Jorg Haider bounded up the steps, gripped my hand and flashed me a lupine smile before plunging into a throng of young, fashionably dressed admirers. A giant screen showed images of Austria's most controversial politician in carefully chosen poses - surrounded by children, taking strenuous exercise or looking stern and statesmanlike.
Mr Haider's far-right Freedom Party looks set to capture almost a third of the votes in Austria's election tomorrow, making it the second largest political force in the country. If the conservative People's Party ditches its alliance with Austria's biggest party, the Social Democrats, Mr Haider could become chancellor.
When I found him a few minutes later, he had taken off his tie and was sipping a beer, surrounded by fans seeking his autograph. This was not the usual assortment of thugs and misfits one meets at most gatherings of the far right, but a group of well-heeled young professionals.
These people all looked like Austrian society's winners and they clearly believe they have backed a winner in Mr Haider.
"I think we'll improve our vote. We fought a good campaign and we'll be in second place," he told me.
But would he become Austria's next chancellor?
"I'm very happy doing what I'm doing as governor of Carinthia. That has always been my goal. But if I must become chancellor because there's no other option, then I'll take up the challenge," he said.
During a television debate earlier that evening, Chancellor Viktor Klima sought to patronise Mr Haider, dismissing him as a man of no substance who was out of his depth. "Don't be so nervous" he would say, patting him gently on the elbow.
But Mr Haider has no reason to be nervous. In fact, if anyone has cause to fear tomorrow's result it is the chancellor - despite the near certainty that his Social Democrats will capture more votes than anyone else.
Mr Klima has ruled out sharing power with Mr Haider but his current coalition partners in the People's Party have threatened to leave the government if they fall behind the far right party. This could leave the Social Democrats unable to form a government, opening the way for a coalition between the People's Party and Mr Haider's Freedom Party.
The People's Party has declined to state clearly where it stands on such an alliance, although its leader, the Foreign Minister, Mr Wolfgang Schussel, is unlikely to agree to it. Mr Haider does not regard this as a problem.
"If we get 28 per cent of the vote and the People's Party get 24 per cent, then Schussel is gone. After that, anything is possible," he said.
Austrians have little reason to change a government that has presided over one of the most successful economies in Europe. Unemployment is below 5 per cent, inflation is almost zero and the Alpine republic is now the world's seventh richest industrial state.
The trouble is that, after almost 13 years in power, the coalition parties are heartily sick of one another. During the election campaign, Mr Klima and Mr Schussel spent more time criticising one another than arguing with the opposition and their relationship now looks almost beyond repair.
The chancellor's rhetoric of social justice appears increasingly incompatible with his foreign minister's flinty neo-liberalism and the two men bicker over everything from pension plans to public spending cuts.
But it is Austria's military neutrality that has provided the most dramatic battleground within the coalition, with the chancellor presenting himself as a defender of the status quo while Mr Schussel calls for closer links with NATO.
Mr Klima claims that a declaration agreed at the EU summit in Cologne last June places neutral countries such as Austria and Ireland on an equal footing with other member-states where defence questions are concerned. Although Austria is a member of the Partnership for Peace, the chancellor has ruled out sending troops on combat missions abroad and rejects the stationing of foreign troops on Austrian soil.
Mr Schussel wants Austria to join "a more European NATO" and supports more co-operation between the EU and the western alliance but rules out the stationing of foreign troops or nuclear weapons in Austria.
Mr Haider has capitalised on the government's internal discord and on the public's weariness with the two parties that have ruled Austria for half a century by proposing a raft of populist measures. Chief among them is the promise to pay parents 5,700 schillings u335) a (£335) a month for each child up to the age of six.
The governing parties dismiss the proposal as unrealistic and they also scoff at Mr Haider's proposal for a 23 per cent flat rate of income tax.
On other issues, however, such as immigration, the government has moved towards the Freedom Party's demand for a ban on accepting any more non-EU foreigners. There is little support for some of Mr Haider's more extreme proposals, such as the immediate deportation of foreigners who break the law and the segregation of foreign schoolchildren from Austrians.
Mr Haider has done little to modify his xenophobic rhetoric, despite the fact that net immigration to Austria is now almost nil. But there is no sign of the public outrage his anti-foreigner pronouncements provoked earlier in his career and few outside the churches and anti-racist organisations appear shocked at the prospect of the Freedom Party gaining a foothold on power.
Ever since Mr Haider regained the position of governor of Carinthia in March - a post he was forced to give up in 1991 when he praised Hitler's employment policies - his party has been on a roll.
"People tend towards such parties when things are going especially badly or especially well. Then they think they can take a risk," according to Mr Helmut Manzenreiter, leader of the Social Democrats in Carinthia.
But few Austrians appear to realise just how big a risk they are taking in giving Mr Haider a taste of power. His political philosophy, such as it is, is not only xenophobic but anti-democratic. He has vowed to take tough action against media organisations that "tell lies" and he wants to abolish all subsidies for the arts.
The former chancellor, Mr Franz Vranitsky, believes that if Austria elects Mr Haider tomorrow, the country will plunge itself into a period of political isolation.
"It would be interpreted as a clear shift to the right and Austria's reliability would be put into question on account of some of Haider's remarks, but we must tell this to the Austrian people," he said.