Fascist International
BERLIN/MADRID The extreme right-wing National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) has concluded a cooperation accord with the successors of Franco in Spain and is calling upon ,,other European nationalists"to affiliate themselves with the ,,Madrid-Berlin axis". The immediate objective is the foundation of a ,,European right-wing Party". Its concrete composition is still being debated among European fascists. According to the strategic plan of influential German right-wing extremists the ,,Europe Idea"of the Waffen-SS could possibly serve as the basis of an alliance. In the foreign legions of the Waffen-SS, the Nazi regime assembled ,,European volunteers"who were fighting, under German leadership (the ,,history laden central European factor of stability") for an ,,economic Greater Europe".
As reported in the latest edition of the NPD party paper, ,,Deutsche Stimme"(German Voice), Udo Voigt, chairman of the NPD, signed in Madrid with the Spanish party La Falanga, a successor to the fascist ruling party under the Franco-regime, an ,,agreement on the further cooperation". In allying with other German right extremist organizations, the NPD gained new strength and has assumed ,,a historical vanguard role", the party paper recounts. 1)The exemplary alliance of German right-wing extremists is marking the path for fascist splinter organizations in Spain and other European countries.
Ravage
The party paper points to the ,,Condor Legion"and the ,,Blue Division"as predecessors to a new right-wing, Berlin-Madrid axis. Approximately 20.000 Wehrmacht soldiers in the ,,Condor Legion"supported Franco's campaign of annihilation against the Spanish Republic. In return, following Franco's victory, fascist Spain offered 5 army regiments for the war against the Soviet Union and to support the Nazi ravage of Europe.
Via Germany to Europe
In the plans for a ,,European right-wing Party,"German organizations are claiming a central role. Franz Schoenhuber, one of the most influential German right-wing extremists with extensive international connections, declared: ,,in the common European house (...) the Germans have to receive a room according to their historical and current importance". 2)The road leads ,,from Germania, via Germany to Europe"Schoenhuber said, referring to a formulation of Arthur Moeller van der Bruck, a mentor of National Socialism. Which German party will play the central role in a European rightwing alliance remains controversial. Whereas the NPD finds itself in a leadership position following recent electoral successes, the Belgian ,,Vlaams Belang"would like to place the Austrian, Joerg Haider, at the head of a right-wing European election platform. Haider and the FPÖ have their roots in the German nationalist spectrum of Austria, which considers Austria as a fundamental part of Germany.
Not for Germany...
The German right-wing extremists' concept for a pan-European party alliance adopts the ,,Europe idea"of the Waffen-SS. As Franz Schoenhuber, former member of this terror organization, himself declared, ,,the Waffen-SS was the first European army on a volunteer basis". According to him, the French volunteers of the Charlemagne division of the Waffen-SS, for example, ,,were not fighting for Germany, but for a unified Europe". 3)
... for Europe!
In uninterrupted continuity since 1945, the collaboration of foreign soldiers with Nazi Germany within the Waffen-SS, serves for German right-wing extremists as the model for future cooperation. In an article published by a successor organisation of the Waffen-SS, one reads: ,,The collapse of Germany as the history laden, central European factor of stability exposed the continent's political substance to greatest erosion". By comparison, ,,SS-Volunteers (...) had a positive goal: the construction of Europe". Therefore ,,Greater"Europe must be reconstructed from its ,,strong center". 4)
Intersections
The persistence of the European Nazi ideology during the past 60 years was possible, because the surviving Nazi protagonists were not subjected to a determined prosecution in the Federal Republic of Germany. Even members of the Waffen-SS were allowed to be legally active in an ,,aid organization". As international observers have repeatedly exposed, there are many intersections showing concordance between the European projects of the Nazi foreign ministry and those of the post-war German governments. 5)Central aspects of Berlin's 1942-1945 European projects are reappearing in current objectives. 6)In the past, as well as, today, the various approaches are focused upon a ,,Greater Europe", for which Berlin is claiming the role of economic, military and policy architect. 7)
1) Moderner Nationalismus. Traditioneller ,,Blauhemdenmarsch"der Falange in Madrid; Deutsche Stimme 12/2004
2) Signal von Eschenlohe - Die deutsche Rechte im Aufbruch!; Deutsche Stimme 12/2004
3) Europa zur Festung gegen US-Ansprueche machen; Deutsche Stimme 9/2004
4) Reinhard Opitz: Faschismus und Neofaschismus, Frankfurt am Main 1984
5), 6) John Laughland: The Tainted Source. The Undemocratic Origins of the European Idea, London 1997
7) see also Background Report: War for the ,,greater region"of Europe
see also Heroes
