Posted on 09/20/2004 1:38:18 AM PDT by ijcr
Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's ruling Social Democrats were dealt a heavy blow yesterday by voters in two east German states where anger at high unemployment and economic reforms prompted a surge in support for the far Right and post-communists.
Fifteen years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, television exit polls in the states of Saxony and Brandenburg reflected dissatisfaction at the lack of progress in raising living standards in the east to those of western Germany.
In Brandenburg, a huge state which encircles Berlin, the Social Democrats remained the strongest party but lost seven per cent from the 1999 result. In Saxony, to the south, the party secured a record low of 9.5 per cent, only half a percentage point ahead of the far-Right National Democratic Party (NPD).
Riding on the wave of disgruntlement, the NPD scored its best result in years in Saxony, where it easily cleared the five per cent barrier required to enter the state parliament. The result, a dramatic improvement on the 1.4 per cent it gained in 1999, gives it a seat for the first time in 35 years. In Brandenburg, the far-Right German People's Union received six per cent of the vote.
The former communists, the Democratic Socialists, an anti-establishment grouping that is increasingly seen to represent "misunderstood" east Germans, took 28.5 per cent of the vote in in Brandenburg. The party made slight gains in Saxony, with around 23 per cent.
Last night hundreds of demonstrators protested against the far Right outside the state assembly building in the Saxon city of Dresden.
Jewish groups said they were concerned at the rise in support for the far Right, which the government unsuccessfully tried to ban. Paul Spiegel, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said he was reminded of the period leading up to Hitler's rise to power amid high unemployment and popular discontent. "Memories of the end of the Weimar Republic are awakened," he said.
Local businessmen gave warning that the rise of the Right - in part put down to the low turnout of 59 per cent, not unusual in eastern Germany - was likely to dissuade foreign investors from coming to the region, which is in desperate need of jobs. Unemployment in both states is around 20 per cent - about twice the figure in the west.
The results amounted to yet another trouncing for the Social Democrats following a seemingly endless stream of electoral failures since they were re-elected to government in 2002.
The main focus of voters' wrath has been the economic reforms Mr Schroder has introduced, designed to cut unemployment and breathe new life into a chronically ailing economy. East Germans fear they will be hit hardest by cuts to benefits and increases in means testing.
Tens of thousands have taken to the streets in cities throughout the east in the past two months for so-called Monday Demonstrations to vent their frustration.
The Conservative opposition Christian Democrats failed to gain from the dissatisfaction towards the government, largely because they have supported the reform programme and repeatedly called for it to be made even tougher.
The party kept control of Saxony with around 44 per cent, although it lost its absolute majority. It secured 19.5 per cent in Brandenburg.
The uphill struggle Mr Schroder faces with east Germany was illustrated in a poll published today in Spiegel magazine, in which nearly a third of east Germans said they considered themselves to be underprivileged.
But at the same time frustration in west Germany towards what has been dubbed the "whining east" is growing, thanks to the huge amount of money that has been pumped into the region since 1990.
Yesterday the government disclosed it was higher than previously thought, at more than £1,000 billion.
Mr Schroder has stood fast in the face of protests, insisting that he will not be turned from his path of reform. On Friday, he called for Germans to stop expecting so much from the state, accusing many of milking it for support which they did not need.
Meanwhile, the State run Madrasses of Socialism will keep on graduating future clients.
Just exactly WHAT is the "Far Right" these people are screaming about??
Conservatives or neo Nazis?
Here in he U.S. "far right" is used for any conservative group.
What, three whole posts and none to tell us that we must hide under our beds from the Nazis?
Where oh where are the neocons when you need them?
What's "far-right" in Germany?
The affection of the German nation for socialism (of the national variety) is very durable, unfortunately. It was suppressed to a degree when the Soviet Union occupied 1/3 of Germany, and annexed another 1/3 of it to Poland and the USSR.
If you ever knew any Germans of the requisite age, you've seen them get teary-eyed about "the most wonderful days of their lives" in the 1933-1941 Golden Age.
This national delusion is going to wind up costing us again, whatever happens to the "neocons".
The NPD calls iself 'The Nationalist Socialists'. They were associated with the violent thugs of the SSS (three S), before that organization was oulawed.
I'm not making this up.
Sounds like the Muslims to me.
Carolyn
According to the MSM in the US, the 'far-right' is anyone that doesn't believe everything Michael Moore says. Not so sure about Germany, but any force to counter-balance the socialists can't be all bad.
And btw, don't ever call the ANSWER/war protesters 'unpatriotic'. It insults them and treads on their freedom on speech.
You must remember that we are talking about socialist Europe here. The "far-right" is still VERY left of center. The concept of "right" as it exists in the US is a concept so utterly foreign to most Europeans, that they can not even BEGIN to comprehend it.
The Party Plattform of the NPD is extremely socialist. It does have a few "nationalist" points [these are the ones used to discredit them, i.e. "Qualfied german workers should receive hiring preference over foreigners" = VERY RADICAL!!].
BTW - there is apparently NO OUTRAGE about the communists receiving 28% of the vote!! Makes you wonder . . .
First, what is the 'right' in the US is called conservative in Europe.
And you conveniently forgot some points of the NPD programme:
Restoration of pre-war borders.
Repatriation of Immigrants.
Refusal to take blame the Wars.
BS. Most europeans have no idea of the concept of individual liberty (to be fair, most of the so-called "right" in the United States doesn't either).
And you conveniently forgot some points of the NPD programme:
I did not "neglect" to include them. I included only one to make a point. The fact that the NPD would like to restore the old borders is nothing new inside of the german political scene - just look to the internal support for the "Sudetendeutsche" and the others expatriated from Polend, the Ukraine etc... Furthermore, "repatriation of immigrants" has more to do with those who seek asylum in Germany than it does with true immigrants (or illegals). Lastly, the "refusal" to take balme is misleading. The NPD demands that ALL of the causes for the war be examined and that possible "war crimes" commited by others also be acknowledged.
Now, before ANYONE decides to brand me a nazi - the purpose of my writing the above is to show the hypocrisy of the situation and the automatic branding as "neo-nazi" of any group that moves "to the right" in Germany. There are plenty of reasons NOT to like the NPD and most of them are contained in the above paragraphs. However, it is absurd to get hysterical when a "far-right" group in Germany gets 9% of the vote in a state election when, at the same time, the "far-left" receives 28% and this is found to be "just fine".
What this is really about is whether it is better to be ruled by marxists-leninists or by "fascists" [inaccurate, but the best description that is easily understandable]. The Mainstream in Germany is BETWEEN these two poles (and tends more to the left than to the right)!!
I live in Germany and I know first hand that you have not the slightest clue.
The danger in Germany is not that they will suddenly come out of a telephone booth and reveal the giant "N" on their costumes, but that they will be unreliable partners in the war against terrorism precisely because they do not want to appear to be rightwingers. We ourselves have made Germany a creature which is too far left, not too far right. Adjust your thinking to the latest century.
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