The successor to the Austrian right-wing populist Jorg Haider, Stefan Petzner, has shocked the staunchly conservative country after revealing in a tearful interview that they shared a “special relationship.”
Petzner, 27, who was confirmed on Wednesday as the leader of the Alliance for the Future of Austria after Haider’s death in a car crash two weeks ago, made the statement on Austrian radio, effectively confirming long-standing rumors that he and Haider were lovers.
Attempts by the party to stop repeats of the broadcast failed after the state broadcaster ORF insisted it would not be gagged.
Petzner, who met Haider five years ago when he was working as a beauty correspondent, said he felt a “magnetic attraction” to the firebrand politician, who was 31 years his senior. He said Haider’s main worry was that their relationship would not withstand the age gap.
“We had a relationship that went far beyond friendship. Jorg and I were connected by something really special. He was the man of my life,” Petzner said.
The news stunned Austria, which has been coming to terms with the death of the anti-immigrant politician. Haider, who voted against a parliamentary motion to lower the age of consent for homosexuals, had presented himself as a family man who drank sparingly.
But after the car crash it was revealed that he had been driving at twice the speed limit, his blood alcohol level had been four times the legal limit and he had spent his final hours in a gay bar in Klagenfurt, the capital of the southern state where he was governor.
There has been further speculation that the crash happened after Haider and Petzner argued at a party.
Petzner said that Claudia, Haider’s wife of 32 years and the mother of his two daughters, had not objected to their relationship.
But in an interview published in an Austrian women’s magazine, Petzner’s sister Christiane seemed to suggest otherwise.
“Claudia was sometimes jealous of him because he spent more time with her husband than she did,” she said.
One of two tropical depressions that formed off Taiwan yesterday morning could turn into a moderate typhoon by the weekend, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Tropical Depression No. 21 formed at 8am about 1,850km off the southeast coast, CWA forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. The weather system is expected to move northwest as it builds momentum, possibly intensifying this weekend into a typhoon, which would be called Mitag, Lee said. The radius of the storm is expected to reach almost 200km, she said. It is forecast to approach the southeast of Taiwan on Monday next week and pass through the Bashi Channel
WARNING: People in coastal areas need to beware of heavy swells and strong winds, and those in mountainous areas should brace for heavy rain, the CWA said The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday issued sea and land warnings for Typhoon Ragasa, forecasting that it would continue to intensify and affect the nation the most today and tomorrow. People in Hualien and Taitung counties, and mountainous areas in Yilan and Pingtung counties, should brace for damage caused by extremely heavy rain brought by the typhoon’s outer rim, as it was upgraded to a super typhoon yesterday morning, the CWA said. As of 5:30pm yesterday, the storm’s center was about 630km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving northwest at 21kph, and its maximum wind speed had reached
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said that it expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Ragasa this morning and a land warning at night as it approached Taiwan. Ragasa intensified from a tropical storm into a typhoon at 8am yesterday, the CWA said, adding that at 2pm, it was about 1,110km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip. The typhoon was moving northwest at 13kph, with sustained winds of up to 119kph and gusts reaching 155kph, the CWA Web site showed. Forecaster Liu Pei-teng (劉沛滕) said that Ragasa was projected to strengthen as it neared the Bashi Channel, with its 200km
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Hualien and Taitung counties declared today a typhoon day, while schools and offices in parts of Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties are also to close Typhoon Ragasa was forecast to hit its peak strength and come closest to Taiwan from yesterday afternoon through today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Taiwan proper could be out of the typhoon’s radius by midday and the sea warning might be lifted tonight, it added. CWA senior weather specialist Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said that Ragasa’s radius had reached the Hengchun Peninsula by 11am yesterday and was expected to hit Taitung County and Kaohsiung by yesterday evening. Ragasa was forecast to move to Taiwan’s southern offshore areas last night and to its southwestern offshore areas early today, she added. As of 8pm last night,
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