SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Germany has been debating the merits of a possible ban on the far-right NPD party following Saturday's nearly fatal stabbing of the Passau police chief by a suspected neo-Nazi. Media commentators say the country faces a very real threat from the far right and isn't doing enough to tackle it.
The near-fatal stabbing of Alois Mannichl, the police chief of the southern Germany city of Passau by a suspected neo-Nazi on Saturday shows right-wing extremism in Germany has reached a new and threatening dimension, write German media commentators. But they can't agree on whether the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) should be banned.
Some say the calls for the party to be outlawed, voiced in recent days by leading members of the conservative Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, are a helpless knee-jerk reaction that will do little to tackle the root causes of lingering right-wing extremism in Germany.
The German government already tried once to ban the party under a provision of the constitution that permits neo-Nazi parties to be shut out of politics. However, the country's highest court refused to grant a main hearing in the case in 2003 because some of the senior NPD members called to testify were government informants.
But others say it's worth trying again -- a ban could at least hurt the far right by putting a stop to the public funds the NPD currently gets as a legitimate political party. >>> David Crossland | December 16, 2008
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