Vienna - Erecting a 4-metre-high sculpture in memory of Joerg Haider is only one of the ways in which his fans are honouring the late Austrian far-right leader on the first anniversary of his death. Outside Haider's home province Carinthia, his Alliance for the Future of Austria has shrunk in significance, but Heinz-Christian Strache's rival Freedom Party is riding on a wave of success by copying his late political competitor.
On Sunday, the larger-than-life memorial events in Carinthia include a mass, and the province's leaders are set to unveil a kind of shrine at the spot near Klagenfurt where the controversial but popular politician crashed his car on October 11 last year and died at the age of 58.
People come to visit the site every day. "Many ask where Joerg Haider is buried and where the accident happened," said Elke Schuster, an official at the Klagenfurt tourism board.
The larger sculpture depicting joined hands is to be located later this month near the entrance to a new exhibition tracing the life of the former governor of Carinthia and party leader.
Those who used to vote for him have a feeling that he is still alive, said Klaus Ottomeyer, a social psychologist at Klagenfurt University.
"In such cases of a derailed type of mourning, Sigmund Freud talked about a 'hallucinatory wishful psychosis'," he said, referring to the father of psychoanalysis.
While the Alliance managed to win 45 per cent of the votes in elections for the Carinthia regional parliament in March, the party fared poorly in three other provinces.
Although the Alliance has become essentially a local movement, Vienna political scientist Peter Gerlich said, "if you take the entire far-right camp, you see how strong it is, because it is not relying on Haider."
Gerlich referred to the Freedom Party's recent successes at regional polls by running on an anti-immigration platform laced with anti-Semitic remarks.
Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache could be compared to his late rival, Gerlich said. "It's a similar role as the one played by Haider."
Like Haider, the younger Strache reaches out to young voters and is known for provocative statements and slogans targeting immigrants.
Both right-wing movements, which formed after a split in 2005, currently hold 54 of the Austrian Parliament's 183 seats as opposition parties to the ruling coalition of Social Democrats and the centre-right People's Party.
While these two parties are keen on capitalizing on Haider's legacy, others are seeking to turn the lingering fascination with the far-right populist into cash.
Online stores are selling CDs with songs sung by Haider, as well as teddy bears and socks bearing his name.
German journalist Gerhard Wisnewski made money with his best-selling book that argues that Haider's car crash could have been an assassination - a message by sinister forces that "we can get rid of anyone we disapprove of, and no one will care."
Haider fans in Carinthia and elsewhere have shown that they do care. Despite the fact that investigators found Haider was driving drunk at 142 kilometres per hour, some 1,200 people have signed an online petition calling for a new probe into the accident, as "too many questions are still open."
