The ARD must now broadcast an election campaign of the far-right NPD to the European elections. The Federal Constitutional Court has granted an express request of the party. The lower courts had unjustly adopted a pro-Nazi content, wrote the competent judges in their verdict. A decision of the Higher Administrative Court Berlin-Brandenburg is thereby lapsed, in which on Monday the broadcasting Berlin Brandenburg (RBB) was given right.
At the end of April, the NPD in Karlsruhe had tried in vain to broadcast an election campaign on ZDF. At that time, the judges declared the refusal lawful. Meanwhile, the NPD has redone the spot. The RBB, which according to own data for the ARD checks the TV commercials for election, had not wanted to broadcast the contribution.
In the new form, the spot begins with the assertion that Germans would "almost daily victims" because of the "uncontrolled mass immigration" since 2015, and the establishment of "protection zones" in prospect. The Higher Administrative Court had regarded this as an obvious case of sedition. It is propagated a division of society into German and criminal foreigners. Another interpretation is excluded because of the political goals of the NPD.
From the point of view of the constitutional court, this interpretation goes too far. "Decisive for the assessment of the election campaign spot is only this itself, not the inner attitude or the partisan program, which forms its background," it says in the decision. The focus in the new version is more on Germans than "victims". Thus, the RBB is required to broadcast the election campaign twice.