As your obituary of Jörg Haider shows perfectly well (October 18, 2008), he was a populist hard to pin down. Cooped up in Carinthia, top jobs in the Austrian government remaining out of his reach, he expanded southwards. The region of Alpe Adria—eventually including bits of Austria, bits of Italy, the whole of Slovenia, and bits of Croatia—was thus a perfect playground for him. This is where his longing for some sort of autonomy found quite a few sympathizers among forlorn local politicians. Add to this heady mix the Carinthian Hypo Alpe Adria Bank, which Haider controlled with various degrees of success as the regional governor, and you get a perfect picture of his little empire. Not surprisingly, the bank specialized in real-estate transactions, especially shady ones. I am sure all the autonomy-seekers from the Alpe Adria region will miss their generous if uncrowned emperor in the years to come.