Germania, partiti, destra, nazionalità
Contributo parallelo
[segue in inglese, analisi elettorale dei risultati
in Mecklburgo-Pomerania e Berlino del NPD, su Wsws, 23.9.2006]
Tesi GFP
L’atteso successo nelle elezioni regionali del Mecklemburgo-Pomerania
del Partito nazional democratico tedesco, estrema destra (7% secondo i sondaggi),
è spiegato dalla sua funzione di istigazione del cosiddetto Centro politico, dalle posizioni condivise, e trasversali ai partiti, di un gran numero di elettori, e dal suo contributo di
appoggio alla politica estera tedesca.
Nelle si prevede che il partito della destra
nazional-democratica (NPD) entri nel parlamento regionale, con il 7% secondo i
sondaggi.
L’NPD è già rappresentato con il 7% nel parlamento della
Sassonia; nel Brandeburgo il DVU (Deutsche Volkunion – Unione popolare tedesca,
estrema destra) ha il 6,1%.
Linee politiche base del programma NPD:
per la politica estera le posizioni sono congruenti con i
principali elementi della politica estera di Berlino, anche se in forma
radicalizzata:
si chiede una “Politica di
sicurezza europea, con la preferenza di alleanze che comprendono una futura
“Eurasia”, Russia inclusa;
importante cooperare con le
attuali aeree obiettivo dell’espansione tedesca (Iran, paesi arabi);
gli USA sono considerati una determinante potenza concorrente globale
che intralcia le aspirazioni tedesche e devono essere combattuti.
Non isolite simili tendenze anche
nei circoli imprenditoriali conservatori con interessi tedeschi nel commercio
ad oriente, posizioni commisurate però al loro utile economico.
Anche frazioni ufficiali della
politica estera tedesca hanno espresso valutazioni negative sull’Alleanza
transatlantica, senza che però metterla in discussione per motivi pragmatici.
L’NDP riprende e carica di
reminiscenze storiche le posizioni tattiche: «c’è ancora un conto
storico-internazionale aperto» con Washington, che in fin dei conti ha deciso
due guerre mondiali contro la Germania…
Tali dichiarazioni integrano gli
interessi oggettivi della frazione politica filo-orientale berlinese.
Europa
L’NPD è favorevole ad un legame nazional statale «nel quadro
della famiglia dei popoli europei»; nella «riorganizzazione europea» il «diritto
all’autodeterminazione dei popoli» e «l’origine dei popoli» deve decidere
sull’equilibrio territoriale e di potere tra gli Stati.
Conseguenze di questi principi:
i paesi confinanti devono prevedere la dissoluzione della loro unità
statale, 1. perchè la Germania dispone di “confini storicamente allargati” ed è
inevitabile la restituzione dei “territori staccati” nel 1945. Nel programma
NPD: «Chiediamo la revizione dei trattati sui confini decisi dopo la guerra»),
una minaccia volta in particolare contro la Polonia.
I principi NPD hanno conseguenze
che riguardano anche Francia, Spagna, Italia, Belgio, GB e Danimarca: sulla
base della cosiddetta origine dei popoli alle varie etnie (“Popoli”) viene
lasciato il diritto all’autodeterminazione, il che significa che quasi tutti i
paesi europei tocca una parcellizzazione etnica, ad eccezione della Germania.
La cartina è stata presentata nel parlamento europeo da un’organizzazione
facente parte del gruppo parlamentare dei Verdi. Il “diritto
all’autodeterminazione dei popoli” rivendicato dall’NPD rientra nei programmi
ufficiali di tutti i maggiori partiti del Bundestag.
Russia
Per l’NPD l’“Asse Berlino-Parigi- Mosca“ è fondamentale per
un riassetto internazionale; l’alleanza con la potenza atomica Russia è necessaria
perchè la Germania da sola non potrebbe imporre tutti i cambiamenti necessari
«solo per motivi di potere».
Secondo il giornale vicino al partito “Deutsche Stimme”, ci sarebbe a Mosca la disponibilità in tal
senso; si dovrebbe ricostituire una Unione Europea e una Russia Bianca
(Eurasia), progetto per cui l’NPD si collega a movimenti reali della politica
estera tedesca, che riverste di contenuti razzistici (etnici).
