Oct. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Joerg Haider, the Austrian politician who once praised Adolf Hitler's employment policies and visited former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, died in an automobile accident today. He was 58.

Haider, the leader of the nationalist Alliance for Austria's Future and governor of the province of Carinthia, was driving alone in his official Volkswagen Phaeton in the south of Klagenfurt when it veered off the road after he overtook another vehicle. He suffered serious injuries to his head and chest and died at the scene of the accident, his spokesman, Stefan Petzner.

The politician boosted support for the anti-immigrant Freedom Party to 27 percent in the 1999 national elections from 5 percent in 1986, when he took over as party leader. In 2000, his party joined the government led by Wolfgang Schuessel's center- right People's Party, leading the European Union and Israel to scale back diplomatic relations with the Alpine country.

In last month's national elections, Haider's party won 10.7 percent of the vote, making it the fourth-strongest in the parliament. Following the elections, Haider said the BZOe was seeking to take part in government and was willing to talk to all other parties about forming a coalition.

``As a long-serving provincial governor, Joerg Haider didn't only decisively influence Carinthian politics, but also marked Austria's domestic political landscape over decades,'' Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer said in a statement on OTS newswire.

Third Reich

Thousands of candles and bunches of flowers were left today at the scene of the accident, the Carinthian government said in a statement on OTS. People lined up to sign an official book of condolences in the provincial capital Klagenfurt.

Haider shot to prominence in 1991 with comments praising the labor policies of the Third Reich for eliminating unemployment. He sparked controversy again when he visited Saddam Hussein in the run up to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, and criticized President George W. Bush for his Iraq policy.

Haider was born on Jan. 26, 1950, in Bad Goisern in the Upper Austria province. His father was a shoemaker who was wounded in World War II. His mother was a teacher, and both were supporters of the Nazis. He lived with his wife Claudia and two daughters in an inherited estate that was owned by Jews who were forced to sell the land after the 1938 German annexation of Austria.

Elite Criticized

Haider studied law at the University of Vienna. He became the leader of the Freedom Party's youth movement in 1970. In September 1986, at age 36, he became the leader of the party after winning a vote against his predecessor Norbert Steger. After the vote, the Social Democrats ended their coalition with the Freedom Party, which spent the next 13 years in opposition.

Haider's party gained support by criticizing the political and labor union elite in the country, saying that they favored the well-off and immigrants and not the average citizen.

He stepped down as chairman in 2000 after Israel recalled its ambassador to Vienna and the EU imposed sanctions in protest of his party joining the government. Support for the party fell by almost two-thirds to 10 percent in the November 2002 national election. The Freedom Party and the People's Party agreed to renew the coalition three months later.

Haider won support among Austrian voters by using anti- foreigner and anti-EU slogans. He was frequently embroiled in public rows with representatives of the Jewish community in Vienna.

Municipal Elections

His most-infamous comment came during a 1991 debate in the Carinthia provincial parliament when Haider, then governor, declared that the Third Reich managed to eliminate unemployment through an ``orderly employment policy... which the government in Vienna cannot manage.'' He resigned over the controversy.

In March 2001, he told voters before municipal elections in Vienna ``we don't want more foreigners here, we don't want them in our apartments and we don't want their children in our schools.''

Blamed by nationalists for a string of electoral defeats, Haider and other senior members left the Freedom Party in April 2005 and formed the Alliance for Austria's Future, or BZOe, which replaced the Freedom Party as the junior government coalition partner. Haider toned down his anti-immigration rhetoric and even said he supported Turkey's entry into the EU.

In the 2006 national election, Haider's BZOe passed the 4 percent threshold of votes required to take seats in parliament by about 5,200 votes. The party entered the opposition.

After the dissolution of the governing coalition triggered early elections this September, Haider said he would again run as the party's candidate for chancellor, while remaining provincial governor.

The party's campaign, featuring posters of Haider in an open-necked shirt and jeans, called for cutting benefits for immigrants and deporting foreigners convicted of crimes.

To contact the reporter on this story: Matthias Wabl in Vienna at mwabl@bloomberg.net; Zoe Schneeweiss in Vienna at zschneeweiss@bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: October 11, 2008 15:20 EDT