Schroeder tour takes in sites of racist violence

Newspaper Bild am Sonntag quoted Schroeder as saying he did not believe new laws were needed to deal with neo-Nazis

BERLIN -- German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder sets out on a two-week tour of eastern Germany on Monday with far right extremism set to dominate the agenda.

In the wake of a spate of recent neo-Nazi attacks, Schroeder's trip, originally planned to raise the profile of the east 10 years after reunification, looks set to focus on the rise of xenophobic and anti-Semitic violence.

Concentrating on smaller centres Schroeder will visit the town of Dessau, the scene of a recent racist murder and Wolfen where two of the three neo-Nazi youths charged with the murder come from.

The east's high number of jobless is also likely to loom large -- ten years after the fall of the Berlin wall unemployment on the formerly communist side of the country stands at around 17 percent, double that of the west.

The chancellor will meet business and religious leaders, local politicians and visit schools, youth clubs, sports and job centres.

Before setting out on tour Schroeder was quoted in the Bild am Sonntag newspaper as saying he did not believe further legislation was needed to deal with neo-Nazis, but current laws needed to be more strictly applied with tougher sentencing.

Schroeder was also reported as saying that if a special government committee studying whether the neo-Nazi Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands (NPD) should be banned favoured the proposal it would represent "political hygiene."

Other senior political figures have questioned whether this would simply drive the party underground.

The chancellor's comments came amid another weekend of high-profile neo-Nazi action nationwide.

On Sunday about 40 Nazi sympathizers were arrested in Erfurt in the eastern state of Thuringia for taking part in banned gatherings marking the 13th anniversary of the death of Hitler's former deputy Rudolf Hess and for displaying Nazi symbols.

In the northern port city of Hamburg 2,200 police kept watch over 100 neo-Nazi and 500 anti-Nazi protesters.

The eastern tour can also be seen as a campaigning visit for the 2002 elections, following a series of electoral defeats for Schroeder's Social Democratic Party in the east.

In the worst case the SDP last year came third in Saxony State elections, trailing the Christian Democrats and former Communist PDS.

German political party calls for anti-Nazi Net filter
August 14, 2000
Hundreds protest racist violence in Germany
August 5, 2000
Protests follow German bomb blast that injured 10 immigrants
August 5, 2000
Germany acts against wave of neo-Nazi violence
August 2, 2000
Ex-East Germans nostalgic for communism's simpler life
November 9, 1999
Germany celebrates anniversary of Berlin Wall's opening
November 9, 1999
Eastern German resentment lingers over Westerners' deals
November 8, 1999

German government

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.