Paesi arabi
L’NPD, come tutti i maggiori partiti parlamentari tedeschi,
chiede l’avvicinamento ai paesi arabi, dove esisterebbe una forte simpatia per
la Germania, a cui non può essere rimproverato un passato coloniale nell’area
(Rapporto di Deutsche Stimme) […].
L’ingenua auto-esaltazione dei tedeschi nei paesi arabi è la
traduzione in linguaggio elettorale del calcolo politico di Berlino, che dai tempi
del Kaiser cerca di apporfittare delle malefatte coloniali dei suoi concorrenti.
Iran
L’Iran sarebbe la punta di diamante nella lotta per un
ordine mondiale giusto: Ahmadinejad come portavoce del mondo libero, che «sulla
propria bandiera ha scritto la giustizia, l’onestà e la difesa dei legittimi
interessi vitali del popolo». In un’intervista del presidente iraniano, il
partito ricorda che egli ha definito «espressamente i tedeschi come propri “interlocutori”.
[…] Sul nazismo: «Perché i delitti di un gruppo sono così sottolineati anziché evidenziare
la grande eredità culturale tedesca?», etc.
Le denunce di Ahmadinejad contro la demonizzazione
dei tedeschi per il nazismo riprese dall’NPD esprimono posizioni di ampia parte
della popolazione tedesca, ma anche di importanti frazioni dei partiti concorrenti.
German
Foreign Policy 06-09-17
Flankierender
Beitrag
17.09.2006
SCHWERIN/WARSZAWA/KOPENHAGEN/MOSKAU
(Eigener Bericht) – Bei den heutigen Wahlen im deutschen Bundesland Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
wird mit dem Einzug der "Nationaldemokratischen Partei Deutschlands"
(NPD) in das Landesparlament gerechnet.
–
Umfragen nennen einen Stimmenanteil von
bis zu 7 Prozent.
–
Die NPD ist bereits im Landtag des Bundeslandes Sachsen
vertreten, wo sie rund 9 Prozent der dortigen Wähler
vertritt.
–
Im
Landtag von Brandenburg
ist die "Deutsche Volksunion"
(DVU) präsent (6,1 Prozent), eine ebenfalls dem äußerst rechten Lager der
deutschen Politik zugeordnete Partei. Anläßlich der erwarteten neuen Erfolge
dieses Spektrums dokumentiert
german-foreign-policy.com die außenpolitischen Grundlinien der NPD.
–
In
weiten Teilen deckt sich das
entsprechende Parteiprogramm mit bestimmenden Elementen der Berliner Außenpolitik,
aber überformt und radikalisiert sie. Die NPD
fordert eine "europäische Sicherheitspolitik" und favorisiert
Bündnisse, die ein zukünftiges "Eurasien" (einschließlich Rußland)
umfassen.
–
Aktuelle Zielgebiete der deutschen
Außenexpansion (Iran, arabische Staaten) gelten als besonders
kooperationswürdig. Die
Programmatik richtet sich insbesondere
gegen die USA, die als maßgeblicher globaler Machtkonkurrent den deutschen
Aspirationen im Wege stehen und daher bekämpft werden sollen.
–
USA
– Ähnliche Tendenzen sind in
konservativen Unternehmerkreisen mit deutschen Osthandelsinteressen nicht
unüblich, aber werden dort an ihrem wirtschaftlichen Ertrag gemessen.
Auch behördliche Teile der deutschen Außenpolitik
kommen zu negativen Einschätzungen des transatlantischen Bündnisses, stellen es jedoch aus pragmatischen
Gründen nicht grundsätzlich in Frage.[1]
Diese taktischen
Einstellungen werden von der NPD
überhöht und mit historischen Reminiszenzen aufgeladen. Mit Washington habe man "noch eine welthistorische Rechnung (…)
offen", erklärt ein führender Stratege der Partei: Schließlich hätten die USA, "diese
durchraßte, profitgierige und von altisraelischem Auserwähltheitswahn
getriebene Kunstnation gegen Deutschland
zwei Weltkriege entschieden und damit den ganzen Kulturkontinent Europa auf
das Abstellgleis der Geschichte geschoben". Ähnliche Äußerungen offerieren ein rassistisches Feindbild mit sozialen
Komponenten, das objektive Interessen der östlich orientierten
Polit-Fraktionen in der deutschen Hauptstadt ergänzt und ihnen Fundierung durch
größere Wählergruppen verspricht.
