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Minister to ban NPD members from running child care facilities

Published: 26 Jul 10 09:07 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20100726-28741.html

Politicians in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania hope that a new proposal will prevent private child care centres from being run by neo-Nazis or members of the far-right NPD party, a media report said on Monday.

According to the proposal put forward by state minister for social affairs Manuela Schwesig, those responsible for starting new day care centres or kindergartens must be able to show that their activities are constitutional, daily Ostsee Zeitung reported.

“I’m bothered by the worry that right-wing extremists could become kindergarten leaders,” Schwesig, who is also the deputy leader of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), told the paper.

Only after it was demonstrated that the facility proprietors did not belong to any far-right organisations would they be allowed to care for children, the paper said. Such scrutiny would be unprecedented in Germany’s northeastern states,

Schwesig's proposal follows the revelation in February that an NPD member tried to take over a child care centre in Bartow. When the tiny town of 550 began searching for a new owner for a local kindergarten, the town council was only barely able to prevent it from being taken on by an NPD member.

DDP/The Local (news@thelocal.de)

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Your comments about this article:

12:19 July 26, 2010 by michael4096
Sounds a bit 'reds under the bed'

I wonder how many neo-nazis want to run a kindergarten?
13:29 July 26, 2010 by freechoice
just like letting Catholics Priests who have interests in children running kindergarten?
13:05 July 27, 2010 by mrphonk
Don't Germany like freedom of speech? And if not, what kind of political views should we ban from child care next? Socialists? Anarchists? Liberals? Conservatives?

Germany is digging its own grave by undermining democracy like this.
20:25 July 27, 2010 by canderson
Germany calls itself a democracy but a democracy for whom, only those in power? The NPD is a legitimate political party and like other recognized German political parties, they have their views and agenda. Those who disagree with the NPD have the right to vote for the party of their choice but they should not have the right to persecute others like the NPD for their beliefs. The Fascist here are those who seek to deny others the rights they have because they disagree with their stand on issues and their beliefs.
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