SCHWERIN, Germany, Sept. 15 (UPI) -- A neo-Nazi party is set to enter an eastern German state parliament after this Sunday's elections.
According to the latest opinion polls, the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany, or NPD, is poised to win up to 7 percent of the vote this Sunday in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, a north-eastern German state that borders the Baltic Sea.
The sleepy Germany region, suffering from a nearly 20 percent unemployment rate, is ruled by a coalition of the Social Democratic Party, or SPD, and the far-left Left Party. It is Chancellor Angela Merkel's home state, and U.S. President George W. Bush visited the region in July.
Support for neo-Nazi movements is highest in economically troubled eastern Germany -- the NPD already occupies seats in the parliament of Saxony.
Merkel's Christian Democratic Union and the SPD are trying to mobilize voters who would normally stay away from the polls.
"If few people go voting, then that benefits the smaller parties, and the NDP is purely a protest party," Philipp Missfelder, of Merkel's conservatives, told German news channel n-tv. "The NPD has no program and only wants to instigate."
In recent years the far-right party has sported a family-oriented image by organizing family days, sponsoring sports events and music concerts, a mere disguise for their radical goals, critics say.
In Berlin, Sunday's vote is expected to be a clear victory for the ruling Social Democratic Union, while their coalition partner, the Left Party, has to fend off the aspiring Green Party to win another term in government.
