Not especially cheering

By Heraclitus

There are murmurs that anti-Semitism and neo-Nazism are on the rise in Germany. Check out this story from the BBC. The particular event prompting this story is a neo-Nazi rally in Berlin calling for the release of a German far-right singer, convicted of "spreading hatred of Jewish people and foreigners in Germany."

Earlier in a newspaper interview, the Israeli ambassador to Germany said he was concerned for Jews in Germany.

Shimon Stein said he thought anti-Semitism was increasing there.

Speaking to the German newspaper the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung, he said the number of neo-Nazis had also risen and there was a greater willingness to use violence.

Mr Stein said there had tightened security had been put in place around synagogues and other institutions.

"I have the feeling that Jews in Germany do not feel safe. They are not always able to practice their religion freely," he said.

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The BBC's correspondent Steve Rosenberg says that in recent days German politicians and German police have expressed concern at the rise of the far right in Germany.

There has been a sharp increase in the number of racist attacks carried out by right-wing extremists, says our Berlin correspondent.

The NPD has made significant gains in recent regional elections.

It now has seats in three regional parliaments in Germany.

This week, Germany's coalition government promised to spend more money on the fight against right-wing extremism.

To be sure, Germany still has some of the most stringent anti-hate speech laws on the books. But this development can hardly be greeted with anything but dismay. The continued economic stagnation of the former East Germany is a major problem for the country, and is contributing to the rise of the far-right, and this combined with the emergence and growth of new nationalist parties across the continent is not promising. Too early to be alarmist, but hardly something to ignore, either.