Germany's racist neo-Nazi party is poised to make a stunning breakthrough at elections this weekend, entering a regional parliament for the second time in three years, polls suggest.
According to a poll for ZDF television, the far-right National Party of Germany (NPD) is likely to win 7 percent of the vote in elections tomorrow in the north-east state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. A poll by Infratest puts the party on 6 percent. The projected result is above the 5 percent of the vote parties must achieve before they can sit in parliament, and means the far-right MPs could have seats for the first time.
"We are very confident. It's extremely likely we are going to make it," Michael Andrejewski, the NPD's candidate in its stronghold town of Anklam, said on Friday.
Andrejewski said voters in Germany's depressed former communist east were turning to the neo-Nazi right because they were disillusioned with mainstream politics and fed up with the region's massive unemployment.
"People are furious. They are disappointed with this government. Unemployment here is 30 percent. If we can win here we will have established a trend. Our mid-term goal is to win seats in the Bundestag [Germany's federal parliament]."
A result above 5 percent would be a big embarrassment for Germany's leader Angela Merkel, whose constituency is part of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The region is one of the most economically depressed parts of the country and has 18 percent unemployment.
Hundreds of neo-Nazis have flooded into the state. The party has teamed up with local gangs of far-right skinheads -- some of whom are standing as NPD candidates. Volunteers have hung up thousands of xenophobic placards and distributed copies of the party's far-right newspaper. They have also intimidated workers from other parties, it is alleged.
Rival candidates concede the NPD has waged a meticulous, professional campaign.
"I have to admit that to a certain degree we have failed," said Uwe Schulz, Anklam's Social Democratic candidate.
Schulz, whose party governs in the state's regional assembly in Schwerin with the post-communist Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), added: "My father came back from the second world war with a leg missing. These people appear to have learned nothing from the Nazi era. To hear these ideas and slogans again makes me furious."
Nationally, the NPD has had little impact. But in 2004 it won 9.25 percent of the vote in the east German state of Saxony in a surprise result, entering a regional parliament for the first time since 1968. Victory tomorrow would confirm fears that the party is an established feature of Germany's political landscape, analysts say.
In several Baltic villages in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern the far-right now provides social services. It runs businesses and organizes discos. The NPD has abandoned its skinhead image, fielding candidates in immaculate suits.
"There are a large number of people in east Germany who have become estranged from democracy," said Hajo Funke, a political scientist at Berlin's Free University. "Mainstream parties have failed to address local problems."
Gunter Hoffmann, of Anklam anti-Nazi group Bunt statt Braun, said: "The big mistake happened after the fall of the Berlin wall. The need to establish and teach democracy in the east was overlooked. We are now picking up the bill."
The stealthy rise of extremism in the state is linked to its woeful economic condition, analysts say. After reunification in 1990 manufacturing industry collapsed. Anklam's population shrank from 22,000 to 14,000 as the young fled west. A far-right youth culture based around rock concerts and the Blood & Honor movement took root, Hoffmann said.
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