Europa
– "Im Rahmen der europäischen Völkerfamilie" tritt die NPD
für eine betont nationalstaatliche
Bindung Deutschlands ein. Bei der
"europäischen Neuordnung"[2] habe das "Selbstbestimmungsrecht
der Völker" und die "Volksabstammung" über die territoriale und
machtpolitische Gewichtung zwischen den Staaten zu entscheiden.
– Dieser
Grundsatz hat Folgen: Mehrere deutsche Nachbarn müssen mit der
Auflösung ihrer staatlichen Einheit rechnen.
– Zum einen, weil Deutschland über
"geschichtlich gewachsene Grenzen" verfüge und die Rückgabe der 1945
"abgetrennten Gebiete" unvermeidlich sei: "Wir fordern die Revision der
nach dem Krieg abgeschlossenen Grenzanerkennungsverträge", heißt es
im NPD-Parteiprogramm. Die Revisionsdrohung richtet sich vor allem gegen Polen.
– Auch für Frankreich, Spanien Italien,
Belgien, Großbritannien und Dänemark sind die NPD-Grundsätze folgenreich: Bei
der "europäischen Neuordnung" auf
der Grundlage sogenannter Volksabstammung wird es den Ethnien
("Völkern") überlassen, ihr angebliches "Selbstbestimmungsrecht"
auszuüben. Was das bedeutet, zeigt ein Blick auf
die Karte spanischer Ethno-Separatisten, die ein baskisches Großreich errichten
wollen[3] – wie die NPD nach ethnischen (völkischen) Kriterien. Fast sämtliche Staaten Europas fallen einer
ethnischen Parzellierung anheim – mit Ausnahme Deutschlands. Das Kartenwerk
wurde von einer Mitgliedsorganisation der Parlamentarischen Gruppe der
"Grünen" im Europa-Parlament verbreitet. Das von der NPD
eingeforderte "Selbstbestimmungsrecht der Völker" ist Bestandteil der
offiziellen Programme sämtlicher großer Bundestagsparteien.
Russland
Ins Zentrum einer
"neuen Weltordnung", die mit der gegenwärtigen US-Dominanz aufräumen
soll, stellt die NPD die "Achse Berlin-Paris-Moskau"
("vielversprechend"). Ein
"Bündnis mit der Atommacht Rußland" sei "unbedingt erforderlich",
da Deutschland allein notwendige Veränderungen "schon aus machtpolitischen
Gründen nicht durchsetzen könne".
– Bereitschaft dazu sei in
Moskau vorhanden, berichtet die parteinahe Zeitung "Deutsche Stimme"
über den Russland-Besuch eines Aktivisten:
"Nach anfänglicher Skepsis auf russischer Seite habe man viele
Übereinstimmungen bei der Lagebeurteilung Europas und den sich daraus für beide
Länder ergebenden Perspektiven festgestellt." Es gehe darum, "in
einem riesigen, ethnisch homogenen und wirtschaftlich autozentrierten, d.h.
sich selbst in den Mittelpunkt stellenden Bundesstaat eine Europäische Union
und ein weißes Rußland neu entstehen zu lassen", heißt es in dem Blatt.
Auch bei dieser Zielprojektion ("Eurasien") knüpft die NPD an tatsächliche
Bewegungen der deutschen Außenpolitik an[4], aber überformt sie mit rassistischen
(ethnischen) Inhalten, die das offizielle Berlin seinen Vorfeldorganisationen
überläßt.[5]
Arabische Staaten
Wie sämtliche großen deutschen Parlamentsparteien
wirbt die NPD für eine besondere außenpolitische Annäherung an die arabischen
Staaten. Dort existierten
große Sympathien für Deutschland, dem in der Region keine Kolonialvergangenheit
vorgeworfen werden könne, heißt es in einem Bericht der "Deutschen
Stimme". "Ob bei jung oder alt, ob in der Großstadt oder bei den
Beduinen, ob Jemen, Oman, Irak, Sudan, Ägypten" – überall begegne der
deutsche Besucher "derselben besonderen Freundlichkeit und
Gastfreundschaft". Den arabischen Söhnen, Töchtern und Enkelkindern werde
seit Generationen eingeschärft, "wie ein deutscher Mann (eine deutsche
Frau)" zu sein, "denn die Deutschen waren immer unsere Freunde und
sie sind immer unsere Freunde geblieben! Sie sind treu, ehrlich, tapfer,
gerecht und wir können uns stets auf sie verlassen. Nie haben sie uns verraten,
nie haben deutsche Soldaten gegen Araber gekämpft!’"
