Occupier soda

Coca Cola (jokingly) in recent German history.

We came across this one in an article about daily life with right wing NPD parliamentarians in one of the east German states. An NPD man was teased with "so, you're having an occupier soda?" when others saw him getting a Coca Cola from the democratic vending machine.

It offered a rare glimpse into the goings-on in the parliament of a state where enough voters chose the NPD to give them a few seats. Many Germans simply call the NPD a neo-nazi party, and there was one failed attempt a decade or so ago to have it banned.

That attempt failed when it turned out that a number of the top brass of the party were on the payroll of the domestic spy services as informants.

There currently is another effort underway to get the party banned but many Germans are asking why ban them if they will simply be replaced by a new incarnation. Their share of the vote is low enough to not really worry many.

So, what is it like to sit side by side in parliament with them?

On the really bad days, it can be compared to Iranian president Ahmadinejad speaking before the UN -- when he starts pushing the right buttons, many delegates walk out.

On more normal days, it is more like an average congressional session with strong feelings expressed by that upstanding elected official about a government that spends and spends and spends - only to be followed by "and now give me the money for my pet project".

The NPD folks do everything as a group, and the other parties ignore them as best as they can.

But in the process of dealing with this group, members of the other parties have learned to overcome at least some of the stereotypes between themselves. Conservative Christians, for example, have found the more liberal Green Party folks to be people they can actually talk to, and vice versa.

In this slightly vexing way, the NPD does seem to have an unintended beneficial impact on democracy.