Skybird |
10-15-06 04:26 PM |
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Originally Posted by Gizzmoe
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Yes, but I stick to my statement that overall there is a small but constant gaion for the NPD since german reunification. [..] Int the east there have repeatedly been reports from communities and small cities/cillages where sympathies and silent tolerance for NPD policies are reported to reach 30 and even 40% of local population.
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Yep, but that doesnīt worry me (yet). The NPD is powerless and unprofessional. AFAIK there isnīt a single case where the NPD has managed to improve the situation (more jobs, better infrastructure, ...) in areas where they have large support. But thatīs what people want.
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The young ones are more easily to impress, I'm afraid - and less rational. Poverty teaches either religion, or extremism, as the old knowledge tells us. And sometimes both, then one has some kind of a fanatised, missionary spirit, plus tunnel vision. Dangerous combination.
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Slogans alone are not enough, they need to show that they can get things done. If they show that they can indeed improve things in a major way in their areas, things that the four major parties werenīt able to do, I will get nervous, because that will likely result in a popularity boost throughout the country thanks to their propaganda machine.
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The NPD is only something like a needle in a gauge, I think. For everyone having the "guts" to vote them 8and not doing it for protest, but by conviction), there are several ones that silently sympathizes with them. This is what I think about. If the election results would really represent all Nazi-sympathizers there are, then we would be able to safely ignore them and watch them making fools of themselves. But I think the idea of nazism has an influence beyond what is indicated in those numbers, and it silently and slowly creeps forward, at least in the East. Attached to Nazism is organized crime, which probabaly currently is the most effective negative result it's presence is causing.
Concerning antisemitism, which also should be mentioned in this thread, maybe, I have no clear opinion on how big it is in Germany. Sometimes one could get the impression there is quite some ammount of it, but on the other hand judaic organisations, namely the Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland, trigger enough antipathic, if not allergic reactions that even many Jews in Germany seem to distance themselves from them , at least ignore them. So to what degree "anti-semitism" is really a hostility towards Jews, or just antipathy towards a single organisation, I find hard to judge. I remember to have red comments by german correspindents in Israel that even the Israeli goivernment sometimes showed cautious irritation about something said by the Zentralrat. And the personnel they choose to represent them, often does not help to raise them any additinal sympathies - Michel Friedman and einz Galinski for example really are (were) perceived as polarizing the German public, to say the least. Current president Charlotte Knobloch seem to continue their tradition.
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