The government on 9 September said legal action must be initiated against the publishers of the anti-Semitic weekly "Atac la persoana." Justice Minister Valeriu Stoica on the same day asked Prosecutor General Mircea Cristea to proscute the publishers and identify the author of the article that deplored that Romania does not have "barbered wire and Cyclone-B gas" to deal with "potential soap" (Jews). Stoica said the article constituted "nationalist-chauvinist propaganda" punishable under the provisions of the Penal Code. MS
- The Balkan Action Council -
Thursday, September 10, 1998 A Review of Contemporary Ultranationalist and Ultraracialist Movements, Ideas, and Their Consequences
Fascism is an evolved form of the political organization of group fear, hatred, and violence.
EDITORIAL-Fascism & Democracy is concerned with extreme nationalism, not nationalism per se. Nationalism can be a constructive force when linked to democratic values and norms. When the democratic element is missing, nationalism can be all too easily exploited by anti-democratic leaders seeking to harness the power of the irrational to their own political ends. Ultranationalist ideas, often infused with racialist dogma, can gestate in societies until economic or political crises lend popular credence to the agendas of extremists promoting national renewal. One has to look no further than Serbia, Rwanda and Burundi for the consequences of unrestrained, virulent ultranationalism. In Russia, meanwhile, the danger grows daily that ultranationalism, strengthened by the discrediting of a weakly established democracy and market economy, will be seized upon to legitimize new leadership.
GERMANY-Neo-Nazis have been active recently on several fronts. Five people were injured in a clash between left-wing extremists and members of the ultranationalist National Democratic Party (NPD) last Saturday at an election rally in Goeppingen. The following day, 20 police officers were injured in a melee with extreme nationalist youths shouting "Sieg Heil" and "Heil Hitler" after cancellation of a rock concert in Hirschfeld. In Berlin Saturday, police detained three teenagers who had attacked a woman from Bangladesh. Earlier that week, two skinheads in the eastern town of Halle attacked a man from Mozambique, who was taken to the hospital in critical condition. Border guards stopped about 120 suspected neo-Nazis from travelling to Denmark August 17 to participate in events marking the 11th anniversary of the death of Adolf Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess. Police said they had also detained about 35 people for trying to stage similar gatherings in Germany. Police arrested six neo-Nazis in mid-July in the eastern state of Saxony and were hunting a seventh for brutally attacking five Portuguese workers after Germany was defeated in the World Cup soccer championship. In a separate incident, police in the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate raided apartments of suspected neo-Nazis, detaining eight men and seizing large amounts of illegal weapons, outlawed Nazi symbols and a bust of Adolf Hitler. German police arrested 28 suspected neo-Nazis in mid-June for using Nazi salutes or slogans, including three arrested for giving the Nazi salute at the Ravensbrueck concentration camp. The crackdown in the eastern state of Brandenburg focused mostly on youth aged 15-25. If convicted, the accused can receive three-year prison terms. The arrests were part of a campaign by the authorities to resist the rise of German neo-Nazi and ultranationalist groups. Berlin's deputy mayor said the spread of extreme nationalist and anti-foreigner views among German youth was good reason to keep alive the spirit of Nazi resistance. Speaking on the anniversary of the July 20 assassination plot against Adolf Hitler, Christine Bergmann urged that memories of the resistance to Nazism must be kept alive, especially for youth who have no personal experience with the National Socialist era.
FRANCE-The political bureau of the National Front decided Tuesday to confirm Jean-Marie Le Pen as head of the party ticket in the June 1999 European Parliament elections. Sharpening rivalry between Le Pen and his deputy, Bruno Megret had caused Le Pen to consider placing his wife Jany at the top of the Front's candidate list in upcoming elections. Le Pen himself was stripped of his civil rights for two years by a French court in April for assaulting a Socialist politician in a street disturbance last year. His judicial appeal of that ruling will be announced later this month. Despite his outspoken xenophobia, Le Pen claimed that, "If my wife stands in next spring's European parliamentary elections, the fact she is a woman of foreign origin-half-Greek and a quarter Dutch-should have good electoral drawing power with women voters of European origin." Asked recently if his popular deputy wouldn't make more sense at the top of the ticket, Le Pen responded that, "It would really be too much if anyone took advantage of the blows which are dealt against me to promote their own place in the party." Le Pen's bombastic, populist-style rhetoric draws working class voters but frightens potential middle class supporters. Megret's intellectual style and three-piece suits have the opposite effect.
