Election results worry business leaders

German industry leaders rushed to denounced the gains made by right and left wing parties in Sunday's elections in Saxony and Brandenburg, as investors promised to stay put. The right-wing NPD's party entry into Saxony's parliament on Sunday raised eyebrows among many of the investors that have contributed to the East German state's economic upswing. The results were "very tough" to take, said Hans Deppe, head of the German wing of the Silicon Valley chipmaker AMD. But like other companies he said his firm had no thoughts of moving elsewhere. The NPD's results, combined with the second-place ranking of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), the successor to East Germany's communist party, in Brandenburg, was bad for Germany's business reputation, said the head of the industry association BDA. "They are a devastating signal to foreign investors," Dieter Hundt told the Süddeutsche Zeitung.