ON SECOND THOUGHT: Haider said threats of violence made him forgo a leadership bid
The volatile Jörg Haider has always regarded his far-right Freedom Party as a kind of personal possession. It's natural, then, that he should have triggered its near demise. In a dizzying two weeks, the self-styled puppet master of Austrian politics split with his party's top government ministers, broke up the ruling coalition, announced his intention to seek a return to the leadership in early elections expected in November and then abruptly changed his mind. Appearing last week on Austrian TV, Haider claimed he had been approached and threatened outside a restaurant in Klagenfurt. Invoking the name of murdered Dutch politician...
