The National Democratic Party, a fusion of various extremist and right-wing political groups in West Germany, including professional neo-Nazis, won 3.2 percent of the total vote in Hamburg’s municipal elections held Sunday, according to final tabulations completed here today. The NDP vote had almost doubled here since last September’s general elections to the national Parliament, when the party in this city had won 1.8 percent of the total vote.
Moderate political circles here said the net rise in the NDP strength here is not as high as the ratios may indicate, since the overall turn-out in the municipal elections was far lower than the number of voters who had cast their ballots in the national balloting.
Officials here, however, said that the increased NDP strength shown in recent municipal elections around the country was “disturbing.” The National Democratic Party had shown sizable gains in balloting for municipal posts in Schleswig-Holstein and in northern Germany, especially in small villages.
Earlier this month, the NDP showed very large gains in the municipal elections in Bavaria. It received 3 percent of the statewide Bavarian vote, as compared with a national balloting total in Bavaria of 2 percent. In some Bavarian cities, the NDP got as high as 10 percent of the vote.
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