– Die naive Selbstdarstellung
deutscher Wertschätzung in der arabischen Welt übersetzt das politische Kalkül
sämtlicher Berliner Außenämter, die seit der Kaiserzeit von den Kolonialverbrechen
der deutschen Konkurrenten profitieren wollen, in eine einfache Wählersprache. Die Anknüpfungspunkte zur aktuellen Außenpolitik des offiziellen Berlin sind unübersehbar.
Iran
– Einen Höhepunkt bei der
ideellen Überformung wesentlicher Inhalte des Berliner Weltmachtstrebens
erreicht die NPD mit ihrer aktuellen Iran-Politik.
– Iran sei "derzeit die Speerspitze im Kampf um eine gerechtere Weltordnung",
schreibt heute zur Wahl
stehende Partei: "Wenn es im Augenblick einen Wortführer der freien Welt gibt, der sich Gerechtigkeit, Ehrlichkeit
und die Wahrung der legitimen Lebensinteressen der Völker auf seine Fahnen
geschrieben hat, dann heißt er Mahmud Ahmadinedschad". Die Partei erinnert an ein Presseinterview des iranischen
Staatspräsidenten, der "die
Deutschen (…) ausdrücklich als seine ‘Ansprechpartner’ betitelt hat".
"Präsident Ahmadinedschad setzt
sich nicht nur für die Souveränitätsrechte seines eigenen Volkes ein, sondern
tat dies kürzlich in seinem Spiegel-Interview auch für unser deutsches Volk",
heißt es über die Teheraner Staatsspitze, die den Deutschen empfohlen hatte,
die NS-Verbrechen nicht länger zu thematisieren. "Warum wird dem deutschen
Volk so viel auferlegt?", zitiert die NPD den iranischen
Staatspräsidenten: "Warum darf das deutsche Volk nicht das Recht haben,
sich zu verteidigen? Warum werden die
Verbrechen einer Gruppe so betont, anstatt vielmehr das große deutsche Kulturerbe
herauszustellen?"
Leitkultur
Die von der NPD
verbreiteten Fragen geben nicht nur Stimmungen weiter Teile der deutschen
Bevölkerung Ausdruck; auch starke
Fraktionen der als wohlanständig geltenden Parteikonkurrenten der NPD verhehlen
die hier zum Ausdruck kommenden Haltungen nicht. Heißt es im NPD-Blatt, die NS-Verbrechen seien lediglich das Werk
einer "Gruppe" gewesen, so darf die deutsche NS-Ära im hessischen Landtag eine
"bedauernswerte Entgleisung"[6] genannt werden. Die Ausführungen des
renommierten Berliner Historikers Arnulf Baring hätten "vielen aus dem Herzen
gesprochen", bedankte sich der
CDU-Fraktionschef im deutschen Landesparlament. Die kürzliche Veranstaltung
stand unter dem Motto, "Eckpfeiler einer bürgerlichen Leitkultur"
entwickeln zu wollen.
Zutreiberdienste
Intellektuelle
Zutreiberdienste der sogenannten
politischen Mitte und parteiübergreifende Übereinstimmungen bei einer
Großzahl deutscher Wähler erklären die am heutigen Sonntag erwarteten Erfolge
der NPD und ihren flankierenden Beitrag zur deutschen Außenpolitik.
[1] s. Deutschland
profiliert sich gegen die USA, Weg von der "Seite Amerikas",
Gefährliches Dreieck, Vitale Interessen, Drohungen, Schutzgelder, Krieg und Hilferuf
[2] Parteiprogramm
der NPD
[3] s. Die neuen
Grenzen Europas
[4] s.
