Bundesrat votes to seek ban on NPD to stop hate crimes

Germany's upper house of parliament voted yesterday to seek a ban of the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD), one of the final political steps towards outlawing the party the German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, has described as having "Nazi characteristics".

A day after more than 200,000 people marched through the streets of Berlin to show solidarity against a rising tide of hate crimes in the country, the Bundesrat, which represents Germany's 16 federal states, voted by a large majority to ask the constitutional court in Karlsruhe to outlaw the NPD.

The centre-left federal government decided last Wednesday to submit an application to the court seeking a ban on the party. The government is now expected to prepare a joint application to the court next week. While there is no certainty such an application will succeed, it will carry greater political weight now that it has the backing of both houses of the German parliament.

Mr Edmund Stoiber, the Prime Minister of the southern state of Bavaria, welcomed yesterday's vote. "The credibility of German politics is at stake," he said yesterday. Arguing against the motion, the Prime Minister of the state of Saarland, Mr Peter Muller, said a ban would be ineffective as it was "a ban on an organisation, not an idea".

With about 6,000 members, the NPD is a barely significant political force and does not hold seats in either the national or the state parliaments. Last weekend over 1,000 skinheads marched through Berlin protesting against the proposed ban and challenging the government to provide proof of NPD involvement in racist attacks.

Meanwhile, Germany's lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, yesterday approved legislation allowing homosexual couples to register their partnerships. The landmark legislation will entitle homosexual couples who register their partnerships to benefit from many of the financial rights and obligations previously reserved for married couples, such as health insurance, maintenance and succession. Registered couples will not, however, have child custody rights.

The Bill was bitterly opposed by the opposition Christian Democrats (CDU) and they vowed to scupper the legislation next month when it passes through the upper house, where the federal government does not have a majority. But the government sidestepped the problem by splitting the legislation in two parts with only one requiring upper-house approval.

Reuters adds:

Half the German public believe there are too many foreigners in the country and two-thirds want tighter restrictions on immigration, a polling institute reported yesterday. The Emnid institute said a survey of 1,000 Germans found 62 per cent of eastern Germans and 47 per cent of westerners believe there are too many foreigners.