Udo Voigt, chairman of the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) is seen on a TV screen as he enters the Fontane-Haus building to take part in a party convention in Berlin on Saturday, Nov. 11, 2006. The party opened its national party congress in Berlin as several hundred protesters, including members of most mainstream parties, demonstrated outside. (AP)
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| By: Israel Insider staff and partners |
| Published: November 12, 2006 |
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A German far-right party opened its national party congress Saturday in the capital after an appeals court ruled a neighborhood's concerns were not enough to block it.
Some 700 members of the National Democratic Party, known by its German initials NPD, were expected at the meeting in the northwestern Berlin district of Reinickendorf.
Whenever neo-Nazis hold public events in Germany their numbers are invariably dwarfed by counter-protesters, and some 2,000 demonstrators against the party congress were expected, police spokesman Christian Matzdorf said.
"One day we will control this country, and not from some remote town, but from Berlin," declared National Democratic Party (NPD) Chairman Udo Voigt at the convention. The declaration received roaring applause from those in attendance. Ahead of the meeting, however, the area was quiet, he added.
The two-day congress was given the go-ahead on Friday night by a Berlin-Brandenburg administrative court, which ruled that Reinickendorf's concerns that the meeting would lead to a complete shutdown of the area's center were unfounded.
"The administration of Reinickendorf's fear of the full blockade of the center ... was not convincing to the court," the court said in its ruling.
Eldad Beck , a Ynet staff writer who attended the event, described it as follows:
"Chairman Voigt read to the enthusiastic audience a list of all those who wanted to stop them from meeting. When he reached the name of Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit, a homosexual, the audience booed.
"'The Jewish community also didn't want us,' continued Voigt, evoking laughter from the crowd. This automatic response instilled in me, the only Jew at the convention, deep aversion and fear.
"'Throughout the country, our strength is growing, and we won't surrender to attempts to subdue us,' promised Voigt.
"'The big losers are standing outside protesting,' said another speaker, and the audience went wild.
"The speakers from Germany lamented the leftists and 'Free Masons' -- a code word for Jews -- in the country. 'Germany has become poor, sick, old, and full of foreigners, and plundered because of this policy,' said one of the neo-Nazi leaders from Berlin. 'The tens of thousands of votes we received in the elections will turn into millions and will bring about real change.'
"'In another 50 years, there will be more Gypsies in Romania than local residents,' predicted the head of the Romania delegation. 'Our enemies are operating within global frameworks. Only modern European, Christian nationalism will be a fitting response to the imperialism of the 21st century.'
"The neo-Nazis have adopted the slogan 'The New Center' for themselves. This is the same slogan Tony Blair used to capture Britain. Based on their exterior, the neo-Nazis already seem part of the center.
"Skin heads and uniform-wearers are already a minority. The convention participants were well-kept, well-dressed people from all levels of German society.
Former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's government tried to ban the NPD, but the move was blocked by the Supreme Court when it was discovered that the government's case was based in part on inflammatory statements made by paid government informants.
Though it is a fringe party at the federal level, never garnering more than a handful of votes, the NPD has made inroads at the state level and now holds seats in two state parliaments.
The party holds a national congress at least every two years.
AP and Ynet staff writer Eldad Beck contributed to this report. |
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