Electoral gains by the far-right Republican party, widely associated with neo-Nazi tendencies, has caused concern within the German Jewish community.
The Republicans won 8.3 percent of the popular vote in city and district elections held Sunday in the western state of Hesse. In Frankfurt, where the Republicans scored 10 percent of the vote, many Jews joined in a spontaneous demonstration against the Republicans in front of the Town Hall.
Frankfurt, a transportation, banking, and tourist center of Germany, is also home to the country’s second-largest Jewish community.
The chairman of the German Jewish community, Ignatz Bubis, said in an initial reaction to the poll results that he expected all the major parties to resist the temptation of forming political coalitions with the Republicans, even at the expense of losing power in some districts.
The Republicans campaigned on a platform calling for the expulsion of some foreigners from the country and a ban on allowing other refugees to enter Germany.
Representatives of the other major parties expressed disappointment and dismay at the extremists’ strong showing.
Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Social Democratic opposition leader Bjorn Engholm promised Monday they would not make political deals with the Republicans and vowed to ensure that local party officials would follow their lead.
The results from Hesse show the Republican party as the fourth-largest political group in the area.
Returns from other major towns in Hesse show that the Republicans made a strong showing not only in Frankfurt but practically everywhere in the state.
In Hanau, the far right scored 14 percent, in Bad Homburg 9.1 percent, in Kassel 5.4 percent and in Offenbach 15.1 percent.
In several smaller communities, the Republicans drew as high as 20 percent of the vote.
In some towns, including Frankfurt, other neo-Nazis parties made remarkable gains. But they failed to draw enough support to penetrate local parliaments, for which a minimum 5 percent is required.
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.
