness).
Spode: And three: the compulsory scientific measurement of all adult male knees! Not for the true-born Englishman the bony angular knee of the so-called intellectual, not for him the puffy knee of the criminal classes. The British knee is firm, the British knee is muscular, the British knee is on the march!
posted by Free word order! at 12:39 PM on October 24, 2008 [1 favorite]

Oops, wrong link for "Haider is our Lady Di". Should go here.
posted by Free word order! at 12:47 PM on October 24, 2008

"Haider is our Lady Di"

I don't even know where to begin with this one. It's far too overwhelming to attempt to list all the ways they were SO very different.
posted by gman at 12:52 PM on October 24, 2008

extreme rightwing populist politics doesn't necessarily mean anti-gay

Well, it kind of does. Martin Webster might have liked a couple of handsome young men to stand on the running board of his car, but the National Front did expel him for his homosexuality -- and he *was* their leader at the time.

Similarly, his ex-lover, BNP leader Nick Griffin, might take it up the Gary Glitter and go trolling the rank and file for twinks but he's never going to admit that in public. Instead, he'll write about these 'repulsive creatures' and suggest they 'had it coming'.

As docpops says, these guys aren't gay -- they just love cock.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 12:54 PM on October 24, 2008

Nicky Crane of Oi! fame gets a mention in Hari's article too.
posted by Abiezer at 12:58 PM on October 24, 2008

Memories of Ray Cohn.

"I am not a homosexual. Homosexuals are men who in 15 years of trying cannot pass a pissant anti-discrimination bill from city council. Who have zero clout. Does this sound like me, Henry?" "Roy Cohn is a heterosexual man. Who fucks around with guys."
posted by anthill at 1:13 PM on October 24, 2008

the Mosley story

You are aware it's turned out the Mosely story was a complete setup by a British newspaper who paid one of the hookers to stage one of his normal visits as a Nazi orgy, frabriacting the entire thing, right?
posted by rodgerd at 1:13 PM on October 24, 2008

The Times story is ambiguous about why Petzner was dumped as leader:

...the party felt compelled yesterday to dismiss its leader amid reports of his alleged role in Haider’s tragic death. Local papers said that, on the night of his accident, Haider and Mr Petzner had a row at a magazine launch party. Haider left in a hurry and drove to a gay club in Klagenfurt, his home town, where he drank vodka with male escorts. The reports said that he was hardly able to walk to his car.

So was Petzner fired because he was gay or because he had a quarrel with Haider that resulted in Beloved Leader drinking and driving? What was his "role" in Haider's death?
posted by CCBC at 1:17 PM on October 24, 2008

I didn't realize how close to the surface this was. Based on my readings of the last 3 links on the FPP, I get the impression that this was a bit of an open secret. I couple of days ago, I didn't expect this to go much beyond innuendo and over-reading of the phrase "special friend."

Anyway, I'm trying really hard to suppress Schadenpleasure at this whole thing. His kids probably don't deserve this craziness.
posted by LMGM at 1:28 PM on October 24, 2008

Haider widow halts cremation amid suspicions.
posted by gman at 1:44 PM on October 24, 2008

*most striking part of that article... a 'VW Phaeton limousine'???!?
posted by gman at 1:45 PM on October 24, 2008

I'm just relieved to hear that the U.S. doesn't have a monopoly on closeted right-wingers.
posted by brundlefly at 2:07 PM on October 24, 2008 [1 favorite]

Like this.
Also, Limousine can also mean a sedan in German.
posted by dunkadunc at 2:10 PM on October 24, 2008

This is a non-story unless Haider's political party has a definite anti-gay policy.
posted by KokuRyu at 2:13 PM on October 24, 2008

Like this.
Also, Limousine can also mean a sedan in German.

I was hoping more like this.
posted by gman at 2:19 PM on October 24, 2008

This is a non-story unless Haider's political party has a definite anti-gay policy.

Joke, yeah?
posted by gman at 2:20 PM on October 24, 2008 [1 favorite]

Thanks gman! And sorry, my english is poor.. my lame excuse is that most english teachers here in Austria really suck at their job ;)

"Crashed while driving drunk" is a bit of an understatement. He was driving at four times the legal alcohol level (2 milligrams blood alcohol) when he crashed into a 30 mph limit sign with more than 110 mph. He was a known speeder, but as governor of Corinthia, no one would have dared to give him a ticket for that. Very typical austrian thing. Instead of being relieved that he did not kill anyone else while driving so recklessly, the big mayority of the austrian public now tries to paint him as some kind of James Dean figure. Some noted that his funeral had the character of a "sanctification" (bad machine translation only, sorry), and most of his political enemies now started to praise his "great political talent".

Haider spent his last hour at a gay bar in Klagenfurth. He went there after a dispute with Petzner, who according to rumors had another lover. Petzner got out of Haider's car after driving a few hundred meters with him, and they kept exchanging calls and short messages, which could have further distracted him from driving. Petzner has not been sacked yet, the Times Article got this wrong. He is still expected to become bzö chairman, but he was not elected their parlamentary speaker afer giving some very emotional interviews.

The discrepancy between his homosexuality and his anti-gay political stances has been criticized for many years now, but the media in Austria had some kind of gentleman's agreement not to talk about it. The argument was that there were so many other things he should be criticized for, and that bringing his sexual orientation into the public discussion would only have strengthened homophobic sentiments. Now more and more stories about it emerge, in newspapers outside of Austria and in rumors, but the austrian media outlets still do not dare to mention his sexual orientation openly. Needless to say, many of his followers are very surprised by these "news".

