Just in case you'd like to know how big these news are in Germany: A two column portrait including picture of Helms made page 2 in my nationally distributed newspaper. In case you can read German it is here (link only valid today).

The most often used adjectives in this context were 'erzkonservativ' (ultra-conservative) and 'uncompromising' and the usual comment was 'good for him - and good for us'.

Wolfgang