Eastern German Polls Bring Right-Wing Into Picture Again

Reacting to a recent neo-Nazi attack on the activists of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in Berlin, Vice-President of the German parliament Wolfgang Thierse on Tuesday accused the Berlin police of being too lenient.

"Both right-wing thugs, who brutally beat up a member of Young Social Democrats (Jusos) on Sunday evening, were at first dismissed by the police," Thierse told daily Leipziger Volkszeitung.

"Only under pressure from above did the police feel obliged to arrest them. That is an alarming event, which shows that the police are still not acting unambiguously and decisively enough."

According to Thierse, who is himself a member of SPD, German neo-Nazis have been emboldened by the 2003 decision of the Federal Constitutional Court not to ban the right-wing National Democratic Party (NPD).

"I have a feeling that the effects of the failure to ban NPD are actually becoming visible only today," Thierse said. "The right extremists' increasingly aggressive self-confidence has something to do with the fact that they feel directly protected by the constitutional court. We should not let this state of affairs persist for ever."

SPD's coallition partners from the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), however, see the situation differently. President of the CDU parliamentary group in the Bundestag Wolfgang Bosbach, for example, opposed the idea of banning NPD.

"A second attempt to ban NPD would have no chance," Bosbach said. "And the state should spare itself a second embarrassment."

"I have no doubt that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the police are acting with necessary determination against right-wing activities," Bosbach said.

Election fever

As elections on September 17 in the states of Berlin and Mecklenburg-West Pomerania near and as campaigning activities are intensifying, right-wing youths associated with the National Democratic Party (NPD) have been using increasingly aggressive tactics.

On Sunday, two 23-year-olds pasting election posters for the Social Democrats in the eastern Berlin district of Marzahn were victims to an attack by two young neo-Nazis. One of the campaign helpers ended up in hospital after being repeatedly kicked in the head once he was knocked to the ground. The other election helper managed to escape.

That violent incident is just one example of what many politicians have criticized in this recent election campaign, namely physical intimidation and violence by right-wing, mainly young, extremists.

Democratic parties face intimidation

The National Democratic Party (NPD) in both Berlin and Mecklenburg-West Pomerania is attempting to garner enough votes to clear the five percent hurdle needed to be represented in those state legislatures. In Berlin, the far-right party and its adherents are depending more on brute force to get their message across.

Information booths of parties from across the political spectrum have literally been laid siege to and surrounded by right-wing extremists in Berlin according to Social Democratic Party (SPD) general secretary Hubertus Heil. Those passers-by who nevertheless braved the menacing scene around the booths to get party brochures, have been filmed, photographed, intimidated and threatened, Heil said.

The conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) in Berlin also complained that "constant attacks from extremist and more frequently right-wing extremist groups on the information booths of democratic parties" have become an unacceptable distraction.

On Saturday, Berlin police arrested a 20-year old man who had participated in an attack in August on an information booth of the Left Party/Party of Social Democracy (PDS). They charged him with violating weapons' laws and attempted aggravated assault.

Meck-Pom NPD trying different tactics

While few expect the NPD to garner enough votes in Berlin to get into parliament, the situation in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania is another matter. Known by many Germans as Meck-Pom, the state's NPD party is confident of gaining seats in the state legislature. The NPD is already represented in the state parliaments of the states of Saxony and Brandenburg. Current opinion polls place the NPD at seven percent, two points clear of the mandatory five percent to make the parliament.

On the town squares of cities in the northeastern state, one of the country's poorest and with the highest rate of unemployment at 18.9 percent, NPD members have shed their standard black bomber jackets and high-laced boots for suits and ties. Instead of fisticuffs, they are exchanging verbal blows.

The country's national politicians have reacted to the possibility of the right-wingers entering a third eastern state parliament. Chancellor Angela Merkel and SPD chair Kurt Beck have traveled to Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania to implore voters to go to the polls and stop the NPD.

Yet the chances look slim currently. The NPD has pumped over 400,000 euros ($508,000) into the election campaign in the northeast, forcing even Left Party leader Gregor Gysi to remark sarcastically: "You're happy if you see a poster of the CDU among all those of the NPD."