FRANCE-Prominent French intellectual Jean d'Ormesson, a member of the French Academy, criticized the French right for "heading towards collective suicide." He emphasized that a primary reason for the continuing divisions with the French mainstream conservative camp-which groups the Gaullist Rally for the Republic (RPR), the Union for French Democracy (UDF) and the free-market Liberal Democracy (DL) party-was the failure to deal with rebels who linked up with the National Front party of Jean-Marie Le Pen to retain control of their regional councils. D'Ormesson warned that the French right could "vanish from history" if it was unable to regain dignity, unity and victory. He concluded that "In a democracy, one must be able to win elections without losing one's soul. Tough? Get on with it."
GREECE-Mainstream religious figures have begun to address issues in the same terminology as the extreme nationalist fringe. Recently-enthroned Greek Orthodox Archbishop Christodoulos has become a darling of the extreme right. According to the Associated Press, the ultranationalist Greek newspaper Stohos has dubbed him "Archbishop Thunderbolt." On a holy day that doubles as armed forces day, the Archbishop noted that "We are ready, if necessary, to shed blood and make sacrifices. We, as a church, pray for peace...But we bless the sacred weapons when the moment demands it." His persistent criticism of the Turks has reportedly inflamed nationalist fervor at a time of difficult Greek-Turkish relations. He has warned that government efforts to integrate the country's economy with the EU are leading to "perdition and destruction." Harvard Divinity School professor Nicholas Constas urged that Christodoulos "stress pastoral work, religious education, the education of the clergy, outreach to the young, and not by way of demagoguery or political rabble rousing."
SLOVAKIA-The opposition democratic coalition is battling Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar's coalition in the final weeks prior to the September 25-26 parliamentary elections. One of the members of the Meciar coalition is the ultranationalist Slovak National Party, which according to some polls would receive eight percent of the vote.
BELARUS-Belarus presents one possible model of the direction Russian politics might take in the aftermath of the collapse of Russian financial markets: a semi-fascistic regime ruled by an authoritarian leader managing a centralized state economy. Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko urged last Friday that Russia "should now choose all the best things which have been tested in Belarus and already shown to work." He claimed that "Russia is now choosing between collapse and stability...The financial sector and the economy-which I was criticized about-turned out to be uncontrollable. And today even the democratic reformers have taken this on board." He said he was "absolutely convinced that the reform policy in brother Russia must be corrected. Those reformers have gone so far that it is now time to cool down and start rebuilding the economy." His message, in effect, was "I told you so."
AUSTRALIA-Prime Minister John Howard has called parliamentary elections for October 3 that will test the popularity of an ultranationalist party that has come from virtually nowhere in less than two years to shake the foundations of Australian politics. Pauline Hanson's One National party could hold the balance of power by opposing Asian immigration, Aboriginal rights and economic reform. During Queensland's June elections, One Nation won nearly 23 percent of the vote. A new multiethnic political party has been formed to counter Hanson's promotion of racialist views. The Unity Party is led by Jason Yat-Seni Li, a lawyer who formerly served at the Hague War Crimes Tribunal.
QUOTES:
"The public declaration made by the director of [President Laurent] Kabila's cabinet...likening Tutsis to 'garbage, germs which have to be eradicated methodically and with resolve' is reminiscent of the rhetoric used by the Nazis and Rwandan Hutu extremists in 1994. This incitement to hatred is being conducted with complete indifference from the international community."-International Crisis Group report (Washington Post columnist Stephen Rosenfeld 9/4/98).
