In reality, as it turned out in Saxony, Brandenburg and Thuringia (all former regions of East Gemany), the supporters of The Left often have conservative instincts when it comes to immigration (ie, foreigners), crime and families.
Prime Minister Francois Fillon hinted that he disliked the crude links being made between foreigners and crime, while Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he considered resigning over the issue.
The Swiss government had urged citizens to reject the initiative in favor of an official counter-proposal, which would have considered the seriousness of a foreigner's crime in deciding on expulsion.
It wants to ban all immigration, blaming foreigners for crime, drugs, welfare abuse and the spread of tuberculosis in Austria's public schools.
But Mr. Stoiber has also added a strong touch of law and order, popular in a Germany with a growing fear of foreigners and crime.
"Every statistic shows that the participation of foreigners in crime is quite high," said Ulrich Schlüer, an SVP Parliament deputy who has also led an initiative to ban minarets in Switzerland.
Mr. Stoiber, known variously as a dour bureaucrat and the steely "Bavarian pit bull," is trying to ride Germany's economic malaise and fears of foreigners and crime to victory over the personable, television-friendly Mr. Schröder.
The latest outbreak of anti-immigrant violence has been widely blamed on a speech last month by King Goodwill Zwelithini, traditional leader of the Zulu ethnic group, in which he linked foreigners to crime and said they must "take their bags and go".
As the media have joined in - relentlessly identifying foreigners with crime - the far right's poll rating has increased.
Don't say that, for example Americans are arrogant, Africans are ignorant, Muslims are evil, atheists are satanists, Germans are Nazi or Jews run banks, foreigners increase crime, etc. Teach other people in normal conversation.
Excluding the foreigner-specific crimes, Germans committed three-quarters of offences recorded in 2015, but crimes by non-Germans were up 12.8%, including document forgery, pickpocketing and home burglaries, De Maizière said.
