Posted on March 1, 2016

Top German Court Considers Bid to Outlaw Far-Right Party

Geir Moulson, AP, March 1, 2016

Germany’s highest court opened hearings Tuesday on a bid to outlaw the country’s biggest far-right party, which officials accuse of promoting a racist and anti-Semitic agenda.

It’s the second attempt to secure the ban, which would be the first of its kind in 60 years.

The German parliament’s upper house, which represents the country’s 16 state governments, applied at the end of 2013 for a ban on the National Democratic Party, or NPD. The states say it violates the constitution and are keen to cut off the state funding to which political parties are entitled.

Back in 2003, the Karlsruhe-based Federal Constitutional Court rejected a first attempt to ban the party because paid government informants within the group were partially responsible for evidence against it. Officials say there’s no evidence from informants in the new case.

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Peter Richter, a lawyer representing the NPD, petitioned for the case against the party to be closed, arguing there was no credible evidence that government informants had been removed from the group.

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In a recent statement on the ban proceedings, the NPD asserted that “the real policies of the German government are extremist, not the criticism of them,” citing the government’s actions in the migrant crisis. The NPD complained of “constant hate campaigns against patriotic dissenters.”

The NPD isn’t represented in Germany’s national parliament, though it does have a single seat in the European Parliament and lawmakers in one eastern German state legislature.

Opening three days of hearings, chief justice Andreas Vosskuhle told the court that the case was “a special challenge.” He stressed that judges must refrain from “any political evaluation” and consider only legal aspects.

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