The neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD) ended its two-day convention in Munich over the weekend with a vow to win representation in the Bundestag in the next national elections scheduled for 1987.
“What happened in France is also possible in Germany,” NPD leader Martin Mussgnub declared in a reference to the electoral sucess of Jean-Marie Le Pen’s ultra rightwing National Front. Le Pen’s party garnered II percet of the popular vote in last summe’s national election for the Parliament of Europe, winning 10 seats in that multi-national body.
According to Mussgnub, “There is a European-wide wave of renewed contemplation of the values of the nation” on which the NPD could ride into the Bundestag. The party, which is the largest single neo-Nazi organization in West Germany, increased its membership from 90,000 to 198,000 between 1983, when the last Bundestag elections were held, and 1984.
Mussgnub said the party aims to unite 900,000 voters and qualify for State financial support so it can enter the next campaign free of debt.
CONVENTION SPARKS PROTEST
The NPD convention drew several thousand protestors who rallied outside the meeting hall shouting “Nazis out.” Hundreds of police maintained security. The Mayor of Munich, a Social Democrat, told the local Jewish community and other organizations that he had no authority to ban the convention but he condemned the neo-Nazi movement and declared that the NPD and its supporters are not wanted in Munich.
The NPD and other neo-Nazi groups are banned from West Berlin by order of the Allied military command. But neo-Nazi organizations may operate in the Federal Republic as long as they observe the law. Unlike smaller neo-Nazi groups, the NPD as such has not resorted to violent methods, according to police.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
