Far-Right Surge in East Alarms Mainstream Germany

By Philip Blenkinsop

DRESDEN, Germany - Germany faced a surge of far-right parties in eastern state elections, worrying about their rise and the ensuing damage to the country’s image.

The electorate in the two eastern states moved to the fringes at the expense of big parties due to planned cuts in jobless benefits that have brought tens of thousands onto the streets, especially in the depressed ex-Communist east.

The National Democratic Party (NPD), which the government has likened to the Nazis and has tried to ban, was the strongest gainer in an election in Saxony with around nine percent of the vote, the far-right’s best result in six years.

In neighboring Brandenburg, which surrounds the capital Berlin, another far-right party, the German People’s Union (DVU), built on its showing five years ago when it first entered the state assembly, with about six percent.

Both parties scored well with younger and unemployed voters.

Paul Spiegel, head of Germany’s Central Council of Jews, warned voters on the eve of the election, referring to the era that preceded Hitler’s rise to power: "Memories of the end of the Weimar Republic are awakened."

"A party that makes anti-Semitic and xenophobic propaganda doesn’t belong in any parliament," he said on Sunday.

Holger Apfel, the NPD’s leading candidate in Saxony, talked of a "grandiose victory for the German people" as he and party leader Udo Voigt talked up their chances of providing effective opposition at the general election in 2006.

While no one expects the far-right to pose a serious challenge to the state, the election could tarnish Germany’s reputation abroad after decades spent atoning for the Holocaust.

Local chambers of commerce said they fear the NPD’s rise could deter future foreign investors in Saxony, which views itself as the Silicon Valley of Germany and is the site of major car plants.

Outside the parliament building, around 200 people whistled and chanted "Nazis out," among them Dieter Gaitzsch who had brought his whole family.

"We want to show that normal people are against them. They pose a danger to the image of Saxony and Germany," he said.

The results certainly provide a further jolt to the Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s Social Democrats, who have borne the brunt of voter anger in recent elections, but also to the conservative opposition who have backed the reforms and been similarly punished in the polls.

The Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), the successor party to the communists that ruled East Germany, also made gains at the expense of the Social Democrats and the Christian Democrats.(Reuters)

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=6273952