A "grandiose victory" of Neo-Nazi National Democratic Party

Germany's &to= english.pravda.ru/main/2002/01/29/26069.html ' target=_blank> Neo-Nazi National Democratic Party made sweeping gains in important elections in the eastern state of Saxony yesterday after a shock protest vote that reflected the widespread unpopularity of &to= english.pravda.ru/main/18/88/354/13804_Schroeder.html ' target=_blank> Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's economic reform programme. In the conservative-controlled state, the National Democrats (NPD) won seats in a regional state parliament for the first time in 36 years after the first exit-poll results showed that the party had won 9 per cent of the vote. The extreme-right Deutsche Volks Union also retained seats in &to= english.pravda.ru/hotspots/2001/10/17/ ' target=_blank> Brandenburg state elections . However Mr Schröder's Social Democrats remained the strongest party in the state despite substantial gains by the reformed-communist Party for Democratic Socialism (PDS.) In Saxony, Mr Schröder's party suffered humiliating losses and emerged only half a point ahead of the NPD with 9.5 per cent of the vote. The state's conservative party lost its absolute majority and was expected to form a coalition with the liberal Free Democrats. The NPD, which last entered a German state parliament in 1968, campaigned on a "German money for German interests" platform which included vigorous opposition to European Union enlargement, foreign immigration, and government plans to cut benefits for the long-term unemployed, informs the NEWS. According to Reuters, 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 Elections in Brandenburg and Saxony showed a shift to the political fringes at the expense of big parties in response to 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, emerged as the strongest gainer in an election in Saxony with television projections showing them up around eight points at 9.3 percent, reports CNN.

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