Herrschaftsvisionen und Richtige Richtung
[5] s.
Hintergrundbericht: Die Föderalistische Union Europäischer Volksgruppen,
Schutzmacht-Klausel, Hitler, Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt und Kern
[6] Arnulf Barings
Entgleisungen, Frankfurter Rundschau 16.09.2006
—————————-
Wsws 06-09-23
The
extreme-right NPD wins seats in German election
By Dietmar Henning
In Germany’s recent state election the extreme
right-wing German National Party (NPD) was able to profit from the right-wing
policies of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Left Party/Party of
Democratic Socialism (PDS). The NPD, which openly acknowledges its allegiance
to the legacy of National Socialism, was able to pick up six seats in the parliament of the
east German state of Mecklenburg Vorpommern, following elections Sunday,
September 17. In Berlin, the NPD was able
to win seats in 4 of the city’s 12 district councils.
–
The NPD received nearly 60,000 votes in
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. With a low election turnout of 58 percent, this total
corresponded to 7.3 percent of the total vote.
–
In the Berlin Senate elections, the NPD recorded 2.6
percent—4 percent in the east of the city and 1.6 percent in the west.
This result meant that the neo-fascists could not enter the Berlin
state parliament, which demands that parties win at least 5 percent of the vote, but could take
up seats in several district councils where a 3 percent minimum is sufficient.
The NPD was able to record relatively high levels of support in
particularly hard-hit regions of Vorpommern, where mass unemployment is rife.
In the constituencies of East Vorpommern I and II, the NPD won 12.2 and 11.5
percent of the vote (two NPD members have sat in the local parliament for two
years), and in Uecker Randow I and II, the party notched up 15 and 13 percent.
On the other hand, its vote was lower in the urban constituencies of Rostock (3.8 percent) and Schwerin (6.7 percent).
–
The state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has the highest
levels of unemployment in all of Germany (18.2 percent), and in the district Uecker Randow, an unemployment rate of 26.6
percent. The state is mainly
rural and devoted to agricultural production. It also lies on the border
with Poland.
There are areas in East
Vorpommern and Uecker Randow where nearly half the workforce is
without employment. In the village of Postlow in East Vorpommern,
comprising 500 inhabitants, 38 percent of the village voted for the NPD on Sunday.
Another constituency in the region, Stettiner Haff, which is dominated by a
gloomy concrete housing project, recorded 35.2 percent.
An initial analysis conducted by the polling
institute Infratest dimap shows that the NPD was able to win support primarily
with young voters. Fifteen percent of young people between the ages of 18 to 24
voted for the neo-fascists, and 12 percent of those between 25 and 34. In terms
of social category, the NPD won its largest support from unemployed persons—15
percent.
–
In Berlin, the NPD stood candidates in five districts with
high unemployment and high levels of poverty and won seats in four district
councils—Neukölln (3.9 percent), Treptow- Köpenick (5.3
percent), Lichtenberg (6.0 percent) and Marzahn Hellersdorf (6.4 percent). The
party failed to reach the 3 percent limit in Tempelhof-Schöneberg (2.1
percent), but recorded its best result in the city (5.4 percent) in the huge
housing project of Marzahn Hellersdorf.
The NPD had arranged a division of the
constituencies in Berlin
with another extreme-right organisation—the Republicans, which stood candidates
in seven districts, wining a seat in one.
Why is
support for the NPD increasing?
Two factors are primarily responsible for the
growth in support for the NPD.
–
The first is social despair,
combined with widespread indignation over the arrogant attitude and hypocrisy
that characterises Germany’s
established parties—in particular, those seeking to portray themselves as
defenders of the interests of the disadvantaged.
The state governments in both Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
and Berlin
are made up of coalitions of the SPD and Left Party/PDS. Both parties suffered heavy losses in Sunday’s election. In Berlin, the Left
Party/PDS lost half its voters; in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania,
the SPD lost 10 percent of its vote (based on the last comparable state
election). While both parties declare they are prepared to defend the interests
of the socially disadvantaged, their practice has been very different.
