The Law and Order Offensive Party (German: Partei Rechtsstaatlicher Offensive), short form Offensive D (the "D" means "Deutschland"/"Germany") was a minor political party in Germany. It was founded in July 2000 by Hamburg judge Ronald Schill. It wished to call itself PRO but was forbidden from doing so after a judicial complaint by the Pro Deutsche Mitte party. Because of this the official short form was "Schill" and the party called itself Schill-Partei (Schill Party) 2000-2003, after its founder. The policies of the party were right populist.
In the 2001 elections to the Hamburg state parliament it came third and received 19.4% of votes/25 members. It went into coalition with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Free Democratic Party (FDP) which broke down in August 2003 after CDU mayor Ole von Beust accused Schill of extortion.
In December 2003 the party decided to expel Schill. In the 2004 Hamburg elections the party under the new leader Mario Mettbach only reached 0.4% and did not qualify for seats. After the election Mettbach and most of the other members left the party, some of them joining the CDU. The members who hadn't left elected a new leader and changed their name to Offensive D. Under that name, they came in last at the 2005 German federal election, polling 3,338 out of over 47 million votes.
The party dissolved due to poor election results and financial problems in September 2007, having lost several leading figures and entire state groups to other right-wing parties such as the Centre Party.
Famous quotes containing the words law, order, offensive and/or party:
“And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today? But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children...”
—Bible: Hebrew, Deuteronomy 4:8,9.
“Have you noticed when reading War and Peace the difficulties Tolstoy experienced in forcing morally wounded Bolkonsky to come into geographical and chronological contact with Natasha? It is very painful to watch the way the poor fellow is dragged and pushed and shoved in order to achieve this happy reunion.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“People run away from the name subsidy. It is a subsidy. I am not afraid to call it so. It is paid for the purpose of giving a merchant marine to the whole country so that the trade of the whole country will be benefitted thereby, and the men running the ships will of course make a reasonable profit.... Unless we have a merchant marine, our navy if called upon for offensive or defensive work is going to be most defective.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“From now on, I think it is safe to predict, neither the Democratic nor the Republican Party will ever nominate for President a candidate without good looks, stage presence, theatrical delivery, and a sense of timing.”
—James Thurber (1894–1961)