GERMANY: German politicians pressed for a national debate on combating extremism yesterday after a far-right party won seats in a state parliament, delivering a blow to Chancellor Angela Merkel's government.
The National Democratic Party (NPD), a far-right group that the government has compared to the Nazi party, won 7.3 per cent of the vote in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern on Sunday, claiming six seats in the 71-seat state parliament.
Though not unexpected, the result was widely seen as a rebuke to Dr Merkel, who has her local constituency in the state, and a warning to her 10-month-old coalition. "In view of German history this is a disaster," said Christian Wulff, state premier of neighbouring Lower Saxony and a leading member of Dr Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU).
The opposition Greens and Left Party called for a debate on right-wing extremism in the Bundestag, and Kurt Beck, leader of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), promised he would take up the issue at the top levels of government.
Dr Merkel, speaking at a news conference in Berlin, said there was "no miracle solution" which would bring disaffected voters back to the mainstream parties. "For me there is no alternative than to press ahead with our reform course," she said.
The results in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, a depressed state on the Baltic Sea which borders Poland, showed the NPD had received strong backing from people aged between 18 and 24. Many older voters stayed away, perhaps a response to moves by Dr Merkel's government to freeze pensions and raise the retirement age to 67.
The state, with a jobless rate close to 20 per cent, is the third in the ex-communist east to vote the far right into parliament, joining Brandenburg and Saxony.
Further evidence of voter frustration was seen in a parallel state election in Berlin on Sunday. SPD mayor Klaus Wowereit managed to improve his score by 1.1 points to 30.8 per cent, but the CDU fell to a post-war low of 21.3 per cent.
Even though it fell short of the 5 per cent threshold needed for Berlin's state parliament, the NPD won enough votes to gain seats in four of the city's 12 local councils.
The Central Council for Jews in Germany called the votes alarming and accused German politicians of failing to adequately combat the far right.
In 2003, the government tried unsuccessfully to ban the party.