Seeking Common Ground to Curb Neo-Nazis
February 18, 2005
After a day of political wrangling and heated discussions in the parliament on Friday, German politicians came a step closer to approving a draft proposal drawn up by the ruling Social Democrat-Green party coalition on limiting the German right of assembly in order to prevent neo-Nazi demonstrations near sensitive national landmarks.
The debate comes at a time when Germany is under pressure to rein in its increasingly emboldened right-wing extremists. Large neo-Nazi demonstrations last week in Dresden during the 60th anniversary of the Allied bombing of the city and further planned far-right marches at the Brandenburg Gate and the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin on May 8, the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, have turned up the heat on policy makers.
The domestic policy experts for the two major parties, the governing Social Democrats (SPD) and the opposition Christian Democrats (CDU), said they would meet next week to try and come up with a bipartisan proposal.
"Why shouldn't we manage to do that for the sake of democracy?" the SPD's Dieter Wüfelspütz told Passauer Neue Presse newspaper.
His counterpart, Wolfgang Bosbach, told the same daily Friday that the most important thing was to protect national landmarks -- the Brandenburg Gate and the Holocaust memorial in Berlin -- against abuse by neo-Nazis.
Keeping neo-Nazis away
Earlier, a draft to control assembly rights proposed by Interior Minister Otto Schily had been under heavy fire from all sides. It intends to keep right-wing extremists, especially the National Democratic Party (NPD), from demonstrating near important state and national sites.
Social Democrat and Green party coalition members have expressed fear that Schily’s draft may be unconstitutional and have come up with their own proposal.
But just how far the law should go is still a matter of dispute. CDU members have suggested extending the no-demonstration zone around the parliament to the Brandenburg Gate to keep "undesirables" away.
Sticking to the constitution
But the SPD's Wiefelspütz said this is unlikely to happen as the parliament is only allowed to limit the right to demonstrate near its buildings in order to guarantee the legislature's orderly conduct of business.
"In my opinion, this proposal is obviously unconstitutional," he said. "The law has unconstitutionality written all over it. I am convinced of it."
But the draft law drafted by Schily and Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries has been criticized from within the ranks of the governing coalition as well.
Protecting national symbols
The draft law proposes an additional paragraph in the German assembly law, which would ratify a list of symbolic sites drawn up by the German parliament. But critics warn that the politicians must be careful not to overstep the constitutional right to the freedom of expression, on the one hand, or to create loopholes for right-wing extremists.
A passage calling for up to three years in jail for glorification of the Nazis or downplaying the atrocities of the Third Reich has been cut from the bill that will be presented to parliament on Friday. Suggestions to prohibit demonstrations at sites of national symbolic nature, such as the Holocaust memorial, will be included.
"To think of right-wing extremist groups demonstrating in front of memorials for the victims of Nazi crimes, either endorsing, denying, or playing down these crimes against humanity, is unbearable," Schily said.