Germany: NPD again a target

[Menydh]

High Court Judge Reignites NPD Ban Debate
January 30, 205


The government already tried to ban the NPD in 2003

A German constitutional court justice said Sunday that the neo-Nazi NPD party could be banned even though a past attempt failed. The comments have reignited the debate over how best to deal with the extreme-right menace.

Hans-Jürgen Papier, president of Germany's highest court, told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that it was still possible to outlaw the National Democratic Party (NPD) even though an attempt to do so by the federal government in 2003 was rejected by the justices on procedural grounds.

"The suspension of proceedings to ban the NPD does not represent a predetermined outcome on future efforts to ban it," Papier wrote in the newspaper. "These facts need to be remembered."

The German constitution allows groups and political parties that are deemed dangerous due to their support for Nazism to be banned. Berlin believes the NPD qualifies, but the Constitutional Court ruled the use of undercover informants created bias in the government's case to ban the party. The informants -- federal intelligence agents -- were also unwilling to disclose their identity by appearing in court.

Since then, the party has flourished, particularly in the former communist east of Germany, where it has fed on local frustration with unemployment and the reduction of social welfare payments. Last September, the neo-Nazi outfit shamed Germany by winning nearly 10 percent of the vote in a state election in Saxony. The right-wing extremist have made a point of offending the political mainstream ever since.

Outrage in Saxony

Demands to take action against the party came to a head last week, when the NPD deputies in Saxony's parliament refused to take part in a moment of silence for the victims of the Nazis during a commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp.

Before they stormed out of the chamber, the NPD parliamentarians had filed a motion asking that the minute of silence be restricted to commemorate the victims of the Allied "bombing holocaust" of Dresden, Saxony’s capital, in February 1945. The parliament overwhelmingly rejected the request.

Preaching racial hatred and denying the Holocaust are both against the law in Germany. German politicians have also called on the European Union to adopt a ban on all Nazi symbols, which are also outlawed in Germany.

Constitutional Court Justice Winfried Hassemer told Der Spiegel newsmagazine that despite the last botched case against the far-right party, a ban was still "feasible" if the government took care not to repeat the same mistakes. He said the court's ruling in 2003 had "nothing to do with the actual unconstitutionality of this party."

Encouraged by justices

The highly unusual public comments by justices Papier and Hassemer have encouraged some politicians to consider a renewed attempt to ban the NPD.

"We will have to carefully check in the coming weeks whether we can to come to another assessment regarding the NPD ban," Dieter Wiefelspütz, interior policy spokesman for the Social Democrats, told the Netzeitung online newspaper.

But other officials, mindful of the fallout from the last failure, remain cautious about pressing ahead with another case.

"There isn't enough evidence against the NPD at the moment," Beckstein told the AFP news agency. He said taking the issue to the Constitutional Court would "not be wise" considering the possibility of another failed ban giving the far-right extremists even more momentum.

DW Staff (mry)


[Source: DW-World.de] (January 30, 2005)

Other related news on previous days:

Opinion: Banning the Far-Right NPD (January 24, 2005)

Far-Right German Party Belittles Holocaust (January 24, 2005)

Germany\'s Far-Right Parties Join Forces (January 17, 2005)

Calls for EU Ban on Nazi Symbols (January 17, 2005)

[Zyklop]

Preaching racial hatred and denying the Holocaust are both against the law in Germany. German politicians have also called on the European Union to adopt a ban on all Nazi symbols, which are also outlawed in Germany.

What a nervous, desperate shit government

[Menydh]

In the above article High Court Judge Reignites NPD Ban Debate, at the bottom of the article there is a javascript link to a feedback by readers with the question:

Is the NPD a threat to Germany's democracy?
Please include your name and country in your reply.

While it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that it won't be of much use to protest, at least we can make some hear our opinions.

The NPD people are fighting to stop a process which will inevitably turn Germans into an endangered species 50 years from now. Their fight is also for all other Europeans. They are working for Germany and for Europe.

The danger to Germany and to Europe are the people who want to prosecute them and to ban them.

(Do tell them about your support but do not add more misery to it. If you can't say anything intelligent, please don't say a word).


http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,...473573,00.html

[Zyklop]

Originally Posted by Mynydd

Is the NPD a threat to Germany's democracy?

Please include your name and country in your reply.

Let´s hope it is a threat to "Germany´s democracy".

[Aeternitas]

If they should ban anyone, they should ban themselves. This is neither democracy nor free speech.

[Perun]

Hmmmn repeat of the Vlams Blok incident?

[Spartadux]

In germany i know that is possible to ban also the play soldiers looked as politics, let's figure up if some does politics in a serious way as it seems to be the climax of NPD.
Anyway we comrades of Italy all support the NPD because we want Germany as the treasure of Europe and we honour much who stands for national ideas in Germany as NPD

[Zyklop]

Originally Posted by Perun

Hmmmn repeat of the Vlams Blok incident?

