Far-right German politician pledges to get rid of Arabic numerals

NPD Party candidate Otfried Best, who is hoping to become mayor of Völklingen, was asked by a member of Die Partei, a satirical party, during a debate earlier this week what he thought of Arabic numerals used in the town, Stern magazine reported.

"Mr Best … I find it alarming that in Völklingen many house numbers are displayed in Arabic numerals. How would you like to take action against this creeping foreigner infiltration?" asked the Die Partei politician.

The audience cheered and laughed, fully understanding the joke.

But Best was determined to tow the party line and keep out any foreign influence. "You just wait until I am mayor," he said. "I will change that. Then there will be normal numbers."

If he was clued up on the history of numbers, he would have realised why everyone was lauging. The Arabic numeral system is the most common system used worldwide, introduced to Europe by Arab mathematicians around the 12th century.

They represented a profound break with previous methods of counting, such as the abacus, and paved the way for the development of algebra.

Politico writer Dan Diamond spotted the story and sparked a string of mocking replies on Twitter.

German lawmakers have twice tried to ban the neo-Nazi NPD, with the Constitutional Court ruling earlier this year that the party was not a big enough threat to be barred.