After a subjective decade, the trial that could lead to a ban of the right-wing extremist NPD, Germany’s oldest surviving Extreme Right party, has finally begun this week. That alone is news: Last time around, a blocking minority of the judges was so concerned about the unknown informers within the party’s leadership that the proceedings…
Yesterday, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled on the constitutionality of Germany’s biggest broadcaster, telling parties to keep away. Plus there is a spoof video in this post.
The NPD ended 2013 with a veritable Christmas Panto. On December 19, Holger Apfel, who had become party leader in 2011, stepped down from this and other party offices citing his ill health. On December 22, the party’s highest decision making body published a communique that urged Apfel to ‘disprove allegations directed against him’. Within hours, the nature of these allegations emerged, first in the blogosphere, then in the mainstream media: One ‘young comrade’ (male) claimed that the (drunken) leader had sexually harassed him during the electoral campaign. Shortly afterwards, Apfel left the party for good.
The German polity tries to deal with an electorally insignificant extremist NPD five months before the election, looks very stupid in the process
Germany’s right-wing extremist NPD has published a confidential brief regarding a potential ban of the party that was compiled by government agencies
The NPD is Germany’s oldest surviving Extreme Right party. It has been around for about five decades. After merging with its long-time rival German People’s Union (DVU, the ruling mentioned in the post was finally squashed), it is also a serious contender for the coveted title of Germany’s daftest party (see exhibit number one). While…
Yesterday, the BBC’s man in Berlin discovered that there are constitutional limits to Merkel’s ability to somehow save the Euro. Following a constitutional amendment in the 1990s, article 23 of the Basic Law stipulates that any further transfers of sovereignty to the EU require absolute two-thirds majorities in both the Bundestag and the Federal Council…
You may or may not be aware that the EU commission has announced yesterday that it will take Germany to court over the country’s failure to transpose the data retention directive into national law. What makes the recent case unusual is its domestic background
Unless you spent the last couple of days under a rock, you will have heard about the terrible series of (at least) ten neo-Nazi murders that has stunned Germany. In my view, three things are particularly remarkable about this crime. First, the mainstream media including the public broadcasters and the left-liberal press refer to the…