Extremism Must Be Halted, Kohl Says

Speaking during a parliamentary debate on political extremism, Chancellor Helmut Kohl on Thursday urged all elements of German society to actively oppose rightist violence.

“The police, the judiciary and all citizens of our country must collectively and decisively oppose every form of violence,” he told Parliament in Bonn. “A state that no longer enforces a rule of law loses the trust of its people. There is no justification for violence. For anyone.”

During his half-hour speech, Kohl noted that while right-wing extremists have also grown active in other European countries, Germans have a special obligation to oppose it. “With the history of this century . . . we Germans are challenged in a special way to prevent each and every act of violence and protect human dignity and human rights,” Kohl said.

He also said that Germans owe it to the memory of those who died in the Holocaust to demonstrate a special solidarity with Jews living in the country.

Anti-Semitism has been a strong sub-theme in extremist attacks that have grown steadily in number and intensity since unification two years ago.

Although Kohl has often condemned right-wing violence in the country, Thursday’s speech was his first in Parliament devoted completely to the subject. It reflected a greater determination that has become visible in recent weeks to stop the attacks.

As Kohl spoke, his government continued a crackdown against extremists that was launched recently after months of inaction. Interior Minister Rudolf Seiters announced a ban on the small ultra-right German Alternative, a group of about 300 active members formed three years ago in eastern Germany; its ideology and strategy appear to be a mix of racial hatred and street fighting.

German television on Thursday evening showed police raids on the apartment of the group’s leader, a 25-year-old from the southeastern city of Cottbus named Frank Hubner.

On Nov. 27, the government banned another small but aggressively racist and violence-prone group based in western Germany known as the National Front.

Although the two groups are believed to be responsible for only a tiny fraction of the more than 2,000 violent attacks--which Kohl said in his speech had been linked to right-wing extremists--the government move against them is likely to have important, indirect ramifications. It is likely to discourage at least some of the poorly organized groups of radical youths, whose xenophobic attacks have tended to be spontaneous affairs following long drinking bouts rather than carefully planned actions. In his parliamentary speech, Kohl said the majority of those involved in the attacks have been 12 to 20 years old.

Government action has also been a factor in the powerful shift of public mood during the last few weeks from a form of tacit approval for the attacks against foreigners to outright disapproval. Public opinion polls have already registered a sharp drop in the number of those voicing support for right-wing radicals.