Survey findings on far-right views give Germany its latest F�hrer furore.

GERMANY IS undergoing its annual F�hrer furore, this time over a new survey suggesting that extreme-right views are on the rise.

Some 13 per cent of Germans in a new survey said they felt “Germany needs to be ruled with a firm hand by a strong leader or “F�hrer�” – a term exclusively associated with Adolf Hitler.

Over a third of those surveyed agreed – either largely or whole-heartedly – with the statement that Germany was “endangered” by its non-German population.

Some 58 per cent supported limiting the religious rights of Muslims, while 15 per cent agreed that Jews “work with tricks to achieve their ends” and “are a particular people who aren’t a good fit with us”.

The Friedrich Ebert Foundation, which commissioned the representative survey based on 2,411 personal interviews, said the results showed “no societal group is immune” from extremist views.

One in four surveyed supported the survey’s xenophobic statements, of which easterners approved more than westerners (35 per cent against 22 per cent).

When sorted by political preference, Social Democrat (SPD) respondents were the most xenophobic (24 per cent) and Christian Democrat (CDU) voters the most anti-Semitic (12 per cent) of all the main political party members quizzed.