German lawmakers deny political party access to state fund
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Berlin, June 22, 2017 (dpa/NAN) Germany’s far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) will no longer have access to state funding under new legislation that was passed by the lower house of parliament on Thursday.
Bundestag lawmakers exceeded the two-thirds majority required to change the law on state financing for political parties.
All the 16 states represented in the Bundesrat, the upper house, had already thrown their support behind the measure.
Under the new legislation, state funding is to be withheld from any party that “purposefully opposes the liberal-democratic founding values or the existence of the Federal Republic of Germany.”
It will be up to the country’s Constitutional Court to decide which groups fit those criteria.
In January, the court rejected a bid by lawmakers to ban the NPD, which has links to neo-Nazi extremists.
Judges ruled that the party does pursue unconstitutional goals, but that it poses no threat due to dwindling influence.
The NPD received millions of dollars in state funding in 2016 due to its mandate on some local council.
The ruling did however recommend the confiscation of state funds.
The NPD has been losing influence over the years amid the rise of more socially acceptable right-wing populist movements.
In 2016, it lost its last member of parliament at state level. (dpa/NAN)
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Edited by Celine-Damilola Oyewole/Felix Ajide