Germany's Merkel says will not tolerate neo Nazis
Source: Reuters
FRANKFURT AN DER ODER, Germany, Jan 27 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed to take tough action against neo Nazis on Saturday after a group of far right radicals gathered outside a political event she was attending. "I am glad to live in a democracy. We know what that means. That is why we will adopt an attitude of zero tolerance towards the forces who want to take us back to National Socialism (Nazis)," Merkel said on Holocaust memorial day. About 150 right wing militants gathered outside the hall where she was speaking at a regional party conference of her Christian Democrats (CDU). Several hundred people took part in a counter demonstration in the town, located on the Polish border, and police said they made several arrests. Merkel's comments came a day after the U.N. General Assembly condemned denials of the Holocaust in a response to a conference in Iran which had been dominated by speakers questioning the extermination of about 6 million Jews. The U.N. resolution was timed to coincide with the International Day of Commemoration of the Holocaust on Jan. 27. On that date in 1945 the Soviet Red Army liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp. Merkel's stand comes at a time when the far right is gaining popularity. Far-right parties now hold state parliament seats in three regions in the former communist east after the National Democratic Party (NPD) won seats in the northern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern's assembly last September. German police figures also showed the number of extreme right-wing crimes rose significantly last year, climbing by around 20 percent in the first eight months of 2006 compared with a year earlier. (Reporting by Axel Hildebrand, Editing by Matthew Jones, +49 30 2888 5230, madeline.chambers@reuters.com)
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