“That a party has aims that run contrary to the Constitution is not sufficient grounds for banning a party,” he said. A 2003 attempt to ban the National Democratic Party also failed, after the court found that paid government informants in the party were partly responsible for evidence the government used. In September, voters ejected the National Democratic Party from the state legislature in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the last state in which it had seats. “It is a strong sign that we successfully carried out our confrontation with the National Democratic Party in the past decades,” he said. “Unfortunately, this verdict allows the National Democratic Party to pursue its destructive, antidemocratic activities and to spread more anti-Semitic and racist hatred,” said Ronald S. Lauder, the group’s president.

Source: New York Times January 17, 2017 10:56 UTC