By Lisa Macdonald
Germany's Chancellor Helmut Kohl promised the east prosperity when he manipulated the annexation of former East Germany in 1990. Since then, a near-zero jobless rate has soared to more than 30%; with the impending introduction of the euro, there is widespread fear that unemployment will increase still further (according to Focus magazine, a January opinion poll found that 71% of voting-age Germans oppose the euro).
This is the context in which a far right group won seats in an eastern state parliament for the first time on April 24. The pro-Nazi, anti-foreigner, anti-Semitic, anti-gay German People's Union (Deutsche Volksunion) polled almost 13% of the vote, winning 14 seats in the parliament of Saxony-Anhalt.
This is the best performance of an extreme right-wing party in Germany since World War II, in an election in which the voter turnout (70.4%) was more than 15% higher than in the last poll in 1994.
The "opposition" Social Democratic Party (SPD) fared best in the election, winning 35.9% of the votes. Kohl's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) suffered a 12.4% drop from 1994 to 22%. The Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) held its ground with 19.6%, but Alliance 90/The Greens suffered a drop, from 5.1% to 3.2% (below the 5% required to enter parliament).
The DVU's success marks a revival for the party, whose candidates won seats in the Bremen and Schleswig-Holstein state assemblies in the early 1990s but lost them four years later. The success was the result of a massive leaflet and poster campaign (including leaflets dropped from aircraft) that cost DM3 million — more than the campaign budgets of the CDU and the SPD put together.
The DVU is funded by Gerhard Frey, a long-time pro-Nazi movement leader with a personal fortune estimated at over DM500 million, made from publishing neo-Nazi literature, videos, CDs and a travel service. His two newspapers sell more than 130,000 copies each week with stories about "the lie of war guilt", "criminal foreigners" and "blackmailing Jews".
Although the DVU has an estimated 16,000 members (Frey claims it had 300 members in Saxony-Anhalt at the start of the campaign but now has 1500), it has no party structure anywhere in Germany. Unlike the PDS, which has a mass membership and elected representatives throughout the east, the DVU has no grassroots presence.
However, with an official unemployment rate of 22.6% in Saxony-Anhalt (unofficial estimates put the figure at around 50%, much higher for young people), the DVU's opposition to the euro (both the CDU and SPD support it) and its "solution" to unemployment — channelling Germany's European Union contributions be into job creation ("German money for German jobs") and preventing "foreigner bandits" from taking "Germans' jobs" — are increasingly popular.
Of particular note are exit polls that showed that 25-30% of voters under 30 years old voted for the DVU. "Voting right wing for young people has become part of youth culture there, just like skateboarding and techno", Frey told a news conference after the poll.
The DVU distances itself from the skinhead scene, saying that any "criminals" have been expelled, and denies it is racist. "Integrated foreigners have our friendship and devotion", says Frey.
According to the Independent newspaper, east German politicians from the major parties are advising Kohl to make "necessary adjustments" in CDU campaign rhetoric before the September 27 general election.
This advice is loudest from the CDU's Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union. Its leader, finance minister Theo Waigel, said on April 28, "Aside from jobs, [the CDU] needs to put more stress on internal security, immigration and crime policies".
Such a shift in rhetoric would not represent a significant change in policy for the CDU or CSU.
The PDS, in a statement issued on April 28, emphasises that the DVU vote was first and foremost "a protest against the economic and social policies of the Kohl government, but also a reaction to the many covert and open xenophobic statements of the government parties". The PDS points out that greatest inter-party migration of voters on April 24 occurred from the CDU to the DVU.
At a rally in Magdeburg in mid-April, Kohl devoted a chunk of his speech to "law and order", saying that "foreigners are guests in our country" and adding that they should respect Germany's laws.
Reuters on April 28 quoted Frey as saying that he is now holding talks with Franz Schoenhuber, former leader of the rightist Republicans, and other groups about forming an ultra-right alliance for the general election.
The DVU has attempted cooperation with Germany's other two main right-wing parties, the Republicans — the only other far right party with seats in a regional assembly — and the National Democratic Party (NPD).
He persuaded the NPD, whose former leader Guenter Deckert was prosecuted for incitement to racial hatred in 1996, to form a joint platform for the 1989 European elections. The DVU emerged stronger, while the NPD, which enjoyed its high point in the late 1960s, went into decline.
Frey claims that a strong right-wing alliance could change Germany's political landscape, not just by winning elections but by influencing the mainstream parties: "When the old parties start behaving in a normal way and start to recognise our national interests, then I can feel I have more than fulfilled my task", he said.
A report by Bavaria's Office for Constitutional Protection charges that the DVU is dependent on Frey's funding and accuses it of irregularities in party finances.