German Anarchists Scandalize Spectators

BERLIN (Reuters) - A fringe German anarchist party has outraged national television audiences with its election campaign television spot -- a video montage of booze-fuelled chaos, syringes and men cavorting with topless women.

An estimated one million viewers watched the German Anarchist Pogo Party's already heavily censored political broadcast (http://www.appd.de/wahlspot/wahlspot.php) when it was shown for the first time on Monday.

Rather than offer any presentation of policies, the party's campaign spot spliced together scenes of debauched revellers smashing furniture, pouring beer down each other's throats and groups of couples kissing and groping each other, all set to a frantic heavy metal soundtrack.

As an officially registered political party, the Hamburg-based APPD, which sells t-shirts on its Web site that proclaim "Arbeit ist Scheisse" ("work is shit"), is entitled to free television air time for its advertisements.

Karl Nagl, campaign manager of the APPD, told Reuters on Wednesday the party would continue to run the ad.

"The next broadcast is scheduled for Monday night," he said.

But he said the broadcasting authorities might insist the party remove scenes featuring needles, which he said depicted people taking blood samples and not intravenous drug abuse.

German newspapers say the party's roughly 750 members would have no discernible impact on the September 18 parliamentary elections.

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