Mourning for 64-year-old

Tire hit car: Styrian woman died on trip to Italy

Free at last! Friends and family rejoiced with Max Zirngast

(Bild: EPA)

She feared for her son's life and fought for his release: now the mother of Max Zirngast, a politician from Graz who was imprisoned in Turkey, has died in a traffic accident.

Deep mourning in the Zirngast house. As the KPÖ confirmed to the "Krone" newspaper, the mother of Graz local councillor Max Zirngast died in a particularly tragic traffic accident in Italy on Wednesday. The 64-year-old was driving her white Citroën on the A 4 highway towards Venice in the evening when the wheel of a refrigerated truck traveling in the opposite direction came off in Meolo.

The tire came off and crashed into the car
The rear tire was catapulted over the crash barrier and directly against the windscreen of the small Styrian car. Barbara Zirngast, who according to a report in the newspaper "Venezia Today" was going to visit friends in Verona, was killed instantly. The driver of the truck was unaware of the accident.

Not only in Styria is the shock over the tragic death of the woman great, the news is also causing consternation in Italy. Barbara Zirngast was closely associated with the Italian associations "Terra Antica" and "La Salsola".

Horrifying images from Italy: the Citroën was completely destroyed

(Bild: Vigili Del Fuoco)

This is the second tragedy to befall the Styrian family. In 2018, Max Zirngast was taken to one of Turkey's notorious prisons on flimsy grounds: Police officers stormed the then 29-year-old's apartment in Ankara and arrested him.

The young man had been studying political science at the local technical university since 2015 and had worked for several media outlets. For example, he wrote critical articles about Turkey and its relationship with the banned Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK). He published a report in the left-wing US magazine "Jacobin", which the authorities deemed to be an insult to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

This "lèse majesté" was the downfall of the Styrian journalist - and two Turkish colleagues - who were accused of "membership of a terrorist organization".

This tire came off the truck and hit the car

(Bild: Vigili del Fuoco)

Mother always encouraged her son
Zirngast's arrest caused a wave of outrage in Austria, with the federal government describing the procedure as "unacceptable" and trying to get him released behind the scenes. At the same time, human rights organizations, friends and family of the 29-year-old put pressure on him and launched solidarity campaigns. Always at the forefront: Zirngast's mother Barbara, a chemotechnician from St. Nikolai im Sausal. She encouraged her son and gave him the strength to survive the horrors of months of imprisonment in Turkey.

So it was a great joy for her to be able to embrace her child again after his acquittal. And to congratulate him wholeheartedly when he finally entered the local council for the KPÖ in 2021.