GERMANY: Germany's neo-Nazis swept into a regional parliament in the northeast state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern last night, comfortably winning seats in the state's assembly for the first time.
An exit poll for ZDF television showed that the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) had won 7.1 per cent of the vote. This is more than the 5 per cent threshold needed for seats.
The result appears to confirm fears the NPD is now an insidious and established part of Germany's political landscape, especially in the depressed former communist east. In Berlin, the city's charismatic gay mayor, Klaus Wowereit, was re-elected and the NPD failed to win any seats.