Udo Voigt

Infobox Politician (general)
name = Udo Voigt


title= Leader of the National Democratic Party of Germany
term_start=1996
term_end
predecessor=Günter Deckert
successor=
title2=Member of Berlin Bezirksverordnetenversammlung for Treptow-Köpenick
term_start2=2006
term_end2=
predecessor2=
successor2=
birth_date = 1952
birth_place = Viersen, North-Rhine-Westphalia
residence =
death_date =
death_place =
office =
party = National Democratic Party of Germany
religion =
spouse =
profession=Politician

Udo Voigt (born 1952 in Viersen) is a German politician and leader of the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany since 1996. He is a former aviation engineer and captain in the German army. [cite web
url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,530519,00.html
title=Internal NPD Documents Reveal Chaos: Germany's Right Wing Extremists in Disarray
publisher=Spiegel Online
accessdate=2008-02-08
last=Röbel
first=Sven]

Political career

Since the last election in September 2006 Voigt is an elected member of the Berlin Bezirksverordnetenversammlung (BVV) in the Treptow-Köpenick district. [cite web
url=http://www.berlin.de/ba-treptow-koepenick/bvv-online/kp020.asp
title=Bezirksverordnetensammlung Treptow-Köpenick - Berlin.de
publisher=www.berlin.de
accessdate=2008-02-08] Previously he has been unsuccessful at the European Parliament elections and when running for mayor of Saarbrücken.

He joined the NPD, a far-right nationalist party in 1968 and was elected as leader (German: Vorsitzender) in 1996, succeeding Günter Deckert who had been arrested in 1995 and was in prison until 2000. The NPD is considered by mainstream media and political parties to be a de facto neo-Nazi organization and under Voigt's leadership, Germany's federal court attempted to ban the party, claiming it was a threat to Germany's constitutional order.

In 2005, Voigt compared the Bombing of Dresden in World War II to the Holocaust; some suggested this was a violation of Germany's laws on Holocaust denial, but the Hamburg public prosecutor deemed the comment an exercise of free speech and declined to prosecute.

On March 13, 2008, Voigt was charged (at least for the second time in his life) with demagoguery (Volksverhetzung) - an offense punishable by up to five years in prison.

References