27/08/2007 (Agence Europe) - Following a racist attack on Indians in a village in a deprived area of the former RDA where the NPD is making a concerted effort to put down roots, the vice president of the European Commission, Franco Frattini, appealed for a ban on the Neo-Nazi NPD. In an interview to Bild am Sonntag, Mr Frattini declared, “if Germany decided to one day ban the NPD, I would applaud the decision very loudly” because Neo-Nazis are “a threat and a cancerous ulcer in democratic countries like Germany”. Xenophobia and right wing extremism is growing everywhere in Europe, he added, and explained that the situation in France, Belgium, Denmark and Italy was also worrying. An attempt to ban the NPD had already failed in 2003 but the head of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) Kurt Beck relaunched the idea last week. Chancellor Merkel's supporters, however, appear reluctant. Her minister of the interior, Wolfgang Schäuble said it would be a risky procedure and that another failure would strengthen the NPD. (bc)