nooleen
bad ape
October 24, 2008 11:07am
AUSTRIA has been rocked after the successor to recently killed Right-wing leader Joerg Haider alluded to having had a gay affair with him.
Mr Haider's party, the Alliance for the Future of Austria, sacked its new leader, Stefan Petzner, after a series of sensational interviews.
Mr Haider's party more than doubled its share of the vote in the general election last month, when the far Right won 30 per cent amid fears of a resurgence by extremist groups and Nazi sympathisers.
Mr Haider, 58, had long cultivated a macho image and was married with two daughters.
But after his death this month, pictures were published showing him cuddling a man in a gay bar where he was drinking before fatally crashing his car.
Yesterday, Mr Petzner, 27, who replaced Mr Haider as party leader, effectively outed himself as Mr Haider's gay lover in an interview on the country's O3 radio channel.
"I had to go to him. I had to go to him," Mr Petzner said as he recalled rushing to the hospital where the body of Mr Haider was lying after the crash.
Admitting to a "magnetic attraction" to Mr Haider, whom he met five years ago while working as a cosmetics correspondent for a newspaper, Mr Petzner insisted: "We had a relationship that went far beyond friendship.
"Joerg and I were connected by something truly special. He was the man of my life."
He said Mr Haider's widow, Claudia, did not object to his relationship: "She loved him as a woman. He loved her as a man. I loved him in a completely different and personal way. She understood that."
Mr Petzner's sister, Chrisitiane, 30, appeared to cast doubt on her brother's story.
In a newspaper she said: "Sometimes Claudia was jealous because Stefan would spend more time with her husband than she did." Officials at the Alliance for the Future of Austria, clearly embarrassed by the revelations, attempted to limit the political damage to the party by firing Mr Petzner.
However, their attempts to prevent his radio interview being rebroadcast were turned down.
Mr Haider crashed his Volkswagen limousine while drunk and driving at more than double the speed limit on his way to his mother's birthday party in the early hours of the morning.
Last Saturday he was given the equivalent of a state funeral in Klagenfurt, the capital of the Austrian province of Carinthia, where he was governor for more than a decade.
More than 25,000 people attended.
Local newspapers said that on the night of his accident, Mr Haider and Mr Petzner had a row at a magazine launch party.
Mr Haider left in a hurry and drove to a gay club in Klagenfurt, where he drank vodka with male escorts.
The reports said he was almost unable to walk to his car when he left.
Allegations Mr Haider was either gay or bisexual were first published in Austria almost a decade ago.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24543165-663,00.html
AUSTRIA has been rocked after the successor to recently killed Right-wing leader Joerg Haider alluded to having had a gay affair with him.
Mr Haider's party, the Alliance for the Future of Austria, sacked its new leader, Stefan Petzner, after a series of sensational interviews.
Mr Haider's party more than doubled its share of the vote in the general election last month, when the far Right won 30 per cent amid fears of a resurgence by extremist groups and Nazi sympathisers.
Mr Haider, 58, had long cultivated a macho image and was married with two daughters.
But after his death this month, pictures were published showing him cuddling a man in a gay bar where he was drinking before fatally crashing his car.
Yesterday, Mr Petzner, 27, who replaced Mr Haider as party leader, effectively outed himself as Mr Haider's gay lover in an interview on the country's O3 radio channel.
"I had to go to him. I had to go to him," Mr Petzner said as he recalled rushing to the hospital where the body of Mr Haider was lying after the crash.
Admitting to a "magnetic attraction" to Mr Haider, whom he met five years ago while working as a cosmetics correspondent for a newspaper, Mr Petzner insisted: "We had a relationship that went far beyond friendship.
"Joerg and I were connected by something truly special. He was the man of my life."
He said Mr Haider's widow, Claudia, did not object to his relationship: "She loved him as a woman. He loved her as a man. I loved him in a completely different and personal way. She understood that."
Mr Petzner's sister, Chrisitiane, 30, appeared to cast doubt on her brother's story.
In a newspaper she said: "Sometimes Claudia was jealous because Stefan would spend more time with her husband than she did." Officials at the Alliance for the Future of Austria, clearly embarrassed by the revelations, attempted to limit the political damage to the party by firing Mr Petzner.
However, their attempts to prevent his radio interview being rebroadcast were turned down.
Mr Haider crashed his Volkswagen limousine while drunk and driving at more than double the speed limit on his way to his mother's birthday party in the early hours of the morning.
Last Saturday he was given the equivalent of a state funeral in Klagenfurt, the capital of the Austrian province of Carinthia, where he was governor for more than a decade.
More than 25,000 people attended.
Local newspapers said that on the night of his accident, Mr Haider and Mr Petzner had a row at a magazine launch party.
Mr Haider left in a hurry and drove to a gay club in Klagenfurt, where he drank vodka with male escorts.
The reports said he was almost unable to walk to his car when he left.
Allegations Mr Haider was either gay or bisexual were first published in Austria almost a decade ago.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24543165-663,00.html
