user: Input: Parties no longer need three per cent of vote to enter European Parliament. There are fears more far-right and extremist parties could join body. The move could also lead to more Eurosceptical groups gaining influence.
Output: By. Sam Webb. PUBLISHED:. 07:52 EST, 26 February 2014. |. UPDATED:. 08:22 EST, 26 February 2014. Germany's top court on Wednesday scrapped a rule that political parties need at least three per cent of the vote to enter the European Parliament, opening the door to far-right and extremist organisations winning seats in a May 25 election. The government lowered the threshold to three per cent last year from five per cent, but the Constitutional Court ruled this was unconstitutional and abolished the hurdle altogether, saying it infringed parties' right to equal opportunities. A group of small parties had asked the court to review the three per cent barrier, saying it was unfair and put off potential supporters. Five of the judges on the panel of eight agreed, arguing that each voter must have the same right to determine the composition of the European Parliament. There are fears changes to European Parliament voting in Germany could lead to extremist parties gaining seats. Pictured, neo-Nazis march through the streets of Berlin during a protest in November, 2000. 'The three percent threshold is unconstitutional... the deep infringement it made on equal electoral rights and equal opportunities was unjustifiable,' the court said in its ruling. Lawmakers from the German Bundestag and the European Parliament had defended the hurdle arguing that without such a filter it would be harder for the chamber to function, but the judges said such fears were unfounded. The ruling has no bearing on national German elections where a five percent threshold applies, said Justice Minister Heiko Maas. He said the court had argued that since the European Parliament did not form a government, giving each party a fair chance was even more important. In a previous ruling, the court said the German lower house of parliament has an absolute need for consensus and majorities in order to legislate, whereas this was not the case to the same extent with the European Parliament. 'The point of the threshold was to avoid any fragmenting of the European Parliament. The parliament's increased importance means it needs a stable majority,' said Thomas Oppermann, head of the Social Democrats (SPD) bloc in the German parliament. Germany will elect 96 lawmakers to the European Parliament, the largest national contingent. Without the hurdle, a score of one per cent of the vote will be enough to secure a party a seat. He said the ruling left major parties with a responsibility to make sure extremists and the far-right did not win seats. Opinion polls have suggested Eurosceptical and fringe groups, including the Alternative for Germany (AfD), could perform well in many countries in the European elections and potentially disrupt the mainstream political blocs. Parties set to benefit without the hurdle include the anti-establishment Pirates, the Free Voters, who advocate Swiss-style referendums on policy issues, and the Ecological Democratic Party. 'Equal representation of every single, valid vote is the core principle of democracy," said Gerald Haefner, chairperson of campaign group Democracy International. The ruling means 'citizens' votes for smaller political parties will be fully respected instead of being swept under the carpet', he added. Germany will elect 96 lawmakers to the European Parliament, the largest national contingent. Without the hurdle, a score of one per cent of the vote will be enough to secure a party a seat under Germany's proportional representation system. The mainstream parties have long argued that electoral thresholds are needed to avoid political fragmentation in parliament of the kind that helped bring down the Weimar Republic and made way for the rise of Adolf Hitler. National voting systems for the European Parliament differ across the 28 member states. Most countries, including Britain, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands, have no threshold. Eight nations have a five per cent threshold - the maximum allowed under EU law - including the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania.

Input: Claims emerged in controversial new book about the Church of Scientology by Pulitzer Prize-winning U.S. writer Lawrence Wright.
