Haider's Home

Today Klagenfurt seems virtually untouched by the commotion in Vienna and the rest of Europe. Tourists amble past its immaculate Hapsburg-era public plazas, leafy canals and Baroque-domed Roman Catholic churches, framed by snow-covered Alpine peaks. "It's business as usual," says banker Pekarek. The Social Democrats, demoralized and in disarray, are struggling to find a new message. Trying to whip up resentments over the province's international stigma, Social Democrat activists in Klagenfurt are distributing fliers with the legend "Carinthia is not Haiderland." But increasingly, it seems to be just that.

Reinhard Engel in Klagenfurt

© 2000