The NPD received around 4 per cent of the vote in today's Saarland elections in Germany. This is the first time the party has run in the Saarland, so this result is promising; perhaps they should have run jointly with the other right-wing parties, as they did in the Dresden city elections.

At any rate, the final tally is not yet in; let's hope the NPD makes it across the 5 per cent threshold.

Here's the link to the NYT (you need to register): http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Germany-State-Election.html

If someone can find a link that does not require registering, please post it.

Check this out!

Itz even better than the above post indicates!

I've included the whole article so there's no need to register:

First, here's the link: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-germany-election.html

Now the article, with the good parts in blue:

Schroeder's SPD Routed in Saarland, [COLOR=Blue]Far Right Gains[/COLOR]
By REUTERS

Published: September 5, 2004


Filed at 2:49 p.m. ET

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats slumped to their worst result in 44 years in the western state of Saarland on Sunday as voters punished the party for its painful economic reforms.

[COLOR=Blue]The far-right National Democratic Party, which the government has likened to Adolf Hitler's Nazi party and has tried to outlaw, was the strongest gainer, coming from nowhere to four percent, preliminary official results showed. That was not enough to win seats in the state assembly, but it pointed to even stronger gains for the far right in the poorer eastern states of Brandenburg and Saxony in Sept. 19 elections, as voters angered by the reforms drift to the fringe.[/COLOR]

The SPD fell 13.5 points to 30.8 percent compared with 44.4 percent in the 1999 state election.

The conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), who have ruled the state on the French border since 1999, held on to power with an increased majority, advancing two points to 47.5 percent.

Saarland is the first of an expected string of election defeats the SPD faces this month in response to widespread discontent over Schroeder's welfare cuts aimed at boosting growth and cutting unemployment.

NO GOING BACK

But SPD leaders on Sunday echoed Schroeder's line that there was no going back on the reforms.

"We know what we're doing is right and we're going to stick to it,'' said SPD general secretary Klaus-Uwe Benneter. The party's fortunes would revive once the reforms started to work, he said.

It was the SPD's sixth defeat in seven state elections held since early 2003, when Schroeder embarked on his reforms. In the European parliament elections in June, the SPD slumped to its worst nationwide result in 50 years.

Public opposition to Schroeder's reforms has intensified over the summer, with tens of thousands of people demonstrating against the toughest part of his program -- benefit cuts and stricter means-testing for the jobless from next January.

Schroeder has tied his political fate to the reform agenda, which the IMF, OECD and most economic think tanks see as crucial to preserving Germany's long-term prosperity in the face of an aging population.

He has insisted there will be no backtracking on reforms decided so far, but he signaled at a weekend cabinet meeting he will spare a reform-fatigued public, and his government, major new policy initiatives before the 2006 general election.

The SPD ruled Saarland, which has 1.1 million inhabitants, for 14 years before losing to the CDU in 1999.

Voter disdain for Schroeder is also expected to spill over into regional polls on Sept. 19 in Saxony and Brandenburg. The SPD may just hold on to power in Brandenburg but has been overtaken there by the reform communist PDS in opinion polls.

The party also faces losses in local elections on Sept. 26 in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state and the SPD's heartland.

[COLOR=Blue]Political scientist Juergen Falter said far right parties and the reform communist Party of Democratic Socialism, were likely to score strongly in the economically depressed east, where the street protests have been concentrated.

"We have to expect far right parties to get into the two states' assemblies,'' said Falter. Growing disenchantment with politics was reflected in a slump in the voter turnout to 55.5 percent from 68.7 percent last time.[/COLOR]