A Neo-Nazi Victory
That the limited success secured by the neo-Nazi Socialist Reich Party, led by the former associate of Hitler, Otto Remer, in the Lower Saxony elections this week should have caused perturbation at Bonn is intelligible enough. How much perturbation is called for is not quite so clear. Remer was advanced from Major to Major-General for his services to the regime at the time of the anti-Hitler plot in July, 1944, and has recently come out as a right-wing leader of pronounced nationalist tone, unimpeded by anything so embarrassing as a concrete programme. Last Sunday's Land elections in Lower Saxony were the first test of his political influence. In the result his party secured 16 seats—four by direct election and 12 under the working of proportional representation—out of a total of 158. That is not on the face of it very alarming, though before the election the party held only two seats in the Landis& but the trend it manifests is such as to cause serious concern. the more so since there is some evidence that Remer has been supported not merely by miscellaneous malcontents but by a good many former Nazis- who have never at heart abandoned their old ideology. That voters of that type could muster 11 per cent. of the votes cast is disquieting, but the suppression of the party by the Federal Government, or by the Federal Supreme Court when it comes into existence, is another matter. The admiration of the leaders of the party, and presumably of their followers, for Nazi principles may be reprehensible but are not of necessity unconstitutional. After all, the Communist Party has not been suppressed. However, the new Federal Constitutional Court, when it is brought into being (as it should have been before this), can decide the constitutional question. Then the air will be a little clearer.
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