Effort afoot to bankrupt neo-Nazis

BERLIN, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- Germany's neo-Nazis are facing efforts to push them into bankruptcy since efforts to have them banned have failed.

The interior ministers of Germany's 16 states are planning to dispute the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party's legal right for federal and state funding, euronews.net reported Friday.

"At the moment the NPD is partially financed by taxpayer's money and extreme right-wing associations are allowed to benefit from tax privileges," said Erhart Korting, the regional interior minister for Berlin.

Under German election law, public funding for political parties is based on election results. In 2006, NPD representatives received 1.38 million euros for campaign costs in just two regional state parliamentary elections, the Web site reported.

Although critics of the NPD accuse the party of going against Germany's democratic principles, some maintain that there should be equality for all political parties.