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Author Topic: Far-right party marks gains in Germany
lagatta
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posted 20 September 2004 01:10 PM      Profile for lagatta     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Protestors shouted "Nazis raus"" (Nazis out) at newly elected NPD members in the regional assemblies of Saxony and Brandenberg in the former East Germany. Alas the protests - in general progressive - against government cuts to social benefits - have also fuelled support for the far-right National German Party (no, the NPD has nothing to do with the French name for Dippers ). And yes, there is a lot of evidence that the NPD has direct links to violent, murderous neo-Nazi bands. An attempt to ban the party on that basis a few year ago has proven unsuccessful: http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,1594,1432_A_1333427_1_A,00.html
From: Se non ora, quando? | Registered: Apr 2002  |  IP: Logged
Merowe
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posted 20 September 2004 05:33 PM      Profile for Merowe     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 

[ 20 September 2004: Message edited by: Merowe ]


From: Dresden, Germany | Registered: Apr 2003  |  IP: Logged
lagatta
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posted 25 September 2004 11:26 AM      Profile for lagatta     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
There was another story on the re-emergence of neo-Nazis as a political force in Germany in the Globe and Mail today, and other disturbing news. Next week there will be a big demonstration in Berlin against the social cutbacks "Hartz IV". It will be interesting to hear from my friends how the demonstrators succeeded in keeping neo-Nazis from infiltrating the march with their disgusting slogans.

Sheesh, "Keep Berlin German". No kebabs, or...

Merowe, why did you cancel your post? I'd love to hear a report from Dresden, one of the places the Nazis have elected regional MPs.


From: Se non ora, quando? | Registered: Apr 2002  |  IP: Logged
Wilf Day
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posted 25 September 2004 01:41 PM      Profile for Wilf Day     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
The press is missing the real story: the swing to the left.

Both Brandenburg (the state surrounding Berlin) and Saxony have "grand coalition" governments: the social-democratic SPD and the conservative CDU. Brandenburg's was led by the SPD, Saxony's by the CDU, but they were both pushing deep cuts to unemployment insurance benefits and social assistance. Voters rebelled.

In Brandenburg the result was a swing of 7.4% from the Social Democrats. The Official Opposition, the left-socialist PDS, picked up 4.7%. Another 1.7% went to the Greens. The other 1% splintered. The CDU also dropped, by 7.1%. From these voters, 4.9% splintered into several groups like the Family Party, and the liberal FDP picked up 1.4%. The far-right DVU picked up only 0.8%, going from five seats to six, while the PDS went from 22 to 29.

The map of single-seat results is remarkable: the pink PDS dominates. (You might think the leftists were red and the social democrats were pink, but the SPD claimed red first,I guess. ) Looks like a swing to the Left to me. Yet the press screams "neo-Nazis take seats for the first time." (Oops, the DVU was already there for the last five years. Oh, well.)

In Saxony the results were not so different. The left made a net gain of 3.0%, when the weak SPD lost another 0.9% while the Opposition PDS picked up 1.4% and the Greens 2.5%. The conservative CDU lost massively, dropping 15.8%. The old far-right Republikaners quit, so their 1.5% from 1999 adds to the far-right NPD's 1.4% to give them a 1999 base of 2.9%. They added another 6.3% from the CDU, making 9.2%. But the other 9.5% of CDU votes went elsewhere: 4.8% to the liberal FDP, 1.7% splintered to groups like a firearms party, and as noted above, 3% moved to the left. (In 1999 the CDU swept all of the 60 local seats. This time the PDS managed to win four of them and the SPD one; still a conservative map, but again the shift was to the left.)

So in 2004, compared with 1999, there are three more parties in the Saxony Landtag: the far-right NPD, the Greens, and the liberal FDP. But only the NPD is news. The left gains 6 seats, the centrist liberals gain 7, the conservatives lose 21 while the far right gains only 12. (Note: four more seats this time.) This is a swing to the right?

Saxony has an interesting gender balance: of the 124 deputies, only 34 are women. But the PDS delegation is 16 men, 15 women. The SPD is 9 men, 4 women. The Greens are 3 and 3. But the liberals are 6 and 1, the conservatives 45 and 10, and the NDP 11 and 1. Hardly a surprise.


From: Port Hope, Ontario | Registered: Oct 2002  |  IP: Logged
Wilf Day
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posted 25 September 2004 03:48 PM      Profile for Wilf Day     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by lagatta:
I'd love to hear a report from Dresden . .

From the detailed results I see that the six Dresden ridings gave the NPD an average of only 6.1% of the vote, well below the average 9.2%. Why the particular interest in Dresden?


From: Port Hope, Ontario | Registered: Oct 2002  |  IP: Logged
lagatta
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posted 25 September 2004 03:58 PM      Profile for lagatta     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Simply because "recent rabble rouser" Merowe, whose byline indicates "Dresden Germany" posted something - then deleted it. I was not interested in a report ON Dresden, per se, but an eyewitness report from someone in that Land.

Yes indeed, as you said, the progression of the PDS is big news as well. But I don't think the arrival of the NPD can be discounted. This is not based on the silly bourgeois media (the Globe and Mail story quoted talking heads but failed to give the viewpoint of unemployed workers in the former East) but on the experience of friends of mine over there - not really in the former East, though one lives in Berlin - that the racist far right is attempting to infiltrate the Montagsdemos against cuts in social spending and labour rights.


From: Se non ora, quando? | Registered: Apr 2002  |  IP: Logged
NDP Newbie
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posted 25 September 2004 06:43 PM      Profile for NDP Newbie     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Is the PDS still a Stalinist party?
From: Cornwall, ON | Registered: Mar 2004  |  IP: Logged
Agent 204
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posted 25 September 2004 06:53 PM      Profile for Agent 204   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I thought the PDS was the reformist wing of the East German Communist Party, though I could be confusing them with someone else. I do recall that in the last East German election before unification, the reformist and Stalinist wings split apart, and both ran in the election.
From: home of the Guess Who | Registered: Nov 2003  |  IP: Logged
Wilf Day
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posted 25 September 2004 08:01 PM      Profile for Wilf Day     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by NDP Newbie:
Is the PDS still a Stalinist party?

No. Is it even still Marxist?

They call themselves "the socialists: a socialist party left of the Social Democrats." Within it is a "Marxist Forum" and another traditionalist faction called the "Communist Platform."

The preamble to the PDS Programme says they want to "participate together with others in the development of an alternative, which has liberty, equality, justice and solidarity as a goal.

"We give ourselves this program in the tradition of the fights against capitalistic exploitation, ecological destruction, political suppression and criminal wars."

They note "the crimes which were committed in the name of socialism and communism" and promise to practice an "irreversible break with ignoring democracy and rights of political liberty, as was done in many left parties like the old SED."

As well, it should be noted that the SPD has found the PDS an acceptable coalition partner in the former east German state of Mecklenburg - Western Pomerania and the city-state of Berlin.

[ 25 September 2004: Message edited by: Wilfred Day ]


From: Port Hope, Ontario | Registered: Oct 2002  |  IP: Logged

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