Nah, it´s an old tradition in the FRG. They also banned the SRP (Sozialistische Reichspartei) in 1952 after it gained political influence.

[Aeternitas]

The BRD government labels anything that comes close to nationalist as neo-nazi. I can see their strategy though. Whenever a party they are not happy with wins some votes and popularity, they feel the need to discredit it. And what better opportunity than this 60 year 'anniversary'.

[etoile noir]

The people are waking up, i.e. the minority is "in danger" of becoming the majority. and that is what the BRD government is scared of.

it happens everywhere - first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they try to shut you up. there was a quote sometime, somewhere along those lines, but i can't remember who or where. could have even been gandhi actually, but don't quote me

[Menydh]

Originally Posted by Aeternitas

I can see their strategy though. Whenever a party they are not happy with wins some votes and popularity, they feel the need to discredit it. And what better opportunity than this 60 year 'anniversary'.

That is why incidents like that of the royal idiocy of attending a fancy dress party on a uniform with a svastika armband are nothing to be cheerful about.

[Timo]

Originally Posted by etoile noir

first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they try to shut you up. ...but don't quote me

I quoted you.
You are right though, it is a sign they are desperate. By the way, Freedom in the BRD (or anywhere else) is an illusion, created so that the masses feel content with the rule of the government. It can always be nullified, with a pen or a gun.

[Aeternitas]

People are waking up but slowly. Yet they have their blame in what is happening around us. Some are too stupid to realize what is being dictated to them is wrong. Hence you get all this embracing of multi-kulti tuti fruttis.

[Spartadux]

in fact when i was Erasmus in Finland i was used to go out with a girl from Munich, she was actually a supporter of a tiny party called the socialist party of Bayer of stuff like that. When i asked her to translate something of NPD on Internet (NPD or sites as Oicracht!) she told me only that those guys of those movements had to die!No explainations, nothing only fanaticism.
She only told me that i would have avoided all kinds of questions about NPD.

Another student in another occasion was standing beside me in a party, a russian girl near me made a gag in my direction: "you came in Russia but we sent you all in Siberia" , i asked "excuse me but <you> what?" and she said "You the Germans referring to me".
I said "i'm not german but hre there is some german who can answer!" but the German students only silenced without even trying to answer,
It seems clear how is possible to arrive to the point that a movement NPD is in target everytime it does achieve numbers.
The system wants a Germany without memory even happy to be freed by soviets.

PS= another guy exposed the 25th of April in Italy (student abroad from Germany) a big paper with a picture of soviet flag on the Reichstag held by a red soldier, the paper was made by Autonomen. I asked to him "are you communist?" and he said "no, no!" so i replied "and why you have this kind of comunist propaganda of italian Autonomen" and he said :"i celebrate liberation party too because you had the partizans and we had the Red Arm freeing us in Berlin, we have to than them because they gave us the freedom".
Actually he wasn't even a berliner but a guy from Herlangen.

[Spartadux]

I've been in Wave Gotik Treffen in Leipzig and i saw that in that city the reality is much different, many peoples are really annoyed of sionist and destructionist propaganda and more than one accepted by me the propaganda of Fascim i brought with me (including a small calendar of Adolf Hitler with Mussolini).
The possibility to discuss about NS was quite clear and i had no problems to speak clearly of what i was thinking about.
Of course i saw also opponents but the enviroment was indeed more flexible, maybe is the East Germany atmospher that has more originality of culture and national freedom.
And migrants were quite hidden around, i don't think that leftwingers are less violent there (i saw many squats in a certain area of Leipzig) but on our side there is a reality and they showed with no problems their symbols as schwarze sonne or totenkopf with some supplies of the ancient Whermacht.
Some would say its' simply folklore, yes it is but it gives impression of a feeling.

[Perun]

Originally Posted by Zyklop

Nah, it´s an old tradition in the FRG. They also banned the SRP (Sozialistische Reichspartei) in 1952 after it gained political influence.

Yes I know that.

[Perun]

Originally Posted by Aeternitas

The BRD government labels anything that comes close to nationalist as neo-nazi.

I believe this occured to movements that even tried basing itself on the nationalist rival parties of the NSDAP, like the German National Peoples Party(DNVP).

Btw, what exactly was the difference ideologically speaking between the DVNP and the NSDAP?

[Aeternitas]

Originally Posted by Perun

I believe this occured to movements that even tried basing itself on the nationalist rival parties of the NSDAP, like the German National Peoples Party(DNVP).

Btw, what exactly was the difference ideologically speaking between the DVNP and the NSDAP?

The DNVP were national conservative and anti-republican monarchists. Their main support came from industrialists as well as landowners. They also opposed socialism and were favoring private enterprise. Their success was mostly recorded during Weimar times and during the last Weimar years they joined the Harzberg Front.