UPDATES WITH POLITICAL REACTIONS, ADDS MORE DETAILS
By Anadolu staff
BERLIN (AA) - Germany’s top court on Tuesday ruled to cut state funding for the far-right Die Heimat party for six years, due to its activities against the free democratic basic order.
The Constitutional Court said in its ruling that Die Heimat party, previously NPD, is working actively toward abolishing the free democratic basic order, which is shown by its activities and links to national and international right-wing extremist groups.
The court has ruled that an application by the German government and the parliament to exclude Die Heimat party from state financing was legally justified, and has met the prerequisites of the Basic Law’s relevant articles.
Die Heimat Party has “crossed the threshold from merely professing its rejection of the free democratic basic order towards actually combatting this order and is oriented towards its abolition. The respondent shall therefore be excluded from state financing for six years,” the court said in its judgment.
The landmark ruling marks the first time the Constitutional Court has cut state funding for an anti-democratic party under a new amendment to the Basic Law, according to which a party could be excluded from state financing even if it is not banned by the country’s top court.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has welcomed the ruling, and thanked authorities and the country’s domestic intelligence agency BfV for gathering the necessary evidence.
“Today’s decision by the Federal Constitutional Court sends a clear signal: Our democratic state does not finance enemies of the constitution,” the Social Democrat politician said in a statement.
“The forces that want to dismantle and destroy our democracy must not receive a single cent of state funding - neither directly nor indirectly through tax benefits,” she added.
*The case has drawn intense interest across the political spectrum, and several politicians have suggested that similar measures now could be taken against the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which is polling around 20% nationwide.
The AfD’s anti-migrant stance, and recent reports on their secret plans for the mass deportation of migrants, sparked nationwide protests in Germany over the weekend, and brought more than a million people out onto the streets.