Most West German Politicians Expect Npd to Gain Seats in Bundestag, Klutznick Says

Most West German politicians believe the extreme right-wing National Democratic Party (NPD) will win enough votes in the Sept. 28 national elections to gain its first seats in the Bundestag. But such an event is likely to have a greater impact on Germany’s image abroad than on its internal politics, according to Philip M. Klutznick writing in the current issue of The National Jewish Monthly, the B’nai B’rith organ.

Mr. Klutznick, a former president of B’nai B’rith and one-time U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, recently returned from a visit to West Germany. He said most reliable political observers concede five to eight percent of the vote to the reputedly neo-Nazi party although polls show its strength to range between two and three percent. Five percent is required to enter the Bundestag.

Mr. Klutznick said the higher estimate was based on the tested observation that malcontents seldom register their views in polls accurately. The NPD election campaign is aimed at discontented elements of the lower middle classes. Mr. Klutznick said that German politicians, even those who tried unsuccessfully to have the NPD banned as anti-democratic, do not regard the NPD as a domestic threat. “What really concerns the West German leadership is the harm an NPD presence in the Bundestag can do to the Federal Republic’s image abroad,” he wrote. “The Germans recognize that the equivalent of an NPD in the United States, France or Great Britain might lift an eyebrow. When it happens in Germany, a whole world becomes shaken and alert.”