Jewish official calls for steps against German far right
'Anyone who thinks this is a problem of only skinheads is completely wrong' says leader
"Violent persecution of immigrants takes place on a daily basis and unfortunately the authorities look the other way," Said Stephan Kramer, general secretary of the Central Council of German Jews. "Anyone who thinks that this is only a problem of skinheads and less well-off people is completely wrong."
The National Democratic Party, known by its German initials NPD, won 7.3 percent of the vote Sunday in the northeastern region of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, entitling it to six seats in the local legislature. The NPD has made no secret of its harsh anti-foreigner stance and has praised Nazi-era economic and education policies.
Mecklenburg has Germany's highest unemployment rate at 18.2 percent. But Kramer said naming unemployment as the only reason for increasing right-wing extremism oversimplified the problem, saying right-wing attitudes were more broadly distributed.
Right-wing graffiti, defiled cemeteries and violent attacks on minorities, particularly in Berlin and its surrounding area, are part of an omnipresent xenophobic atmosphere, he said.
"The disenchantment with politics also plays a role," He said, emphasizing that politicians have to be brave enough to take unpopular but necessary steps to create trust on a long-term basis.
Violence on the rise
Kramer cited government figures showing the number of right-wing motivated acts of violence rose from 776 in 2004 to 959 last year.
The previous government under Social Democratic Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder 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.
Kramer spoke at a news conference in Berlin along with other advocates for programs to combat extremism and foster democratic attitudes in the formerly communist east. Those programs were begun in 2001 under Schroeder.
Families Minister Ursula von der Leyen, of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, has announced plans to subsidize local governments instead of private initiatives that set up help programs to foster democratic attitudes in the affected regions.
Dominique John, who coordinates the work of help centers for victims of right-wing extremism, said there are more than 1,000 people per year who seek such help in the once communist eastern states.
He said he feared local governments are too slow and cumbersome to keep alive the just-developed programs against violence and intolerance. As a result, "The majority of these people wouldn't have access to professional advice anymore."
