Germany's extreme right-wing parties NPD and DVU want to join forces for 2006 election

Germany's extreme right-wing National Democratic Party (NPD) has announced that it would join forces with the far-right German People's Union (DVU) of Munich publisher Gerhard Frey at the 2006 parliamentary elections. For the first time, Frey addressed delegates at a NPD congress. The gathering also passed a declaration that called for a 'people's front of the right'. NPD chairman Udo Voigt said the alliance would make the parties, which are both strongly opposed to immigration, "a strong national entity". The NPD also wants to draw on the neo-Nazi scene as part of a 'German people's front' combining the 'far right' as well as conservatives, Voigt said. Thorsten Heise, an influential figure in violent neo-Nazi circles, was easily elected to the NPD's executive committee.