The National Democrats got a comprehensive pasting in the elections this week in Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine Westphalia.Their vote declined in both localities.They got 0.7% in in Schleswig-Holstein and 0.5% in north Rhine Westphalia.
In Germany if you get a certain proportion of the vote you are entitled to claim expenses,unfortunately for the NPD they failed to hit the bar and are therefore not entitled to any reimbursement for any expenses they have incurred.
The islamophobic PRO movement did slightly better,getting around 1.5% of the vote.They are the EDLs spiritual cousins,who enjoy engaging in provocative demonstrations outside Mosques.
The main beneficiary of the elections appear to be the left.Although there has been little reporting of this in the American or British press.
Angela Merkel's Christian Democtats(CDU) managed to get only 26% of the vote,losing 9% of the popular vote.This is a clear sign that it is not just the French and Greeks who are sick of austerity policies.The cuts in working hours, welfare and pensions are testing the patience of the German electorate.
The Social Democrats (SPD) achieved 39% of the vote and therefore are in prime position to form the next government.They are also in a position to push hard for a loosening of Merkel's hardline austerity measures.
This will certainly have an effect on the growing anti-austerity movement which is sweeping the continent.
It can be presumed that the potential effect it might have on the anti austerity movement in Greece might be the reason some sections of the press are playing down the results.
As the human consequences of the Europe wide cuts agenda and its ensuing misery are one of the prime causes for the fillip the Nazis have been enjoying in France and Greece, how this new movement proceeds will be of more than passing interest to the anti-fascist movement.
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