For the first time ever, Germany’s neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (npd) now has representatives in every county council in the eastern German state of Saxony. During Saxony’s municipal election on June 8, the npd received approximately 160,000 votes from across the state. That is a 400 percent increase from the npd votes received in the 2004 municipal election.

While this election gave the npd over 5 percent of the vote statewide, in some counties the results were even more shocking. In two counties, the npd came in ahead of even the Social Democrats—the second-most popular party in Germany. In the small town of Reinhardtsdorf-Schöna, the npd garnered over a quarter of the vote.

The npd currently holds eight seats in the state parliament in Dresden. Far-right parties also hold seats in the state parliaments of Brandenburg and in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, both in eastern Germany.

Problems such as economic hardships and illegal immigration are driving more and more Germans to right-wing politics. An increasing number of Germans are riding this right-wing swing all the way by supporting neo-Nazi parties like the npd. For more information on Germany’s shift to right-wing extremism, read “Pro-Nazi Party’s First Win” by Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry, written in 1998.