The German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution stopped monitoring the party in 2006, something they had been doing since 1992. The Republican leadership rebuffed the offer of an electoral alliance with two more successful parties that were later to merge, the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) and the German People's Union (DVU), due to their openly extreme-right positions. For years and especially under Schlierer's leadership, the party has lost far-right members to the DVU and NPD. The strongholds for the Republicans also differ from those of the more radical right-wing parties, with the former being strongest in the relatively affluent South Germany whilst the latter have had most success in the more economically depressed Eastern Germany.