Some even say that these "rumors" many years ago, brought up among others by a gay rights organisation and by Elfriede Jelinek (the later literature nobel price winner, who Haider hated so much that one of his party's ads rhymed her name with Dreck, dirt) was one of the reasons why he suddenly stepped down and did not take a bigger part in the right-wing coalition when it was formed in 2000, which had led to lots of international protests. Interestingly, when a law discriminating against gays was canceled a few years ago, Haider's party vowed to keep the law, but when it came to voting, their absence in the parliament made the reform possible.

The ironies and oddities of this case are endless. Don't get me wrong, I am not happy about anybody's death. Haider was, on some occasions. When Marcus Omofuma, an innocent black guy, was killed by the austrian police a few years ago, he said "We should not shed too many tears about the death of a drug dealer [which he was not, but the media kept repeating this lie] about to be deported." One of bzö's trademark political stances was raising the speed limits, thier other really big trademark was Haider's fight against bilingual city limit signs in Corinthia, which has a big slovenian minority. He defied a ruling of Austria's highest court and proudly removed such signs with his own hands in front of the press.(pictures) His crashing car destroyed one of these signs. He crashed in front of a house which the family living there had painted in his party's color, orange, because they were big fans. The car was a Volkswagen Phaeton. I could go on.

Many people here in Austria now fear a possible reunion with the other extreme right party, Strache's fpö, wich split from Haider's party a few years ago. Both parties togther were on the edge of becoming the biggest party after the genereal elections a few weeks ago. If you are interested in Austrian politics, two documentaries you really have to see are Kronenzeitung (about a newspaper which is read by more than half of the austrian population) and Operation Spring (about racist court rulings influenced by the right wing parties). Watching those might make you think the politics in your country could be even more absurd.
posted by dnial at 2:40 PM on October 24, 2008 [23 favorites]

I see very little has changed in Austria since the late 1930's.
posted by telstar at 3:31 PM on October 24, 2008

You are aware it's turned out the Mosely story was a complete setup by a British newspaper who paid one of the hookers to stage one of his normal visits as a Nazi orgy, frabriacting the entire thing, right?

If someone asks you if you want to get naked and play Mengele and Inmate, and you do anything other than run away in horror and disgust straight through the closed door leaving a series of you-shaped holes in all that stand between you and free air, you, sir or madam, are a sicko.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:27 PM on October 24, 2008 [4 favorites]

Thank you heaps dnial!

And please keep it coming, it's all very interesting. Like, was it a bit of a public secret in Austria that Haider was gay, or did it come as a suprise after his death? Was I right to infer (from news reports in Netherlands media) that his homosexuality would have been a major issue in his party if it had been revealed earlier?

And I know this sounds silly, but as far as I'm concerned your English is excellent.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 8:21 PM on October 24, 2008

With respect to gays in far-right European parties, that comes as no surprise. I have come across several European gay men who feel very threatened by 'Islam' and Muslim minorities in Europe, which they perceive as being anti-gay/homophobic, and many non-gays who have expressed thinly disguised bigoted views against Muslims, because 'Islam' is intolerant of homosexuality. I find the latter ironic and perverse for two reasons: 1) the same people don't rail against the Vatican or other homophobic established churches (such as the Anglican church which is split on the matter) in the same, or find them as pernicious, though the Christian orthodoxy has infinitely more power than angry Muslim immigrants, who are more pissed off because of racial and economic discrimination and European support for the Iraqi invasion and the Israel-Palestinian conflict; and 2) most majority-Muslim countries that have laws against sodomy or 'unnatural acts' (which is interpreted to mean non-heterosexual sex) inherited those laws from the British and French penal codes--not to defend the Shar'ia but in most of its schools of jurisprudence sodomy per se, whether hetero- or homosexual, is verboten.

I wonder whether Mr. Haider would have been as popular if he had surrounded himself with pretty boys who were not white or immigrants (dnial: are all non-white Austrians in Austria considered 'immigrants' regardless of when they came?). As the director of the Aryan Resistance Corps, a racist party quoted in one of the linked articles above said: "I always knew in my heart racist and gay were both morally right. I don't see any conflict between them. It's only the Jew-owned gay press that tries to convince us that racialism is the same thing as homophobia. You can be an extreme nationalist and gay without any contradiction at all."

I would therefore not be surprised, that with the appalling and growing success of racist political parties in some countries in Europe, that many of the countries will have laws that treat LGBT folk much better than their racial and religious minorities (read: Muslims and Roma).

I shall preemptively state that I do not endorse the Muslim orthodoxy's view on homosexuality or heterosexual sodomy and I think that LGB and Ts ought to have all the protections that heteros get, but so should immigrants and their offspring who are often denied citizenship and other privileges.
posted by Azaadistani at 12:33 AM on October 25, 2008 [1 favorite]

Oh, and I'm a bit slow, so I didn't get the '3 Euro bill' title. Anyone?
posted by Azaadistani at 12:36 AM on October 25, 2008

Oh, and I'm a bit slow, so I didn't get the '3 Euro bill' title. Anyone?

There's an old phrase that goes "queer as a three-dollar bill."
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:58 AM on October 25, 2008

This thread is self-loathing.
posted by gman at 5:56 AM on October 25, 2008

P. J. O'Rourke: "I have often been called a Nazi, and, although it is unfair, I don't let it bother me. I don't let it bother me for one simple reason. No one has ever had a fantasy about being tied to a bed and sexually ravished by someone dressed as a liberal."
posted by dgaicun at 6:22 AM on October 25, 2008

I'm pretty sure I heard the "swerve to the right" joke about Ian (Skrewdriver) Stuart before, or at least something very similar. Still funny, though.
posted by DecemberBoy at 10:58 AM on October 25, 2008

Thanks, Pope. Duh!
posted by Azaadistani at 6:08 PM on October 25, 2008