"I do not want Australia to become Asianized and I am sure no Asian country would like their country to by Australianized. Unless people want to become Australian and respect our laws and way of life here-well then don't come here at all."-Pauline Hanson, leader of Australia's ultranationalist One Nation party, announcing a plan for zero net immigration (Reuters 8/30/98).
"When we look at the figures today, it's very clear that extreme right-wing parties have raised their support to horrifying levels."-German commissioner for foreigners' affairs Cornelia Schmalz-Jacobsen, commenting on the rise of ultranationalist support in eastern Germany (Reuters 8/26/98).
Prepared by: James R. Hooper and Marianne Rude
ULTRANATIONALISTS CONTEST GERMAN ELECTIONS
BY JAMES R. HOOPER
Germany's federal parliamentary vote and the election of several state parliaments September 27 provide fresh opportunities for German ultranationalists to leverage their influence on politics. They seek to accomplish this in three ways: by gaining representation in the Bundestag, establishing beachheads in state parliaments where they presently lack members and persuading mainstream political parties to adopt some of their ideas. Their primary base of support is in the east, especially among youth and pensioners.
Three parties promote the causes of the extreme right: the German Peoples Union (DVU), National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) and Republicans. The combined membership of all three parties in 1997 was about 45,000, with the DVU itself estimated at 15,000 nationwide. One or more of the three have representatives in a number of local councils and in the state parliaments of Saxony-Anhalt (DVU) and Baden-Wurttemburg (Republicans). None of them has secured the necessary five percent of the national vote to secure membership in the Bundestag, although the NPD was represented in the federal parliament from 1966-1969.
Rivalries among leaders of the three parties that have forestalled cooperation during the electoral campaign tend to obscure the fact that all three parties have essentially interchangeable views on key issues. They are hostile to foreigners and link high unemployment rates to immigrants, condemn the euro as a threat to the Mark and German sovereignty, criticize supranational institutions in general, demand law and order, indulge in Holocaust denial, and claim that Hitler's army was only following orders and should thus be excused from responsibility for war crimes.
The DVU is the leading standard bearer for the extreme nationalists following the party's dramatic showing in the April parliamentary elections in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt. Its polling of nearly 13 percent-the best by an ultranationalist party since the National Socialist era-revealed an unanticipated layer of frustration with the mainstream parties. As Jacob Heilbrunn noted in The New Republic, the DVU relied on American direct mail techniques to disseminate its message to voters between 19 and 29 and over 65.
The DVU's leader is wealthy Munich publisher Gerhard Frey, who founded the party in 1971. By downplaying any party membership structure and exploiting the technology of the Internet to expand the party's base and maintain organizational security, Frey has projected the DVU as a modern party of the right. His advertised connections with Austria's Joerg Haider, France's Jean-Marie Le Pen and Italy's Gianfranco Fini are intended to assert the DVU's legitimacy.
The NPD is also campaigning hard to attract support. One of their top national candidates is Manfred Roeder, who was jailed in 1982 for leading a neo-Nazi group that attacked refugee hostels, killing two Vietnamese and injuring several others. Released in 1990, Roeder made headlines in Germany last December when it was revealed that he had been invited to speak to a German military academy two years previously. Defense Minister Volker Ruehe has called Roeder "one of the most despicable neo-Nazis ever."
The ultranationalists have already achieved one of their goals: convincing the major parties to campaign on political ground defined by the extremists. Frey's slogan "German Jobs for Germans First" has essentially been echoed by mainstream conservatives. The Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian-based sister party of Helmut Kohl's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), sought to outflank Republicans threatening to win seats in Bavaria's parliament with the slogan "Germany is not a land of immigration." This was too much for the CDU, which refused to include it in the joint manifesto. But the manifesto does vow to keep immigration to a minimum, deport illegal immigrants and economic refugees, reduce contributions to the EU, and promote German interests more actively in the EU.
