Cure for Rash of Rightist Violence Eludes German Lawmakers

The German Parliament’s Domestic Affairs Committee held an emergency meeting Monday to discuss right-wing violence rocking the country’s troubled east but was unable to agree on ways to combat the unrest.

Government politicians renewed demands that the opposition Social Democratic Party agree to amend the constitution to limit a stream of foreign refugees coming to Germany in search of political asylum.

The interior minister of Brandenburg state, site of the worst weekend violence, said he expects assaults on hostels for foreign refugees to continue.

Racist violence by gangs of young rightists spread from the Baltic port of Rostock last week to at least seven other east German cities over the weekend.

After a session of three hours, the committee adjourned without a recommendation on how to stem the rash of violence.

Interior Minister Rudolf Seiters, who spoke to the committee, renewed the center-right government’s appeal for Social Democratic support needed for a two-thirds majority in Parliament to change the constitution.

Ever since far-right attacks on refugees and other foreigners first erupted last year, Chancellor Helmut Kohl has been pressing the opposition to join the governing coalition in a move to tighten Germany’s asylum law.

Social Democratic leaders, buckling under public pressure, agreed last week to consider a tougher law.

Kohl’s government has blamed the violence against foreigners on public anger at a rising number of asylum-seekers from Eastern Europe and the Third World. These are expected to total half a million this year.