Extremist parties dominate Berlin election campaign

[King_David]

Extremist parties dominate Berlin election campaign
By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT
09/16/2011 06:19


Race leading to German capital’s House of Deputies plagued by anti-Jewish campaign posters; Mayor Klaus Wowereit is a fan of Israel.

Talkbacks (3)



BERLIN – The race leading to Sunday’s vote for the German capital’s House of Deputies has been plagued by anti-Jewish campaign posters associated with the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD). The 141 legislators will choose the next mayor.

A new party – BIG – is dominated by disaffected social-democratic German-Muslims who advocate an anti-gay school curriculum and have ties with the radical Turkish Islamic organization Milli Görüs (“National Vision”). BIG is a German abbreviation for Alliance for Innovation and Justice.

The Green Party candidate for mayor, Renate Künast, in 2009 allegedly called a pro-Israel German NGO a Mossad-backed organization. Künast denied making the statement.

The Left Party’s national leaders have been engulfed in a series of anti-Semitism scandals involving the party’s failure to assertively confront members and politicians calling for a boycott of the Jewish state, and their support for equating Israel’s policies with those of Nazi Germany. The Left Party’s federal leaders are reeling from a controversy involving their praise of Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Gesine Lötzsch and Klaus Ernst, the cochairs of the Left Party, wrote Castro on the occasion of his 85th birthday that he is a model “for many nations in the world.”

They continued that “You can look back proudly on your life of battles and successful action at the head of the Cuban revolution.”

Lötzsch is a supporter of the radical leftist activists, including German Left Party deputies, who were aboard the Turkish vessel Mavi Marmara last year and sought to break Israel’s blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

The NPD has stirred the most controversy with its election posters in Berlin, showing the party’s leader, Udo Voigt, on a motorcycle with the words, “Step on the gas” (Gas Geben). Some say the NPD is using the gas slogan to conjure up the Nazis’ extermination program.


http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=238187

[King_David]

1. Berlin’s openly gay Mayor Klaus Wowereit, 57, from the Social Democrats, - Israel friendly.

Berlin’s openly gay Mayor Klaus Wowereit, 57, from the Social Democrats, is widely viewed as Israel friendly.


Gee what a surprise ;)

[King_David]

2. Wowereit

'He has also reached out to gay Israelis and promoted Berlin-Tel Aviv relations. At Berlin’s annual gay Christopher Street Day Parade in June, Wowereit said, “Tel Aviv is a wonderful, lively city,” and that he enjoys the close relations between the cities. He noted that in both countries, Germany and Israel, minorities are accepted.

The Islamic BIG party wants to introduce a school program to “protect all children” against gays, lesbians and bisexuals. The party opposes school books that show children with two fathers, and role playing involving “coming out” meant to help children overcome bias against homosexuality.'