How Democracy Should Deal with Anti-Democratic Political Parties?

The progressive growth of Right Wing Political Parties in Europe reignites the issue of the possibility of banning those who threaten democracy and its ideals. Parties as the "Golden Dawn" in Greece, whose leaders have a tattoo in the shape of a swastika, and the "NPD" in Germany, whose anti-immigration activists glorify National Socialism platform, have been causing fear of the return of totalitarian and non respectful of the human rights regimes. Thus, this research aims to investigate how democratic regimes should deal with those allegedly threats. As it was said before, there are those who believe the democracy should blind itself – a concept of Militant Democracy – and therefore claim for the banning of anti-democratic political parties. However, others consider that neither this is the unique solution, nor the better. First, because it would be caught in a paradox: how is it possible to defend freedom (which is the main pillar of democracy) by taking out the political freedom of some groups? Second, because this could turn out to be counterproductive: it is likely that the militants of banned parties would start to operate clandestinely and using more violent ways. Then, the best solution would be to tolerate parties with anti-democratic ideologies but only up to the limit of the non-violent actions. Determining what solution fits better in the democratic scenario is not an easy task but surely it is fundamental.