German far right set to win seats: BBC

[oldhat]

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3669974.stm

German far right set to win seats

State elections in the former East Germany on Sunday are expected to see a resurgence of the far right.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats are facing heavy losses, as voters express their anger at high unemployment and welfare reforms.

In both Saxony and Brandenburg, far right parties are expected to gain more than the 5% they need to win seats.

This reflects widespread disillusion in the former East Germany over the way reunification has been handled.

East Germans still receive lower wages, benefits, and pensions than their cousins in the West, and almost one in five is out of work.

Mass protests

The BBC's correspondent Ray Furlong says the "blossoming landscapes" promised by former Chancellor Helmut Kohl in 1990 have simply not materialised.

The vote will also be a referendum on Chancellor Schroeder's social reforms, he says.

Germany is trying to cut back its welfare state in the face of a decreasing birth rate and ageing population.

There have been protests on the streets of the east drawing tens of thousands of demonstrators.


They echo the resistance in France and Italy to economic reforms designed to modernise and kick-start the economy, our correspondent says.

The discontent is expected to play into the hands of the National Democratic Party (NPD) - compared by the government to the early Nazi party - which could take nearly 10% in Saxony.

The far-right German People's Union (DVU) was looking at winning about 6% in Brandenburg, according to opinion polls.

The Party of Democratic Socialism - political descendants of the communists who ruled East Germany - could take most votes in Brandenburg, and second place in Saxony, the polls say.

If the polls are proved right, the results would represent the latest in a series of electoral routs for Mr Schroeder's party, two years before the next national poll is due in September 2006.

Observers have said gains by the far right could damage Germany's image abroad.

[reorg]

1. they already did in the latest election

for the European Parliament.

While the left-wing PDS won a sensational 30% of the vote in Brandenburg and the SPD suffered dramatically (20%), various right wing lunatics had about 12% in all if I am not mistaken.

So if such cooks get into state parliaments this time, it would not be surprising. However, they already have been represented in various regional parliaments throughout the last decades, and always were voted out again. These guys are just too stupid to stay.

Prognosis on www.wahlstreet.de for today in Brandenburg (this is the state around Berlin, but Berlin itself is not part of that state):

19.09.2004 12:00:

SPD: 28,04%
CDU: 22,78%
FDP: 4,35%
Greens: 5,92%
PDS: 28,76%

Others (far right): 10,15%

[reorg]

2. update: losers win

the SPD/CDU coalition loses 14 percent in all compared with previous state election but stay in power.

Gaining most are the PDS, by more than 5 percent, the party that has no significance whatsoever in the West and has just two representatives in the German Bundestag.

The far right splinter groups gain votes, but luckily do not form a unified force and remain insignificant in Brandenburg's parliament.


19.09.2004 22:00:

SPD: 31,9
CDU: 19,4
PDS: 28,6
FDP: 3,4
Greens: 3,3
DVU (far right): 6
Others (mostly far right): 7,4

Seats in Brandeburg parliament:

SPD 33
PDS 29
CDU 20
DVU 6

[belle]

3. Well, except for that one time.

:scared:

[reorg]

5. certainly true

but this is exactly why they are too discredited to play a significant role ever again.

[Phelan]

4. Former East Germany really is a drain on Germany as a whole

As a an immigrant from Germany that came to the US in the late 90's I feel badly for the economic hardship much of East Germany endured after the re-unification but I really despise the attitude many East Germans have about the Western part of the country owning them something. Germany's economy took a battering trying to help develop the east quickly with limited success.

high unemployment is a big reason for the extreme right and left wing attitudes (extreme left wing in Germany is usually considered a couple of steps to the left of what extreme left is considered in the US) in east Germany. Foreigners get blamed for high unemployment but that is not really where the blame should go, rather here is a little anecdote.

The company I worked for in Germany bought several formerly state owned companies from East Germany. The most glaring example was in a very largely food processing plant with about 1,200 employees at the time of the take over. An efficiency study showed that the company was overstaffed and that profits would be impossible. So the company was downsized via early retirement when possible and lay offs when not to 140 employees (roughly). The output of the company went up without a modernization of equipment, just a streamlining of the workforce. And the company became fiscally competitive

I heard many stories like this from west German companies that took over east German facilities.

It takes a while to recover from a mismanaged economy and a while hasn't even close to elapsed, but yet people expect miracles and their disappointment in the SPD and the CDU drives them towards fringe parties as it happened in the 1930's. Its very disheartening to me

[reorg]

6. this perception is no longer borne out by reality

When the Easterners were expecting "miracles" it was because they were TOLD to expect "blooming landscapes" and were promised this would be what was going to happen.

Do we Westernes have to bail them out? For chrissake, either we're with them or we're against them, as they say ... :-) It is just unconscionable that people with the same employer (the state) get different money for the same service. This has nothing to do with us "owing them something", it's just normal to expect some more equality.

And how do you explain the losses in Saxony of the ever-dominating CDU there? This is not because of unification troubles. This is mainly a direct response to the recent social cuts of the Federal Government, IMO, nothing else.

And, please, what is your rationale for calling the 30%-PDS a "fringe party"? Sorry, I find this laughable to the extreme.

[KDLarsen]

7. At least some of the other party leaders had courage

.. to walk out when the leader of the NPD started rambling & raving over what a great day it was Germans etc. A Danish newspaper actually mentioned that his minor speech would have made "Der Fuhrer" happy.

[reorg]

8. all of the other party spokespersons

regularly leave the table when one of those nuts begins to talk. This is standard procedure for some time now, to the point, really, that one might wonder if it is not not already counterproductive.

As to whether their speeches would make old Nazis happy: sure they would, that's what they are supposed to do. But trust me, these guys transpire stupidity, they're all dull blokes who cannot utter one contingent sentence if they haven't learned it by heart.

But there is something that should frighten us indeed: they have a strong following among the very young, uneducated jobless. If this problem is not taken care of, it may grow.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

9. Music to the Bushistas' ears...

They may gain one European ally.

[jumpstart33]

10. So, the "far right" in Germany would be the "far left" in America

How more screwed up can things get?

[reorg]

11. not ecactly

the tens of thousands of demonstrators are definitely NOT far right ...

[KDLarsen]

12. More like..

.. Far Right in Germany = a notch to the right of the GOP in the US.

I'm somewhat centrist, but in the US I would be far left.