German court to hear case on banning far-right party

BERLIN

Germany’s highest court is to open a case seeking to ban the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD), the court announced Monday.

The Federal Constitutional Court said proceedings would begin on March 1 to examine whether the activities of the NPD violate the constitution and threaten democracy.

The Karlsruhe-based court made the announcement after two years of deliberations on banning the party, the largest far-right party in the country with around 5,000 members. Its supporters have been active in recent months in organizing anti-immigration demonstrations across the country.

The application for a ban was filed by the Bundesrat, the legislative body representing Germany’s 16 federal states.

The move has been controversial. In 2003, the Constitutional Court turned down a similar application on the grounds that there had been informants and undercover agents of the domestic intelligence agency in key positions in the NPD.

As the agency, the BND, refused to name the informants, the Constitutional Court could not evaluate if any anti-constitutional activity originated from informants or genuine party members.

The NPD received 1.3 percent of the vote in the last federal elections in 2013 but failed to enter the Bundestag due to a 5 percent threshold.

It is currently has five seats in the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state parliament.