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Germany’s top court has ordered a ban on electoral funding for one of the country’s most notorious extremist political parties in a landmark decision that comes amid growing calls for restrictions on far-right campaigning.
Judges at the federal constitutional court in Karlsruhe ruled on Tuesday that Die Heimat, or the Homeland — a small party formerly known as the NPD — should lose all access to state-granted funding for the next six years because it was a threat to Germany’s “basic democratic order”.
Germany’s parliament and government have twice before tried to have the Homeland party banned outright — in 2003 and 2017 — and failed, making today’s ruling a crucial test of whether the German constitution allows for curbs on political parties and their democratically elected representatives if they are deemed sufficiently dangerous.
For the past week, huge protests against the far right have been held in cities across Germany, with hundreds of thousands of people turning out to demonstrate against Alternative for Germany — a populist anti-immigrant party now supported by almost one in four voters, according to polls — which has become steadily more radical in its politics in recent years.
Calls for the party to be banned have grown following revelations earlier this month of a meeting between high-ranking AfD politicians and far-right ideologues in Berlin at which mass deportations of immigrants were discussed.
While the convoluted proceedings against the Homeland party have highlighted the difficulty of such a move, Tuesday’s ruling opens the possibility of other sanctions against the AfD short of a full ban — which would be a step too far for many given how widespread its support is.
The court’s ruling could serve as a “blueprint for the AfD”, said Markus Söder, the powerful prime minister of Bavaria and a member of the conservative Christian Social Union party, in an interview with newspaper Handelsblatt on Monday.
Nancy Faeser, Germany’s interior minister, said: “This decision comes at a time that once again shows one thing: rightwing extremism is the greatest extremist threat to our democracy — and to people in our country.”
Specifically referring to the controversial meeting attended by AfD figures, she said: “We [will] make use of the instruments of our defensive democracy. We [will] take action against anyone who paves the way for rightwing extremist violence.”
Under German electoral rules, political parties are granted automatic funding from the state to support their campaigning if they cross one of two thresholds: 0.5 per cent of votes in a federal or European election, or 1 per cent of votes in a German state election.
The Homeland party was a recipient of such funding until 2020 when it fell below the thresholds. In Germany’s 2021 federal election, it claimed just 0.1 per cent of the national vote.
The party had nevertheless received as much as €1.2mn annually from the state during its peak of popularity between 2013 and 2016.
The court’s ruling today will also remove tax benefits to which the party was entitled.
“The Homeland party disrespects the basic free democratic order and, according to its goals and the behaviour of its members and supporters, is geared towards its elimination,” the court in Karlsruhe said on Tuesday.
The Homeland party had a strong “affinity to national socialism”, the judges found. Their decision was unanimous.
