The top leadership of the West German neo-Nazi National Democratic party (NPD), which won eight seats in the Bremen Parliament last month and thus raised to 48 the number of NPD deputies in six provincial Parliaments, does not use anti-Semitism too openly but local NPD leaders make no secret of their “Nazi-like” position toward Jews, it was reported here today.
The report was made by Zachariah Shuster, European director of the American Jewish Committee, to the AJC headquarters here. The report was based on talks with West German officials during a recent trip to Frankfurt and Bonn. He said the Bremen victory, demonstrating the hold of the neo-Nazi party on voter support, despite severe internal conflicts, was causing serious concern among the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats, the major parties in the current coalition Government headed by Chancellor Kurt Kiesinger.
He reported that the local NPD victories were not regarded as necessarily forecasting similar successes for the party in any future federal elections. He reported that recent public opinion polls showed that the NPD would get only 4 percent of the vote if elections were held today for the Bundestag, the lower house of the federal Parliament.
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