GERMANY: Germany's long-running legal battle to ban a far-right party accused of having "Nazi characteristics" could be in danger of collapsing.
Public television reported yesterday that the case against the National Democratic Party (NPD) will be thrown out of Germany's highest court next month.
The government took the case in 2000 after a violent series of racist, anti-foreigner attacks. It argued that the party provides a network for extremists and poses a threat to democracy in Germany.
But after two years of legal wrangling, the case has yet to come to hearing. The government suffered a major setback last year when it emerged that several of its leading witnesses, former members of the NPD, had worked as government informants.
The NPD said that the witnesses had acted as agents provocateurs, a claim rejected by government lawyers who said the case would stand up without their evidence.
Germany's ARD television said it was told by two sources within the court that the case was to be thrown out at a sitting on March 18th. The NPD has an estimated 6,000 members and captured just 215,000 votes, or 0.2 percent, in last year's general elections.
