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- THE WEEK, Page 19WORLDAbout Face!
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- Under pressure, Germany begins its far-right crackdown
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- Can a whole political establishment turn on a pfennig?
- Germany's tried to last week, as domestic and international
- criticism swelled in response to the recent fire bombing in Molln
- that left a Turkish woman, her niece and granddaughter dead.
- Police moved swiftly, nabbing two suspects in the case, while
- government officials promised an array of moves designed to end
- the violence against foreigners. Among the initiatives are plans
- to expand surveillance and to ban extremist groups and even the
- racist music used to spread the xenophobic message. After two
- years in which the radicals claimed 3,400 attacks, Bonn is
- battered by charges that it has been halfhearted at best in its
- efforts to clamp down on the far right.
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- If Germany's neighbors had been disturbed by the tide of
- violence, they could take some satisfaction in Bonn's
- expeditious treatment of the Maastricht treaty. The Bundestag
- ratified the pact on European union by an overwhelming 543-17.
- The upper house of parliament could approve the treaty as early
- as next week.
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