Germany tries again to ban main neo-Nazi party

Germany’s top Jewish organization applauds a new attempt to ban the country’s main neo-Nazi party.

Three days of hearings began Tuesday in Germany’s top court – the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe – to examine the
constitutionality of outlawing the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD).

It is the second attempt to ban the party – the first failed on a legal technicality in 2003. Observers say a second failure would be
devastating. At issue is whether the NPD poses a threat to democracy. It is very difficult to ban a party in Germany, due to post-Nazi era laws designed to safeguard free speech.

Josef Schuster, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, says in a statement Tuesday that a trial would “show [the NPD’s] true face” to the world.

“The NPD wants to do away with our democracy and set up a nationalist state where there is no more room for minorities” says Schuster. A trial would not work as an advertisement for the party, but rather as a deterrent, he added.

The NPD blames foreigners for Germany’s problems and belittles the Holocaust. Though the party has never made it into the federal
parliament, its representatives have been elected into two state parliaments in the past decade by barely passing the 5 percent vote minimum. It currently has representatives in the state legislature of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Election success earns the party federal taxpayer money.

— JTA