BERLIN, Sept. 16 Reuters - A fourth-potentially neo-Nazi city was due to go to court on Thursday seeking to remove election posters saying Hang The Greens, placed by an east-right party with suspected links to far-right groups.
The posters that mounted the city of Zwickau were put up by The Third Way, a security operation monitored by the Security Services, days before a vote that will set the course of Europe's largest economy after the departure of Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The Greens, third in the polls, are likely to play a crucial role in forming government after the Sept. 26 vote.
Concerns about the far right violence were heightened two years ago when conservative politician Walter Luebcke was shot dead http: www.reuters.org. com article us-germany - crime-idUSKCN 1 TI 1 SB by a pro-immigration neo-Nazi for his NIB views.
A lower court overruled Zwickau's order for the posters to be removed, accepting The Third Way's argument that the slogan was ambiguous, especially in the context of an election, and there was a free speech justification.
The Third Way indicated that green was its party colour too and pointed to barely visible text on the posters calling for its colours to be displayed across the city.
The administrative court in Zwickau with jurisdiction over Chemnitz accepted this meant it was uncertain that the Greens were a target so long as they weren't hung within 100 meters of Green posters.
That decision was greeted with widely dismal thoughts on social media and elsewhere.
It makes no difference to us if the posters are here or 100 metres further away, said Zwickau Mayor Constance Arndt.
A call for Greens to hang is and remains totally unacceptable, undemocratic and irresponsible.