The eastern German city of Leipzig has been forced to lift its ban on a rally by far right wingers, despite fears of violent clashes with a counter demonstration by the left.

The rally is planned today for the May Day holiday by the German National Party or NPD, which is expecting up to 15,000 demonstrators as Caroline Wyatt reports from Bonn:

The German National Party is expecting several thousand neo-Nazis to gather in Leipzig for its anti-foreigner rally. The city's ban on the far-right gathering was overturned at the last minute.

According to the regional high court, the NPD, as a legal political party, had every right to demonstrate. Now, the authorities will be forced to defend the neo-Nazi rally from a counter protest by the left-wing, a situation that police fear could lead to violent clashes.

But the NPD is determined to raise its profile in the run up to September's election, and it seems the easy answers offered by the far right-wing are becoming more and more appealing to discontented youths in the east. The party plays on widespread fears of unemployment and the social dislocation that followed German unity.

Last Sunday, in a regional election in the east, the extreme right-wing German People's Union or DVU gained 13% of the vote, the strongest showing by such a party since the Second World War. The DVU, run by a Munich millionaire, has proposed a national alliance of the far right-wing to increase their chances of entering parliament in Bonn.

However, that idea has been rejected both by the NPD and by the far-right Republican Party.
 

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