Germany Bans Far-Right Demonstrations

B E R L I N, Aug. 12, 2000 -- Germany banned two planned marchesby far-right groups today and police made a show of forcein one of the targeted cities to prevent violence amid growingsentiment for a ban on the country’s oldest rightist party.

About 1,000 police were on hand to prevent the NationalDemocratic Party (NPD) from gathering before the ConstitutionalCourt in Karlsruhe, which has the power to outlaw politicalparties. NPD members stayed away.

Germans are increasingly calling for a ban on the NPD in abacklash against racist violence sparked by a bomb attack thatinjured 10 including six Jews in Duesseldorf two weeks ago. Itremains unclear if the far right was involved in the incident.

In interviews released today, Foreign Minister JoschkaFischer and Environment Minister Juergen Trittin, both left-wingGreens, said they backed an NPD ban if it could be justified.

“The NPD is a legal mantle for those who have knitted anunderground web of violence in Germany,” Trittin told theMagdeburger Volksstimme newspaper.

Extremism Not Accepted

Germany’s post-World War Two constitution, written withmemories of Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, allows theConstitutional Court to ban parties opposing democratic rights.

“A constitutional state must apply its powers to signalthat right-wing extremism will not be accepted,” Ernst Uhrlau,who coordinates secret service matters in Chancellor GerhardSchroeder’s office, told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

Hoping to preempt violence, lower courts supported a ban ontoday’s demonstrations in both Karlsruhe and Duesseldorf aheadof the anniversary of the death of Hitler deputy Rudolf Hess.

About 150 people held an anti-Nazi march in Karlsruhe andabout 1,000 attended a similar church-backed event in Munich.

The period around the August anniversary has long been afocal point for neo-Nazi demonstrations. Hess hanged himself inBerlin’s Spandau Prison on August 17, 1987.

A Road To a Ban

On Friday, German officials began a legal process that couldlead to the NPD being outlawed.

The government has asked a commission of local and federalofficials to make a recommendation by October on whether toappeal to the Constitutional Court for a ban against the fringeparty, which was formed in 1964.

But the government wants to avoid a failed lawsuit thatwould merely give publicity to the 6,000-member movement.Germany has a population of 82 million.

The NPD leader said today that a ban on the party would notbe valid as the party did not embrace violence.

“The NPD has always distanced itself from violence andrefused to commit violence,” Udo Voigt told reporters.

An attempt to ban might prove popular, however — recentpolls have found about two-thirds in favor.

Even if the government backs a ban, the process wouldprobably take a year to win legal sanction, a formerConstitutional Court judge told NDR4 radio.

“The commission will only decide if there is enoughmaterial for a ban, but the decision [to proceed] falls to[Schroeder’s] cabinet,” said Ernst Gottfried Mahrenholz. “I’dexpect a decision a year after an appeal is made.”

Also today, police in eastern Germany announced thearrest of a 24-year-old involved in the far-right movement andwanted in connection with the recent murder of a homeless man.Three other suspected accomplices were already in custody.