Germany Elects EU Parliament Member Who Thinks Hitler Was ‘A Great Man’

Udo Voigt, member of the far-right anti-immigration political party National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD), received 1% in an election for European Parliament this weekend, which means Germany is sending a deputy who once called Hitler “a great man.”

Per Agence France-Presse, Voigt’s father was a member of the Nazi SA, the first paramilitary wing of the Nazis. He was indicted in 2003 for spreading Nazism after calling Hitler “a great man,” and later questioned the death toll of the Holocaust.

He got in trouble again in 2011 when political posters featuring Voigt on a motorcycle under the slogan “Step On It” (literally “give gas”), which many saw a reference to the gas chambers, appeared across Berlin, including in front of the Jewish Museum. This is all to say nothing of the NPD’s anti-Muslim rhetoric.

The NPD did poorly overall in the election, but took advantage of a recent rule change eliminating a 3% vote threshold. German Prime Minister Angela Merkel has denounced the party, and the government tried unsuccessfully to ban it last year; it is not represented in the German parliament.

France and Belgium both saw strong showings from their far-right, anti-immigrant parties, and EU leaders are under pressure to resist the newly-strengthened fringe groups.

[h/t AFP]

[Image via DPA]

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