Germany's latest push to ban hard-line nationalist NPD party amid Zwickau murders

Connections between the Zwickau neo-Nazi group and the controversial National Democratic Party (Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands) are proving difficult to verify, especially in light of accusations by German authorities who accuse the right wing political party of orchestrating racially motivated murders.

Tracing it's lineage back to the National Socialist (Nazi) party through its predecessors the
Deutsche Reichpartei (German Reich Party, an offshoot of the post WW II Deutsche Rechtspartei, or German Right Party), the NPD has faced strong opposition from modern day Germany's liberal political establishment.  The attempt to banish the NPD from German politics came in 2003, but was shut down.  The NPD's controversial politics can be summed up by their message to Americans on their English language website:

"We would like to start getting the word out about our political message in foreign languages, also, because the enemies of the world's peoples, these enemies including capitalism, globalism, and even Islam, operate on an international level. Isolated individual peoples have barely a chance against the power of the one-world strategists. It is high time that nationalist forces of free peoples around the world link up with one another and join forces. More than ever the peoples of the world recognize that they have a critical question before them which they must answer, whether they want to live in a “multi-cultural conglomerate” or in individual and culturally unique countries. One-Worldism is a system that is hostile towards people and destructive to our cultures. We see that happening in Germany and you see that happening in the USA as well, comrades. The United States are well known for freedom of expression and freedom to live as one chooses. We don't know this kind of freedom in Germany. Nationalist patriots in Germany are actually hunted down by leftist politicians and the left-wing press. Yet, freedom is exploited in the USA, also. Massive immigration, Islam, and globalism, in violation of international law, have almost completely destroyed the culture of your beautiful country. What were the intentions of the founding fathers of the United States? Likewise, the German founding fathers, Otto von Bismark at the helm, wanted to establish Germany for the German people, only, not for Islamists from all over the world."

However, due to the string of murders committed by the Zwickau group (aka the National Socialist underground, accused of committing 10 murders over a period of about 10 years), who are accused of being a neo-Nazi wing of the NPD, the right wing party is facing a possible end to their organization which has stood since 1967.  According to articles by Der Spiegel, an outright ban of the NPD would have to be based upon proof that the Zwickau murders were behavior "typical for the party" (Der Spiegel article Germany Faces Tough Battle to Ban Far-Right NPD).  Several party members and members of the Zwickau group have been connected according to German intelligence sources (Der Spiegel article Spotted at a Neo-Nazi Demo Photographs Link Far-Right Party to Terror Cell).

Beate Zschäpe at a demonstration in 1996.

The last surviving member of the group, Beate Zschäpe, is refusing to speak to authorities, though her defense attourney spoke to Der Spiegel on her behalf:  Alleged Neo-Nazi Terrorist's Lawyer 'I See No Convincing Reason to Suspect Her'.