German authorities outlawed two neo-Nazi organizations over the weekend and police launched a nationwide crackdown at the homes of party members.
In announcing the ban on the Free Workers Party and the smaller National List, the government circumvented a legal hurdle that had often prevented it from taking measures against neo-Nazi organizations in the past.
Although the Free Workers Party, known as the FAP, has only some 400 members, it is considered one of the strongest and most visible neo-Nazi organizations in Germany.
Its members have paraded in public wearing Nazi uniforms. And its leaders have called for the overthrow of the German government and the execution of all opponents.
The Hamburg-based National List has only about 30 members. It was banned by local city officials.
The FAP was banned by the federal government.
The FAP “disdains human rights, defames democratic institutions and stirs up xenophobia and anti-Semitism”, Interior Minister Manfred Kanther said when announcing the ban.
Police moved swiftly over the weekend against neo-Nazis belonging to the FAP in nine federal states throughout Germany.
Some 50 apartments and offices of the FAP were searched, with police confiscating large quantities of fascist flags, propaganda, documents, emblems, uniforms and T-shirts.
The authorities also confiscated bank accounts, mobile phones and fax machines. Police also found a small number of weapons.
The federal government had in the past been unable to move against the FAP because it calls itself a political party, which under German law cannot be outlawed.
But authorities were able to circumvent the law by obtaining a ruling from the Constitutional Supreme Court in the southwestern city of Karlsruhe that the two groups were political organizations, not true political parties.
Berlin Mayor Eberhard Diepgen welcomed the ban on the FAP, which had launched a recruiting campaign in his city and across eastern Germany after German unification in 1990.
“This offspring of the National Socialists has been a burden to the image of German democracy”, he said.
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