The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) is designated has a terrorist organization in both the European Union and in the United States – but according to a report by The Jerusalem Post, that isn’t stopping the group from running this September in Germany’s general elections.
According to the report, the PFLP is not a political party “in the meaning of Article 21 of the Basic Law” of the nation’s constitution, and cannot campaign independently for election. However, that doesn’t mean it cannot participate: in fact, the group is running on a joint list with Germany’s Marxist-Leninist Party, according to The Jerusalem Post.
“Candidates from parties and candidates in Germany cannot be banned or allowed by the Interior Ministry in Germany,” a spokeswoman told the newspaper. Germany’s federal election committee is the sole body that determines the registration of candidate lists.
The spokeswoman refused to comment on a letter from Israeli and German legislators to the country’s Interior Minister, Thomas de Maizière, urging him to ban the PFLP and Hezbollah.
As long as the group is not banned, any terrorist organization can do as it pleases, according to Volker Beck, the Green Party Bundestag deputy who co-signed the letter with an Israeli Yesh Atid lawmaker.