09 July 2007
Dieter Graumann, vice president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, has called on Germany’s political leaders to seek a ban of the extreme-right National Democratic Party (NPD) before the Federal Constitutional Court. He said a ban would prevent the party, which is represented in two regional parliaments, from using millions of euros it receives in campaign donations "to propagate hate."
Talk about banning the party has been recurring for years in Germany. The last attempt was halted by the Constitutional Court in 2003 when it was revealed that a large part of the evidence that the government held against the NPD was based on testimony of NPD members who were on the payroll of the German secret services. Under Germany’s constitution, political parties can be banned by the Constitutional Court if their political aims and actions run counter to the principles of democracy and the rule of law.
On Saturday, a rally by the National Democratic Party in Frankfurt, which was authorized by local officials, drew nearly 600 participants. A counter-demonstration had an estimated 3,500 participants.