GERMANY: Voting in state elections in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern begins, far-right threat hangs over vote

Germany's far right looks set to win seats in its third regional parliament on Sunday (September 17) as discontent with Chancellor Angela Merkel's national government and depressed conditions in the east push voters to the fringes. The National Democratic Party (NPD) has gained ground in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern with anti-immigrant tirades and attacks on Merkel's increasingly unpopular "grand coalition" of conservatives and Social Democrats (SPD). Polls project it will win about 7 percent of the vote, a result which would allow it to enter the regional assembly and give the far-right representation in three of the six state parliaments in Germany's former communist east. Voting in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and in a separate election in the German capital and city-state of Berlin began at 8 a.m. (0600 GMT). The first exit polls are expected at 6 p.m. (1600 GMT). In total, some 3.8 million are entitled to vote. Despite 17 percent unemployment and public debt of 60 billion euros ($76.35 billion), voters in Berlin are expected to re-elect popular SPD Mayor Klaus Wowereit. He could seal a coalition with his current partners, the reformed communist Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), or with the Greens. But the focus in Germany has been on Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where incumbent SPD state Premier Harald Ringstorff could be returned to his post or forced to become junior partner in a coalition with the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU). The region, which sits on the Baltic Sea and borders Poland, hosted a meeting this summer between Merkel and U.S. President George W. Bush, who enjoyed a barbecue of wild boar before both headed off for a G8 summit in St. Petersburg. Some fear the state, reliant on tourism after its manufacturing base eroded and its population declined by 15 percent following the fall of the Berlin Wall, will become known as a hotbed for neo-Nazis. On a national level CDU Chancellor Angela Merkel's grand coalition with the SPD is pushing reforms including a rise in sales tax and increase in the retirement age; unpopular measures that could create a well for the NPD to draw on. While the NPD and other far-right parties have little influence on the national stage today, their radical and nationalist views have found acceptance in the depressed east, where unemployment is close to 20 percent and prospects are bleak. NPD politicians already sit in the parliament of Saxony to the southeast of Berlin, where their rising popularity is seen as a potential discouragement to foreign investors. In Brandenburg, surrounding the capital Berlin, the far-right German People's Union (DVU) has been in parliament since 1999.

ITN Source | September 18, 2006

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