Photo: DPA

Politicians renew calls for NPD ban

Published: 1 Feb 10 09:14 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/politics/20100201-24945.html

Seven years after Germany’s high court refused to ban the neo-Nazi NPD party, a growing number of politicians are advocating a renewed attempt to end their legitimacy.

Members of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), their Bavarian sister party the CSU, and opposition centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) want the right-wing extremists off the country’s political playing field, daily Bild reported on Monday.

“The NPD follows clearly anti-constitutional goals and must disappear from the political landscape,” Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) told the paper. “I am working on a new case for an NPD ban.”

To strengthen his case, Herrmann encouraged the country’s domestic intelligence agency to disengage its top spies in surveillance of NPD leadership. The 2003 ban request reportedly failed because the constitutional court believed that domestic intelligence agents from the Verfassungsschutz could have influenced the actions of the neo-Nazis under their watch.

“For a successful ban we don’t need the information from (them),” Herrmann told the paper. “There is enough material that proves the NPD is an enemy of the constitution.”

SPD member and Berlin Interior Minister Ehrhart Körting agreed.

"According to my estimation the NPD is an anti-constitutional party that should be banned," he told the paper. "This is open to see. For this I don’t need any (Verfassungsschutz) people."

Meanwhile Interior Minister for the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Lorenz Caffier (CDU) told the paper that existing evidence shows the right-wing extremist party to be aggressively attempting to attack Germany democracy and replace it with Nazi ideology.

SPD interior expert Sebastian Edathy also supported the disengagement of intelligence agents to further the case against the neo-Nazi party.

DDP/The Local (news@thelocal.de)

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#1
09:52 February 1, 2010 by William Thirteen
"must disappear" - oh if only it was so easy to make things disappear. pass a law and *POOF* it's gone! While they are at it there are few other things they might think of making disappear as well: poverty, hunger and pete doherty....
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#2
10:46 February 1, 2010 by Jibzy
Being a foreigner in Germany, i would not strongly advocate this ban because i believe it might give them a ROUGE outlook..as if they were robin-hoods or something. They should have a legal "vent" for their views and should be strictly monitored so that they can be controlled. BANNING or SUPRRESSING leads to further intesifying of their efforts at whatever they are doing.
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#3
16:28 February 1, 2010 by Henckel
That's right, they'll simply go underground and then there'll be "troubles" as in Northern Ireland from 1969 to 1998.
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#4
20:24 February 1, 2010 by wxman
Unlike the commie socialist punks that roamed America in the late 60s/early 70s, these national socialist punks DON'T need a haircut!
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#5
20:55 February 1, 2010 by jade_divoff
"i would not strongly advocate this ban because i believe it might give them a ROUGE outlook."

Because rouge goes so well with earrings and shaven heads no doubt...
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#6
06:29 February 2, 2010 by Hunt2871
For a nation to truly be free it must be willing to accept the benefits of freedom and the burdens that come along with it. While it is an understandable desire to try to curtail behavior that the majority of citizens find distasteful it is, in fact, this very type of behavior that should be protected under the law. Banning this group, which would be impossible in the first place because it is not possible to ban beliefs and ideas, would only make them that much more attractive to potential recruits. We have a saying in the southern half of the United States (a region, by the way, not without its share of similar groups) that you shouldn't wrestle with a pig because all you do is get muddy and the pig enjoys the intimacy (again in some parts of the southern U.S. this is called R-O-M-A-N-C-E). It is much better to allow, and even encourage, these types of groups to vent theor opinions in public. That way the citizens of Germany will truly know what their ideology is and will either accept it or reject it on its own merit. If they are driven into secrecy then they are given a certain amount of credibility in the minds of people who are wont to accept theit ideas. I would bet that if they were given enough free air time that their rhetoric would "ban" them quicker and more efficiently than the State can.
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#7
10:15 February 2, 2010 by lordkorner
I'm lost for words regarding Henckel's comments on what might happen in Germany and what has happened in Northern Ireland in the past,however the phrase What the F*uk springs to mind
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#8
11:53 February 2, 2010 by Frenemy
@lordkorner:

Please allow me to assist, I'll give you THE WORD to describe his comment: "correct"! ;-)
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#9
16:42 February 2, 2010 by LancashireLad
@ Frenemy and Henckel

This is a different situation. You're comparing apples with sweetcorn.

The "troubles" in Ireland (mostly) came about when an oppressed culture - the original inhabitants - rebelled against the oppression and unfair treatment they had suffered at the hands of us .. the British (although any non-English would probably complain) and the resulting backlash from the pro-British population. I am not condoning what any of the groups did, I am just explaining why it came about.

The Nazi doctrine has nothing to do with defending yourself against oppression and everything to do with generating hate. Not the same at all.

I agree, though, that banning them would force them underground and .... effectively "glamourise" them. If they are given the chance to put forward their views, the rest of the population will quickly see how odious these views actually are. This will actually be more effective than any ban.
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#10
01:48 February 4, 2010 by roy albrecht
Damn right they should be banned...,

and while the CDJews and the SPDicks are at it they may as well ban Germans from having children,

open the flood gates to Turks and Africans,

earmark 100% of foreign aid to Holocaust vicims,

cut all social programs except those assisting illegal aliens,

place the German military under Israeli control,

and then rename Germany something more in tune with the times..,

(i.e.; the "Federal Republic of Mongrellia" or how about;

"Israeli Dependency of Rothschildia")

Frankly, I also think Bald people and shaven headed people should be sentenced under section 130 of the criminal code and thrown into a Mannheim prison for no less than 5 years.
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#11
06:12 February 4, 2010 by wenddiver
Banning Politcal thought only bans Freedom. Hitler's reaction to polititcal thought he disagreed with was to ban it. Give them their soap Box and when they criticize their government tell them you are here to defend their rights.
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#12
23:08 February 4, 2010 by Bildad
¦quot;The NPD follows clearly anti-constitutional goals and must disappear from the political landscape,¦quot; ...

To start with, Germany has no German dictated Constitution. It is under a temporary Allied enforced document that should have been replaced years ago.

But even then, Article 5 of the Allied Constitution states : "Everyone has the right to freely express and disseminate their opinions orally, in writing or visually and to obtain information from generally accessible sources without hindrance,"

Ofcourse, there is a big loophole that says your freedoms can be ignored if we find what you say offensive. Therin lies the true test of free speech. Grow up Germany. Find your backbone again.
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