Germany's far right party didn't hold back at its first "historic party convention on Sunday." It made sure to include all its traditions -- even the most provocative. At the close of its mainly closed-door event, all the delegates rose and joined together in the German national anthem, adding the strophes that aren't normally intoned publicly -- at least not since the Nazi era. Singing the lines "Deutschland, Deutschland, über alles...") isn't illegal, but it's long been an unwritten rule in Germany that the song's nationalist tones just shouldn't be sung.

To be clear: the people of Leinenfelde, a former East German hamlet in the state of Thuringia, didn't even want the convention to be held in their backyards. City leaders sued unsuccessfully in court to have it stopped, and close to a hundred protestors turned out Sunday to boo and heckle leaders of the National Democratic Party (NPD) and Democratic People's Union (DVU).

What made Sunday's event so important wasn't the right-wing, nationalistic sing-a-long or the counter protests, but rather the historic deal that could lead the NPD and DVU to become the first extremist parties to enter German parliament since World War II. Together, the parties are aiming at the 2006 general elections. Their goal is to clear the 5 percent hurdle required for a party to win seats in the Bundestag, Germany's parliament. That would be a major triumph for the NPD, which the German government sought unsuccessfully to ban in 2003 in the Federal Constitutional Court.

Right-wing Musical Chairs

Under the deal, DVU and NPD would take turns as the leading party in elections, with candidates from both parties appearing on the candidate list of the designated party. The NPD is setting its sights on elections in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein in February and federal elections in two years. Following those polls, DVU would then take the lead for elections for the European Parliament in 2009. In all elections, the parties would conduct joint campaigns -- with shared advertising and unified events on the stump.

The newfound lovefest between DVU and the NPD began a few weeks back, when the parties passed their first major political test in state elections in Saxony and Brandenburg, former East German states with high unemployment rates and disenfranchised voters. The DVU drew 6.1 percent of voters in Brandenburg and the NPD got 9.2 percent of the votes in Saxony.

Udo Voigt, the NPD chairman -- who has said he considers Hitler a great statesman -- and DVU's chairman, Gerhard Frey -- a longtime vocal antagonist of Voigt -- make for strange bedfellows. But on Sunday, the pair sought to gloss over past sparring. With the prospects of getting into parliament in the near future, the two have incentive to patch up differences. "Together, we are strong," and "Organized will is power!" NPD's Voigt told his delegates in his closing speech.

Of course, there are a lot of areas where they agree -- especially on the bread and butter issues that drive right-wing parties -- like anti-immigration and anti-foreigner stances or questioning the legitimacy of the German political system. This weekend, the parties offered the bromides typical of the right-wing milieu: that Germany is a country under occupation being run on an illegal constitution that its citizens didn't approve, for example.

Courting the neo-Nazis

The parties also seem to have found unity on their relationship with neo-Nazis, who they are now courting openly. "We have to maintain the biggest possible distance between Nazism and neo-Nazism," said Frey. "We have nothing to do with that." NPD's Voigt added: "Historical National Socialism is dead," but he invited "National Socialists" to join his party. Sunday also brought the debut of the NPD's latest federal board member -- convicted criminal and neo-Nazi Thorsten Heise, who received more than 60 percent support by party delegates in his bid for office.

The message is clear: the NPD and DVU will align with whichever voters they need to land in parliament -- not just neo-Nazis, but also others across the right-wing spectrum, including Germany's extremist Republican Party (not to be confused with the American political party of the same name). At this weekend's convention, the NPD deliberately put the name placard of the Republican's leader, Ralf Schlierer, on the podium as an open invitation to join their right-wing alliance. NPD leader Voigt said the parties would soon begin discussions. If they falter, he implied, NPD and DVU would go after the party's voters.