The Hamburg branch of the Social Democratic party adopted a resolution here today demanding that the extremist National Democratic party (NPD) be banned “for the sake of free democratic development in Germany and because of Germany’s reputation abroad.” The resolution said that “the Government must find a way to outlaw the NPD.”
The action was the first on the issue taken by any of the major political parties in West Germany. Recently, the national leadership of the Social Democratic Party, which is a member of the West German coalition government, balked a Government plan to ban the NPD proposed by Chancellor Kurt Kiesinger. The plan called for an electoral law change which would prevent the NPD from gaining seats in the Bundestag, the lower house of the federal Parliament. The Chancellor opposes taking the issue to West Germany’s highest Constitutional court, at Karlsruhe, out of fear that a ruling for the NPD would accelerate its success. The extremist party has seats in several state legislatures and has announced plans to seek seats in the Bundestag.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
