Jewish Group in Berlin Condemns Neo-Nazi Obama Slurs

The Berlin chapter of a prominent Jewish group condemned racist statements made by a German deputy from the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) against Barack Obama's election as the first non-white President of the United States.

"Africa conquers the White House" is the heading of a statement issued from the office of the NPD deputy Juergen Gansel from the eastern German state of Saxony.

The NPD has never cleared the five-percent minimum for representation in the German Bundestag on a national parliamentary level, but the party holds seats in two regional states in eastern Germany, where its anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant platform has attracted a following among disaffected youth and the unemployed.

Gansel characterized Obama's election triumph as "the American alliance of Jews and Negroes" and even condemned the German public for their outpouring of enthusiasm for the US President-elect, who was born to a white American mother and a Kenyan father.

"Many people in the 'diverse' republic Germany have been swept up in Obama fever which resembles an African tropical disease," he said.

Deirdre Berger, who is the director of the American Jewish Committee's (AJC) office in Berlin told AFP news agency that she was shocked by Gansel's "open expression of racism, anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism."

She said the AJC hoped German authorities would look into Gansel's press release. "We are investigating the legal situation concerning the statement and will continue monitoring closely political statements using extremist language," she said.

"We urge state authorities to do their utmost within legal bounds to prosecute such incitement," she added.