Germany: Jews urge lawmakers to ban NPD

[Aptrgangr]

Germany: Jews urge lawmakers to ban NPD

Key Jewish group urges politicians to outlaw far-right National Democratic Party, calls for Germany to 'wake up.' However interior minister warns banning party 'not as easy' as some might think

Reuters Published: 04.16.08, 18:23 / Israel Jewish Scene

Germany's main Jewish lobby group has urged politicians considering a bid to ban the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) to "wake up" to the threat to German democracy.

The Central Council of Jews says the growing respectability of the NPD is fuelling right-wing radicalism more than 60 years after World War Two and the Holocaust.

"Politicians must wake up at last," Stephan Kramer, general-secretary of the council, told Reuters.

"We need a signal to make clear the NPD is trying to destroy Germany and its democratic principles."

Germany's Office for the Protection of the Constitution says the NPD is racist, anti-Semitic and revisionist and that its statements prove its inspiration comes from the Nazis.

The NPD has about 7,000 members and has seats in two regional state parliaments, both in the former communist East.

NPD officials have praised Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for saying Israel should be wiped off the map. Last year NPD leader Udo Voigt said Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess, who died in 1987, should get the Nobel Peace Prize.

At a three-day meeting in Bad Saarow, starting on Wednesday, Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and ministers from Germany's 16 states will discuss a possible second attempt to outlaw the NPD after a first bid failed in 2003.

The Social Democrats (SPD), who share power with Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), have been pushing for a ban, but many CDU lawmakers say there is insufficient proof of illegal activity.

"Banning the party is not as easy as the SPD thinks. The hurdles are very high," Schaeuble said this month.

Political funding
Last year, state ministers agreed to try to cut off funding for far-right organisations. As a legitimate political party, the NPD gets over $1.6 million in public funding per year.

The government has also boosted funding for education and social projects to tackle the roots of right-wing radicalism.

The previous attempt to ban the NPD failed as prosecution witnesses had worked as informants for intelligence agencies.

But advocates of a ban say the NPD's public statements prove it is hostile to democracy and give sufficient legal grounds.

The party has described the German constitution as a "diktat of the victorious Western powers".

In January, NPD General-Secretary Peter Marx said Germany should remain the land of Germans so future generations were not squeezed into reservations by immigration, as Native Americans have been.

Kramer argues the NPD is the "tip of the iceberg" of a right-wing movement including perpetrators of racist crimes.

"The fact that the NPD is a legal party that has been voted into parliaments gives legitimacy to its beliefs and respectability to its prejudices," said Kramer.

A series of racist and anti-Semitic crimes - including an attack on eight Indians that grabbed headlines around the world last year - have heightened worries about Germany's far right.

Latest figures show far-right crime rose 15 percent in 2006.

Opponents of a ban say it would not solve the underlying problem and that most young neo-Nazis are not in the NPD anyway.

The NPD says it is being treated unfairly, and is planning to protest in Bad Saarow against the attempt to ban it.

"The NPD is excluded from the media. Members are hounded and banned from hotels and their bank accounts are terminated. There is a consensus on the discriminatory treatment of the NPD," it said in a statement.

Germany: Jews urge lawmakers to ban NPD - Israel Jewish Scene, Ynetnews

[Menydh]

The Social Democrats (SPD), who share power with Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), have been pushing for a ban, but many CDU lawmakers say there is insufficient proof of illegal activity.

I think that eventually they'll finish it off through other means, perhaps financial.

[Kernunnos]

This is the price for mingling nationalism with hitlerism. They cannot defend their country since they have a big ideological Achille's heel, both towards the public and towards anybody interested in stifling nationalism.

[Marulus]

Originally Posted by Kernunnos

This is the price for mingling nationalism with hitlerism. They cannot defend their country since they have a big ideological Achille's heel, both towards the public and towards anybody interested in stifling nationalism.

Are they Hitlerists? On their website I did not find any mention or allusion to National Socialism or any sort of praise of Hitler.

[Kernunnos]

Originally Posted by Marulus

Are they Hitlerists? On their website I did not find any mention or allusion to National Socialism or any sort of praise of Hitler.

