The motion with which the NPD wants to have its loyalty to the constitution tested is "pure populism," lower saxony’s interior minister uwe schunemann (CDU) told the german press agency dpa on wednesday. Meanwhile, the federal office for the protection of the constitution announced that it would step up the fight against violent right-wing extremism.
Schunemann sees the NPD’s application as "a purely tactical exchange maneuver with which the party wants to exert influence on the banning procedure". "We must not let ourselves be influenced, but we must now implement what we have agreed upon."
The federal government, which has not yet decided how to proceed against the NPD, urged caution. A renewed application for a ban at the federal constitutional court must have a very good chance of success, said government spokesman steffen seibert. 2003, a first attempt to ban the NPD failed.
President of the federal office for the protection of the constitution hans-georg maaben said at the autumn meeting of the federal criminal police office (BKA) in wiesbaden on wednesday that the right-wing terror of the national socialist underground (NSU) had been a scourge for germany. The danger of right-wing terrorism still exists. After the NSU murders and the attacks of 11. September 2001, society must also be prepared for ever new forms of terrorist violence.
At the BKA conference in wiesbaden, several hundred security experts discussed the fight against right-wing extremism and the lessons to be learned from the NSU case. Maaben admitted that the security authorities had failed to uncover the crime. They now drew conclusions from this. The office for the protection of the constitution has improved the exchange of information with the police.
Attorney general harald range warned that traditional jurisdictions are in danger of failing to keep pace with the challenges of terrorism. He advocated more cooperation between the authorities. The joint federal and state counter-extremism centers were an important contribution.
In berlin, the head of the state office for the protection of the constitution, claudia schmid, resigned from her post on wednesday. She drew the consequences from the destruction of files on right-wing extremists by the berlin office for the protection of the constitution. With schmid, five heads of constitutional protection agencies have already lost their office this year as a result of the NSU scandal.