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CRIME

Advance of neo-Nazi NPD party faltering

The neo-Nazi National Party of Germany (NPD), riven by internal conflicts and financial sanctions, is faltering, said a law enforcement official in the latest issue of news magazine Focus.

Published: 7 December 2008 12:55 CET
Advance of neo-Nazi NPD party faltering
Photo: DPA

A series of financial irregularities uncovered in the NPD’s finances means the party may have to return millions in government funds it receives as a legitimate political party. If that happens, the party’s chances in next year’s regional elections will be “shrunk considerably,” said Winfriede Schreiber, the head of Brandenburg’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which is charged with monitoring extremist groups.

The party currently holds seats in several regional parliaments in former East German states. The NPD hopes to expand it’s margins further in upcoming elections in Brandenburg and Thüringen, as it did in elections this year in Saxony.

Schreiber said that in addition to the financial problems, the NPD’s membership is fracturing because some elements don’t believe the party’s line is radical enough, which has already lead to members abandoning the party.

But despite the developments, Schreiber warned that it wasn’t time to sound the all-clear about the NPD and that it could still pose a threat.

On Saturday, about 800 NPD supporters and neo-Nazis marched through an East Berlin suburb, followed by 1,000 left-wing counter-demonstrators and 1,600 police officers. At least 60 counter-demonstrators were arrested for throwing bottles and other objects at the NPD march.

CRIME

Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

A 17-year-old has turned himself in to police in Germany after an attack on a lawmaker that the country's leaders decried as a threat to democracy.

Published: 5 May 2024 12:52 CEST
Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

The teenager reported to police in the eastern city of Dresden early Sunday morning and said he was “the perpetrator who had knocked down the SPD politician”, police said in a statement.

Matthias Ecke, 41, European parliament lawmaker for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), was set upon by four attackers as he put up EU election posters in Dresden on Friday night, according to police.

Ecke was “seriously injured” and required an operation after the attack, his party said.

Scholz on Saturday condemned the attack as a threat to democracy.

“We must never accept such acts of violence,” he said.

Ecke, who is head of the SPD’s European election list in the Saxony region, was just the latest political target to be attacked in Germany.

Police said a 28-year-old man putting up posters for the Greens had been “punched” and “kicked” earlier in the evening on the same Dresden street.

Last week two Greens deputies were abused while campaigning in Essen in western Germany and another was surrounded by dozens of demonstrators in her car in the east of the country.

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year, but less than the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when legislative elections took place.

A group of activists against the far right has called for demonstrations against the attack on Ecke in Dresden and Berlin on Sunday, Der Spiegel magazine said.

According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is planning to call a special conference with Germany’s regional interior ministers next week to address violence against politicians.

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