Effort to ban German neo-Nazi party faces more delays

A plan to ban the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD) of Germany has run into political difficulties. Several German states failed to deliver reports on anti-democratic activities by the NPD by the end of March, as had been planned. "I have no understanding for this way of dealing with the problem," Charlotte Knobloch, president of the Central Committee of German Jews, told reporters after learning that several states under the leadership of Christian Democratic governors failed to meet the deadline. Knobloch has been leading the call for the ban, which has received support from the Social Democratic Party.

State governors and the Federal Interior Ministry are set to discuss the possibility of a ban in meetings scheduled later this month. In 2003, an attempt to have the party banned failed when the Constitutional Court found that much of the evidence against the party came from secret service informants. Only two parties have been banned in postwar Germany, both in the 1950s.