MArulus, don't be naive. They are closet hitlerites since any open praise would cause an immemdiate ban: as it was in Italy for decades after the war with the M.S.I., a neo-fascist party staffed by fascists and dedicated to nostalgia, but formally not fascist since the post-war constitution banned the reconstitution of the italian fascist party. They weer fascist, anybody knew, but formally they were not. Much in the way Erdogan's A.K.P. is a formally moderate non-islamist party....

[Marulus]

Originally Posted by Kernunnos

MArulus, don't be naive. They are closet hitlerites since any open praise would cause an immemdiate ban:

Not only that it would result in an immediate ban of the party, but probably it would land the leaders themselves in jail.

[Kernunnos]

"In January, NPD General-Secretary Peter Marx said Germany should remain the land of Germans so future generations were not squeezed into reservations by immigration, as Native Americans have been." In Italy the Lega Nord has been able to use the very same metaphor in a famous electoral poster without fuss and with much success: an indian chief was drawn there, with the saying "They couldn't keep immigration under control". Even if the left attacks the Lega Nord as racist routinely, the real lack of any tie between the Lega Nord and fascism or nazism allows it to carry on unscathed certain battles. A party like NPD could never be successful as it would be damaged by the weight of a neo-nazist hidden agenda. Such party is actually a drawback to german nationalism and a cozy stooge for the system, as it will never attract a serious electorate, while trapping in a fridge the votes of many german nationalist and impeding the birth of a clean nationalist movement with real electoral potential.

[Gnist]

Originally Posted by Kernunnos

MArulus, don't be naive. They are closet hitlerites since any open praise would cause an immemdiate ban:

That's not proof of any kind. It seems like mere paranoia.

as it was in Italy for decades after the war with the M.S.I., a neo-fascist party staffed by fascists and dedicated to nostalgia, but formally not fascist since the post-war constitution banned the reconstitution of the italian fascist party. They weer fascist, anybody knew, but formally they were not. Much in the way Erdogan's A.K.P. is a formally moderate non-islamist party....

NPD is not dedicated to nostalgia of any kind as far as I know. It's a political party. That they are hitlerists seems to be a media lie. I saw it in a corrupt social democratic tabloid for example, but when I read the article, they had nothing whatsoever to back it up.

[Kernunnos]

Originally Posted by Gnist

That's not proof of any kind. It seems like mere paranoia.

NPD is not dedicated to nostalgia of any kind as far as I know. It's a political party. That they are hitlerists seems to be a media lie. I saw it in a corrupt social democratic tabloid for example, but when I read the article, they had nothing whatsoever to back it up.

Well, german people I know well just are of this opinion. Their marches often feature skinheads etc. As of the M.S.I., it was an open secret their neo-fascist nature: founders were high officials of the fascist state and the idea of keeping alive the flame of Fascism was expressed in their symbol. If members of the NPD praise Hess it is not because they love to be politically incorrect ... NPD is an offspring of the National Reich Party, which was genuinely nationalist and not hitlerite, however they also rely on the heritage of theSocialist Reich PArty, which was nationalist socialist and disbanded for that.

[Gnist]

Originally Posted by Kernunnos

Well, german people I know well just are of this opinion. Their marches often feature skinheads etc. As of the M.S.I., it was an open secret their neo-fascist nature: founders were high officials of the fascist state and the idea of keeping alive the flame of Fascism was expressed in their symbol. If members of the NPD praise Hess it is not because they love to be politically incorrect ... NPD is an offspring of the National Reich Party, which was genuinely nationalist and not hitlerite, however they also rely on the heritage of theSocialist Reich PArty, which was nationalist socialist and disbanded for that.

Where is the proof that is not just secondary opinion? There's no more substance to it than there's substance to "racist" accusations against nationalism in general.

[Kernunnos]

Originally Posted by Gnist

Where is the proof that is not just secondary opinion? There's no more substance to it than there's substance to "racist" accusations against nationalism in general.

I think a nationalist party should present a clear ideological apparatus based also on the veneration of specific historic figures, trying to distance such apparatus from the movements of the thirties.

There are sufficient great figures in euroepan , and this is case german, history that can serve as shining examples of nationalism.