The hunt is on for the tattooed attacker of Alois Mannichl amid increasing calls for banning the NPD

In the wake of the attack on Passau police head Alois Mannichl the police have circulated pictures of very distinctive tattoos which shouldreadily identify his doorstep attacker.

The NPD feel they have been unfairly harassed in the enquiry -" How else do you explain that almost all of the Passauer District of NPD in the investigation has been involved, board members were temporarily arrested and the deputy chairman of the District Association arrested."

The Bavarian Prime Minister Horst Seehofer has said they must "examine" a ban on the NPD ( NPD Verbotsverfahren). He said that the attack on Mannichl shows that police, enforcement officers and public prosecutor's officers must be better protected. They must protect our freedom, our values and the tolerance in our country from these enemies of the democracy. They earn for it more than our respect and our support. They earn also our sympathy and affection. “

Federal Minister of the Interior Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) is sceptical: "We can't call for a prohibition of the NPD, without being sure that we can also win it. We must defend aur aim of an open society against their enemies, and failure to win would prove to be counterproductive. "

The Federal Foreign Affairs Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier demanded an active search for the culprits in a newspaper interview with Sonntag , on the right-wing extremist scene. " Police and protection of the constitution must be used to combat the right-extremist expression and action" ..."The fact that the right wing believes they can use swastiaka flags in funerals and go unpounished is deeply frightening. Therefore the federal state and the federal office for Verfassungsschutzand nees to look more closely at these people."

"Those responsible for the attack in Passau must be found and arrested fast and be dealt with by the force of the law", said Steinmeier.

The punishment must make it completely clear that right-extremist acts of violence in our country does not succeed". On the prohibition of the NPD Steinmeier says the Passauer incident will increase calls for a prohibition (Verbot)". New demands for an NPD prohibition at the Federal Constitutional Court must however work otherwise ,"The right-wing extremists will triumph in the end - and this must not happen" .

An opinion poll by polling organisation group Emnid (part of Taylor Nielsen) seems clear: 65 % of Germans want a prohibition of the NPD. Only 29 % are against it. In the East German states up to 77 % want a prohibition of the right-wing party and only 22% reject it.

The National Democratic Party of Germany ( Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands, NPD) is a right wing, pan german nationalist and white supremacist political party. Founded on 28th November 1964 it succeeds the German Reich Party ( Deutsche Reichspartei, DRP). and has been led since 1966 by Udo Voigt.

A poll by broadcaster ARD shows that the majority of the population in Germany considers the NPD to be undemocratic and damaging to the image of the country and is considered by many to be thede facto National Socialist Party redux - they oppose increasing the number of non-whites, Jews, and Muslims living in Germany.

The German federal intelligence agency Verfasungsschutzsay they are a "threat to the constitutional order" and they keep a close watch on their activities.

They have been very active in criticising the election of Barack Obama and claim he represents an unholy alliance of Blacks and Jews .

They claim that the extensive support expresed for Obama in Germany "resembles an African tropical disease" and that Obama aimed to destroy the United States' "white identity." The NDP claimed that "A non-white America is a declaration of war on all people who believe an organically grown social order based on language and culture, history and heritage to be the essence of humanity" and that "Barack Obama hides this declaration of war behind his pushy sunshine smile

See also
Passau Stabbing Highlights Neo-Nazi Activism Z word Blog 18th Dec 2008 - especially re the rise of the right in Austria by Viennese based journalist Karl Pfiefer based in Vienna.

"At the beginning of November, five defendants accused of Nazi activities were acquitted by a jury in the district court of Wels in Upper Austria. When the acquittal was announced, supporters of the accused applauded loudly.

The five had founded an Association of Free Youths (BfJ) which aimed to replace the constitutional structure of the Republic of Austria with a “Volksgemeinschaft” of National-Socialist character. The prosecution spoke about a “direct rebirth of the Hitler Youth”. BfJ originates from the Youth movement of the extreme right “Arbeitsgemeinschaft für demokratische Politik” (AFP). Their publications have been characterized in a report by Heinz Mayer, a constitutional expert, as containing “manifest and dressed up glorification of National Socialist violent measures.”

The Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) received 11 % of the vote in the October 2006 general election, compared to 10 percent in 2002. Animosity between the FPÖ (21 seats) and Jörg Haider’s Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ − 7 seats), which split from the FPÖ in April 2005, prevented the latter from forming a coalition with the former ruling Austrian People’s Party ÖVP (66 seats). At the opening of Parliament, all 21 FPÖ representatives wore a blue cornflower in their buttonholes. Between 1933 and 1938 blue cornflowers served as a symbol identifying the illegal NSDAP in Austria.

This has attracted people with murky associations for example Styrian FPÖ regional spokesperson Gerhard Kurzmann was a member of the extreme right Kameradschaft IV (K IV), an association traditionally linked to the Waffen SS.

It is claimed that crimes associated with the extreme right have increased in Austria increasing from 419 in 2006to 752 in . Death threats have been posted on Internet sites with address and phone number of the persons targeted.

It has also produced a curious alliance of the far right with the Palestinian cause. An Austrian UN soldier was in the Lebanon in July 2006. Dietmar Gerhartl, a FPÖ district councilor in Neunkirchen, Lower Austria, wrote on the website of the Palästinensischen Gemeinde in Österreich (Palestinian Community in Austria) that he had long since grown tired “of having to watch the injustice in Palestine without being able to say or do anything about it.” the “terrorist state of Israel has now killed an Austrian too in cowardly fashion” and the “mass murderers with the Star of David… continue to go unpunished,” he no longer feared the “Nazi bludgeon” as the real Nazis were those in Israel.”

At the end of July 2006 the FPÖ demanded the suspension of relations with Israel. Condemning “Israel’s aggressive policies which contravene human and international law,” FPÖ member of the European Parliament (MEP) Andreas Mölzer decided to demonstrate solidarity by hoisting a Palestinian flag in front of his house.