Austria News

The governer of the Austrian province Carinthia Jörg Haider, wants his project of the “Free State Carinthia” not seen as carnivals joke.

“I am serious”, he confirmed yesterday in his Ash Wednesday speech in the totally overcrowded culture hall in the Carinthian district of Völkermarkt.

Jörg Haider has the idea of the “Free State Carinthia” for more than 30 years. Haider is not satisfied with the politics of the Austrian government in Vienna. “They do not respect us”, he says.

Haider recollected the history of Carinthia: “We always took care about ourselves”. After the first world war the Austrian province had to defend itself alone against the aggression of the new formed Yugoslavia without any help from Vienna between 1918 and 1920. After the second world war Carinthia was treated again very bad by the Austrian government in Vienna. “Carinthia was always the forgotten province of Austria”, stated Haider.