Landmark German ruling to cut far-right party funding fuels debate on AfD

By Ursula Knapp and Madeline Chambers

KARLSRUHE/BERLIN Germany (Reuters) -Germany can cut off public funding to the radical right-wing party Die Heimat, the Constitutional Court said on Tuesday in a landmark ruling which stirred up a debate on whether a similar step could be taken against the nationalist AfD party.

The court in Karlsruhe justified its decision to stop state funding and tax relief for six years by saying the National Democratic Party (NPD) and its successor, Die Heimat, aimed to undermine or eliminate the country's democratic system.

It is the first ruling of its kind.

The Bundestag lower house, the Bundesrat upper house and the government applied in 2019 to the court to strip the party of funding after a change in Germany's Basic Law to prevent radical parties from getting state funds other parties are entitled to.

"(Die Heimat) aims to replace the existing constitutional system with an authoritarian state based on an ethnic 'people's community'," said the court, adding the party's policies disrespected the human dignity of minorities and migrants.

In 2017, the court said the NPD resembled Adolf Hitler's Nazi party but decided not to ban it as it was too weak to threaten democracy.

The ruling is being closely watched as mainstream politicians struggle to respond to a surge in the popularity of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), second in most polls. It is also topping surveys in three states in eastern Germany with elections this year.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the decision sent a clear signal to anti-democratic forces.

"The decision comes at a time when right-wing extremism is the greatest extremist threat to our democracy," she said in a statement. "We are taking decisive action against all those who are preparing the ground for right-wing extremist violence."

OUTRAGE OVER DEPORTATION TALK

A report that some AfD party members discussed policies such as mass deportations of people of foreign origin at a meeting of right-wing radicals has prompted hundreds of thousands of people to take to the streets across Germany in protest.

A Forsa poll on Tuesday showed that support for the AfD had fallen by two percentage points in the last week to 20%, the first indication that the report may dent their popularity.

The AfD has said the "remigration" plans are not party policy, but intelligence agencies had already classified the party as right-wing extremist in three eastern states.

AfD officials declined to comment on Tuesday's ruling which gave ammunition to some politicians who have proposed trying to withhold funding for the AfD, or at least some branches of it.

"This could be a blueprint for the AfD. The AfD is becoming ever more radical and extreme. This is extremely dangerous and must be closely monitored and documented," Markus Soeder, conservative state premier of Bavaria, said on X.

Among other suggestions to curb the AfD are removing the rights of some radical individuals to prevent them from being elected. However, some politicians argue that any action that could be construed as demonising the AfD might backfire.

For Die Heimat, meaning The Homeland, the penalty is largely symbolic, as it has failed to cross the threshold in European, federal or state elections needed to qualify for funding.

However, it will no longer benefit from tax relief, widely reported to have amounted to 200,000 euros since 2020.

Die Heimat chief Frank Franz said the ruling was a scandal.

"What has to give way clings to life and sometimes lashes out; the cartel is currently doing this in every nook and cranny," he said on X.

(Reporting by Ursula KnappWriting by Madeline Chambers Editing by Kirsti Knolle and Ros Russell)