Thousands of Austrians turned out to mourn far right politician Jörg Haider today, a week after his death in a high-speed car crash.

An estimated 25,000 attended a memorial service in Klagenfurt, capital of the southern province of Carinthia, the Alpine province where he was governor for most of the past 19 years.

The funeral included a procession, memorial ceremony and service before cremation and private burial of ashes.

Outspoken and charismatic Haider revelled in his image as a man of the people. Critics dubbed the politician, a lawyer by training, a “yuppie fascist.” The son of WW2 Nazi party members, Haider’s notoriety peaked in the 1990s when he scolded Austria’s government by citing the “proper labour policies” of Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich. He had also referred to Nazi concentration camps as “penal camps of National Socialism” in a parliamentary debate.

“He was a man who could leave no one cold, whether in a positive or a negative sense,” Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer said at Haider’s open-air memorial service.

Mourners, many dressed in traditional green and brown, added wreaths to the dozens placed outside government headquarters since after his fatal car accident in the early hours of Oct. 11.

He crashed his luxury official car while overtaking another vehicle, driving at more than 85 mph, twice the speed limit. His blood-alcohol count was found to be nearly four times the legal limit.

Around 12,000 people queued silently for hours on Friday to pay tribute at his closed coffin, placing official photographs of the tanned and casually clothed Haider among red candles.

“He wasn’t just a politician, he was a friend to everyone,”, said 27-year-old Yvonne Graessl.

Haider’s spokesman and political successor, Stefan Petzner, said he had seen the 58-year-old outside a night club shortly before his accident.

Haider returned the Austria’s national political scene this year at the head of right wing splinter group Alliance for Austria’s Future. The far right, comprising rivals Alliance and Haider’s former party Freedom, won a combined one third of votes in a parliamentary election last month.

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