Germany’s top court has ordered a ban on electoral funding for one of the country’s most notorious extremist political parties in a landmark decision that comes amid growing calls for restrictions on far-right campaigning.
Judges at the federal constitutional court in Karlsruhe ruled on Tuesday that Die Heimat, or the Homeland — a small party formerly known as the NPD — should lose all access to state-granted funding for the next six years because it was a threat to Germany’s “basic democratic order”.
Germany’s parliament and government have twice before tried to have the Homeland party banned outright — in 2003 and 2017 — and failed, making Tuesday’s ruling a crucial test of whether the German constitution allows for curbs on political parties and their democratically elected representatives if they are deemed sufficiently dangerous.