Kohl, moreover, has shifted his rhetoric slightly to the right to stem desertions from the CDU. He has reaffirmed his support for helping refugees but asserted that Germany "can not solve all the problems of the world" and emphasized that "When a foreigner lives here...then he must observe our laws, our order and recognize our traditions."
Playing to the ultranationalist galleries by adopting milder versions of their campaign message has caused some disquiet within the German political establishment. The federal commissioner for foreigners' affairs, Cornelia Schmalz-Jacobsen, criticized the CDU and Socialist Party of Germany (SPD) for bringing immigration issues into the campaign. She said "It's dangerous to go into the election campaign on the backs of foreigners. The issue is far too serious to be treated superficially." Berlin political analyst Hans-Gerd Jaschke warned that seeking to co-opt the ultranationalists could backfire politically. He observed that, "When the big parties...say they want to restrict immigration it shows voters the issues at the heart of the far right are correct and must be taken seriously. But this can be counter-productive and help boost support for the far right instead."
The political establishment continues to dismiss the possibility that any of the three extreme nationalist parties will obtain the required five percent support to enter the Bundestag. While pollsters continue to report that 10-15 percent of voters at the national level are potential supporters of the extreme nationalists, they predict that only two percent of voters would support extremists in the final tally.
The state level is another matter. The DVU has focused its national campaign on the economically depressed eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern that suffers from 23 percent unemployment. Campaigning there, Frey said he would redirect money intended for the EU into job creation in Germany instead, maintain the Mark rather than shifting to the common European currency, deport "fake asylum seekers," crack down on foreigner-related crime to produce law and order, and force mainstream parties to return to their "national" roots.
A DVU spokesman acknowledged last month that "After our success in Saxony-Anhalt we are focusing our federal campaign on Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and we expect to win as much as 20 percent in the state election." One observer there commented ruefully that "People from all walks of life are supporting the DVU, out of frustration over unemployment. Of course, it's a protest vote-but it's also a dangerous development."
Representatives of mainstream parties profess skepticism. One analyst noted that "The whole political landscape in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is braced to fight the far right. Most voters in Saxony-Anhalt did not know the DVU party leader was a millionaire from Bavaria, there is much more information about the far right now." Nonetheless, the federal commissioner of foreigners' affairs observed that "Foreigners say it's not a xenophobic country but they're scared when they have to travel to Mecklenburg-Vorpommern."
The NPD is also actively contesting Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The party is estimated to have 200 members there, while the DVU and Republicans each have about 100. The state's interior minister warned last month "A very dangerous situation is developing. The NPD is recruiting most of its new members from the violent skinhead scene."
Another state with the potential to elect extreme nationalists is Brandenburg. The scene of considerable racist violence recently, up to ten percent of Brandenburg's voters could vote for extreme nationalist candidates, according to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Alwin Ziel, the state's interior minister said "I would outlaw these parties if we had enough evidence against them to show that they wanted to turn Germany into a dictatorship." He stressed, however, that police would increase efforts to crack down on extremist violence and protect foreigners; two police officers were hurt in mid-August when they came to the aid of a Cuban couple being attacked by extreme nationalists.
Ultranationalist strength among voters will be previewed during this Sunday's state elections in Bavaria. Political analyst Jashcke speculated that the Republicans "could steal votes from the CSU by drawing support from Bavarians who are hostile to foreigners, opposed to the...open-borders treaty and Bonn's European policy."
The ultranationalist parties have already helped to alter the political landscape of Germany by infiltrating milder versions of their ideas into the mainstream via the major parties. Legitimization of the anti-foreigner and law and order components of their agenda will tend to lower the taboo against the Holocaust denial doctrines they have traditionally purveyed. If the parties also extended their reach into additional state parliaments, that would mark a significant advance. If, against all expectations, they managed to overcome the five percent hurdle to win seats in the Bundestag, that would be a dramatic development indeed.