- Franz Handlos
Franz Handlos (born
December 9 ,1939 in Rusel,Bavaria ) is a Germanright-wing politician.Handlos first came to prominence as member of the
Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU), serving the party in both theBundestag and theLandtag of Bavaria . Handlos, along withEkkehard Voigt , represented the right of the party within the Bavarian CSU, with both men staunch critics of the leadership ofFranz Josef Strauss . Handlos broke from the CSU in 1983 when Strauss agreed to accepting a major bank loan fromEast Germany , a move Handlos saw as accepting partition and helping to stabilise thecommunist state. [D. Art, "The Politics of the Nazi Past in Germany and Austria", Cambridge, 2006, p. 147]As a result of the split Handlos and Voigt joined with well-known political commentator and former CSU activist
Franz Schönhuber to form their own party,Die Republikaner (REP) in 1983, with Handlos as the leader. [Russell J. Dalton, "Germany Divided: The 1994 Bundestag Elections and the Evolution of the German Party System", 1996, p. 134] Handlos saw the party as only slightly to the right of the CSU and aimed to REP as a basis to build a "bundesweite" (federal) version of the CSU, rather than simply concetrating on Bavaria. [Cas Mudde , "Ideology of the Extreme Right", 2002, p. 31] This view was not shared by Schönhuber, who had a more right-wing populist outlook and was inspired by the success of the French National Front. [Mudde, op cit] A bitter struggle for power ensued, with the radical wing winning out and in 1985 Handlos stood down as leader of the party and resigned his membership. [Mudde, op cit]Handlos formed his own "Freiheitlichen Volkspartei" and this group contested the 1986 Bavarian Landtag elections. However the new party gained only 0.4% of the vote, leaving Handlos on the fringes. [Andreas Schulze, "Kleinparteien in Deutschland", 2004, p. 104]
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