–
In the state capital
of Schwerin,
Labour Minister Helmut Holter (Left Party/PDS) has implemented the national
government’s anti-welfare Hartz laws, although his own party has publicly
objected to the measures. In Berlin,
his party colleague and economics minister, Harald Wolf (also Left Party/PDS),
has played a prominent role in social cuts and dismantling jobs in public
service.
The slogan used by Mecklenburg-Western
Pomerania Prime Minister Harald Ringstorff (SPD) for his election campaign was
“Continue the Success,” but the 160,000 unemployed in the state have seen no
such success. In Berlin, those in the population hit by social and welfare cuts
could witness how a small layer in the city was able to profit and celebrate
its newly acquired wealth—a layer that included the city’s mayor, Klaus
Wowereit (SPD).
The arrogance and dismissive attitude assumed
by the ruling parties were summed up in an election campaign booklet produced
in Berlin by the Left Party/PDF in which the
party explains why it “has supported the savings policies in Berlin…at the expense of the weak and poor
in the city.” One passage in the brochure reads: “On the streets the Left
Party/PDF protested against Hartz IV, in the senate we implemented it. Isn’t
that a contradiction?” The booklet then bluntly declares, “No, it is
reasonable.”
Such cynicism with regard to its own policies
provides the ideal breeding grounds for the growth of the extreme right. The SPD and Left Party/PDF share
direct responsibility for the prevailing social disaster as well as the
political confusion resulting from their policies. They declare even the
most socially destructive of measures to be “left-wing policy” and create a
climate that the NPD has been able to exploit by feeding on the despair,
feelings of inferiority, rage and hatred of declassed social layers.
–
In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the NPD picked up about a
quarter of its votes from former SPD and Left Party/PDF voters. An additional quarter
came from former CDU (Christian Democratic Union), and another quarter from
former non-voters. The remainder came from those who had previously
voted for other smaller parties.
–
The second factor utilised by the extreme right is the sanctioning
of xenophobia by Germany’s
main political parties. The witch-hunt against Muslims—from the speech
by the Pope in Regensburg
to calls by German state interior ministers for the registration of religion in
anti-terror files—is grist for the mills of the neo-Nazis. Other measures, such
as the discrimination against asylum-seekers and immigrants by both the
conservative union parties and the SPD, as well as the propagation of a
so-called “German guiding culture” are additional factors assisting the NPD.
The lack of any defining line between the CDU and the extreme right is
reflected in the political campaign being waged by both the NPD and CDU against the building of
a mosque in the East Berlin district of Pankow.
Leading the CDU in its opposition to a mosque was the party’s leading candidate
in the Berlin
elections, Friedbert Pflüger. The local head of the CDU, Karl Henning, who
supports the building of such a mosque, went so far as to quit the CDU in
protest at Pflüger’s stance. Only after another leading member of the CDU in
the district, Bernhard Lasinski, marched alongside neo-Nazis and skinheads in a
march over the issue did Pflüger feel obliged to intervene and call for
Lasinki’s resignation.
The methods of the NPD
In the past, the extreme-right forces were
able to win support mainly from protest voters, but this latest vote demonstrates that they are increasing their presence
in the country as a whole, particularly in rural areas.
–
In 1988, the German
People’s Union (DVU), run by the Munich
publisher and multimillionaire Gerhard Frey, was able to notch up a surprise
success in the state of Saxonia-Anhalt with 13 percent of the vote,
although the party had no regional organisation. At the next election, however, the DVU disappeared without
a trace.
–
While the NPD has only 200 members in
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, these members live in the region and have
social contacts.
–
Media reports concur that the NPD has penetrated “into the
centre of society”—i.e., live in their communities as
respected citizens. The leading
local candidate of the NPD, Udo Pastörs, has his own clock and jewellery shop
in Lübtheen, and other NPD members run their own taxi firms.
The NPD takes part in local debates and
citizens’ initiatives, it organises coffee get-togethers, and its members present themselves as supporters of
order and the family. In so doing, it deliberately takes up aspects of
the nationalist (völkish) ideology of the Nazis. This was made clear by
Pastör’s speech on the evening of the election. His expressed his thanks to his
wife, “who had cooked for me so excellently, washed my laundry and helped me
find the strength I needed for the election campaign.”
