German upper house files lawsuit to ban neo-Nazi party Germany's neo-Nazi party faces a legal challenge to its existence after the Bundesrat, the upper house of parliament, filed a suit on Tuesday in the constitutional court calling for a ban. Angela Merkel's government has declined formally to back the bid to proscribe the National Democratic party, as has the Bundestag, parliament's lower chamber. But the government broadly supports the action, with the chancellor's spokesman saying that nobody would want such a legal case to fail. The last attempt to outlaw the NPD was in 2003 and failed when judges ruled evidence from paid informers was inadmissible. This time the Bundesrat, which represents Germany's 16 federal regions, says its case is solidly based on evidence free of material from such sources. Sceptics say the suit will face formidable hurdles, nonetheless, as the neo-Nazis will be able to argue that such bans are only valid under extreme circumstances and will, if they lose, have the right to appeal to the European Court of Justice. In its filing, the Bundesrat argues that the NPD should be banned because of its "affinity" to the Nazi party, which is prohibited in Germany. With a slogan of "Germany for Germans," the party advocates openly racist policies, including a ban on immigration and for immigrants already in the country to be sent home. The NPD responded by saying that the ban attempt would "boomerang" on the established political parties. "It is not the NPD that must be banned, but immigration into [our] welfare state," the party said. The party has no national MPs but has won seats in two state parliaments in former East Germany, often drawing support from poor communities with few ties to mainstream political groupings. In September's national parliamentary election it won just 1.5 per cent of the vote, far below the 5 per cent required to secure any seats. However, it still gets similar privileges to other parties, including government financing, which last year amounted to €1.4m. The outgoing government declined to support a ban, with Ms Merkel's conservative CDU/CSU bowing to the wishes of its liberal junior partner, the FDP, which sees itself as a defender of political freedoms. The centre-left SPD, which is due to replace the FDP in the planned new government, has favoured a ban but the coalition agreement makes no mention of the issue. Supporters of a ban say it would remove the NPD from public life, cut off its government funding, make it easier for mainstream parties to appeal to NPD voters and enhance Germany's reputation for fighting extremism. Markus Ulbig, interior minister in the state of Saxony, told local journalists that the state should not let things go on as they are "when our democracy is being wrecked in the name of freedom." Critics of the legal action say that extreme ideologies and their supporters cannot be defeated by prohibition. They can go underground, or set up new structures, while legal action plays into the neo-Nazis" hands by allowing them to portray themselves as victims of an over-mighty state. Critics add that if the lawsuit fails, the NPD will claim it has been vindicated, as it did in 2003. If it succeeds, the party can go to the European Court of Justice, where the rules over banning a political party are even stricter than in Germany. Hans-Jürgen Papier, a former constitutional court president, cast doubt on the ban's prospects, saying in a radio interview: "A ban on a political party must be an extreme exception." Disseminating anti-constitutional ideas was not enough to warrant being outlawed. Such views must be combined with an aggressive attitude towards the constitutional order, he said.