In an allusion to the official World Cup slogan, “A time to make friends”, a headline in Die Tageszeitung asks whether the event will be “a time to meet Nazis”.
The paper believes that the neo-Nazi scene may have miscalculated, however, by planning a rally in Leipzig during the Iran-Angola match to “demonstrate solidarity with the Holocaust denier Ahmadinejad”.
Under the headline “A disgrace”, the Frankfurter Rundschau urges an open debate about right-wing extremism.
“Let us start to deal with right-wing blots in our society openly, so that all people who live here can feel at home and all World Cup visitors can really make friends here,” the paper says.
The Berliner Zeitung says the authorities in Berlin should provide visitors with information on which areas they should avoid.
The paper acknowledges that the city’s image may suffer as a result of such a move, but it adds that it would suffer even more in the event of a neo-Nazi attack on World Cup visitors.
