The neo-Nazi Republican Party claims it can block the re-election of President Richard von Weizsacker of the Federal Republic of Germany by fielding a candidate of its own.
Franz Schoenhuber, chairman of the Republicans, said in Munich Saturday that his party would nominate candidates, but he offered no names.
As Schoenhuber spoke, thousands of anti-Nazis protested in West Berlin, Nuremberg and Stuttgart against the Republicans’ unexpectedly strong showing in the West Berlin legislative elections Jan. 29.
According to Schoenhuber, many members of the ruling Christian Democratic Union would vote for an alternative to von Weizsacker.
The CDU lost ground in the West Berlin elections while the Republicans won nearly 8 percent of the popular vote, for 11 seats in the 128-member municipal parliament.
They will also get two seats in the Bundestag, the federal parliament, as of the autumn of 1990.
The Republicans, the first neo-Nazi party ever to sit in the Bundestag, will be entitled to participate in the vote for the president who is chosen by the Federal Assembly.
The Assembly is composed of all members of the Bundestag plus several members from the various state parliaments.
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.
