The Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) has called on the federal government to close what he sees as a legal loophole in association law. The background to this is the Free State’s defeat before the Federal Administrative Court in the confiscation of assets in the course of the ban on the neo-Nazi association “Freies Netz Süd” in July 2014. The court justified its decision with the fact that third parties were allowed to transfer property to a banned association should have acted intentionally – i.e. should have known about the anti-constitutional efforts of the association.
Herrmann said the ruling “unfortunately opened a back door in the Associations Act that extremists and their supporters can use to evade confiscation of their assets under a ban on associations.” The Federal Administrative Court has confirmed the legal interpretation of the Bavarian Constitutional Court, according to which a third party must not only have knowledge of the anti-constitutional efforts, but also of the association’s structure. The federal government must change the association law quickly, said Herrmann: “We must not allow extremists and their straw men to dance around on the nose of the authorities and courts.” On July 23, 2014, Freie Netzwerk Süd (FNS) was banned by the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior. At the same time, the property “Oberprex 47”, which the FNS activists had declared to be the “National Center of Upper Franconia” and used for scene events, was confiscated and confiscated. The property was owned by the mother of an FNS activist. She had sued against the confiscation of her assets.