VZCZCXRO9513
PP RUEHAG RUEHDF RUEHIK RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHYG
DE RUEHMZ #0402/01 3531001
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 181001Z DEC 08
FM AMCONSUL MUNICH
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4602
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC
RUEHZG/NATO EU COLLECTIVE
RUCNMEU/EU INTEREST COLLECTIVE
RUCNFRG/FRG COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MUNICH 000402 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL GM
SUBJECT:  GERMAN PUBLIC STUNNED BY ATTACK ON POLICE CHIEF 
 
REFS: A) Berlin Political Squib of 12/16/2008 (NOTAL), B) Leipzig 
21 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED.  PLEASE PROTECT ACCORDINGLY. 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary:  German officials, the public, and the media are 
up in arms over the near-fatal stabbing of Alois Mannichl, the 
Passau (Bavaria) police chief, on the doorstep of his home on 
December 13 (REF A).  Despite no arrest in the case yet, there are 
calls for a ban on the neo-Nazi NPD party, which is implicated in 
the attack.  If confirmed as a right-wing attack, it would represent 
a new and dangerous tactic of bringing violence into the private 
sphere of prominent persons.  As neo-Nazi attacks rise nationwide 
(REF B), especially and surprisingly more so in western Germany, 
Bavarian politicians are using the case to argue that a "return to 
the center" is the best way to fight the fringes.  End Summary. 
 
STRONG POLITICAL REACTION, DESPITE NO HARD PROOF 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Passau Police Chief Alois Mannichl reported that, when the 
perpetrator attacked, he said, "Greetings from the national 
resistance.  You'll trample on the graves of our comrades no 
longer."  Investigators suggested that this was a general reference 
to the police chief's determination to fight the right-wing scene in 
Passau and specifically to his removing a swastika from the coffin 
during the burial of a former Nazi last summer.  Indications are 
that the perpetrator was from the far right, neo-Nazi scene, but the 
police have no absolute proof yet and are investigating in all 
directions, according to Waldemar Kindler, President of the Bavarian 
State Police, who spoke with P/E chief on December 17 
 
¶3.  (SBU) With no suspects yet in custody and no hard proof of a 
neo-Nazi connection, Kindler was circumspect.  He acknowledged the 
very sensitive nature of the allegations against the neo-Nazis and 
their political party, the National Democratic Party (NPD), and the 
very strong national reactions that the attack had already generated 
in the public, media and among politicians.  He carefully pointed 
out that the perpetrator could have been a neo-Nazi, as Chief 
Mannichl believes it was, or someone from the far Left, or even 
someone from the victim's circle of acquaintances or related to 
another case.  The NPD leadership has denied involvement in the 
case, Kindler said, but he added that party members had indeed 
called for the removal of Mannichl and had incited hatred directed 
towards him. 
 
¶4.  (U) Not waiting for an arrest, the Bavarian Landtag passed a 
unanimous resolution on December 16 that ordered Kindler's office to 
develop by February a two-part concept to fight right-wing 
extremism.  As an immediate measure, Kindler said he would likely 
propose stricter laws against injuring police officers.  More 
broadly, he expects to focus on prevention and programs for people 
ready to quit the extremist scene. 
 
MORE AND NEW KINDS OF ATTACKS 
----------------------------- 
 
¶5.  (U) German government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said the attack 
appeared to mark a new level of violence by the far-right.  If 
confirmed with an arrest, it would show that adherents to the scene 
are no longer afraid to bring violence into the private sphere of 
prominent persons.  The Bavarian Interior Ministry has confirmed 
that violent acts committed by neo-Nazis have more than doubled in 
the Passau region this year to 83, up from 40 in 2007.  Passau is 
just over the border from the region of Upper Austria, where police 
point out there is also a notorious and active right-wing scene. 
Police have registered about 950 attacks by far-right extremists 
across Germany in 2008, including one killing.  In absolute terms, 
the majority of these attacks have been in the States of the former 
West Germany, not the East, a point that German commentators are 
currently emphazing. 
 
WHAT NEXT? A BAN ON THE NPD? 
---------------------------- 
 
¶6.  (U) Although there has been no link established yet between the 
right wing radical party (NPD) and the Passau case, the attack 
rekindled calls for banning the party.  This would start a 
Germany-wide debate and touch on fundamental historical and 
political issues, and do so in the year of celebrating the 20th 
anniversary of the fall of the Wall and reunification of Germany.  A 
previous attempt in 2002 to ban the NPD party was rejected by the 
Federal Constitutional Court as unconstitutional on technical 
grounds.  The NPD, a fringe group, reportedly has about 7,300 
members, and it is the most radical of the extreme right parties in 
Germany with a platform which is openly anti-foreigner, racist and 
 
MUNICH 00000402  002 OF 002 
 
 
anti-Semitic.  Kindler pointed out that although the NPD got only 
1.2 percent of the vote in the September 2008 Bavarian Landtag 
elections, he believes there is sympathy for its politics among 
young people who do not vote. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶7. (SBU) Horst Seehofer, Minister President of Bavaria, is riding a 
wave at the moment and this incident could help him promote the idea 
that voters should support the traditional, democratic center party 
in Bavaria, the Christian Social Union (CSU).  He will surely 
continue to argue that a strong center is the best way to neutralize 
the fringes.  The Parliamentary Control Commission, tasked with 
monitoring the intelligence services, received a briefing about NPD 
activities in the Passau region on December 17 from the Federal 
Office for the Protection of the Constitution.  We expect a debate 
about a ban to continue in the German political and public 
consciousness for some time. 
 
 
¶8.  (U) Consulate General Munich coordinated this report with 
Embassy Berlin.  Track Munich reporting at 
http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Germ any. 
 
NELSON