Merkel's Party Routed in Big German State

REUTERS.COM: Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives suffered a crushing defeat on Sunday in an election in Germany's most populous state, a result which could embolden the left opposition to step up its criticism of her European austerity policies.

The election in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), a western German state with a bigger population than the Netherlands and an economy the size of Turkey, was held 18 months before a national election in which Merkel is expected to fight for a third term.

She remains popular in Germany for her steady handling of the euro zone debt crisis, but the sheer scale of her party's defeat leaves her vulnerable at a time when a backlash against her insistence on fiscal discipline is building across Europe.

According to first projections, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) won 38.8 percent of the vote and will have enough to form a stable majority with the Greens, who scored 12.2 percent.

The two left-leaning parties had run a fragile minority government for the past two years under popular SPD leader Hannelore Kraft, whose decisive victory on Sunday could propel her to national prominence.

Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) saw their support plunge to just 25.8 percent, down from nearly 35 percent in 2010, and the worst result in the state since World War Two.

"This is not a good evening for Merkel," said Gero Neugebauer, a political scientist at Berlin's Free University. » | Stephen Brown | Reuters | (Reporting by Stephen Brown and Tom Kaeckenhoff in Duesseldorf; Writing by Noah Barkin,Madeline Chambers, Sarah Marsh in Berlin) | Sunday, May 13, 2012

REUTERS DEUTSCHLAND: Rot-Grün gewinnt in NRW - Debakel für die CDU » | Sonntag, 13. Mai 2012

Rechtsextreme dürfen Mohammed-Karikaturen zeigen: Polizei fürchtet weitere Salafisten-Krawalle in NRW*

FOCUS ONLINE: Gewaltbereite Salafisten machen in NRW nach Erkenntnissen der Polizei erneut mobil. Nach den Krawallen in Bonn wollen sie sich in Köln gegen die rechtsextreme Splitterpartei Pro NRW versammeln. Einen Angriff auf Polizisten werten die Ermittler als Mordversuch.

Nach den schweren Ausschreitungen in Bonn hat die Polizei Hinweise auf weitere geplante Gewalttaten von Salafisten an diesem Dienstag in Köln. Dort ist eine Wahlkampf-Kundgebung der rechtsextremen Splitterpartei Pro NRW geplant. Die Behörden haben es mehr als 100 Islamisten verboten, Kölner Stadtgebiet zu betreten, teilte das Innenministerium in Düsseldorf mit. Außerdem dürfen die Rechtsextremisten von Pro NRW nicht in unmittelbarer Nähe einer Moschee demonstrieren und auch keine islamkritischen Karikaturen zeigen.

Verwaltungsgerichte in Minden und Arnsberg haben indes das Zeigen der Mohammed-Karikaturen erlaubt. Bei Ausschreitungen zwischen Salafisten und der Polizei waren am Samstag in Bonn 29 Polizisten verletzt worden, zwei durch Messerstiche schwer. Gegen einen 25-jährigen Islamisten wurde Haftbefehl wegen dreifachen versuchten Polizistenmordes erlassen. Der Mann aus Hessen sei wegen mehrfacher gefährlicher Körperverletzung bekannt, sagte ein Sprecher der Bonner Staatsanwaltschaft. Er habe den Angriff auf die Beamten gestanden, bestreite aber eine Tötungsabsicht. » | jba/dpa | Montag, 07. Mai 2012

*NRW – Nordrhein-Westfalen target=_blank> » [E]

Far-Right Provocation: Berlin Worried About 'Muhammad Cartoon Contest'

SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: A far-right group in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia is running a 'Muslim cartoon contest' and plans to display the works outside mosques. The move has alarmed authorities which fear it could incite violence and hurt German interests abroad, similar to the backlash that followed the 2005 publication of cartoons in Danish newspapers.

The German government has voiced concern that far-right activists in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia may incite violence with plans to hold a so-called "Muhammad cartoon contest" and to stage demonstrations outside mosques in the run-up to a regional election there on May 13.

SPIEGEL has learned that Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich warned of a confrontation between Salafists and right-wing extremists which he said could have unforeseeable consequences for public safety.

Pro-NRW, which has been categorized as an extremist right-wing group by the domestic intelligence agency, has said it plans to display the cartoons outside 25 mosques in the state. » | SPIEGEL/cro | Monday, April 30, 2012

Germany Bans Two Far-Right Groups
BBC: German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schauble has shut down two far-right organisations, describing them as "reservoirs" of Holocaust deniers.

In a statement, the interior ministry said the authorities had raided 30 sites linked to the groups, which were based in three western German states.

Mr Schauble said they had been involved in "disseminating anti-Semitic propaganda" and glorifying the Nazis.

Holocaust denial is a criminal offence under German law.
The interior ministry said both groups had violated Germany's constitution.

They were named as Collegium Humanum and the Association for the Rehabilitation of Those Persecuted for Questioning the Holocaust, and were said to be based in Lower Saxony, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia. [Source: Germany Bans Two Far-Right Groups] | May 7, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Taschenbuch)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Gebundene Ausgabe)