The symbolism of the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) holding its annual party congress in Berlin, where Hitler ruled and the Final Solution was planned, made many of Germany's moderate politicians uneasy this weekend.

Politicians from all parties in Berlin's state parliament took part in protests against the far-right party's congress, and periodic calls for the party to be banned were renewed.

Berlin's senator for interior affairs, Ehrhart Körting, called on Saturday for starting a new petition process aimed at banning the party. "A neo-Nazi party has no place in Germany after our history," he told the news agency DPA. Berlin's popular mayor Klaus Wowereit has also called for a ban, as has Vice Chancellor Franz Müntefering.

Körting said that a first step towards a ban would be to remove all informants working for Germany's domestic intelligence agency from the NPD. A government petition to get the party banned in 2003 failed when it transpired that the government had infiltrated the party with informants, and it is likely that the same would happen again if informants were still present.

However Germany's papers on Monday, while making clear their contempt for the NPD, were unanimously against a ban.

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung has no problems with the argument that the NPD is anti-constitutional. "You don't have to look very far to see that this party has declared war on society," it says. "It undermines the constitution using the very rights to freedom that the constitution offers every individual, including the NPD itself." However, the editorialist feels that calls for a new petition for a ban are coming at the wrong time. "The reasons why the last petition failed three years ago are still there," it writes. "The NPD is still full of informants from Germany's domestic intelligence agency. They have to be removed as quickly as possible in order not to stand in the way of a new petition. But until that has happened, going to the constitutional court makes no sense." However, this does not mean that nothing can be done against the NPD, the paper goes on to say. "In Berlin, all the parties represented in the state parliament have given an impressive signal by protesting against the NPD congress. This way is longer and more laborious than a ban petition. It is, however, possibly even more effective."

"It is unfortunate that the NPD has again been successful in gaining publicity in Germany and abroad," writes the conservative daily Die Welt. "However, it is also unfortunate that Körting has fueled a new debate about a ban on the NPD." The paper describes Körting's suggestion as "an audacious plan, about which the NPD leaders are surely laughing up their sleeves." Banning the party would also mean cutting off its state funding, but that "would be a purely cosmetic solution," the paper writes. "It's true that the party would disappear from the political stage, but its radical ideas would survive and possibly even spread to a new party." The paper also mentions another oft-cited argument against a ban. "There would be the danger that right-wing extremists would organize themselves in underground groups and resort to terrorist activities," the commentator writes. "For that reason it is extremely dangerous to take the informants out of the party."

The left-leaning daily Die Tageszeitung was equally scathing about Körting's ideas. "It's a pity that Körting obviously did not ask around among his colleagues in the interior ministry before he made his offer to shut down all the informants," its commentator writes. "Because then he would have known that this idea currently belongs in the realm of the utopian." The paper feels that politicians are playing into the hands of the far-right with their loud calls for a ban. "The NPD has set its sights on the slow way to the top -- the creeping conquest of the provinces. (The country's) democratic parties ought to take a close look at what is happening (in those states)," the paper writes. "Because, banal as it may sound, the NPD can only succeed in elections where the democrats are weak, which is the case in many places." The paper feels that even a successful ban of the NPD would not absolve the democratic parties of their real task. "They have to actively fight for the trust of that class of voters which they have lost access to," the paper says. "That cannot be achieved with bans."