Premier Urges Monitoring of More Far-Right Parties ==================================== F.A.Z. FRANKFURT. The state premier of Rhineland-Palatinate, Kurt Beck, has called for consideration of a ban on other far-right parties besides the right-wing extremist National Democratic Party (NPD). In particular, Mr. Beck said he was concerned about the German People's Union and the Republikaner. "In my opinion, the term anti-constitutional applies to all three of these parties," Mr. Beck said in an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. Therefore, the German People's Union and the Republikaner should be monitored, he added. With regard to the NPD, Mr. Beck, a Social Democrat, said he saw no alternative to banning the party. Of course, political confrontation is necessary, Mr. Beck maintained. But "I cannot accept that we finance a party with public funds that, for everybody to see on the Internet, calls outright for ousting the system," Mr. Beck said, adding that the NPD "obviously is the organizational platform for all those who run around and kill people." Mr. Beck said a combination of demonstrations against right-wing extremism and repression by the state was necessary. "The democratic state has to show its teeth," he said. October 29 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 2000 ############################################################ Moves to Ban NPD Focus on Hostility to Constitution, Violence and Racism ==================================================== By Johannes Leith�user BERLIN. The legal case for banning the National Democratic Party (NPD) will be based primarily on its aggressive behavior in public, its role as a leader and organizer of the right-wing extremist scene, and its identification with neo-Nazi elements, a report prepared by the German Interior Ministry reveals. The report, obtained on Sunday by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, was presented to the state premiers and their interior ministers last week to help them decide whether to back an appeal to the Federal Constitutional Court. On Thursday, 14 of the 16 states supported the move. The report documents the NPD's progression from a party contesting elections to a "cadre" party that increasingly takes its activities into the streets. Its leaders condone or even incite racial violence and call for "resistance" against the "system" using such inflammatory terms as Endkampf, or final battle. The report, which was prepared at the German Interior Ministry by a working party of the federal and state governments, will be issued in the coming days to members of the committee on internal affairs of the Bundestag, the German parliament. After the issue is addressed by the Cabinet on Nov. 8, it will be debated on Nov. 10 in the Bundesrat, the legislative body which represents the interests of Germany's state governments at the federal level. Following that, the Bundestag will vote on it. According to a spokesman for the governing Social Democrats, the Bundestag could possibly file its own application to ban the NPD with the constitutional court. Drawing on NPD promotional material and speeches by party leaders, the report alleges the party's violation of the German Constitution and its aggressive behavior. Adequate proof of the NPD's hostility to the constitution can be found in its program and other writings, which describe "the political system of the Federal Republic of Germany" as "the fundamental evil of the German present." There are references to the "process of rot in the Bonn system," while "Bonn representatives of the people" are described as "cancers on the German national body." Racist attitudes are documented by text passages such as "Mixing the races is not natural and (constitutes) genocide." Most of the material about the NPD was collated over the last four years, thus providing an account of the period during which Udo Voigt has led the party. The Offices for Protection of the Constitution have ascertained, and the NPD itself claims, a rise in membership since 1996 from 3,240 to 7,000. The report notes that in the same period, 80 investigations were conducted into NPD members or known followers who are suspected of perpetrating violence; 120 investigations concerned the use of Nazi insignia. The NPD accompanies its demonstrations with threats describing the tactical sense of the "fight for the streets," the paper states. Writing in the NPD newspaper, Mr. Voigt described the "fight for the streets" as the spearhead of a "national extra-parliamentary opposition." "Our fight is only just beginning," he added. The NPD links its aggressive political actions to efforts to give itself the structure of a cadre party. In spring, the chairman of the NPD's Saxony branch, Winfrid Petzold, wrote in an information sheet that the "imminent Endkampf needs well-trained soldiers ready with conviction to sacrifice everything, indeed, to give their last." The Offices for the Protection of the Constitution see similarities to the Nazi party: the NPD's affinity to the Nazi ethnic ideology, its glorification of the Nazi dictatorship, its use of Nazi terminology, and its self-perceived role as a representative of National Socialism. Moves to Ban NPD Focus on Hostility to ConstitutionCurrently more than 350 investigations are in progress against members or followers of the NPD. The NPD is not only successful in boosting member numbers, but it is also mobilizing neo-Nazi and skinhead groups. Two years ago, Mr. Voigt described how the NPD recruits skinheads. "If I see three or four bald heads standing at the marketplace, I stop and I have my signatures immediately." The cooperation between the NPD and militant skinheads and neo-Nazis is seen as one of the main causes of the party's aggressive nature. The paper argues that the danger the NPD poses to democracy emanates particularly from its affinity to the skinhead elements. Instead of expressly distancing itself from skinheads, the paper says, the NPD not only tolerates them, but relies on their support. A second argument is provided by the public appearances of the party, which increased its registered demonstrations from 50 in 1997 to 87 last year; so far this year there have been 70. The paper notes that there is barely any difference between neo-Nazis and NPD followers in the appearance of marches and demonstrations; bolstered by militant skinheads, NPD demonstrations represent the expression of the party's combative attempts to attain power beyond the confines of parliament. The NPD accompanies its demonstrations with threats describing the tactical sense of the "fight for the streets," the paper states. Writing in the NPD newspaper, Mr. Voigt described the "fight for the streets" as the spearhead of a "national extra-parliamentary opposition." "Our fight is only just beginning," he added. The NPD links its aggressive political actions to efforts to give itself the structure of a cadre party. In spring, the chairman of the NPD's Saxony branch, Winfrid Petzold, wrote in an information sheet that the "imminent Endkampf needs well-trained soldiers ready with conviction to sacrifice everything, indeed, to give their last." The Offices for the Protection of the Constitution see similarities to the Nazi party: the NPD's affinity to the Nazi ethnic ideology, its glorification of the Nazi dictatorship, its use of Nazi terminology, and its self-perceived role as a representative of National Socialism. October 29 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 2000 ############################################################
