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FDP Minister Lindner

Photo: Thomas Koehler / photothek / IMAGO

Politicians in the federal government welcome the Federal Constitutional Court’s ruling on the right-wing extremist NPD successor party “Die Heimat”.

The court in Karlsruhe decided this morning that “Die Heimat” would be excluded from state party funding for at least six years.

The court found that “Die Heimat” disregards the free, democratic basic order and is aimed at its elimination based on its goals and the behavior of its members and supporters.

Left leader Martin Schirdewan

told SPIEGEL that it was "good news" that the NPD's funding was being cut.

"Parties that want to destroy our democracy must no longer receive financial support from the state." Schirdewan also sees the decision as a signal for how to deal with the AfD.

»That's why, after the NPD, the AfD must also be excluded from state party financing.

The federal government must immediately initiate the appropriate investigation procedure.

Schirdewan also pushed for the AfD youth organization Junge Alternative (JA) to be banned.

»The JA can and must be banned immediately.

The cuts to democracy and victim support projects must be reversed.«

Lindner on defunding the AfD: “It all has to be done legally cleanly”

Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP),

however, urged restraint in the debate about cutting funding for the AfD in the “Welt”.

»The impression must not arise that the parties of the democratic center want to fend off unpleasant competition by resorting to party law.

“It all has to be done in a legally clean manner,” said Lindner.

The confrontation with the AfD must be a political one.

Lindner was convinced that the traffic light coalition was now solving problems that had made the AfD great.

»Many people have been waiting for a different migration policy since the Merkel era.

“It’s coming now,” said Lindner.

Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD)

said the ruling sent a clear signal.

“Our democratic state does not finance enemies of the constitution,” said the minister.

"Forces that want to decompose and destroy our democracy must not receive a cent of state resources for this - neither directly nor indirectly through tax incentives." The constitutional hurdles for future proceedings remain high, according to Faeser.

But “we now have another instrument to protect our democracy.”

The Green Party parliamentary group leader Irene Mihalic

described the decision as groundbreaking.

“The fact that anti-constitutional parties do not have to be supported by the money of the state they are trying to fight shows the resilience of our democracy,” she told the “Rheinische Post”.

Bavaria's Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU)

said it was "completely absurd to support parties that reject our constitution and trample on our democracy with state funds." The judge's ruling shows that it is also "below the threshold the party ban gives ways and means to “stand against the enemies of the constitution”.

The decision follows an application from 2019

The Federal Constitutional Court's ruling followed an application to cut public funding for the party, which the Bundestag, Bundesrat and federal government had already submitted in 2019.

The possibility of this was introduced in 2017 after an NPD ban in Karlsruhe failed for the second time.

The right-wing extremist party, which now operates under the name “Die Heimat”, has become largely irrelevant in recent years and, according to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, only has around 3,000 members – as of 2022.

“Die Heimat”

itself was unimpressed by the verdict.

"Yes, that's not nice for us," said party chairman Frank Franz. "But anyone who thinks that would throw us out of the game and hold us back is very much mistaken."

The

parliamentary director of the AfD in the Bundestag, Stephan Brandner

, sees the Karlsruhe judgment as no template for action against his party.

The SPD and the Greens had already discussed cutting off money to the AfD before the Karlsruhe ruling.

The procedure for exclusion from party financing anchored in the Basic Law is "an important element for the defensive state to significantly reduce state funding for anti-constitutional parties," said the parliamentary managing director of the SPD parliamentary group, Johannes Fechner, to the "Handelsblatt" on Monday.

fek/til/dpa