Banning the NPD

Few dispute that right-wing extremist parties are undemocratic. But proving their unconstitutionality is a touchy issue and makes instituting a political ban difficult.

The NPD currently holds seats in two state parliaments: Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Saxony, both in eastern Germany, but nothing in the national parliament. Interior ministers from all 16 German states have agreed to begin the process to ban the National Democratic Party (NPD). But it's likely to prove a long process. And it's one that failed once before.

DW asks whether or not it will be possible to ban the NPD this time and looks at the current state of investigations into the far-right, and what politicians, as well as other groups, are doing to lessen the influence of the right-wing movement.