Output:

assistant: By. Tom Leonard. PUBLISHED:. 20:34 EST, 18 January 2013. |. UPDATED:. 20:36 EST, 18 January 2013. Scientology's star: Tom Cruise is seen at the opening of a new Church of Scientology in Madrid in 2004. They grew him a wild flower meadow in the desert where he and Nicole Kidman could frolic hand-in-hand. They salute him and call him ‘sir’. And when he needed a new woman in his life, they ‘auditioned’ dozens of actresses for the role. The extraordinary lengths to which the Church of Scientology has allegedly gone to woo Tom Cruise are detailed in a controversial new book which contrasts his demi-god status in the organisation with the miserable existence of its rank-and-file devotees. To outsiders, it has always seemed odd that the squeaky-clean Hollywood superstar has lavished praise on the ‘church’ as a force for good in the world, when a growing number of ex-members have portrayed it as a ruthless and exploitative cult that rules its brainwashed flock with a rod of iron. Now a book by Pulitzer Prize-winning. American writer Lawrence Wright — published in the U.S. yesterday — has. painted a withering portrait of an organisation which has always seen. celebrity endorsement as essential to its mystique. What. better buffer against ridicule of a ‘religion’ based on sci-fi author. and founder L. Ron Hubbard’s claims of alien invaders inhabiting our. bodies than the approval of a few film stars, the book asks. In. Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood And The Prison Of Belief, Wright. claims that Scientology boss David Miscavige succeeded in cultivating. Cruise as a spiritual leader of his movement after he became Hollywood’s. biggest star with films such as Top Gun and Mission: Impossible. Cruise,. in turn, willingly became the church’s smiling public face, ploughing. millions of dollars into its work and even attempting to lobby foreign. leaders, including former PM Tony Blair, to advance its dubious cause. around the world. Love life: The book claims Scientology boss David Miscavige went to extreme lengths to keep Cruise and Nicole Kidman happy when the pair were married. Before 50-year-old Cruise, John Travolta was the church’s biggest star name. According to Wright, the Saturday Night Fever actor was terrified that if he broke with the church, it might use against him confessions he made about his sexuality during his Scientology spiritual counselling sessions, called ‘auditing’. At the height of Travolta’s fame in the late Seventies, church bosses were reportedly ‘desperately concerned their most valuable member would be revealed as gay’. Marty Rathbun — once Miscavige’s second-in-command but now a leading critic of Scientology — told Wright the church had worked hard to protect Travolta’s reputation and that there were many allegations that he claims the church helped to ‘make go away’. Allegations: Lawrence Wright's book on the Church of Scientology. The church yesterday dismissed Wright’s book as ‘an error-filled, unsubstantiated, bigoted, anti-Scientology book’, which relied on the accounts of a ‘handful of angry, bitter individuals’ who have left the church, adding that it contained more than 200 mistakes. Wright relates how a young Cruise was introduced to Scientology by his first wife, actress Mimi Rogers, in 1986. But Rogers’ parents were disaffected Scientologists and, the book claims, Miscavige was determined to keep his famous new recruit away from them. With Cruise smitten by Australian actress Nicole Kidman, then 21, Rathbun said he was sent to Rogers’ home with divorce papers and simply told her: ‘ “This is the right thing to do for Tom, because he is going to do lots of good for Scientology.” That was the end of Mimi Rogers.’ Miscavige’s determination to please Cruise and Kidman, whom he married in 1990, is said to have run to ludicrous lengths. Gold. Base is the church’s heavily fortified secret HQ in the California. desert, where some 800 members of Sea Org — Scientology’s quasi-military. ruling order — slave away for room, board and £15 a week. It has been. claimed that some haven’t left the base for ten years. But. it was here, inside the razor-wire fences that Miscavige built a. special ‘love bungalow’ where the couple stayed during their visits. A. rose garden was planted next to it and a tennis court built. When. Miscavige heard the couple fantasised about running through a field of. wild flowers, staff were ordered to plant a section of desert. The. meadow never took hold in the parched earth, and when a mudslide ruined. the bungalow, Wright claims that Miscavige was so furious he ordered. the entire base to work 16-hour days until it was restored to pristine. condition. While. everyone else lives in spartan conditions at Gold Base, Cruise would be. lavishly entertained in the Miscavige home, which boasts two chefs and. where even the lightbulbs are polished once a month. Not. for Cruise and other visiting celebrities the indignity of having to. salute Miscavige’s five beagles, as rank-and-file workers were ordered. to do, according to Going Clear. These. dogs, claims the book, wear blue vests and shoulder epaulettes denoting. they hold the rank of Sea Org Captain, thus out-ranking most human. staff. Gold Base: Scientology's desert base in California is believed to be home to some 800 members of Sea Org. Miscavige once. had the entire Gold Base staff line up at the gate and salute Cruise on. his arrival, says Wright. Nobody was allowed to speak to him unless. spoken to. The rule. was simple — keep the film star happy. As Wright wryly observes:. ‘Miscavige showed his understanding of how to cater to the sense of. entitlement that comes with great stardom.’ Former. Scientologists believe Miscavige was dazzled by Cruise and his. Hollywood lifestyle while the actor ‘fell under the spell’ of the short. but forceful Miscavige’s commanding personality. The church leader liked. to boast Cruise used him as the model for his gutsy naval officer hero. in A Few Good Men. 'Suspicious': Wright alleges that Miscavige feared Nicole Kidman was supplanting the church in Cruise's affections. But. Wright alleges that Miscavige — who became Cruise’s best friend — grew. deeply suspicious of Kidman, according to his deputy, Marty Rathbun. He. believed that not only was the Australian actress supplanting the church. in Cruise’s affections, encouraging him to neglect it, but that she was. a ‘gold digger’ who faked an interest in Scientology to please her. husband. If they convinced Cruise that Kidman was a ‘suppressive person’ — church code for a toxic personality — Cruise could be ‘peeled’ away. from her, Rathbun told Wright. When,. in 2001, Cruise and Kidman split up, Rathbun says Scientology staff. quietly worked to turn their two young adopted children against Kidman,. convincing them that she was a ‘sociopath’. The church and Miscavige have vehemently denied these claims several times in the past.After. their split, Cruise became more committed to Scientology. Whenever. Hollywood’s biggest star travelled abroad, he would lobby politicians. and diplomats to promote Scientology, says Wright. He is said to have repeatedly urged Bill Clinton to enlist Tony Blair’s help in getting the church charitable status in the UK. Rathbun. said he heard one phone call in which Clinton told Cruise he would be. better off contacting Cherie Blair as, being a lawyer, she would. ‘understand the details’. Perhaps. the oddest — and surely most embarrassing — claim in the book is that. of the church’s obsession with finding Cruise a mate. In 2007, after he. ended his three-year relationship with Penelope Cruz (regarded as too. independent-minded by church bosses, apparently) the star complained. that nobody had been able to find him a new girlfriend. A. grand hunt ensued as staff reportedly auditioned every young actress in. Scientology — about 100 in all. None were told why they were being. interviewed, but all were asked what they thought of Cruise. Split: The actor's three year romance with Spanish starlet Penelope Cruz ended in 2007. An early candidate was Nazanin Boniadi, a strikingly beautiful and well-educated British-Iranian. According. to Wright, when Boniadi refused church demands to give up her. Scientologist boyfriend as part of an important ‘human rights’ project,. she was shown evidence suggesting he had cheated on her. After. undergoing extensive security checks, she was flown to New York where. she and her church handlers ran into Cruise, seemingly by accident. Lavish dates followed in Manhattan and at a Colorado mountain resort. Striking beauty: British-Iranian actress Nazanin Boniadi. Boniadi. said she later moved in with him, but the relationship ended abruptly. when, during a dinner party, she couldn’t understand what the. fast-talking Miscavige was saying and several times asked him to repeat. himself. The next day, Cruise lost his temper with her for showing. disrespect to their leader. Wright. says that when Miss Boniadi told a friend about the affair, she was. punished by having to dig ditches and even scrub lavatories with a. toothbrush — a claim the church denies. Going. Clear alleges that the search for a new Mrs Cruise then went beyond. Scientologists — Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan and Scarlett Johansson were. all invited to audition for what they believed was a role in the. Mission: Impossible films when, in fact, they were being assessed as. future wives. Cruise, of course, eventually married actress Katie Holmes who helpfully had admitted to having a childhood crush on him. Wright. says several sources have confirmed Miss Boniadi’s experiences with. Cruise, although the star insists no church executive ever set him up. with girlfriends. By. the mid-2000s, Cruise was the most powerful figure in the church after. Miscavige, say ex-members. Miscavige ‘convinced Cruise that he and Tom. were two of only a handful of truly “big beings” on the planet,’ said. Marty Rathbun. He. added that Miscavige even told the actor that L. Ron Hubbard was relying. on them to make it to ‘Target 2’ — an unspecified planet far, far away. where they would meet up with Hubbard in the afterlife. Scientology. is going through a PR crisis from which critics insist it will never. recover. The church claims to have 8 million members worldwide, but a. survey suggested there are only 25,000 in the U.S. Last. year, Cruise had to contend with the humiliation of Holmes divorcing. him, and reportedly insisting she doesn’t want their daughter brought up. as a Scientologist. At. least the world’s most controversial church still has Cruise as a. figurehead. Whether that is a blessing or a liability remains to be. seen.