-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Thousands of people turned out Saturday in the southern Austrian city of Klagenfurt for the funeral of politician Joerg Haider , a popular but polarizing figure who led right-wing Austrian politics for decades . Harald Scheucher , mayor of Klagenfurt , speaks in front of the coffin of Joerg Haider Saturday . Among those attending the service at the town 's central Neuen Platz square were Austrian President Heinz Fischer and Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer . Haider 's widow sat in the front row with her two daughters , all of them dressed in black . `` Many people expected things of Joerg Haider that they themselves were n't able to fulfill , and he too expected things of people that he was n't able to fulfill , '' Gusenbauer said at the funeral . `` Therefore his death , and the end of his life , may be a time to think about whether death 's only consolation is that we can now reconcile things that seemed irreconcilable during his lifetime . '' Haider 's coffin was draped in the yellow , red and white flag of the southern state of Carinthia , where he was governor , and topped with red roses . Haider , 58 , died last Saturday in a car accident while driving out of Klagenfurt , the state capital . He had just passed another car on a highway when his car hit a concrete post and rolled over several times , police said . His spokesman said this week that Haider was drunk at the time of the crash . Besides being Carinthia 's governor , Haider was also head of the right-wing BZO party -LRB- Alliance for the Future of Austria -RRB- , which he founded in 2005 after years with the conservative Freedom Party . Haider came to prominence in 1986 , when he became head of the Freedom Party while still in his 30s . A politician who projected youth and style , Haider appealed to many working-class Austrians , promising to cut their taxes and give money to those with children . Some older Austrians responded to his demands for strict law and order . But he drew widespread criticism both at home and abroad for his anti-immigrant stance and remarks considered anti-Semitic , and in 1991 he publicly praised Nazi Germany 's employment policy . Asked in 2000 about the statement , Haider told CNN the quote was taken from a long speech and that he never praised the Third Reich . He called the remarks a mistake and publicly denounced Nazism . But Haider continued to draw attention for his controversial remarks . They included an address to veterans of the Waffen S.S. , Adolf Hitler 's elite soldiers , in which he praised their character . The address created an uproar after it was broadcast on German television . Haider said he had simply been speaking to elderly citizens of Carinthia who included some former Waffen S.S. members . Despite the controversy , Haider said he was not racist : `` You will not find any anti-Semitic position in our party program , and you will not find any anti-Semitic speech or statement by me . '' The policies of the Freedom Party drew international attention during the elections in 1999 . Party campaign posters urged voters to stop the flood of immigration and used the term `` over-foreignization , '' the same word used by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels in 1933 to criticize what he called Jewish influence in Germany . Haider told CNN he favored restricting immigration simply because of Austria 's small size , but that he wanted to keep an open border for refugees . It was his family background , Haider said , that kept singling him out for criticism . Haider 's parents were activists in the Nazi Party long before Austrian-born Hitler annexed Austria to Germany in 1938 . Haider 's father , Robert , volunteered for the S.A. , the notorious brown shirts who terrorized Jews and others before the war . He then served in the German army . His biographer , Melanie Sully , said Haider felt a strong sense of loyalty to his parents and those in the war generation . `` He feels that what they sacrificed after the war in rebuilding Austria in very difficult circumstances needs to be honored and that they were n't all criminals , '' Sully told CNN in 2000 . Under Haider 's leadership , the Freedom Party made a strong showing in the 1999 elections , winning 27 percent of the vote and shaking up the traditional two-party system that had ruled Austria since World War II . When the two main parties in that election failed to agree on forming a government together , the Freedom Party was invited to share power . Haider retired as party leader after that but remained governor of Carinthia . When Haider formed the BZO party three years ago , he took with him a number of Freedom Party lawmakers . Haider was credited with helping the BZO make significant gains in last month 's general elections alongside the Freedom Party , though Austria 's two largest parties , the Social Democrats and the People 's Party , came out on top . The vote reflected reflected public dissatisfaction with the two largest parties as well as support for the social populism , anti-European Union and anti-immigrant rhetoric of the BZO and Freedom Party . southern Austrian city of Klagenfurt