Vienna - Austrian politician and populist Joerg Haider, 58, the man behind the resurgence of the country's right wing parties, died in a car crash on Saturday.

With his death, Austria's right loses its most important figurehead, a man both reviled and admired by many Austrians.

The crash occurred near Klagenfurt in the province Carinthia, where Haider was a popular governor.

Shortly before his death, he had made a successful comeback to the national political scene when his Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZOe) won 11 per cent in parliamentary elections in late September.

Although Haider was trying to shed his image as a right-wing firebrand, he and his party won votes not only by railing against the governing centrist coalition, but also with rethoric directed against immigrants and asylum seekers, often portraying them as criminals.

This summer, harking back to his populist heydays, Haider proposed that all asylum seekers should be made to wear electronic tags on their ankles to be able to monitor their movements.

Joerg Haider was born in 1950 in Bad Goisern in the province Upper Austria. His mother, a teacher, and his father, a shoemaker, were devoted members of Hitler's National Socialist Party.

While studying law at Vienna University, Haider's political career started as the leader of the youth movement of the right-wing Freedom Party (FPOe).

The party was formed after World War 2 by liberals and former Nazis.

In 1986, Haider staged a coup to take over the party by ousting the previous liberal leadership.

Austria's mainstream social democrat and conservative parties were stunned as the Freedom Party party gained in strength in successive elections, unsure how to deal with the "phenomenon Haider."

Haider appealed to disaffected voters by building a young, fashionable image, and by employing extremist rethoric, frequently comparing political enemies to animals.

His first stint as governor in Carinthia was cut short unexpectedly in 1991 when Haider had to step down over a revisionist comment.

During a debate on unemployment, he said "Well, that didn't happen in the Third Reich, because in the Third Reich they had a proper employment policy, something that the government in Vienna can't accomplish."

In Hitler's Germany, Jews, opponents to the regime and foreigners were forced to work in the wartime economy.

In 2000, European Union members reacted with diplomatic sanctions when the Freedom Party joined a coalition as a junior partner of the conservative People's Party led by Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel.

Although Haider remained present on the national scene, he was never a cabinet member, preferring his job as governor of Carinthia, where he had been elected for a second time in 1999.

In 2005, Haider created the Alliance for the Future of Austria, split-off from the Freedom Party after a leadership struggle. Alliance members took over government posts until the coalition with the conservatives ended in 2006.

Heinz-Christian Strache, the current leader of the Freedom party, has proven himself as Haider's model student as well as his greatest competitor and political rival.

Railing against Muslims, immigrants and asylum seekers, his party won some 18 per cent of the votes in the recent election.

In total, 28 per cent of Austrians voted for the two right-wing parties that Haider had helped to build.

Haider's rise in the polls sent shockwaves through Austria and Europe, his rethoric and populist success creating fears of a resurgence of the extreme right.

Austrians often found it difficult to deal with Haider's erratic personality, and politicians for years were at odds about how to contain him.

After the 1999 elections, and the following dismal performance of his Alliance in the coalition, Haider's star began to wane, in particular as many believed he shirked taking government responsibility, only to stage a spectacular comeback shortly before his death.

Haider leaves behind his wife and two grown-up daughters. (dpa)