Cdu Lower Saxony Branch to Probe Electoral Agreement with National Democrats

The Lower Saxony branch of the Christian Democratic Union, the party of West German Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger, will launch an investigation of certain members who entered into an electoral agreement with the extreme right wing National Democratic Party in that north German state. The agreement applies only to a single municipal election but has caused considerable embarrassment to national party leaders because of the NPD’s reputation as a neo-Nazi party. Richard Langeheime, parliamentary chairman of the CDU in Lower Saxony, said at a press conference in Hannover that he hoped the investigation would lead to action against those in the party who engineered the agreement. Another party, the Free Democrats, was also involved in the “deal” with the NPD in Lower Saxony. The Union of Metal Workers which opened its congress in Munich yesterday demanded that the NPD be outlawed because its philosophy runs counter to the West German Constitution. Otto Brenner, chairman of the trade union, said in an article in the union paper that the NPD may call itself democratic but its known aims are not in accord with democratic principles.