The decision to ask the country’s highest court to open proceedings against the party, known by its German initials N.P.D., just before campaigning heats up for a parliamentary election next year raises the political stakes of a move that was already divisive.
Chancellor Angela Merkel is seeking a third term in office at a time when her center-right government has been criticized by its opposition rivals, the center-left Social Democrats, for mishandling the investigation into a murderous neo-Nazi trio that terrorized Germany’s minority population for the better part of the past decade. Ms. Merkel cannot afford to be viewed as weak in fighting against far-right extremists.
Lawmakers are still struggling to untangle how that trio, which called itself the National Socialist Underground, was able to terrorize minorities from 2000 to 2007, murdering 10 people, setting off two bombs and robbing 15 banks. A leading member of the N.P.D. has confessed to having contacts with the neo-Nazi trio — a statement seized upon by opponents as further proof of the need to ban the party.
“These murders confronted us with a new level of far-right extremism,” Christine Lieberknecht, governor of the eastern state of Thuringia, told the upper house, the Bundesrat, on Friday. “Out of far-right extremism grew far-right terror.”
Germany’s Bundesrat, which represents the 16 states, drew up a petition based on findings gleaned from a review of documents, interviews and observations from security services about the N.P.D. Fifteen of the 16 state governors backed the petition to ban the party.
Ms. Lieberknecht said the governors felt confident that there was sufficient proof of the threat the party posed to Germany’s democratic principles.
“We are convinced that the N.P.D. violates the Constitution,” Ms. Lieberknecht said. “The N.P.D.’s attitude is anti-Semitic, racist and xenophobic. Its goals, behavior and actions are similar in character to those of the Nazis.”
In a statement, the N.P.D. leadership called the latest attempt to ban the party “a foolhardy and stupid endeavor,” while insisting they viewed it with “necessary seriousness, but commensurate calmness.”
The Bundesrat’s decision is only an initial step in what could be a very long process. The greatest legal uncertainty is beyond German control, as the European Court of Justice may have a say in whether the party can be banned.
The previous attempt to outlaw the party collapsed in 2003 when it emerged that several of the government-paid informants keeping tabs on the party had simultaneously held high-ranking positions in it. The legal debacle — and the moral implications in a country with a long history of two-faced Nazi and Communist informants — proved an embarrassment for the then center-left Social Democrat government of Gerhard Schröder, which had initiated the ban.
So far, Ms. Merkel’s government has appeared reluctant to join the governors’ effort. After meeting them earlier this month, she expressed “understanding” for their position, but said her government would examine the “risks and chances” of the case before deciding on a position early next year.
Steffen Seibert, Ms. Merkel’s spokesman, said recently that there was understanding for the states’ move because the N.P.D. holds seats in some state legislatures “where they develop their politically unpleasant behavior, which should be rejected.”
The N.P.D. had 6,300 members last year, according to government figures. It is not represented at the national level, but remains a force in the east, especially Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where its representatives sit in regional legislatures. It also is allowed, like all political parties in Germany, to draw public financing, which particularly galls those who consider it an extremist group.
Germans widely agree with banning the party, recent surveys show. A poll released Thursday indicated that 67 percent of Germans supported a ban, and 21 percent opposed it, Emnid pollsters said.
Not all politicians believe that the effort to ban will succeed, and if it fails again, the move may even strengthen the party. Norbert Lammert, president of the lower house of Parliament, the Bundestag, expressed concern that the motion could give the N.P.D. what he called “an instrument of propaganda” for the national campaign next year.
“I consider the political risks that could result from such a motion far greater than the hoped-for advantages,” Mr. Lammert said in an interview Friday with German public radio Westdeutscher Rundfunk.
Even without support from the government and the lower house, the constitutional court must still act on the Bundesrat petition. The country’s Constitution sets high hurdles for censuring political parties and only two have been banned in postwar Germany: the successor to the Nazi Party, in 1952, and the Communist Party, in 1956.
Stanislaw Tillich, the governor of Saxony, has had to grapple with N.P.D. representatives seeking to disrupt the regional legislature by calling Israel a “Jewish terror state,” or showing up in clothing by a well known neo-Nazi designer. He acknowledged the challenges the petition may face.
“Yes, we are taking a risk,” Mr. Tillich said. “But this is a risk worth taking.”
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