German minister seeks way to cut funding for far-right party

BERLIN – Germany’s justice minister says he wants to examine ways of cutting off state financing for a far-right party in the coming months.

In January, Germany’s highest court ruled that the National Democratic Party, or NPD, is too politically insignificant to justify a ban but said its goals run counter to the German constitution. Parliament’s upper house, which sought the ban, last week launched an initiative to cut off anti-constitutional parties from state funding.

Justice Minister Heiko Maas was quoted Monday as telling the Funke newspaper group that “we should examine very carefully the possibilities” of withdrawing funding. He said that’s feasible in this parliamentary term, which ends with an election in September.

Maas said that “tax money for the NPD is a direct state investment in radical right-wing agitation.”