The Berliner Zeitung concended that the "real winner" of yesterday's election was the NPD's leader in Mecklenburg - West Pomerania, Udo Pastörs. The fact that other parties treat him as a 'pariah' merely helped his cause, the paper said, adding: "Nobody had so many cameras and microphones thrust at him."

The NPD has deputies in the Saxon state parliament and innumerable councillors throughout the country. The party is stronger in the former East German areas, given high unemployment and a nostalgia for a more ordered economy and better social security system.

We note that contrary to the regular lie in the Australian media, the National Democratic Party is classified by Germany's 'Constitution Police' as a 'right radical party', not a neo-nazi organization.

The NPD is now a sure fixture on Germany's political scene. Its thorough-going organizational practises, its electoral work at local and lower levels of government, its ideological depth and its public activism, defines it as a useful model for nationalist activity in any country.