The German Constitutional Court ruled: The NPD must not receive any funds from state funding for six years. The party representatives distanced themselves from the verdict, having already declared in writing that they did not want to “become extras in a simulation of justice”.
Germany's far-right NPD party will be excluded from state party funding for six years. The Constitutional Court decided this on Tuesday in Karlsruhe. The National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) renamed itself Die Heimat last June. It was the first case of its kind in Germany's highest court. The decision should also be discussed in relation to the right-wing populist parliamentary party AfD.
The legislator created the option to exclude funding after the NPD's second unsuccessful ban procedure in 2017. The Constitutional Court rejected the ban at the time because there was no evidence that the party could achieve its anti-constitutional goals.
The second Senate of the Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe dealt with the public financing of the NPD party. APA/AFP/Uwe Anspach
NPD has not received any money since 2021
The legislator then created the possibility of excluding party financing. The Bundestag, the Bundesrat and the Federal Government asked the Constitutional Court to exclude the NPD and possible replacement parties from party funding for six years. The period is specified by law. The decision also means that tax benefits for the party and donations to it will no longer apply.
According to party law, parties in Germany can receive money from the state for their work – such as election campaigns. Other sources of income include membership fees and donations. The value of partial State financing is calculated according to a specific key, with the participation of votes, among other things. To be eligible, parties must reach minimum quotas in the most recent elections at state, federal and European level.
Given that the NPD has been unable to do this recently, according to Bundestag data, it has not received any money since 2021. A year earlier it was around 370,600 euros – it received 3.02 percent of the vote in the 2016 state election in Mecklenburg -Western Pomerania. For comparison: in 2016, when the party was credited with more electoral successes, it was entitled to more than 1.1 million euros. To put it in perspective: the social-democratic SPD received the highest amount at that time, almost 51 million euros.
NPD talks about a “show trial”
There was a scandal at the hearing in July last year because no party representatives attended – according to the court, a unique event. Die Heimat also did not send anyone for the verdict. At the time, the party declared on its website that it would not allow itself to be “turned into an extra in a simulation of justice”. The negotiation “will degenerate into a show trial”. As there is no requirement for presence, the court continued the hearing.
The decision could also be a model for the AfD. CSU head Markus Söder, for example, raised the option of a funding exclusion procedure in the current debate over a possible ban on the AfD. (APA/dpa)