GERMANY: The German government has attacked as "treacherous" remarks by a leading conservative that the politics of the Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schröder, are aiding the rise of neo-Nazi parties.
Mr Edmund Stoiber, the Bavarian state premier and leader of Bavaria's Christian Social Union, said the rise of unemployment above 5 million for the first time since 1932 was the "main reason for the revival in strength of the [ far-right] NPD".
"The economic failure of the Schröder government, this level of unemployment, creates a breeding-ground for extremists who, in the end, take advantage of these people's lack of perspective and, in that way, put democracy in this country in danger," Mr Stoiber was quoted in Welt am Sonntag newspaper yesterday.
A government spokesman has described the remarks as "a new low for Mr Stoiber in his ambitions to attract attention".
Mr Franz Münterfering, the leader of the governing Social Democrats (SPD), warned against using neo-Nazis to score political points. "Mr Stoiber, you are inviting the blame onto yourself when you try these small-minded tactics," he said.
"The democrats in Germany have to decide whether they tackle the Nazis together. Disagreements among ourselves about them would suit them [ the NPD] very much."
Mr Stoiber's remark and the outrage they were designed to provoke appear carefully carefully timed to crank up even further the current debate about the extreme-right NPD, which attracted 8 per cent support in the Saxon state election last year and is represented in state parliament in Dresden.
The party is expected to hijack next weekend's ceremonies to mark the firebombing of Dresden in 1945, which party politicians have described as a "bombing Holocaust" against Germans.
The main political parties have tied themselves in knots about the best way to tackle the NPD after its MPs refused to participate in a minute's silence for victims of the Holocaust two weeks ago and left the parliamentary chamber instead. Leading politicians and Jewish groups have called for another attempt at banning the party.
"If the necessary laws don't exist, then they must be created," said Ms Charlotte Knobloch, vice-president of the Central Committee of Jews in Germany. "Something has to finally happen. It is in the interests of the country because the consequences abroad are disastrous."
Lawmakers in post-war Germany set a high legal bar for banning a political party deliberately as it was one of Hitler's oft-used tactics against his political opponents. The constitutional court could only ban the NPD if the government could prove that the party was actively working to undermine the German state.
Mr Otto Schily, the interior minister, said another failed attempt would only strengthen the NPD and he called for a cross-party alliance to tackle it. Such an alliance was always unlikely and looks next to impossible now after yesterday's remarks.
Mr Stoiber is no stranger to controversy: his arch-conservative positions on everything from immigration to gay rights are popular in Bavaria but are viewed with suspicion, even derision, elsewhere.
His remarks seem designed to return him to the spotlight which, in the last years, has shone on his conservative rival, the CDU leader Ms Angela Merkel, who is Mr Schröder's likely challenger in next year's election. She echoed Mr Stoiber's remarks, but with more caution. The best way to tackle extremism was to bring about a "sensible economic situation", she said.
The Stoiber interview unleashed a largely negative media reaction yesterday. "If democrats like Stoiber start to blame democrats like Schröder for the successes of the NPD, extremists will clap their hands in joy," said one newspaper editorial. Now that it is back in the headlines, the NPD, a party with just 3,000 members, is expected to crank up its publicity machine in the coming months. It has emerged that the party has applied for its Dresden MPs to visit the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, on May 8th, the 60th anniversary of the collapse of national socialism.