German politics. Extreme sports

Date: 06/05/06

Widely expected gains by extremist parties in Germany may not happen

AMONG the keenest supporters of a "grand coalition" of the main centre-right and centre-left parties last November were parties at the extremes. On the right, this meant the neo-Nazi National Democrats (NPD); and on the left, the Left Party, comprising eastern Germany's former communists and a western ally, WASG. Both far left and far right, in various different guises, gained ground during the grand coalition of 1966-69, when the NPD almost got into the federal parliament.

But Germany had not then fully addressed its Nazi past. And the success of the extremes proved temporary, as it may do now. Last week the two camps hit the headlines when a WASG leader, bizarrely, defected to the NPD. Although the Left Party comfortably got into parliament last September, WASG did not cross the 5% threshold at recent state elections in the west. Unlike the Left Party's disciplined ex-communists in the east, WASG seems like a political nursing-home for tired and bickering old trade unionists and radicals.

Ideological infighting could even sabotage the planned full merger of the Left Party and WASG. The Berlin section of the WASG, dominated by Trotskyites, intends to run against the ex-communists in Germany's capital next September. Eventually, the two groups will probably join: a chaotic WASG party congress last weekend agreed to discipline its dissidents. But a unified Left Party will still be a largely regional one, rooted in eastern Germany.

On the right, the NPD is also a mostly eastern German phenomenon. Its biggest success was in Saxony in September 2004, when it took 9.2% of the vote. But that reflected a long-term strategy of investment in the state. The NPD no longer seeks only to defend the Third Reich, but also offers a rhetoric of resistance to global capitalism; and it has forged alliances with other far-right groups, including the German People's Union, or DVU.

Since its success in Saxony, the NPD has lost momentum. The party and its allies have failed to cross the 5% threshold in later state elections, even in Saxony-Anhalt, where the DVU took 12.9% in 1998. Three of the NPD's 12 parliamentary members in Saxony defected last December, accusing the leadership of being too authoritarian. The NPD will try to make its voice heard again in protest rallies during the football World Cup, and hopes to stage a comeback in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania's election in September, but its chances do not look great.

The defection of a WASG leader to the NPD will discredit both extremes--especially as the man faces charges for allegedly attacking a former girlfriend. Yet it is too early to conclude that neither the Left Party nor the NPD can gain from the grand coalition. Germans may hesitate to vote for the far left or far right, but they are not wild about the alliance of their main parties in the centre. In recent state elections, abstentions have run at record levels. If the grand coalition disappoints, more voters may yet opt for the extremes.

Article suggests that widely expected gains by extremist political parties in Germany may not happen.