FACTBOX-Five facts on Austrian firebrand Haider

(Reuters) - Rightist groups surged to a combined 30 percent of the vote in Austria's parliamentary election on Sunday while two main centrist parties slumped to their worst result since World War Two, according to projections.

Here are five facts about Joerg Haider, leader of the smaller rightist group Alliance for Austria's Future, which tripled its support to around 12 percent:

-- Born in 1950 in Upper Austria. His father was a former member of Adolf Hitler's brown-shirted storm troopers. His mother was a teacher who had been a Hitler Youth leader.

-- Haider studied law to doctorate level in Vienna. Active in politics since his teenage years, Haider became a full-time politician in 1977 for the right-wing Freedom Party.

-- He caused an international backlash when Freedom formed a coalition government with the conservative People's Party in 2000, leading to widespread condemnation and EU sanctions. The deal fell apart, leading to an early election in 2002 in which Freedom lost heavily, followed by a remake of the coalition.

After internecine struggles within Freedom, Haider formed the breakaway Alliance for the Future of Austria in 2005. His new party only just scraped past the 4 percent threshold to enter parliament in the national elections in 2006.

-- Haider is famous for campaigning on an anti-immigration ticket and for his verbal gaffes. He once reproached Austria's government by citing the "proper labour policies" of the Third Reich. On another occasion he referred to concentration camps in a parliamentary debate as "penal camps." He was also widely condemned for meeting Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in 2002, which he said was a "purely humanitarian" matter.

-- Haider is a passionate skier and marathon runner and is married with two children. Thanks to a large inheritance, he is believed to be one of the wealthiest politicians in Austria.