About 25,000 people, or more than quarter of the population, crowded into the picturesque main square of Klagenfurt this month for the funeral of Jörg Haider, the veteran leader of Austria’s far right.

The mourners, many in the traditional costume of their native Carinthia, were undaunted by revelations that Mr Haider had been driving at nearly three times the speed limit and drunk at the wheel of his black Volkswagen Phaeton limousine when it ploughed into a concrete post. Nor did persistent rumours of a secret extra-marital gay relationship – seemingly confirmed by his 27-year-old designated successor – dent local sympathy for a leader who shot to international prominence in 2000, when his Freedom party joined a national coalition government.