GERMANY | Neo-nazi party seeks legitimacy in court

Source: thelocal.de Wednesday, 14 November 2012, 17:08

Germany's neo-Nazi NPD party said on Tuesday it had turned to the constitutional court for confirmation of its legitimacy, as regional interior ministers were said to be seeking a ban on the group from the same authority.

In March, Germany's regional interior ministers announced that they would try to assemble a case towards getting the NPD banned. Having given themselves half a year to gather evidence, they are not expected to file a formal request until next month.

In November of last year, a poll showed that three-quarters of Germans wanted a ban on the NPD, in a survey that followed the discovery of an extreme far-right cell believed to have murdered 10 people, mainly Turkish shopkeepers.

Last week, German prosecutors said they brought murder charges against 37-year-old Beate Zschäpe, who is said to have been at the heart of the neo-Nazi cell accused of the seven-year killing spree.

In existence since 1964, the NPD won 1.5 percent of the vote at the last national elections in 2009.

In 2003, a first attempt to ban the NPD failed, when the Constitutional Court - the only court able to make such a pronouncement - argued that the presence of undercover intelligence officers in the party posed a legal complication.