In some regions, the main political parties
were not to be seen, and so the way was left clear for the NPD to be able to
dominate with its propaganda.
–
The NPD placed the social question at the centre of its
election campaign and—entirely in the manner of the
Strasser wing of the NSDAP—posed as an anti-capitalist movement. It presented
itself as a party that takes up the day-to-day worries and needs of the
population.
–
The “basis for a socially fair order” had been eliminated,
the NPD declared in its programme. “Those responsible are the establishment
parties and the media cartel that function as props of high finance.” On the
basis of an “excessive drive for profits,” they seek to destroy the existing
order and thereby question the political and economic system of the Federal Republic and European Union.
The pamphlet combines social protest with
xenophobia. “Indebtedness, unemployment, industrial decline, social
uprootedness, excessive immigration, violence and educational decline are only
some of the key words describing the situation of our city.”
–
The NPD then raises as a
central demand the revision of the German-Polish border and the reestablishment
of Germany
within the borders of 1937.
On paper, the NPD poses as citizen- and
family-friendly, but at the same time, the party is intent on intimidating its
opponents through the use of gangs of thugs. The NPD, whose functionaries originate mainly from west Germany,
has over the past few years established links with local groups of neo-Nazis,
known as “Freiern Kameradschaften,” whose ranks include many prosecuted
thugs and criminals. Such elements were mobilised by the NPD in its election
campaign to violently intimidate other parties.
Members of the SPD, the Left Party/PDS and
even the CDU were threatened, and on occasion attacked by NPD supporters at
election information venues in both Berlin
and Mecklenburg Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
One week before the election, neo-fascists
pulled away the ladder being used by a member of the Left Party/PDF to hang
posters. The young man fell to the ground and hurt his spine. One night
previously, right-wing extremists attacked two SPD election helpers, one of
whom required hospital treatment.
Taking a page from the book of the Hitlerite
SA, gangs of NPD thugs disrupted the meetings of other parties and even
threatened journalists and demonstrators with violence on the eve of the
election.
The call for a strong state
Germany’s main bourgeois parties
have reacted to the activities of the NPD with the call for a stronger state.
Volker Beck, speaker on domestic affairs for
the Green Party, said the NPD had to be actively countered “by consistent
action from the police and state attorneys.” Beck demanded: “This has to be
accompanied with intensified observation of the NPD and the extreme right-wing
milieu.” This requires, according to Beck, that the state intelligence agencies
improve their exchange of information with the National Bureau of Intelligence.
The
former parliamentary president Wolfgang Thierse (SPD) demanded tougher action
by the police and a renewed attempt at banning the NPD.
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The last attempt made in
2002 failed after the Federal
Constitutional Court ruled out such a ban because
the leadership level of the NPD had been so heavily infiltrated with German
intelligence agents. So “deep” was the infiltration that the three Constitutional Court judges
concluded that any meeting of the NPD leadership constituted a “meeting of the
state.”
During the election campaign, the authorities
had already reacted to the activities of the NPD by curbing the democratic
rights of all parties. After the NPD had carried out election meetings in public buildings throughout Berlin, other
parties were denied such access to state buildings to carry out their election
campaigns. The argument used by state authorities was that a blanket ban on the
use of public building for all parties was the only way to restrict the
activities of the NPD. The first local authority to adopt this strategy was the
council in the district of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg headed by the Left
Party/PDS.
The reaction of the political establishment to
NPD provocations is to call for the “unity of all democrats.” In practice, this
means intensified collaboration between the various bourgeois parties and a
capitulation to the right wing in the name of such “unity.” This was the case
in France four years ago when, during presidential elections, all parties,
including left radical groups, used precisely the same argument to justify
support for the Gaullist Jacques Chirac against his challenger, the fascist
Jean Marie Le Pen. The policies carried out by Chirac since then have only
served to strengthen Le Pen.
In the long run, the strengthening of the
state apparatus and the closing of ranks between the established parties only
serve to create conditions under which ultra-right demagogues can increase
their influence. Only an independent movement of the working class, which
undertakes the defence of democratic and social rights on the basis of an
international, socialist programme, can put an end to the neo-Nazi menace.
Copyright
1998-2006