7 September 2004

BERLIN - A rightist German party known for agitating against foreigners and Jews narrowly failed to win seats in state parliament elections last weekend - but experts warn the far-right is likely to sweep to victory in two upcoming polls later this month.

The National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) stunned observers by winning 4 percent in the western Saar state election Sunday.

Germany's proportional representation electoral system - which requires a party get at least 5 percent to enter parliament - means the NPD will not be represented in the state's Landtag.

But the upswing for Germany's oldest rightist party, which is widely viewed as the best organised and most dangerous in the country's far-right field, has many people nervous.

Unlike other rightist parties, the NPD has close ties to violent neo-Nazis and skinheads who are estimated by the Verfassungschutz, Germany's domestic security agency, to number 13,000 nationwide.

Boosted by its success, the NPD is now campaigning hard in eastern Saxony state which holds elections in 19 September. Another far-right party, the German People's Union (DVU) is running in neighbouring Brandenburg state which votes the same day.

Both parties have backed protests over the German government's planned cuts to unemployment benefits and they provide an alternative for people who can't bring themselves to vote for the former East German communists.

Indeed, the NPD preaches what it terms "social-revolutionary nationalism" and voter surveys in the Saar show it drew former supporters of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats (SPD) from either the working class or the ranks of the unemployed.

Peter Loesche, a political party researcher at the University of Goettingen, said the publicity splash won by the NPD in the Saar is giving both parties a crucial bounce in final weeks of campaigning.

"The NPD in Saxony and the DVU in Brandenburg will make it into parliament," he predicted in a Thueringer Zeitung newspaper interview.

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