West German Neo-nazis Call for General Elections Before Electoral Reform

West Germany’s neo-Nazi National Democratic Party called today for new general elections as the national coalition government struggled to overcome an internal crisis over the issue of electoral reform. Changes in the electoral system, proposed by the Minister of the Interior, Paul Luecke, would have modified the present procedures and eliminated the proportional representation aspects of the system.

The NPD, which has been obtaining an average of eight percent of the vote in the provincial elections It has been contesting, would, on that basis, be certain of winning a number of seats in the Bundestag, the lower House. Without proportional representation, it would be extremely doubtful if the party could muster a plurality in any voting district to give it a seat. Hence. Adolf von Thadden, the NPD chairman, would like to see general elections held immediately under existing law.

The Organization of Nazi Victims in West Berlin appealed today to the three commanders of the Allied occupation forces in West Berlin to outlaw the National Democratic Party. The organization protested that West German politicians of all parties were making light of the neo-Nazi danger. They said that the number of neo-Nazis in Berlin was much higher than the NPD membership indicated. According to the West Berlin Senate, the NPD has some 400 members in West Berlin.

(The National Democratic Party is not a problem for the Jews but for the Germans themselves. Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Jewish Congress, told a meeting of the American Section of the Congress. He said there was absolutely no comparison between conditions in Germany and Europe today and the conditions which made it possible for an Adolf Hitler to come to power.)