German NPD shocks its detractors

Voter apathy helps German far-right in state vote

By Natalia Drozdiak

Mon Sep 5, 2011 7:02pm BST

(Reuters) - A German anti-immigrant party has upset forecasts to retain seats in the parliament of the depressed eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, one of only two regional assemblies where it is represented.

The far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) won 6 percent of the vote in Sunday's election -- down on its 7.3 percent in 2006, but above the 5 percent threshold for representation, which opinion polls had indicated it would miss.

The NPD led an aggressive campaign, with black, red and white posters carrying slogans like "Criminal Foreigners Out!," in a region with one of Germany's lowest rates of immigration and highest levels of unemployment, at nearly 12 percent.

It is running a high-profile campaign for upcoming mayoral elections in Berlin, although polls predict it is unlikely to win a seat. One especially controversial NPD poster in Berlin says "Step on the Gas" -- leading to criticism that the party is insensitive, to say the least, about the Holocaust.

The centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), who won re-election to the state premiership with nearly 36 percent, blamed a low turnout, which tends to favour fringe groups. Only 51 percent of registered voters turned out.

Manuela Schewsig, SPD deputy leader and a minister in the state government, said the party -- whom she termed "neo Nazis" -- "got back into parliament because of low turnout, and that is painful."

But Stefan Koester, chairman of the NPD in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, argued instead that with higher turnout the party would have done better.

"We will work to prevent this from happening the next time around," he told Reuters, adding that local leading candidate Udo Pastoers had mobilised the electorate by "saying what he thinks. He wants what is best for the people."

Founded in 1964, the NPD gained traction after reunification in 1990, especially in areas of former East Germany with high unemployment. It blames foreigners for many of Germany's social and economic ills and opposes membership of the euro.

Many politicians from mainstream parties favour an outright ban of the NPD, arguing that its rhetoric violates the constitution.

But an attempt to have it banned in 2001 was dismissed by the Constitutional Court two years later.

The NPD's performance in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern undermines a common argument that poor leadership and a lack of real policy proposals mean that, although it can win seats in municipal and state assemblies, it rarely gets re-elected.

The only other state where it has a parliamentary presence is Saxony, also in the east, where it scored 5.6 percent in 2009 -- albeit sharply down from 9.2 percent five years earlier.

(Additional reporting by Stephen Brown; Editing by Kevin Liffey)