Should the NPD be Banned?

The neo-Nazi NPD was the center of an uproar last week when it used the term "Bombing-Holocaust" to describe the firebombing of Dresden.  Reuters has the report:

A German far-right party has provoked outrage and calls that it be banned after it refused to take part in a minute's silence for Nazi victims and referred to wartime Allied bombing of Germany as a holocaust.

Mainstream politicians and Jewish leaders condemned the National Democratic Party (NPD) at the weekend after its 12 representatives in the Saxony state parliament staged a walkout on Friday, saying they would only remember German victims.

One NPD member later described Dresden's wartime destruction by the Allies as a "bombing holocaust".

The NPD's Web site has a press release from the party leader in Saxony - Holger Apfel - where he attacks film director Steven Spielberg and the Holocaust Museum in Berlin: (my translation)

"We will not rest until no further monuments are built to attack the German Volk and new memorials are established to remember the Germans who perished in Dresden, Hamburg, Berlin and elsewhere."

Der Denkpass notes that it is hardly a coincidence that  Apfel made this announcement on January 20, the anniversary of the Wannsee Conference where the policy of the Endlösung (Final Solution) was established.  The behavior of the NPD has renewed calls for Parteiverbot (banning the party) of the NPD.  Der Spindoktor  in favor of this measure, and criticizes interior minister Otto Schily for his excuses as to why this is not possible.  The conservative blog Fakt und Fiktion has some reasonable arguments against banning the party, but then goes on to blame Gerhard Schröder for the rise of right wing extremism in Germany.  By refusing to participate in the pre-emptive invasion of Iraq Schroeder fanned the flames of anti-Americanism - which the blogger equates with anti-Semitism. 

Herbert Prantl in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung is probably correct that "it is impossible to ban stupidity" in a democracy ( we know much about this in the United States):

Man sollte den Versuch eines Verbots nicht noch einmal unternehmen. Dummheit kann man nicht verbieten, die Demokratie muss sich mit ihr auseinander setzen. Das freilich wird dann nicht ganz einfach, wenn in Büchern, in Reden, in historischen Seminaren und auf Wahlveranstaltungen respektable Personen sich als V-Leute der Verdrängung des Holocaust zu erkennen geben. Irgendwann muss wirklich Schluss sein – mit den immer neuen Versuchen der Relativierung der Nazi-Gräuel.

One can only hope that those voters in Saxony that elected the NPD to the state assembly are having second thoughts. 

 

Comments

[Drew]

What threshold must a party exceed to get seats in a German state assembly?

As an american with limited German skills (I had to look up a few words in the Süddeutsche Zeitung piece) and an interest in German politics I think banning the party would be a very bad idea. If banned the party and it's leaders would become martyrs for the far right in Europe. Additionally, I think banning any political party, book, or film is a bad idea.

Any

[David]

@Drew

Germany has a so-called "5% threshold". Since the NPD won more than 10% of the votes in the Saxony state elections, they have proportional representation in the state assembly.

I tend to agree with your caution about banning parties outright. But there can be serious debate about how to handle political extremists that abuse the democratic process to advance undemocratic ideals.

David