A mayoral candidate for the far-right, anti-immigrant NPD party in Germany promised to ban Arabic numerals if he is elected, Stern magazine has reported.
Otfried Best, who is running for mayor of Volklingen, a town of about 40,000 people near the French border, said during the campaign that “You just wait until I am mayor. I will change that [the use of Arabic numerals]. Then there will be normal numbers," according to Politico, which was quoting from Stern.
Best made the comments after he was asked during a debate by a member of the Die Partei satirical party what he thought of the use in the town of Arabic numerals, the most common numeral system used worldwide.
The debate audience laughed when the Die Partei politician asked, "I find it alarming that in Volklingen many house numbers are displayed in Arabic numerals. How would you like to take action against this creeping foreigner infiltration?"
Best, however, gave his answer as if the question was not a joke, according to Stern.
Arabic numbers are the numerals used worldwide: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.
Earlier this year the German Federal Constitutional Court rejected an attempted ban of the neo-Nazi NPD, Politico reported.
Although the court agreed that the party's ideology was “incompatible with the principle of democracy," it ruled that it would not bar the party, because its chance of succeeding was not a big enough threat.
In addition to municipal races, the NPD is running in the German federal election on September 24, but it is unlikely to pass the five percent threshold needed to win seats in parliament.
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