“We owe the victims of right-wing agitation a strong moral signal”
This past November 9th marked 75 years since the nationwide Pogrom Night. That night, synagogues across Germany were set ablaze, businesses owned by Jews were destroyed, and vandals laid waste to Jewish cemeteries. The Reichspogromnacht was the launch of the largest and most horrific genocide in German history. It was the prelude to the Holocaust, the systematic extermination of people whose very existence was anathema to the anti-Semitic and racist delusions of the National Socialists.
It is necessary to recall this darkest of chapters in German history so that we are fully aware of what we mean when we make the statement: “The NPD is a neo-Nazi party. The NPD stands outside the bounds of our constitution and actively fights against it. Therefore, we petition to ban the NPD.”
Contempt for humanity
In the spirit of the National Socialist ideology, the NPD appeals to the basest instincts with slogans that incite hatred. It mocks the victims of the Holocaust. It refers to the Turks living in Germany as “ethnically and culturally alien elements.” It disputes the right of “Africans, Asians, or Orientals” to attain German citizenship on account of their “biological-hereditary makeup.” During the campaign for the Berlin parliamentary elections, it perfidiously placed posters with the slogan “Step on the gas” near the Holocaust memorial.
The NPD negates the normative foundations of our constitution. It seeks to replace our liberal democratic order with a Volksgemeinschaft based on ethnicity.
Would choosing not to ban a Neo-Nazi party be a sign of democratic sovereignty? Should we worry that banning the NPD would radicalize right-wing extremists and drive them underground?
State funding is inacceptable
Granted, these concerns and objections should be taken seriously. But they are of minor importance when seen against the feelings of the victims of NPD agitation, who all too often have been left out of discussions about a potential ban. Those groups denigrated and devalued by the NPD, whether Jews, Muslims, people of color, immigrants, the homeless, or homosexuals, find it inacceptable that the party is spreading its message in Germany with the support of the state funding granted to all political parties in this country. It is to them, first and foremost, that we owe a strong moral signal that would strengthen the resolve of all supporters of democracy to promote the peaceful co-existence of all people in Germany. Proceedings to ban the NPD are now under way. The attorneys charged by the Länder with the proceedings have put together a persuasive petition to ban the party. I wish that the Federal Government and the Bundestag were also willing to take this step and join us; this would have been a powerful expression of our vigilant democracy. However, I do not believe this will have any impact on the proceedings.
The widespread view that the problem the NPD poses will solve itself through an internal disintegration of the party is an illusion. It has robust organizational structures in all regions of Germany and it is able to reactivate them at any time. Banning the NPD would structurally weaken right-wing extremism in locations where the NPD remains strong.
Banning the NPD is not equivalent to a victory over extreme right-wing ideologies, but it would strike an important blow. Even if the NPD is banned, all supporters of democracy would have a duty to stand up against extreme right-wing ideologies. The federal states will continue to do their part to prevent extremism, and I expect the Federal Government in particular will do the same.
We cannot allow an NPD-ban to be exploited as an alibi. Our struggle to deal with right-wing extremism is linked to the normative foundations of our social and political order: human rights and human dignity. Thus, a society reaffirms its own identity by engaging with right-wing extremism. Our goal must be a tolerant and open Germany, in which immigrants can find their place. We want to protect each and every citizen from discrimination, regardless of his or her ethnic or social background, religion, or sexual orientation. Our struggle to overcome right-wing extremism must therefore remain a top priority, even after the NPD is banned.
Under the chairmanship of Minister Pistorius the Conference of Interior Ministers filed the petition for the NPD ban in the name of the Länder at the Federal Constitutional Court