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Neo-Nazi ban

September 22, 2011

The largest neo-Nazi group in Germany has been banned with immediate effect. The interior ministry described the association, which supports and motivates prison inmates with far-right views, as a threat to society.

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An HNG member
HNG was banned for its racist, anti-Semitic agendaImage: picture alliance / dpa

Germany's Interior Ministry announced on Wednesday that the country's largest Neo-Nazi group had been banned with immediate effect.

The Help Organization for National Political Prisoners and Their Dependents (HNG), which has some 600 members, offers assistance to prison inmates with far-right views.

As part of a drive led by German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich to curb the influence of extremist groups, German authorities ruled that the association was a threat to society and worked against the constitution.

"It is no longer tolerable for right-wing extremists in prison to be supported by the HNG in their aggressive stance against our free, democratic system," Friedrich said in a statement.

"By rejecting the democratic constitutional state and glorifying National Socialism, the HNG tried to keep right wing radical criminals in their own milieu," the Interior Ministry added.

Crackdown on extremism

The group, founded in 1979, carries the slogan "A front inside and outside." The ministry has claimed it sought to reinforce prisoners' right-wing views and motivate them in their struggle against the system.

Supporters of the National Democratic Party at a rally in Bremen
Attempts to ban the National Democratic Party have all failedImage: dapd

The ban follows a series of raids in western German states including Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia in which police seized material from leading HNG members.

Several right-wing groups have been outlawed in Germany in the last few years as part of a government crackdown on extremism, but critics fear that not enough has been done.

"It is a sensible, if overdue, step to ban a criminal organization like the HNG," Anetta Kahane, head of the Amadeu Antonio Foundation, which supports projects to boost civil society, told Reuters.

"But we need to do more to educate people so that they can resist right-wing ideas. For example, judges and the police need to be educated to deal with extremists."

"The problem of neo-Nazis has not gone away," she added.

According to Germany's intelligence services, extremist groups are using the financial crisis in the eurozone as prove that the capitalist system has failed.

Just two weeks ago, the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) regained seats in the state assembly of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

Their election success prompted Germany's main opposition party, the Social Democrats, to renew calls for the party to be banned. But previous attempts to outlaw the NPD, which is also represented in Saxony, have failed.

Author: Charlotte Chelsom-Pill (AFP, Reuters)
Editor: Nicole Goebel