Speaking of electoral shifts...

By Heraclitus

Apologies for distracting from the US midterms, but Der Spiegel has an interesting and slightly chilling article on the growth of the far-right (read: neo-Nazis) in recent German elections. This subject has received increasing attention recently. The chief far-right party, the National Democratic Party (NPD), currently holds seats in three regional parliaments. The next stage in their campaign for greater national power is the Bavarian state elections in 2008. They hope to make a strong showing there, and then win a few seats in the national parliament, or Bundestag, in 2009.

It's hard to tell from the article how serious the threat posed by the NPD really is. Some of the attention they garner comes from stunts and theatrics that seem somewhat juvenile. For instance, another fringe party has been elected in a regional parliament, and a central plank in their election platform was opposition to an increase in Germany's value-added tax. The NPD therefore plans to "launch an initiative" (I'm not sure of the procedural rules in German state parliaments [Landtags]). The other fringe party, the FDP, will then have to either vote with the far-right goons or abandon one of its animating principles. Crafty, but how far is the NPD going to go with that?

Part of the problem is that the party is "reaching out" to "unaffiliated groups of comrades," i.e., skin-heads and other racists thugs. The NPD is thereby expanding its reach, and consolidating what power it has among a group which previously spurned electoral politics. The authors of the Der Spiegel piece express their contempt for this alliance: "whether this balancing act between thugs and loudmouths will last is questionable." The contempt is clearly justified on moral grounds. But the question is whether it prevents the authors from taking the full measure of the NPD's potential.

I don't mean to be alarmist. But there's no question that the NPD is "reaching out to" and incorporating overtly violent elements in its ranks, and that it is gaining political power while doing so. Meanwhile, a new poll suggests that far-right attitudes and sentiments prevail throughout German society (although, having read the article, I wonder about the efficacy of many of the questions). So while this is hardly the return of the Nazis, it is, I think, a trend that cannot be ignored.